Susan's Chronicles the sequel to Harry Potter and the Magic of Paragon
by Paragon-Stories
Summary: With Tom defeated and her reality safe from the creature that had been directing his actions all along, Susan leaves in search of her father. What realities and trials will she face in her journey across the multi-verse, and how will she cope when she's not the most powerful thing around? Crosses with anime, books, TV shows, you never know what world she'll find herself in next.
1. Chapter 1

[Warning! You are about to read part 2 of Harry Potter and the Magic of Paragon. If you haven't read part one, you will have no clue what's going on. Please make sure to read that first. It's 127 chapters. I'll wait.

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Back? Okay, let's begin.]

1

New Beginning

Time: One day after leaving Hogwarts castle

Place: ?

The woods were sparse and pleasant, with soft yellow sunlight filtering down though an endless variety of leaves above. Along the branches of the trees which held these leaves sang just as endless a variety of birds, and small fuzzy creatures darted and played along the trunks as well. No creatures suffered here, and fear was unknown. Curiosity, however, was not, and as the doorway of light opened into the forest, birds and animals gathered around to see what would happen next. Unsurprisingly, a girl named Susan with green eyes, blond hair and a bit of a swagger stepped though and looked around. A cat named Sparkle quickly followed her. The cat was a normal, every day, plain looking cat, but looked around as though it was intelligent. She was followed by a girl named Luna, who was gripping a wooden wand tightly. Luna had long, nearly white hair, and she was just a smidgen shorter than Susan. Both were dressed in traveling clothes, with good stout boots, sensible pants, and several layers on top that could be removed in warmer climates. Luna had a pouch hanging at her belt, which was bigger on the inside, and she carried all manner of things that might be useful on a journey such as this one. One particularly valuable book rested inside, so she might learn more magic along her journey. Susan, of course, carried nothing, having near instant access to her _Pocket Dimension_ which held her own book of spells, along with various odds and ends she had picked up over the years. And of course she carried her own "paradise" around in the form of her _Personal Dimension,_ in case they ran into a completely inhospitable environment.

Where they found themselves, however, was warm, with a pleasant breeze that rustled the leaves of the trees overhead. Both looked around with interest, but the trees, even spaced apart as they were, obstructed vision. Susan looked at Luna as if to ask "which way" but Luna just shrugged. Susan pointed, but Luna shook her head. She bent down and poked at the earth with her wand, and in seconds, a flower had grown there.

"Just so we don't start going in circles," she remarked. "I would hate to cut into a tree or anything here."

"Yes," replied Susan. "Let's not antagonize our host."

The two walked through the forest, with Luna making more flowers as they went to track their position, and they soon came back to what Susan recognized was the first flower Luna had made.

"But we've been going in a straight line!" she protested, looking at it.

"Then let's head this way."

Twice more they adjusted course, after returning to the spot they had arrived in, and came upon a cute looking cabin in a clearing.

"There she is," said Susan.

"If she's in."

"I don't think she can go anywhere…" Susan stepped up to the door and softly knocked.

"Come in," said a voice from within, and the door cracked open. Susan pushed it the rest of the way, and stepped into the room. It was a rustic looking living room, and she saw other rooms connected by doors, leading into a kitchen and possibly a bedroom.

"These flowers are lovely," said a small figure, coming from the kitchen. She held a vase full of the flowers Luna had been making, and set them down on a table.

"Lady Inari?" asked Susan, looking the girl over. She had fox ears, and wore a Japanese kimono. Her hair was fiery red, and she was about half as tall as Susan.

"Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not," she said. "Come in, close the door. Were you raised in a barn?" She giggled, walking through the other door, and the two girls looked at each other. Luna swung the door closed and they stepped after her. The room they entered was bare, but had a large circle drawn in chalk in the center. The girl was looking this way and that, obviously trying to decide what marble she wanted to go for. Colorful spheres littered the floor of the place, and Susan was careful where she was stepping as she saw them all. Sparkle batted one out of the way, and had to hold herself back from pouncing on it as it rolled. Human intelligence or not, she was still a cat.

"Look, my father told my mother, who warned me about your little games. I know who you are."

"Why did you ask, then?" She flicked a marble with her thumb, knocking one out of the circle.

"I felt it would be polite."

"Good. Politeness is important. What can I do for you, Susan? And aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"Luna, this is the Lady Inari. Lady Inari, this is my friend Luna."

"Nice to meet you," said Luna, going to shake Inari's hand. There was a buzz and Luna jumped back.

Inari laughed, showing the buzzer she had. "Got you!" she said, grinning.

"Uh, yes you did. I must say, you're aren't what I expected."

"Didn't Susan tell you about me?"

"I thought she must be mistaken, or her father was having a little joke at our expense."

"While I would support the joke, no, this is how I am. So, you've come at last."

"It seems you know why I'm here. Saves me some explanation."

"You're here to track down your father," she said, knocking another marble. "I have to admit, even I'm a little worried. He hasn't checked in lately, and that's a problem."

"Do you know where he last was?"

Inari didn't answer for a moment. "No," she said at last. "I let them, and fate itself, guide the selection of worlds your father and his group went to." She held up a marble. "I sent them to the first world they went to, but after that, they had a choice of twelve."

"That isn't so bad. I feared it would be totally random, and I'd spend years searching. If I could even find them at all."

"It gets even better than that," said Inari, going over to a chest Susan hadn't realized was there. "I know I put it someplace…" She opened the lid and started rummaging through.

"These are worlds?" Luna asked Susan softly. She nodded. "I don't mean offense, but who are you, Lady Inari?"

She looked back over her shoulder. "I'm one of those higher order dimensional beings you've heard tell of. We're not all soul sucking monsters, you know." She went back to rummaging.

"Oh. Then how can we be… here?"

"Magic," said Inari.

"Right."

"Here it is!" Inari announced, pulling out an old, brass key. "That's the bast way for you to proceed," she said, almost handing Susan the key. "Wait a minute, did I check you girls over?"

"Check us over?"

"Of course. I won't let you contaminate other worlds with disease from your own. Plus if you aren't fully healthy we'll have to do something about that before I let you go. World traveling isn't to be taken lightly, and you've got to be in top form if you want to do it. Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit."

Inari traced a weird symbol in the air, leaving behind a yellow trail where her finger had been. She completed it and slammed it into Luna, who was standing closest to her. The symbol vanished, and Inari closed her eyes and thought for a moment.

"Okay, you seem clean," she said. "No major diseases, and in good health. Next!"

She repeated the procedure for Susan and Sparkle, announcing they were also allowed to travel between worlds.

"I should hope so," said Susan, a little put off. "I don't recall being sick a day in my life."

"Probably because it wasn't important to the narrative," Sparkle muttered.

"But you could carry something that's harmless to you, but devastating to another world. You wouldn't want to be known as a plague carrier, would you?"

"I suppose not. I want to save worlds, not leave behind death wherever I go."

"Then what I did should be good piece of mind for you," Inari said, now handing over the key.

"It's magical," Susan said, taking it and doing a _Magic Sense_ on it.

"That it is," giggled Inari. "I'll send you to the first world they landed on. It's up to you to track down what happened to them and where they went after that. This key will vibrate when you're near the place they left from. Stick it into the air like you were unlocking a door, and it'll open a gateway to the world they went to."

"I can follow them and figure out where they got stuck! Brilliant. Thanks a lot!"

"Sure thing. I wish I could do more, but this way seems the best way."

"It sounds good to me. I'm no more than 12 jumps behind them. I'll have found them in no time."

Inari smiled. "Be careful. Traveling between worlds is not to be taken lightly. Your father went with a group of three others, and he was much more powerful than you. But if you are dead set on going…"

"I am."

"Very well. I will issue you this warning. You seem to carry your magic with you, as a _Natural Magician._ Luna, your magic seems quite personal as well. I say this because you may visit worlds that are totally dominated by technology. This will leave little magical energies for you both to draw upon. Also, keep in mind that magic between worlds may work very differently. But I suppose you know that, given how different your magics are and the fact you came from the same world. Until you know the rules of each world, be especially cautious."

"We will," the girls chorused.

"Good. Now, see if you can find where your father left from, and use the key. The door will stay open for some time, so secure it before you go through. The trip can be a bit… tricky."

"We seemed to pass through some kind of intermediary space," said Luna. "Is that what you mean?"

Inari nodded. "It has weather and moods of its own. Even I do not like to linger between worlds. Strange things happen there. Prepare yourselves."

Susan nodded, then held up the key and started walking around. It wasn't hard to find, as right outside the door it started vibrating like mad. She held it out and was fascinated when it seemed to slide into a lock. She gave it a turn and twisted it, then pulled it out. A glowing rectangle appeared, and Susan handed the key to Luna.

"Keep this safe," she said.

"Of course," Luna replied, dropping it into her pouch and drawing the top closed again.

"Thank you, Inari," said Susan. "We'll have news for you soon, I hope."

"I'm sure you will. You know the spell to come back here, if you need my advice. I'll have to make a note to discuss that with your father when he gets here. Not that I don't like visitors, you understand, but I would rather that spell not get spread around. You do understand, I hope?"

Susan nodded.

"Good. I wish you luck."

Susan grabbed Luna's hand, and Sparkle jumped up to Susan's shoulder, and they stepped through. The door closed behind them.

"Did I forget to tell them something?" Inari asked herself. "I guess it wasn't important…" She went back to playing with her marbles. (Only some of which she had ever lost.)

On the other side of the door, a strange, colorful space swirled around the three, and there was a sense of motion though no landmarks existed to gauge their progress against. All around them, in the distance, were doors of light, openings to other worlds.

It was through one of the these openings that a young boy tumbled, heading straight for the three of them.

" _Flight,"_ Susan cast in desperation, but nothing happened. "My magic-" she said as the boy crashed into her. This sent them spinning off course, and she felt Luna's hand slip out of hers.

"LUNA!" she called, as her friend spun off through this odd space and through a nearby door. Susan, the boy, and Sparkle sailed through another, and Susan hit the ground, getting the air knocked out of her.

"What has Zero Louise done this time?" she heard someone saying.

Susan opened her eyes, and all around her stood young kids, boys and girls. They seemed to be wearing some kind of uniform, and each had an animal of some kind at their side. They also held wands.

 _Didn't we just leave this party?_

Underneath her, someone groaned. She remembered what happened and looked over at the boy that had crashed into her.

 _Are you going to let him get away with what he did?_ The Darkness inside whispered to her. _You know what going off course means for the both of you._

"Shut up!" Susan yelled to herself, grabbing the boy by the collar and hauling him up to a sitting position. As much as she hated to admit it, The Darkness had a point, and she felt herself getting angry.

"What did you do?!" she screamed at him. "How could you have been so careless! Do you know what you've done? You've just stranded a friend of mine in some unknown world!"

He groaned and struggled to open his eyes. "What?" he managed.

"Answer me! Fix it!"

His eyes popped open. "What are you talking about? What's going on? Who are all you people?"

Susan jerked her head and looked around, the uniformed boys and girls had gathered around her, watching interestedly. Behind them all was an older man with a staff who exuded an air of responsibility and authority. "Never mind them, open that doorway, maybe I can still remember which one she went through."

"Which what she went through? Look, I'm in the dark about all this, you know?"

"What do you mean, in the dark?"

"I was heading home from getting my laptop repaired, okay? In the middle of the sidewalk I saw this glowing door. I couldn't resist going through it, like it was pulling me. I found myself here."

Susan blinked at him for a few seconds. "You're in the same boat as me? I- I apologize for shouting at you. I will now shout at the correct person." She looked around, marveling at the massed children and animals staring back at her. "Who is responsible for this debacle?" Susan shouted, releasing the boy and causing him to flop down again. Every kid there pointed to an embarrassed looking, pink haired girl that was looking down. Her hair was long, and she had reddish eyes, and was also probably the shortest person nearby. Susan stalked over to her.

"I have you to blame for all this?" she demanded.

"Blame?" said the girl, flushing. "I did the spell properly, I can't help it that a couple of plebeians… got in the way or something." She stepped over to Sparkle, and grabbed her up. "See everyone, I summoned my familiar, just like I said I would!"

"Please unhand me!" said Sparkle. The girl gave a yelp and dropped her, and Sparkle gracefully landed on all fours and smoothed down her fur with her tongue. "I am Susan's 'familiar' if you please, not yours. Now kindly explain what's going on! Believe me when I say you don't want to make Susan angry."

"You can talk?" the girl asked. "But I haven't completed the ceremony yet!" There was a general ripple of amazement through the ranks.

"Of course."

"What did you call me?" demanded Susan.

"Plebeian. You know, a commoner."

"You mean an NPC?" asked Sparkle.

"A what? I'm talking about someone who can't use magic."

"Can't use magic?" snorted Susan. " _Elemental Attack: (Fire),"_ she cast, throwing flames into the air. Everyone there took a step back.

"Okay, you can use magic," said the girl, uncertainly. "Um…" she looked over at the tall guy.

He stepped up, pushing past the crowd. "Hello there, I'm professor Colbert. I do apologize for all this, on behalf of the magic academy. May I ask your name?"

"I'm Susan Felton. This is Sparkle. Can you tell me what's going on?"

He chuckled. "I can certainly try. Here, young man, let me help you up." He extended a hand.

"Thanks," said the boy.

Professor Colbert looked at him funny, but shrugged. "This is the familiar ceremony, where second year students summon their familiars." He swept a hand around, showing all the animals accompanied by wizards. "Don't ask me how, but somehow Miss Le Blanc de La Valliere has somehow called you all here."

"No, if I'm understanding this correctly, she called him." Susan pointed at the boy. "I just happened to be in the way. Honestly, yanking things out of their home dimensions? That's routinely done around here, is it? Rather irresponsible, don't you think?"

"Usually it's just animals," Colbert admitted. "And you, young man? What's your name?"

The boy stared back at him blankly. Susan's eyes darted between the two.

"Dude," she whispered, "he asked your name. Don't just stand there. Did you hit your head or something?"

"Oh, sorry. Saito Hiraga. You can really understand them?"

"What did he say?" asked Colbert.

"What's he saying now?" asked Saito.

Susan sighed again, closing her eyes and dropping her head. "You aren't getting any of this, are you?"

"I can understand _you,_ and your cat, which is sort of freaking me out to be honest, perfectly. Anyone else just sounds like gibberish. So I've only gotten the gist of this conversation from what you say."

"Terrific!" said Susan sarcastically. She turned to Colbert. "He can't understand a word you people are saying. Do you have a _Communication_ spell you can use?"

"No, sorry, I don't know anything like that," Colbert admitted.

"Seriously?" _Why am I not surprised? Wanded magic is_ _ **useless.**_ "Fine, I'll just use mine. Give me a second. _Pocket Dimension."_ Susan reached through what she expected would be a hole in the air, but nothing happened.

 _Okay, that's never happened before…_ She envisioned the symbols for the spell, and tried to once again make a _Pluto_ check. Again, nothing happened. Her blood ran cold.

"I can't open my _Dimension,_ " she said to Sparkle.

"Don't panic. We know your magic works, you did it before. Let me try. _Phase."_ Nothing happened. "Okay, now you can panic."

"Is something wrong?" asked Colbert.

"Is something wrong?" parroted Susan. "Is something _wrong?_ I'm knocked off course, I lose my friend to the multiverse, now I find out for some bizarre reason I can't do Pluto magic here. Do you know what that means?"

"No?"

"It means I'm stuck here, you idiot! All my stuff is in there! My book of magic, the spell to open the gateway back to Inari's world, my equipment, everything. I'm cut off!" She was shouting.

"Now, now, calm down. I'm sure something-"

"Calm down?" Magical energy started sparking off Susan's body. "You know the worst thing to say to someone that's getting angry? Calm down, that's what! That only makes it worse. You!" She whirled on the pink haired girl. "You got me into this. Fix it!"

"I can't," she said quietly. "I'm… sorry."

 _Oh, she would have to be totally cute._ A little of her anger drained away. _Focus, Susan!_ "I need to see whoever is in charge around here- immediately."

"Yes, that might be best."

"But I haven't finished the ceremony!" complained the girl, giving a little pout.

"Oh, you're finished," said Susan.

Colbert sighed. "No, she should finish. It is a sacred ceremony that determines a mage's life. That this unfortunate thing happened, as serious as that is, doesn't change that. However, can you be sure she was summoning this boy and not the cat?"

"My name is Sparkle," said Sparkle. "And I am Susan's three point _Companion._ We were legitimately traveling between worlds to follow the trail of Susan's father. This boy, Saito, has already admitted to answering the call of this girl here. He's your man, not me."

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Valliere," said Louise.

"Just call her Zero," someone called. Everyone laughed.

"This is all very irregular. Very well, you may complete the ceremony with the boy," Colbert said to Louise.

"Can he do magic?" she asked.

"She's asking if you can do magic," Susan told him.

"What? Magic? No, of course not. Is that why they're wearing the funny clothes? They're some kind of wizards?"

Susan rolled her eyes. "He can't." _Wait, what did he say he was doing before this? Right, getting a laptop repaired. Not exactly a wizard activity, that._

"He's a plebeian? I can't make a plebeian my familiar!"

 _There's that word again. And I thought 'muggle' was bad._ "Oh, you're complaining now? Really? Are you sure about that? Do you want the list again of how my life and the life of my friend Luna is totally screwed up now thanks to you?"

"Look, I'm sorry to involve you in this-"

"Finally, an apology!"

"But if I don't, I'll be expelled. My grades… uh…"

"She does have a little trouble with magic," whispered Colbert.

"No?!" said Susan, pretending to be shocked. "I would never have guessed. I am shocked and surprised." Susan stopped and took a deep breath, covering her eyes with her hands. "You're loving this, aren't you Darkness? Probably laughing it up this very minute. Okay, getting upset isn't going to help me. I'm going to be calm and rational. Calm. Rational. Nope, not helping."

"We'll figure something out," said Sparkle. "Obviously they have dimensional magic, it's just reworking the spell to open a door here rather than somewhere else and pull someone through."

"No, summoning is Venus, remember? It happened to pull someone from another world, but it's still a summoning spell, not a dimensional one."

"Okay, we'll work out what's blocking _Pluto_ magic and take it out so we can get access to your Dimension again. Or you could research a variant of the spell to talk to someone in dreams and ask Inari for help. What I'm saying is, we have other options."

"Right, you're right. I shouldn't panic. Okay, let's see your headmaster or whatever and get this whole thing straightened out."

"But the ceremony-" said Louise.

"Fine, fine, hurry it up. She still has some kind of ceremony to do involving you," she said to Saito. "I hope you're prepared."

"Look, can you explain what's going on?"

"Basically these people irresponsibly use magic to tear creatures, usually animals, from their home dimensions, rather than just going to a pet store like sane people. You got caught up in it. Due to billion to one odds our paths crossed while you were moving from one world to another, and I got knocked off course, coming with you. Apparently, this makes you some kind of wizard pet, like that floating eyeball thing over there." She pointed. Saito looked over and shuffled away from it. "That's you. You're a floating eyeball now. Congratulations. Is it better than being a tin dog? I don't know. Anyway, this girl, Louise whatever whatever keeps going on about this sick ceremony she has to complete or get kicked out of school. Personally, we're in the same boat- you should be working out how to get home and back to your life, same as me. I have stuff, important stuff, to be about. Namely to track down my father, and now, my friend who you briefly saw, who is now alone on an alien world. That about covers it."

"What's this ceremony?"

"No idea. It's usually animals so it can't be too perverse, I hope."

"I should say not," said Colbert, shocked.

"Does he understand?" asked Louise.

"As much as anyone can who's just been ripped from their home world."

"Then I will complete the ceremony." Louise stepped closer to Saito and said some ritual phrases, then kissed him.

"Oh, wait, maybe I'm the familiar after all," said Susan.

"Down, girl," said Sparkle. "Remember Luna."

"What, a girl can't get any sugar on the side- What the?"

As the two broke apart, magical energy started gathering around Saito. He looked terrified.

"What did she do to me?"

Susan did a _Magic Sense._ "I don't know what's happening, but something powerfully magic is going on. Brace yourself!" she said to him.

He screamed and clutched his hand, and Susan watched, half in horror and half with great interest as a group of symbols appeared on the back of it.

Saito passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Getting Some Answers

Time: Seconds later

Place: Courtyard inside the school

Susan rushed to Saito's side as he collapsed, the only one to do so. She looked him over, getting a 9 on her _first aid_ check. As finding the "status of individual" was only a 5, while "assessing condition" was a 10, she knew he was still alive but not what was wrong. She tried another _Magic Sense,_ getting even worse, an 8. Due to the strength of the magical field now surrounding Saito, this was still more than enough. She grabbed his hand and looked at the still glowing runes now seemingly burned onto it.

"Okay, some sort of Saturn magic is being burned into him. We need to get him to the infirmary where someone can watch and make sure he survives the process." She turned to the only adult who seemed to be there. "Mr. Colbert, right? Would you like to do the honors or should I?"

"Infirmary?" he asked, walking over and looking down at them both. "We don't actually have anything like that here. Maybe we should though, come to think of it."

"What?" Susan exploded, popping back up. "What if someone got really hurt? Isn't learning magic a bit dangerous?"

"Not especially," he replied. "If someone seriously took ill their parents would be informed and a healer would be brought."

"Fantastic," she muttered.

"In any case, he should be fine. I've never seen a familiar spirit be knocked out by the ritual, but then, it's not been done with a human before, either. He won't die, that would negate the point of the whole thing. For now, let's take him to Miss Valliere's room. She is responsible for him now, after all. Then we can take you to see the principal."

"Fine," spat Susan. "Maybe he'll know of some magic to get me out of here and back to what I'm supposed to be doing."

Mr. Colbert swished his staff around, and Hiraga rose gently into the air. He led the way through a set of doors at the far end of the courtyard and the students were excitedly whispering amongst themselves.

"For now, get to know your familiar a little better, I'll be back in a moment," he called to them.

The group walked down torch lit corridors, not unlike those of Hogwarts. She didn't see any moving paintings or stairs that rearranged themselves, so it seemed even though this place might superficially resemble the school she had known, many details were different. Louise unlocked her door and Hiraga floated inside, onto the bed.

"I'll have to put some straw down for him to sleep one," Louise remarked, looking around the room. It was pretty stark, with a small table, dresser, bed, and closet within view. The candle had lit itself as we had come in and-

"Wait, what did you say about straw?"

"He'll need some. I wouldn't want him to sleep on the bare floor. I'm not insensitive to his needs, after all."

"Straw? He's not a horse, he's a person! He'll sleep in a bed just like you do. I don't know how things are done around here, but you've seriously screwed up two different lives with your shenanigans, the least you can do is show a little respect."

"Shenanigans?" shrieked Louise. "I did the ceremony properly and got my familiar spirit. This plebeian."

"You are not going to treat him like an animal."

"I'll treat him any way I want. It's none of your concern."

"I think it is my concern. Someone has to make sure he's doing all right, and you don't speak his language!"

"If you do, I'll make you regret it!" She brandished her wand.

"What are you going to do, fail to cast another spell at me?"

"Girls, please!" said Colbart, finally stepping between us. "Now is not the time."

"Oh, but I think it is," countered Susan. "Much better to set the expectation right at the start than to have to try and change her behavior later. She expected an animal, fine. She got a person, and she needs to change her attitudes accordingly."

"I'm standing right here, and my name is Louise!" she growled.

"Something can be worked out, I'm sure," Mr. Colbert said wearily. "For now, let's bring you up to see Mr. Ottman."

"Fine. Sparkle, you mind staying?"

"Not at all," she said, jumping up on the bed and sitting down. "I'll need to start seeing what magic I can and can't use, anyway. Besides, I'm the one with the healing magic, should I feel he needs it. Sun should work, I mean they have a sun, don't they?"

"Yes, if we're going to be stuck here we'll need to know what, exactly, our limitation are." She looked towards the ceiling. "You could have been a little more specific about this, Inari."

"Who?" asked Mr. Colbert.

"The being that- never mind. Come on, which way?"

The group trooped up to the principal's office, which Mr. Colbert knocked on and entered. Inside was... well... Dumbledore. Old guy, with a white, long, wispy beard, and wearing a pointy hat and gray robes. The only thing missing were the glasses.

"I'm not sure what I was expecting," remarked Susan.

A gnarled staff sat behind him, making Susan wonder if somehow these people "graduated" from using wands as they got more powerful, as Mr. Colbert also walked with a staff rather than a wand. Or did people that used a staff as a focus just start out more powerful, or was it a personal choice?

Also in the room was a young looking woman with green hair, which Susan wondered about. _I'll have to look and see if that's common, I wasn't really paying attention to that kind of thing earlier._ She looked over at Louise. _Though I suppose if pink isn't remarked upon..._

"Well, well, what have we here?" asked the principal, leaning forward in his chair.

"Mr Ottman, this is Miss, uh... I didn't get your last name."

"Susan Felton. Nice to meet you."

"And nice to meet you," the principal replied. "This is my aid, Miss Longbill."

"Hello."

"Hi."

"So, what can we do for you? I take it this is about the excitement I saw in the courtyard a moment ago?"

"Yes, sir," answered Mr. Colbert.

"Ah, Miss Valliere, what have you done now? Wait, you haven't summoned this girl as your Familiar Spirit, have you?"

She looked embarrassed.

"No," Susan answered for her. "She summoned the boy currently recovering from the experience in her room. He went unconscious after she kissed him and magic started swirling around him. I just happened to be in the way at the time."

"In the way? I'm afraid I don't understand."

Susan sighed. "Look, the short of it is, other worlds exist. I'm from one. He's from another. I left my world to seek my father, who travels between them fighting a malignant entity I have termed "The Darkness." It was just our bad luck to collide in the space between worlds, knocking a friend who was traveling with me into yet another world and stranding us both where we are now. She has the means to follow my father, I have the spell to return where I came from. Both of which are useless or out of reach at the moment."

"Astonishing!" said Miss Longbill. "I never would have imagined it. How many worlds are there?"

Susan turned to her. "I passed through a space with countless doors of light. I couldn't begin to give you a hard number."

She looked impressed.

"That is certainly a unique tale. Please allow me to extend my official apology on behalf of the academy. Whatever we can do to assist you, just let me know."

"Thank you, I appreciate it. For the moment, I need information and some quiet. I need to know what kind of magic is still available to me. At least one kind, which would allow me to access my book of magic, is not. If others aren't as well..."

"I'm not sure what that means, but as I said, whatever we can do. I would love to learn about magic from another world!"

Susan saw that he was looking at her somewhat excitedly, and decided he was probably telling the truth. _After all, how many times in your life do you meet someone from another reality?_

"But first things first. Louise here brought someone that seems to be Asian, and he doesn't speak your language. Mr. Colbert says you don't have translation magic?"

"Perhaps somewhere in the archives?" asked Miss Longbill, looking at Mr. Ottman. He shrugged. She explained, "We haven't needed any magic of that sort in hundreds of years. Not since the language of the world was standardized."

 _Huh, that's the first intelligent thing these people have said to me so far._

"I could take care of the problem myself, if I had access to my spellbook. Sadly it wasn't something I needed on a regular basis myself, so I would have to research the spell from scratch if you can't help. That'll take time. Meanwhile, it seems this sort of screw up is somewhat expected of Louise? Something about grades?"

Louise glowered at her. "My spells tend to explode, I admit. But I'm getting better?"

Susan could tell even she didn't believe it. "Wait, you backfire _every_ spell you try to cast? How are you still alive?" She turned to Mr. Colbert. "Why wasn't this looked into before she started tearing people out of their home dimensions?"

"We have hundreds of students to teach here," he hedged. "We can't spare the attention for just one."

"Oh, I see. So you just let her continue failing, causing destruction and whatnot, rather than looking into what might have a simple solution. I see."

"What do you mean?" asked Louise. "What simple solution?"

"I don't know, I've been here less than an hour. But it seems to me that if your magical energies are that erratic, you either need a better focus than that wand, an additional focus apart from it, or just plain more practice in the basics. Or maybe you're trying to do a type of magic you shouldn't be attempting, like if I tried to do wand magic. I'm actually not even sure what would happen in that case, I never tried it."

"I... I don't want your help in any case."

"I wasn't offering my help, I was just wondering if anything like that had been explored. There's a reason your magic messes up. If you can't be bothered to research the reason, don't expect me to. Wait-" She turned back to the principal. "I take it you don't have character sheets here?"

"Have what?"

"Character sheets." Suddenly Susan was holding hers, and everyone strained to get a good look at it.

"Where did that come from?" asked Miss Longbill.

"I guess not." She put it "away" again. "Just a thought. To answer your question, I have no idea. It just comes when I want to look at it. Sparkle, that's my cat, she's the same way."

"Fascinating," said the principal. "You carried some of your physical law into our universe." He leaned back in his chair again. "Astonishing."

"Yes, well, it's normal for me. So just to be clear, you don't have any sort of magic to move between worlds, right? Just summon creatures from them? If I could just step through to a world where I could use Pluto magic for two minutes I would be far better off."

Everyone shook their heads.

"Super. Then I am stuck here, it seems. We both are." Her eyes narrowed. "By the way, you haven't had any trouble with beings trying to take over your world or anything, have you? Ancient evils? Magic energy disappearing and you can't figure out where it's going?" Again, they all shook their heads, somewhat more concerned. "Oh good. Maybe The Darkness hasn't noticed your world yet. I can tell you more about that later, so you can prepare if it ever does try sucking your dimension dry of energy. For the moment, I'm going to see what Planets I can cast from and take things from there."

"Miss Valliere, why don't you go see to your Familiar Spirit?" asked the Principal. "We'll also take a peek through the archives, see if there are any books that detail your condition from past students. Maybe there is something in our libraries that could help."

"Oh, thank you very much!" she said, surprised. She gave a small bow and left the room.

"Jean, if you could work with Matilda to check the archives for some translation magic? I think that would ease our other new guest into things here. And I'll have to meet him, once he wakes up."

"Of course, sir," said Mr. Colbert. Both of them left as well.

"Odd that you seem to speak our language perfectly."

"Hiraga said he heard me speaking his language perfectly. I think Lady Inari, that's the being that gave me the ability to go between worlds, did something to me. And didn't bother to tell me, of course."

"I see."

"Now, if you want I can get out of your hair to do some magical tests, or if you're interested..."

"I am interested. You mentioned the planets- Are you talking about physical planets? I can tell you about our solar system, if that would help."

"Maybe. I know you don't have a Pluto, that's for sure."

"No, our six planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. And of course we have two moons, but maybe I shouldn't assume all worlds have two."

"No way, we only had one! Interesting, I'd love to know how that happened. Anyway, it seems three whole branches of magic will be denied to me, but I better check just to make sure. Let's see, I'll try to make a little water, that would be a good test for Neptune. And I could manage a spark for Uranus without any trouble, normally. Let's see how it goes." Naturally, it went terribly, both grade-0 spells she tried to use didn't even fizzle, as she found she couldn't even make the check in those skills. "Great, so what can't I cast?" she asked herself, getting out her character sheet again. "Eleven spells, including my favorite combo of Hypnotic Field and Energy Drain. Oh crap, I can't use Spell Symbol either? AARG!"

"So your world actually has more planets than ours? I would have thought something like that would be somewhat constant."

"Me too. And you say you have two moons? I wonder..." Susan looked thoughtful, looking at her character sheet again. "Would you mind if I cast a minor spell on you? I only know three Moon spells, and only one would actually show if what I'm thinking of works."

"I suppose, if it's not harmful."

"Oh, no, it won't hurt a bit. It just confuses opponents for a second."

"You may proceed."

"Thank you. _Dazzle!"_ she cast, and where usually small motes of light would dazzle the senses of the target, in this world she got a huge flash that made him cry out. She got the sense that his Delay went up by 12, rather than 6, as it should have. This still was hardly noticeable, and the principal shook it off.

"Yup, moon spells have a double potency. To think my magic actually relies on the physical bodies that populate the solar system." She shook her head. "That hardly seems worth it."

"Interesting spell," Mr. Ottman remarked. "What do you other 'moon' spells do?"

"Tell me the direction of north and let me see in the dark. Like I said, not very useful to have at double strength. Now if you had two suns..."

"Our planet would have been burnt to a crisp and life would have never evolved here."

"There is that. All right. For the moment I'll head back to Louise's room, so Hiraga doesn't wake up and freak out when he can't talk to anyone. I'll take stock and see what my next move is going to be. I can still fabricate and imbue things, if you think unbreakable swords or armor, or magical items might sell for a good price on this world I can at least earn a living that way."

"Unbreakable you say? What about wands?"

"Oh sure, wands too. Staffs, anything."

"I think we could work something out. Do you think you can find your way back okay?"

Susan barked a laugh. "I have _No Sense of Direction._ In a castle this big I would be lost in a minute."

"Very well. Motsognir?" From Mr. Ottman's shoulder a mouse perked up. "Can you lead her back to Miss Valliere's room?" The mouse squeaked and ran down his robes to the door. "You don't mind following a mouse, do you?"

"Oh, is he your Familiar Spirit? He's so cute! I don't mind following him."

"Great. Come and see me whenever, my door is always open to you. Oh, before you go, would you mind terribly doing a guest lecture on your type of magic? I think some of our students would be quite interested, and in stories of other worlds! Plus if there are magical skills we could learn from other worlds, we'll employ you to teach them!"

Susan shrugged. "Sure, only have a rating 2 in _Speaking_ , and no rating in _Teaching_ but I'd be glad to compare our magics sometime. I can put a few points in _Teaching_ if there's something I can really teach. We can talk about it sometime in the next few days."

"I look forward to it."

"I'll see you later."

As Susan walked behind the mouse, she thought about what being stranded here meant. _Would Inari even be able to tell I was here? She didn't open a door to check on my father or anything, she sent me to do it. That suggests no. My father's magic could open a door to her world, but that's Pluto. Without that planet or something similar to draw upon, how will I ever get out of here? Strange that she didn't warn me that I might find a place like this, only that magic might be different between worlds. Probably that key she gave me doesn't depend on planets, given she's the lady of magic or whatever my father said about her. Could I somehow contact her in a dream? How do I know she even sleeps? This is going to be a long journey._

Having arrived at Louise's door, she gently knocked and heard a faint "come in," from the other side. Louise was sitting at her table, staring at Hiraga. "No change?" she asked Sparkle, who perked up from the bed. She shook her head. "I could cast _Awaken_ on him, and I've been monitoring this magical change that's he's been going through. It's concentrated in his hand now, so hopefully he'll wake up on his own soon. If he doesn't, I guess we'll have to think about what might happen waking him up magically."

"We can decide that when the time comes. You know what spells we can't cast?"

"The last three planets, unless I'm missing something?"

Susan nodded. "Yup. No more energy stuff for me. That's going to be a handicap."

"Are you just going to ignore me, then?" asked Louise.

"Why no, would you like a scathing remark of some kind? I thought up several on the way back here."

"No," she pouted.

"You realize Inari played us?" asked Sparkle.

"What?"

"Yeah, thought about that while I was just sitting here. Remember that key she gave us?"

"That I stupidly gave to Luna? Yeah."

"It wasn't stupid. You were showing her that you trusted her with your dad's future. I thought it was sweet. Anyway, we know your dad came to your world... because you were born there."

The implication of that took a second to sink in. "I could have just gone home and gone on from there!" she shouted, eyes wide. "I might have only been one world behind him! Not to mention I would have wound up at home anyway! Oh, she's so getting slapped when I see her next."

"Uh, might I recommend not slapping the higher order dimensional being? She could probably crush you like a bug, despite what she looks like."

"Mentally. A nice mental slap in the face."

"Thank you for clarifying. So, what next?"

"Nothing much until the local magicians do some research. I offered my services fabricating and such, so we'll have an income stream, at least. And I want to make sure my imbued items still work. Actually, should have tested that before offering, now that I think about it. Oh well."

On her person Susan had her ring with _Legion_ in it, and the knife of _Alleviation_ which worked just fine. She was able to test it by bringing out her _Somatic_ Beretta and put it back, damaging her hand by one point. The knife easily healed it, so at least she knew even without the outer planets, she had a lot of options should something try killing her. Of course she couldn't reload the Beretta, all her ammo was in her now inaccessible _Pocket Dimension._ Of course all the food in her _Personal Dimension_ was going to go bad, even refrigerated as it was. She had it stocked with long lasting items, but it looked like she might be here for a long, long time.

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing (and discarding) various plans with Sparkle, and nearing sundown there was another knock on the door.

Louise opened it, and a younger student was standing there with a cart loaded with food.

"I was told to bring this to your room," said the boy. Louise stepped back and let him in. "Will he be all right?" he asked.

"Hopefully," said Susan. "Now that food has arrived we'll try waking him up. I doubt he'll want to miss this. Thank you."

"I'll be back in a little while to take the dishes back."

"Thanks."

Louise just made which Susan took to mean "of course you will," and the boy left again.

"He's been stable, nothing magical has happened in a while," remarked Sparkle. "Do you want me to wake him?"

Susan nodded. "Go ahead. Worst thing that could happen is he goes right back under again, and we leave him until he's ready. He had quite a shock, after all." She glared at Louise, who it seemed was waiting to be served, as she wasn't getting any of the food off the tray. Susan turned back to watch Sparkle touch Hiraga and cast _Awaken_ on him. Magical energy swirled, and he groaned and opened his eyes.

"Oh, so it wasn't a dream."


	3. Chapter 3

3

Communication

Time: Immediately after

Place: Louise's room

"Come and eat," said Susan to Hiraga, "you must be pretty hungry after all that's happened."

"Starving. How long was I asleep?"

"A couple of hours. Figured after the shock you got it would be better to let you sleep. How are you feeling?"

He sat up and swung his legs off the bed. "Okay. My hand feels weird, but I guess that's to be expected?" He looked at it, then rubbed it as though it might come off. "That's going to take some getting used to."

"I expect so. Think of it as a magical tattoo. I've made one for someone, it's not that far off. I feel some kind of Saturn or equivalent spell, so it'll be something to deal with learning, technology or time. I can narrow it down later, if you want."

"I'd like to know, if it's giving me some kind of magical ability, what that ability is. I mean, this is some kind of magical world, right?"

"Oh, I should give you the welcome to the multiverse speech. Looks like there's a bunch of food here, what do you want?" She shoved the table over, as there were only two chairs. One person was going to have to eat sitting on the bed, but that was fine.

"Oh, anything," he said, walking over to the cart and grabbing a plate off. "Though eating without chopsticks is going to be weird." He went to go sit back down, and Susan grabbed a plate as well. She picked up something meaty and put it on the ground for Sparkle, who nodded her thanks and jumped down to it.

"So are you from China?"

"Japan, actually."

"Ah. One day when I'm not jumping between worlds I'd love to explore my own. I haven't seen much of it, and I wish now I had. We could compare how your Japan and my Japan were-" She stopped as she realized Louise hadn't joined them, and they both looked over at her. "Come and sit down," Susan said, exasperated. "You don't need a ticket."

"My familiar should serve me!" she replied haughtily. "I shouldn't have to serve myself now."

Susan snorted. "You're serious?"

"What?" asked Hiraga.

"She wants you to serve her."

"Get out of here!"

"That's what she said. Look, Louise, we're all equal here. You want to sit and eat with us, fine. You want to stand there with a sour look on your face and watch us eat, that's fine with me too. But no one in this room is going to serve you. Get over it."

"He's just a plebeian, and my familiar! It's his duty to serve me!"

"Okay, couple of things, princess. First, he's a person and you expected an animal. Did you see me waiting for my familiar to serve me? No, she doesn't have hands, you see. So I don't know what, exactly, you expected when you did this so called summoning but odds are you would have gotten an animal. Just like everyone else. That animal would not have served you. So neither is this person. Second, there's a word on my world; Muggle. I don't like it, and I never did. I'm beginning to not like this word I feel is similar, which my translation matrix is rendering as 'plebeian.' He is a person, not a thing to be given a derogatory label."

"It's not that derogatory, it just means a commoner. You know, someone who can't use magic."

"Can't use... wait a second. Are you telling me that you're some kind of noble? Because you can use magic?"

"My whole family can. Every family that can use magic has become ennobled at some point in history, and that's continued until today. I mean you don't think a person who could use magic would stay a peasant, do you?"

"So magic is passed through families here, too? That makes sense. And at some point in history they decided magic wouldn't be kept secret, and so they became a ruling class. Interesting."

"So I've changed your mind, then, now that you know I'm your better?"

"What? Better? Ahahahha. No, why would I have changed my mind? Look, just because he doesn't know if he can do magic that doesn't mean he can't. Maybe his world doesn't have a lot of magic but now that he's here in this one, he can pick up that skill. Or maybe he has some other weird ability from his world that he thinks is normal but turns out to be special on this one. There's still this weird rune to consider, who knows what that can do. It's obviously magical, I can feel it from here, so it's doing something to him. To say he can't use magic, at this point, is rather silly. And let's be honest, all your magic is explosions, which we could do with gunpowder, if you have that sort of thing on this world. So you're not all that great of a magic user, if that's all it takes to be a noble."

"Even with all that said, he's definitely not."

"Neither am I. But I'm not serving you either. So take that as you will."

She sighed and looked us over, finally deciding I wasn't going to budge, and Hiraga couldn't really understand what was going on anyway. She grabbed a plate of her own and sat down to eat with us.

"Wasn't so hard, was it?" I asked with a grin.

"You have no idea."

We ate in silence for a moment. "Right, so, welcome to the multiverse. Other worlds exist, and apparently they are more diverse than I first though. I've only been to mine and this one, because I just started out. But my father went to a bunch to try and save them from this creature I call The Darkness. I call it that because that's what it looked like to me last I saw it. Basically it wants to break out of the dimension it lives in and go up, rather than down which I guess is much easier for it. So it needs the energy of our lower dimensions to do that. Dad got stuck someplace, I'm going after him. Or at least I was." She glared at the tiny pink haired girl.

"I already said I was sorry," said Louise.

"There was no way you could have known," I said. "And I'm sorry for losing my temper when I first got here. I should tell you, there's a piece of The Darkness inside me, it was put there before I was born. He wanted to try and corrupt me so I wouldn't take up my father's work. Didn't work, but it talks to me sometimes now, tries to get me to do things I normally wouldn't."

"That must be terrible," said Hiraga.

"It's annoying, that's for sure. But it's really only when I could do something it considers 'evil' that it tries to influence me. It isn't just talking my ear off while we're sitting here."

Hiraga looked thoughtful for a moment. "I guess there's only two possibilities. You're telling the truth, and I'm stuck here for the duration along with you. Or I'm in some kind of comma and this is a hallucination that my brain is using to try and heal itself. And there's no way to tell the difference from where I'm sitting."

Susan held up the knife she was using to cut her meat. "I could cut you, see if you feel pain. Would that prove it for you one way or the other?" She grinned.

"That's okay," he said, holding up his hands. "I'll take your word for all this. What I want to know is, what now?"

"Good question. The teachers are looking for a spell to allow you to understand and speak the language. If they can't find you one, I'll research mine and make you an item with it so you won't have to worry about that. As far as she goes... Louise, he wants to know what to expect now? What happens after this ceremony in other words?"

"Usually we just get to know our Familiar Spirits and what they can do. Then we go on with our studies. I don't know what it will mean now that a plebei- a person has been summoned."

Susan repeated this.

"Great. While she's in class, what am I supposed to be doing?"

"You probably won't be able to go very far. And you're still in school yourself, right?" He nodded. "Not going to be much for you to learn here, either. I mean this place is lit by candles and torches. Unless you wanted to study blacksmithing or something?" They both chuckled. "One thing you might want to take up is some kind of weapon."

"What makes you say that?"

"If this is a magical world, and I saw some of the types of creatures that were floating around in that courtyard, it would stand to reason those sorts of creatures are also roaming around wild out there. If that's the case you're going to need to defend yourself. Even a farmer would have some skill at an ax or a bow if they got attacked on the road. Louise here has at least explosion magic to defend herself with, you've got nothing. Unless you're some kind of martial arts master?" He shook his head. "There you are. This is a world where the strength of your arms determines your fate, if you're a peasant. And despite what I said earlier, that's what you are. You should have some skill relating to your new 'position' of being a Familiar Spirit."

"I hear you. And really, if she can only do explosions it might be better to have someone around that knows how to fight. But how will I be able to learn? I won't be able to pay anyone, and this is a magic school, not a military academy."

"Leave that to me," Susan said confidently. "I do know the Augment Skill spell, and both Teaching and Sword: (Slashing) are untrained. I'll just put those two spells on myself and I can show you the basics, and spar with you!"

"That sounds good, but where are we going to get a couple of swords?"

Susan waved this off. "I'll make us some after we eat. It'll only take a couple of minutes."

He gave a short laugh. "Magic does come in handy, I guess."

"I guess."

"My laptop!" he suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"I must have dropped it when I entered that weird portal! You didn't pick it up or see it when I collided with you?" Susan shook her head. "Man, it's long gone now. I just paid to have it fixed, too. Darn it!"

"There's still some hope. Time runs differently between dimensions, apparently. What's weeks here might be just a few minutes where you're from. You might return to see it still just laying there."

"I hope so. Having it would have been nice, though."

"Well, having access to my full complement of spells would be nice, but here we are. You wouldn't be able to recharge it anyway." She gestured to the walls, as if to say "no electrical sockets."

"There is that."

So the dishes were stacked back up on the cart and Susan sat down to do some Creation magic, and the two watched her, interested.

"What type would you like? Katana?"

"Sure." Hiraga shrugged. "It's as good as any, I suppose."

"I think I recall enough what they look like to get you something close," she said, getting a 16 on her KNOledge check. She began to cast.

Nine minutes later she had two gleaming katanas with wooden scabbards. She also used magic to create some leather, and Augment Skill to get the needed skill to wrap the hilt properly. Both had been pretty impressed, as Louise said magically creating objects like that wasn't usually done, because they tended to degrade rather quickly. Their magic could do it, though, and much more quickly according to her. She was also somewhat interested in those magical circles Susan's magic generated, but was trying to act like she wasn't. To save her some time, she had gotten some glue from somewhere, and they were just waiting for it to dry when there was another knock at the door.

Louise went to open it, and it was the same younger boy that brought the cart.

"I can take the dishes away if you'd like," he said. "And I've been told to show Susan and the Familiar Spirit to their rooms, if you're ready."

"Sounds good to me," said Susan, getting up and stretching. She grabbed the two swords and the others got up as well. "He's going to show you to your room," she told Hiraga. "I'll keep these until tomorrow, make sure they dry properly and don't need adjustment before we can use them."

"Sounds good," replied Hiraga. "See you tomorrow, Louise."

Susan translated, and said goodnight herself.

The next day, Susan was awoken by Sparkle and looked around. "There's some kind of gong sound going," she explained, "but I figured you wouldn't hear it."

"That's probably the case," Susan replied, getting out of bed. She had made herself a nightgown to sleep in the night before, and thanked her past self for memorizing that spell. _I think it's going to really come in handy around here._

Sparkle cast Hygiene on her once she was dressed, cleaning her and her clothes without effort. She waited a moment, looking out the window at the beautiful day, then went across the hall and knocked on Hiriga's door.

"Morning," he said, sleepily. "Guess that's their alarm clock, huh?"

"Either that or it's a fire drill and we're all going to die, but given no one is running about in a panic, I think it's fine."

He grinned and slipped his shirt on. "I wonder where they keep the showers in this place?"

"Got that covered," said Sparkle, doing another Hygiene, this time on him.

"Thanks. I feel clean. Wow, I could get used to this magic stuff!"

"Yup, I'm great all right. Now, which way do you think breakfast is?"

"Let's just follow everyone else, it shouldn't be long."

"Good point. Oh, belt this on, you better get used to walking around with it." Susan tossed him a sword, and showed she had already put hers on as well.

"Came out pretty good," he remarked, looking over the wrappings.

Susan buffed her fingernails on her shirt. "Given my rating in the skill is my rating in the planet, and I can make the rating in my planet far above human limit by spending energy, I should hope so."

"I think your translation spell is failing," he said, cocking his head. "I didn't get much of that."

She waved it off. "Never mind. Basically I'm awesome at magic, so go me."

They both laughed.

"Hey, there's someone! Let's go!" He belted the sword on, tying a knot in the leather strap she had left over from the Creation last night, and they closed the door and hurried after the person they had seen.

The banquet hall reminded Susan of Hogwarts, and she estimated across the three tables there were about 250 students in total. Not many, but then, maybe there are a ton of magical schools around here and not just one.

Pink hair wasn't too common, so Susan and Hiraga found her and sat down.

"Wow, at least we'll eat well here!" remarked Hiraga, looking over the feast that had been prepared.

 _Wonder if there's an elf equivalent that works here? Have to look into that._

She turned to say hello to Louise, but saw her eye was twitching. "What's wrong now?" she asked.

"He shouldn't even be here. He should be eating with the rest of the Familiar Spirits. Or at least on the floor."

She pointed to a plate on the floor, set with a single roll. Susan busted out laughing. "Don't start that again, princess. You might start annoying me, and you wouldn't like me to be annoyed with you, believe me. I know it's tough to wrap your head around, but he's a person, same as you. Start treating him accordingly or I'll break your rune-" _Wait, crap, that's Pluto magic and they don't have a Pluto._ "Well, I'd figure something out to break your hold over him, and we'd just disappear into the night."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

Louise glowered but didn't say anything.

People in uniforms were walking about the hall, setting things out, and Susan caught the eye of a pretty maid with a wave.

"Excuse me," she said, "can I get something suitable for my cat? With all the familiar spirits around here, someone must provide for them, but I have no idea who."

The woman looked her over, then brightened. "You're that visiting wizard, aren't you? I was told we had a visitor, apparently from another world?" Susan nodded. "Wow, and I'm talking to her. I'll go see what I can find right away!"

"Thank you very much."

She hurried off, and came back with something Sparkle said smelled delicious. Once everyone was seated they spoke some kind of weird 'prayer' and everyone dug in.

That done, Louise led them out to the courtyard again, where tables had been set up and everyone wearing a black cloak was out playing with their Familiar Spirits.

"Must be nice," remarked Hiraga, looking around. "Kicking back, playing fetch with your dog or floating eyeball or... what in the heck is that thing?"

Susan looked, and it was a rather large, red, lizard looking thing with fire for a tail.

"Charmander?" she asked with a grin.

"Wait, you know about that?"

"Wait, what? You have-"

But they were interrupted by Colbert spotting them and jogging over. They greeted each other and he had a big smile on his face. "We found a spell we think will work," he said, taking a book out from under his arm. "I've been looking for you so we can get you speaking our- he can't understand a word I'm saying, can he?"

Susan translated, and Hiraga said "Great. Whatever he has to do, let's do this!"

And so Colbert looked the spell over and cast it while swinging his staff around.

"Did it work?" he asked.

"If you can understand me, yes it did," Hiraga replied.

"I can! Amazing, it did work."

"I guess so! Thank you very much."

"Oh, no trouble, none at all. Did you sleep well last night? How are you adjusting to life here?"

"Haven't had much time to really think about it, I was asleep or unconscious most of the time. As long as there's some hope of me eventually returning home, I'm sure this will be a nice enough place to visit."

"I can't make any promises there," he said, his face falling. "Sorry."

"It's only been a day, I don't expect instant results," said Hiriga with forced cheerfulness. "With two different kinds of magics at my disposal, I'm sure something can be figured out."

"We'll try our best, at least give you the option of going or staying. You are a Familiar Spirit now, whatever you were before. That means something to us."

"And what gives you the right to disrupt his entire life by stranding him, sorry, us, here?" asked Susan in a low voice.

"As I said, we are looking into ways of opening a door to another some other world, so you can at least use your magic to get back to where you were, Susan. That might be easier than trying to find your specific worlds, if what you said about the number of 'doors' you saw is accurate. Please give us a little time."

"Of course, I understand. New magic just doesn't grow on trees, and you have students to teach and whatnot. It's fine." _For the moment._

"One problem at a time, right? At least now you can talk to us, so that's a minor hurtle out of the way. I'm going to head back, enjoy your day off."

We all said goodbye, and Hiraga introduced himself properly to Louise.

"Glad I can talk to you directly now," she said. "Though I'm not sure how to handle our time. I can't exactly pet you like a dog, can I?" Looking around, there were several dogs, and they were all excitedly being petted or played with.

"If it's all the same to you, Louise," Susan said, tilting her sword, "I think our time is best spent getting this guy trained up in this. You two can 'bond' or whatever when he takes a break."

"Let's do it," said Hiraga with a grin.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Celebrity

Time: Moments later

Place: Corner of the courtyard, away from the others

Hiraga pulled the katana from the scabbard after untying it, and set that out of the way. Susan was busy casting _Augment Skill: (Sword: (Slashing))_ and putting max energy into it. This got her a skill rating of sixteen, almost double what a normal human could achieve. She was about to do the same for _Teaching_ when Hiraga yelled out to her.

"Come and see this!"

She went over to him and he held out his left hand so she could see the rune on the back of it.

It was merrily glowing now with an inner light.

"It's active?" she postulated, doing a _Magic Sense_ on him and getting maximum. Even with the penalty for holding onto _Augment Skill,_ that was enough to tell he was radiating magic much more strongly now than before. "Oh yeah, it's doing something. Do you feel different?"

He took a few swings with the sword. "Actually, I think I know what I'm doing with this now!"

"Care to test that theory?" she asked with a grin.

"I'd be delighted."

Both brought their blades up into a guard position and started circling each other. Susan got the initiative, and slashed at him, quick as she could. She was confident that with a sixteen skill she could stop the blade if he didn't manage to perry it.

It was a good thing she was so confident, he didn't manage it. But then, she had rolled maximum, a twenty-two.

"Okay, still getting the hang of this..." remarked Hiraga, swinging at her and getting under her guard.

"Guess we're even," she said with a grin, blade an inch from her skin. _I rolled an 18 to parry that strike, what's his skill rating?_

Both then went into a flurry of blows, all of which were blocked by the other. They sprang apart.

"Not bad," said Susan.

"Thanks," responded Hiraga.

"No, I was talking about myself." Hiraga gave her a dirty look and she laughed. "Just kidding. Ready to continue?"

"I was waiting for you."

Again the clash of blades, but despite Susan's rating, it was a stalemate. There were some close calls, but as people gathered around to watch, everyone could tell neither had a clear advantage over the other. Finally they broke apart again and Susan held up a hand.

"This is getting us nowhere, obviously you don't need my help to master that weapon," she panted. "I think we're done here."

"Awwwww," said the crowd, which Susan looked to see surrounding them.

"Go back to your lives, citizens," Hiraga called. "Show's over." He picked up the scabbard and slid the sword back into it. As he let it go the glow subsided and vanished. "Huh. Not exactly worth leaving my entire world behind, but at least we know I'm not helpless."

"That's for sure," remarked Susan, also putting her blade away. "You're above human level, I can tell you that much for sure."

"That was amazing," said a voice, and a golden haired boy carrying a rose stepped up to Susan. "Magnificent," he went on. "Such strength, and form! I am "The Bronze" Guiche, may I have the honor of your name?"

"Susan Felton, nice to meet you."

"Susan? What a strange name, but a beautiful one," he hasted to add. "And your odd clothes... wait, you were the one that appeared alongside this boy when Zero called her Familiar. Little did I see of your beauty then, but now, in the sparkling daytime, how can I resist you?"

He leaned in for a kiss, and Susan stuck her sword in the way, partly drawing it. "Don't even think about it, buster. Anyway, I play for the other team."

"Other... what?" He said, opening his eyes again and looking confused. Then he saw the sword an inch from his neck.

"Guiche, what are you doing?" asked a girl with a red bow in her hair. It was done up in a complicated style, in ringlets, and two separate bangs covered a rather expressive forehead.

"Oh, Montmorency, you came to watch too. What am I doing? Why, whatever do you mean?"

"I think you know. Is he bothering you, miss?" she asked, looking at the bare blade.

"Not at all," answered Susan, sliding the blade back in. "He was just leaving."

"Yes, he was," spat Montmorency, grabbing his ear and stalking off with him.

"He's always getting into trouble," purred a fiery redhead, wearing a gold choker and a modified uniform that left a lot of her ample skin exposed. "Now me, on the other hand..." She grabbed his arm and pressed it to her body, making Hiaga drop the sword he was trying to tie on his waist.

"Leave my familiar alone, Kiche," shouted Louise, trying to yank him away. "He's not another conquest for you!"

"Whatever do you mean, Zero?" she asked, innocently.

"All you people need to go through sensitivity training!" shouted Susan. "Off with you! Go! Go on!"

"I'll be back for you," purred Kirche, blowing Hiraga a kiss and walking away with her salamander or whatever it was.

"Honestly, who does she think she is?" pouted Louise. "Grabbing other people's property like- I mean..." Susan's gaze now turned to her. "Grabbing my... familiar... You know what, forget it! What was all that about, anyway?"

Susan bent down to retrieve Hiraga's sword, and handed it to him. "Given the rune was glowing the whole time, I think it's something similar to the spell I used. He was able to use the sword with magically induced proficiency. Believe me, I doubt any regular swordsman on this planet could match him."

"You really think so?" asked Hiraga.

"I know so. I know my rating at the time. Even with the drag of maintaining my spell, we were even. That's pretty impressive for someone who probably never held a real sword before."

"Guess training is off," he remarked, looking around at the thinning crowd. "Now what?"

The group spent until lunch time testing Hiraga's ability with the (rather poorly maintained, if you wanted Susan's opinion) weapons found around the school. There was a small armory, and they carried out axes, bow and arrow, spears, shields, different types of swords, and even a rusty old mace. As Hiraga touched each one he said he felt he knew how to use it perfectly.

"So that's it," said Hiraga, putting the last arrow into the center of a target they found. "Near enough the center every time as far as I'm concerned."

"Seems that way," Susan replied.

"Excuse me," said someone behind them. They turned. "We're serving lunch, and I brought something for your cat, as well."

"You really did?" asked Susan with a big smile. "That's really thoughtful of you, thanks."

"Oh, it's okay."

"I'm Susan, I never did introduce myself this morning." She stuck out her hand. "Oh, or do you not have this tradition?"

"We shake hands," said the maid, returning the gesture. "I'm Siesta, nice to meet you all."

Louise just snorted like it was beneath her, but Hiraga shook hands with her too. Susan noticed he seemed a bit smitten, and she could understand why. _There's a person in an actual maid outfit right in front of me. That's a +2 modifier to LOOks if I ever saw one. And of course she's super cute on her own._

"Please, follow me," said Siesta, "and I'll lead you to your table."

"When you do get off of work?" asked Susan, walking next to her. She realized how that sounded and blushed a little.

"Oh, uh, not until late. Why?"

"Nothing bad," said Susan, waving her hands. "I mean, uh... What I mean to say is, I'd like to talk to you. Both of us are not from around here, so I'd really like your take on this world from your perspective. Louise is a noble, so," she lowered her voice, "I'm not sure she really knows how the world works or not. I'd be interested in what you had to say about life here."

"Is that all?" she said, giving a laugh. "I'd be happy to. Actually, you should go down and see the kitchens. After lunch they won't be busy with dinner for a little while, they might be willing to answer some of your questions."

"Good idea, I'll see about finding my way there. Thanks for the suggestion."

"Sure. Here we are. I'll go get your main course now, while you start on this."

 _Main course? Man, it's good to be the king, I guess._

The two thanked her, and she gave a curtsey and a smile, then walked off with a little bounce in her step. Both caught the other looking as she retreated and pointed. They laughed at each other.

"What are you two doing now?" asked Louise, exasperated. "You're not flirting with the servants, are you? Because that would really reflect poorly on me."

"Good thing everything isn't about you, then."

"So I take it you're, uh..." he pointed to the disappearing maid. Susan nodded. "That girl I knocked away from you when we collided? Was she your..." He held up his pinky finger, and Susan had watched enough Anime to know what that meant. She nodded again. "Man, that's terrible. You must be worried sick. I'm really sorry about that."

Susan shrugged and started to eat. "I'm not worried about her safety, Luna can take care of herself. She's got strong magic and a good head. Whatever world she finds herself in won't know what hit it. It's just ever finding her again that I despair of. I don't know. Maybe Inari has some kind of magic gizmo she can use to track people. She's super powerful, being what she is, so I wouldn't put it past her. I'm not going to panic until I have all the facts, and that means getting back to her and talking it over."

"Still, I don't think all worlds are as nice as this one. Man, I don't know what I would have done in your place. If you ever feel like talking, I'm here."

"Thanks."

"Just keep, you know, quiet on that subject. You know how people in medieval times would react to learning about that."

"I have to deal with so called modern people's reactions sometimes. Still. So yeah, you don't have to tell me."

"What are you two talking about?" broke in Louise. "And what does it have to do with that maid?"

Both shook their heads. "It's not important. Eat your... whatever this is... before it gets cold."

"It was delicious," said Sparkle, having wolfed it down and licked the plate clean. "I hope I get a main course too!"

That afternoon the group went down to the kitchens, as suggested by Siesta. They were quite honored to have the dimensional travelers around, and were more than willing to talk. It wasn't until Louise got bored and wandered off, saying she would be back, that they got the real story though.

Susan was unsurprised to learn that conditions here were about as bad as she expected. The common people were seen as little better than slaves by those who knew magic, and had little opportunity to make their lives better. Laws were supposedly equal, but with no such thing as a court system or public defenders, they had little recourse when accused by someone with money. Those with magic had magical, political, economic power over everyone else, and they didn't hesitate to use it.

 _That explains Louise's attitudes somewhat. It's just how she's been raised. Basically she has the weakness Prejudice: Commoner or something. All magic users... I shouldn't think that, there may be magic users hoping for change right now. It would be unfair to lump them all together. But getting through to that girl is going to be difficult._

They thanked the cooks and made their way back up to their rooms when they said they had to get dinner started. Cooking for three hundred people (and their animals) was no small task, so they basically finished serving one meal and then started on the next.

 _I'm not sure if this is worse than having elves do it,_ thought Susan as she made her way through the castle. _At least they do get paid for their efforts._

It seemed by that evening, word had spread about the pair, and at dinner that evening everyone wanted to sit near them. They were asked about the 'weird' swords they were wearing, and what their worlds were like. Susan was still wearing hers, after all she made the darn thing and couldn't put it into her _Pocket Dimension_ at the moment. _It could be useful if that weird guy tries kissing me again, after all._

She also demonstrated her magic, calling upon her _Magical Ally_ and allowing people to hit her with the sword while she was _Invulnerable._

 _I suppose this is as much excitement as they've seen in a while. After all, they don't have the Internet and youTube. Just going to classes, missing their parents, and worrying about grades. They crave the unfamiliar same as I do._ Susan didn't mind, and it seemed Hiraga didn't either, but Louise seemed down because everyone called her Zero and spent more time fawning over the visitors than her. _Guess we'll have to see if something can be done about that Zero they keep calling her._

That night, Susan made her way to Louise's room after several false starts to properly play her _No Sense of Direction_ weakness. Knocking on the door Sparkle swiveled her ears and said she heard crying on the other side.

 _Ah, an opportunity for my_ Poor Sense _weakness of hearing to make an appearance._ "I don't hear anything," she said.

"Go away," she heard through the door. Louise's voice sounded strained.

"Louise, it's me, Susan. I want to talk to you. Please, can I come in?"

She waited a moment and the door opened a crack. "What do you want?" It was hard to tell in the dim light, but Susan thought her eyes were red and puffy, and her face was streaked with dried tears.

"Can I come in? I'm just here to talk," she said gently.

"Do what you like," she growled, throwing the door open and stomping back to her bed. She threw herself down and glared at Susan, who gently closed the door.

"What's wrong?" she asked, sitting down next to Louise.

"Oh, nothing," she replied. "Just everyone exclaiming over how great Susan is. 'Oh, show me your _sword,_ Susan. Show me your _magic,_ Susan. Tell me about your _world,_ Susan.' And my Familiar is just as bad. Everyone said I couldn't do it, but I did. I summoned a Familiar, and possibly the best one anyone has ever seen. You saw what he did with all those weapons, I doubt stupid Kirche and her stupid lizard could do that. But does even one person come up to me and apologize for doubting me? No! It's all 'Zero sure screwed up didn't she?' and 'What will you blow up next, Zero! My name is Louise!"

"I know. I don't even know why they call you that." _Something to do with screwing her magic up all the time? I wonder, does she have any actual friends here? No one really talked to her directly all day that I could see..._

"I don't want to talk about it."

They sat in silence for a moment. "There's a story on my world," Susan began at last. "It's told by a mother who has a young daughter. Every night the mother is exasperated because she feels the little girl has been naughty at some point during the day, and tells her about it. But one day the woman says goodnight to her daughter and is about to leave the room when her daughter sobs and starts to cry. The woman is concerned, is her daughter hurt? She turns back to the child, who says though her tears, 'wasn't I even a little bit good today?' Turns out the little girl did everything she could to try and live up to her mother's ideals, and her mother hardly even noticed. And even worse, didn't even think of praising her. That little girl is you, Louise. I can't say you did good, because you've trapped me here, meaning my father and my friend are still out there, lost or trapped on some other world. But I'll still admit you did something extraordinary. You did summon a Familiar Spirit. Not only that, from another world, and just kissing him gave him a fantastic power. I don't know what that means, or why. Did you screw up or was it your destiny to be together? Only time will tell that. But you're not useless, and after a few days people will stop gushing over us because we'll be old news. Just have a little patience, okay?"

She put her arm around Louise's shoulder and hauled her up, giving her a squeeze and holding her tight.

"You mean all that stuff you said?"

"I sure do. And what I said to you yesterday. That's what I came to talk to you about, actually. Maybe with my help we can figure out what's going on with your magic and put it to rights. How does that sound? Hiraga obviously doesn't need my help, so I need a new mission while I'm here. That mission is you!"

"I didn't think you even liked me. Why would you do that for me?"

Susan sighed. "Louise, you can't help the world you live in. I'm seeing you through the lens of my world, which is very different. For all I know, time runs slower here and you're actually in what my world would consider the 'middle ages.' Maybe you haven't had the chance to go through the social reforms my world did. I can't blame you for that. And I don't really know you, so I can't honestly say I dislike or like you. But the one thing I do, my world, this world, any world- that's help people that need it. That's what I'm all about. It's what my magic is all about, why I learned spells like _Repair_ and _Alleviation._ Why I made a dozen _Suppress Curse_ objects for a pack of werewolves and didn't expect to be paid. If you're willing to work with me and put the time in to figure your magic out, I'm willing to do what I can for you. Maybe with my senses and knowing how magic works and your own world's books about things, we can come up with an answer."

"No jokes? Someone didn't put you up to this?" Susan shook her head. Louise sighed and nodded hers. "Okay. I would be... very grateful for your help."

"Then you have it. I'll sit through your classes tomorrow, get a sense of things, and then after dinner we'll start figuring your magic out, okay?" Susan started to get up, but Louise grabbed her hand.

"Can you stay... just for a little while, I mean? You don't even have to talk, I'm just..." she looked almost ready to cry again. "I'm just so lonely here. You're the first to ever... to ever..."

"Come here," Susan said, holding her close. "You don't have to be alone anymore."

Perhaps an hour later, Susan didn't have _Timekeeper_ and clocks weren't in evidence anywhere she could see, Louise had cried herself to sleep. Susan had tucked her in, kissed her forehead, and slipped out.

 _It's been really tough for you, hasn't it,_ she thought on the way back to her room. _Because of your backfiring magic, no one wants to be your friend and so you decided you didn't need any. That made you even worse, as now you went out of your way to be nasty to everyone. But I think inside is just a confused little girl, struggling as best she can and not knowing where to turn. At least Neville had me looking out for him, and a physical condition I could easily cure. I don't think it's going to be so easy this time._


	5. Chapter 5

5

Learning

Time: The next day

Place: Classroom

"So if I'm understanding this," continued Susan, after the teacher went over the basics of their type of magic. "A 'line' mage, using two elements, is basically casting two separate spells _simultaneously_. This creates one higher level spell than just using one element. Then a 'triangle' mage is casting three at once, and 'square' caps it off by casting four separate spells all at the same time? That's nuts!"

"And hence why there are so few square mages in the world. You've understood it perfectly."

 _I almost wish I hadn't. Imagine casting a Mars and Jupiter spell at the same time and getting some weird combination of the two._ "Thank you," she said, sitting back down again. Hiraga had remarked upon "how Japanese" the class was, where if you got called on you stood up to answer the question. But from what Susan could tell, the textbooks were in French. She couldn't read them, but she recognized French when she saw it. _So I'm speaking and understanding French right now?_

And so the day progressed as normal. Susan and Hiraga learned a little about the history of this world and how magic played part in that development. By the end of the day Louise raced through dinner and her "homework", some of which was trying to cast certain spells so she didn't bother. Finally she closed her book and spun in her seat, causing them both to look up from what they were looking at.

"I'm ready," she announced.

"Good, because this book is giving me a headache," replied Hiraga with a yawn.

"What do you mean?" asked Susan, closing her own. "You can't possibly understand any part of it, can you?"

"That's just it. I almost feel like I could, but it won't come. It's the oddest thing."

"Who cares about that?" asked Louise. "Let's find out about my magic!"

Susan laughed. "Okay, you've been busting at the seams all day, let's head to the courtyard and see what we can find out."

"We can't, you know, do it here?" she asked, cheeks getting a little red.

"Not if you're going to be exploding everything! Look, there's no shame in this. You've been living with it more than a year, now you're getting some help to control it. Nothing wrong with that."

"Easy for you to say."

"Besides, I'll need something to compare your magic to. Hopefully there will be someone willing to help we can snag and talk into casting some spells for me."

So the four went down to the courtyard again, Sparkle to help feeling out the magic with her _Magic Sense_ as well. Once there they saw the redheaded girl, standing next to a girl with blue hair and glasses, carrying a staff. She seemed to be talking to a huge dragon, and Susan muttered "perfect" and stalked over to them.

"Greetings!" she called to them, getting close. They all looked over, including the dragon. "That is a fine example of dragon kind you have there."

"Her name is Sylphid," said the blue haired girl quietly.

"Pleasure to meet you!" Susan bubbled. "And you as well. I don't think we've been introduced. Susan Felton, dimensional traveler at your service."

Susan held out a hand, but Tabitha shied behind Kirche.

"She's sort of shy," she explained. "But everyone knows who you are. Why are you still hanging out with Zero, anyway?"

Louise pouted and stomped her foot.

Susan chuckled. "Actually, I'd like your help for a little experiment. Possibly both of you, if you're willing."

The two looked at each other, and Tabitha gave a slight nod.

"Guess she's okay with it. What do we have to do?"

"Nothing too difficult, I think. I just want to get a sense for 'normal' magic," she made air quotes, "before I try to figure out what's wrong with Louises'."

"What did you do with your hands just then? Are you mocking me?" snipped Louise.

"What, you don't have air quotes?"

"Air... quotes?" asked everyone but Hiraga.

"Never mind. So can you do it?"

"I think between the two of us we can handle that. What do you say, Tabitha?"

"Okay."

"Move back a little, you two," said Susan to the others. "I don't need your rune thing messing up my senses. Oh, and I don't know if this means anything to you guys, but please try to cast them as strongly as possible."

"Fine with me," said Kirche, getting her wand out. Tabitha just held up her staff.

"One at a time, if you don't mind." Susan closed her eyes and concentrated on her magical senses. Kirche said some gibberish and Susan made her check. She got an 8, her lowest possible, but Sparkle got a 15. "Crap, I didn't get it!" complained Susan.

"I did," said Sparkle. "It was a Mars spell, all right. Next."

The girls repeated the process for all four elements, and Susan was satisfied. _Though it's not fair they can use Uranus and Neptune elements when I can't. Also it's a good thing that blue haired girl... Tabitha? It's a good thing she's such a good caster, I got a 9 on one of her spells and still managed to tell what it was._ "Thank you, girls, that verifies what I thought. I don't suppose either of you is a line mage?" They both shook their heads. "Pity. It would have been nice to feel out a dual spell. Okay Louise, you're up!"

"What do you want me to cast?" she asked nervously.

"On the one hand I want to feel it out, and the stronger it is the better. On the other if you're going to backfire it I don't want you to blow yourself up. Whatever you think is appropriate. Maybe start small and if I don't get it, we can work up to a larger one."

"Okay. Here goes." The others got out of the way, and even the dragon took a couple of steps back. _Huh, even the dragon knows what's up._

Susan again closed her eyes as Louise spouted some gibberish and the spell exploded nearby. Susan got a 12 and Sparkle got a 10 on the check.

"I didn't get it, it was too weak," muttered Sparkle.

"I got it, and it was weird! Once more, please, if you can? Same intensity if you can."

"Okay." She exploded something else nearby, and this time Sparkle got a 15 and Susan got a 14.

"Oh yeah, I see what you mean," said Sparkle. "What the heck was that?"

"What are you two talking about?" asked Kirche. Tabitha looked interested and wasn't hiding behind her anymore.

"Okay, check this out," replied Susan. "My magic is quite different from yours, that's a given right?" Everyone nodded. "But on some level, magic is still magic. I can sort of taste the rainbow and compare your type of magic against mine. By casting purely elemental spells I could tell what planet they represented, if you had been casting like I did. Fire for Mars, that kind of thing. But what Louise did..." She turned to her. "It didn't feel like anything these two did. In fact, it didn't feel elemental _at all_. The closest I would fit it into my type of magic would be..." she paused.

"Moon," both she and Sparkle said together.

Susan nodded. "Thought so. And that's why her magic goes so wild, at least in terms of _Natural Magician."_ She pointed up. "Two moons."

"Darkness?" asked Sparkle.

"I don't know, it doesn't really fit, that's just the closest I could come. I'm sorry, Louise, but I don't know what the heck your magic is doing. I had hoped doing this might... what?"

Both the other girls looked completely shocked at what Susan was saying, and had backed away from Louise a couple of steps.

"No, it's not possible," protested Kirche. "You must have it wrong. There's no way she's a-" She stopped as Tabitha tugged her cape.

"It fits," she said simply.

Kirche stared at Louise.

"Look, my senses don't lie. Her magic is totally different from yours. I'm surprised one of the teachers didn't recognize this, but whatever. If that explains why her spells go wrong, we have our answer. You're trying to do magic in an element you're not suited for." Even Louise looked spooked as Susan looked over at her. "What? I take it this is rare, but what's with this reaction?"

"Principal," said Tabitha, pointing back towards the building.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Come on." Susan turned to go, but felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait, you said you sensed this? And you did have your eyes closed, I watched you. Can you teach us that technique?"

Tabitha perked up.

"I can try. I offered to teach my skills but I haven't heard anything from the principal about doing that yet. You're magical in nature, it stands to reason you can learn to sense magic like I can. Or _Imbue_ or _Fabricate_ for that matter." _Huh, it might be S.T.F.U. all over again._ "I'll ask the principal about it, maybe I can start a new club or something. Or take a rotation in one of the magical classes."

"I'd like to learn," said Tabitha.

"Okay. Even if it's just us after school, I don't mind. We'll see what he says."

"Thanks. And Ze- Louise? Look, if it turns out you... you know... I'm sorry for the way I treated you. Before."

"You better be," she replied, taking off at a fast pace towards the door. Not wanting to be left behind, Susan gave a wave over her shoulder and followed.

The principal, initially happy to see Susan and inviting her in, stared at the group when she explained what she had felt.

"Who else knows about this?" he asked sternly.

Susan and the others traded glances. "Kirche and Tabitha I think their names were? Tall girl with red hair and short girl with blue hair."

"You got it right," stated Louise.

"Bring them, and get Colbert," he said to Miss Longbill, who bowed out of the room and went to fetch them. "I really hope they don't go spreading it around, but I guess what's done is done."

"What? They reacted like Louise had just grown another head. What's all the fuss about?"

Mr Ottman sighed. "I've suspected for some time, but the Familiar that Miss Valliere summoned, and that rune, made it all but certain." He pointed to Hiraga's hand, and he looked at it again.

"This? We figured out what it could do for me, is it something special?"

"You what?"

"Yeah, the very next day when I was going to start teaching him the sword. We were equal, and I sure didn't expect that."

"Wait, your skill rivaled that of the Gandalfr?"

"The Gandalf?" both Susan and Hiraga snickered.

"Gandalfr," Mr Ottman corrected. "That rune is legendary. And you figured it out in less than a day? People work fast on your world, apparently, Miss Felton."

"And it seems people here keep secrets just like wise old wizards from my world. Honestly, letting her think she was useless? Allowing people to bully her and call her Zero because she was trying to channel magic incorrectly? What a Dumbledore thing to do. I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"I'm not sure what that is, but the appearance of a Void Mage is very serious business. There are those in the world that will want to destroy her before all four come together."

"What happens then?" asked Louise.

"According to legend? Disaster. Or a miracle, depending on who you ask. You have to keep in mind, the last Void mage existed six _thousand_ years ago, so records from that time are spotty, at best."

"Great," put in Susan sarcastically, "that means there's no one to teach Louise here how to properly channel her magical energies! Or proper spells for her 'school' of magic."

"Sadly, that is the case. We'll try to find any records we can, but it will take time."

"I understand," said Louise. "It does mean I'm not a failure, though?"

He shook his head. "Yes. Your magic is different, and equal to ours in every way." Louise smiled. "But you can't go spreading it around. Like I said, your existence needs to remain a secret!" Her face fell.

"So I'm still Zero Louise, huh?"

"I better not teach anyone my _Magic Sense_ technique, if what you say is true. They'll be able to tell the difference in her magic just like I did."

"That is a concern," allowed Mr. Ottman. "Of course, feel free to teach Louise here, if she can learn it."

"If you want. It's come in handy every so often."

Louise nodded, and the door opened, admitting the others again.

Mr. Ottman swore them all to secrecy, and looked quite relieved they hadn't told anyone else. He allowed them to learn _Magic Sense_ as they already knew, as long as they didn't further teach anyone until they left the school. Both agreed.

"Good," finished Mr. Ottman. "I'm glad that's taken care of. You're both adjusting to life here?"

Susan and Hiraga nodded.

"I'm glad to hear that. We haven't found much, and what we have found is rather impractical at the moment. I'd rather get a more complete picture than raise your hopes unnecessarily. So I hope you'll forgive the lack of information for you thus far."

"It hasn't been that long," forgave Susan. "And you must have other things to do, too. As much as I would like an instant fix for this, realistically I know that's not possible. I mean if I can't do it because that branch of magic is denied me, and you've never explored the possibility of other worlds, there's nothing we can do."

"Quite. If there's nothing else, I will bid you good night."

They all looked at each other, and no one could come up with anything, so they said good night and went back out into the hall.

"I guess you really are one, huh?" asked Kirche, after making sure the coast was clear.

"Seems that way," Louise said haughtily. "So I better not hear one more Zero out of you, is that clear?"

"I guess, but then people might ask me why I stopped calling you that, which would be awkward. How about just in public? You'll know I don't mean it anymore."

She fumed, but accepted the necessity.

"Too late now, but come to Louie's room after dinner tomorrow and I'll start teaching you _Magic Sense."_

"Looking forward to it," said Tabitha.

With that, the group broke up and went their separate ways for the night.

Susan found Siesta hanging out in the hallway near her door, and she gave a shy smile. "If you wanted, I have some time to talk."

"I'd like that. Come in!" _Maybe I'll make another friend tonight. Twilight Sparkle would be proud!_

They talked for some time, getting to know each other. Siesta seemed like a nice person, interested in Susan's adventures at her old school.

"So many things have happened to you. How did you ever get through them all?"

"It's both the blessing and the curse I shall carry with me all my days," Susan replied, putting the back of her hand to her forehead. "To gain the XP I need to improve my skills and learn my spells, one adventure after another must I face."

The girls laughed.

"Wait, gain what?"

All too soon Siesta had to leave, but hoped they could talk again soon.

"Yes, this was nice. Maybe one day I can meet your family. I'd love to see how people who aren't nobles live."

"When I get some time off, I wouldn't mind taking you to meet them."

"Really? Great. Thanks a lot."

The next day passed swiftly, Susan again sitting in on some of Louie's classes. The teachers were a little weirded out by having such an old student, but given that Susan actually wanted to learn about history and literature and spells of this world, they couldn't fault her enthusiasm. After all, she wasn't going to be actually _tested_ on anything, she could just sit there and drink it up. Compare it to what she knew of history in her world, and see what differences and similarities existed. Seista went out of her way to serve them at mealtime, which Susan felt a little weird about. But she seemed cheerful enough doing it, and both Kirche and Tabitha hung out, so it was actually pretty fun getting to know them, too. Susan caught Hiraga staring at Kirche several times, which just made her shake her head.

 _Boys._

With evening come, they gathered and Susan took off her ring. Having cast _Augment Skill: Teaching_ on herself, she knew exactly how to train the others.

She also took off her knife and charm bracelet, setting them on the other side of the room.

"I just want you to focus on the ring for now," she explained, holding it up so they could see it. "The ring and the knife are actually equal in power, but this is easier to hide, which is going to be our first exorcise. I'm going to hide it, everyone has to feel out which hand it's in."

As they played the "game" Susan explained exactly how they should be feeling it out as best she should. She just made a "check" in the "skill" but with her rating in _Teaching_ currently at a 15, she knew how to explain it to them so they could get it easily. As all three found the ring more times than chance would explain, she congratulated them on "getting a 1 in _Magic Sense"_ with a smile.

"Everyone except me," complained Hiraga.

"That's to be expected," explained Susan. "You've gotten a bit of magic placed on you, but that doesn't make you a magic user, like us."

"Humph."

"Now for the rest of you, it's just a matter of practice. Just don't try sensing things when there's a ton of magic around. It doesn't seem too bad here, but the last castle I lived in was saturated with the stuff. Almost took my head off the first time I tried it. It took a lot of practice to narrow my focus down and get past the interference. You can use it to find magical objects, tell what spells are going without looking, and more. So sense around, see what you can find."

"Can I see that?" asked Tabitha. Susan handed it over with a shrug and she concentrated on it. "I feel fire," she said at last. "Wind, for movement. The power of the Earth... metal? This is a powerful object, isn't it? What does it do?"

Susan smiled. "Wow, Tabitha, you must be a pretty _Fast Learner_ to have gotten all that. Yeah, it will generate a small squad of soldiers made of fire that follow my orders. So you really have gotten the hang of the skill already." She reached back and handed her the knife from the bed. "Here, see what you make of this."

Tabitha again closed her eyes and concentrated on the knife. "Mostly water. Washing away, healing. Maybe a touch of fire to burn out that which is unwanted."

"Again, very close, probably as close as you can come relating my magic to yours. It's the most powerful healing spell I know."

"Wait, you put a healing spell into a knife?" asked Louise.

"It made sense at the time," Susan replied with a smile. "On my world there used to be creatures called Dementors, that would suck out a person's soul. They were immune to basically everything I threw at them expect my most powerful healing spell. Basically I was healing a wound in the world, I guess. I don't know exactly why, only that it worked. As it takes ten minutes normally, I weaponized it into a knife so I could just stick them with it. It's a little inconvenient now, but it still works if you stick it into a person. The wound it causes just heals up as you pull it out, so it's fine."

"Used to be?" asked Tabitha.

"I destroyed them all. Hundreds fell to that blade, and I would do it again without hesitation."

There was silence for a moment.

"Okay, on that note," began Kirche, "we better get to bed. It's getting late."

"You go," said Tabitha. "I'll want to ask Susan something. Privately."

Kirche looked confused, but agreed, and thanked Susan, saying she would see her tomorrow.

Lousie hung back after Hiraga left.

"I just wanted to say, thank you."

Susan waved her off. "Sure thing, it's no big deal. I didn't have anything else important to do right now. Sparkle and I have talked about trying to research some kind of dream spell to tell Inari we're in trouble but-"

"That's not what I mean," she broke in. "I mean for... everything. You found out I wasn't useless at magic. Now you've given me a skill only two other people on this world have. Three, but I mean you'll probably leave again some day. And you may have even helped me..." she looked over at Tabitha, still turning the knife over and over in her hands, "make some friends."

"That part is up to you," Susan said, wiggling her finger. "But Kirche and Tabitha seem nice, and you all share a secret now. That's a powerful thing for bringing people together."

"I guess so. Well, good night."

"See you tomorrow."

Susan sat down next to Tabitha on the bed, and waited for her to speak. Finally she looked up and said softly, "Just how good is this healing magic of yours?"


	6. Chapter 6

6

Healing

Place: Susan's room

"How good is my healing spell? Let's put it this way; I first used the spell to cure two people that had been tortured into madness by dark wizards. They were fine afterwords. As long as it isn't a curse it'll restore lost stats, heal diseases or poisons, even erase scars or tattoos."

Tabitha looked at Susan with something approaching hope. "If I ask you to come with me, right now, and cast this spell..."

"I would. Without hesitation. As long as it isn't someone eeeeevil. Is it someone eeeevil?"

Tabitha shook her head. "We'll get back pretty late."

"We'll only have to make half the journey. It won't be that late."

She popped up off the bed. "Let's go!"

"Hey Sparkle, taking care of a thing. I'll send the _Teleportal_ back if I need you."

"Got it."

Tabitha made sure the coast was clear, then quietly slipped into the hallway and motioned Susan to follow.

 _Probably against school rules to just run off. Wonder who I'm going to cure here?_

They made it down to the gate without incident, as Susan had gotten a 12, her maximum, on her LUCk check.

 _What? Making me roll LUCk? What's that all about?_

Susan figured Tabitha would head to the stables, but instead she just whistled and a moment later, her blue dragon whirled out of the sky and landed before them.

"Do you mind flying?" she asked.

"You actually ride him? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. It's fine, as long as you say it's okay."

"Down." The dragon hunkered down, and Susan made an untrained _Riding_ check to get on. She only got a 7, even after spending 4 energy, but Tabitha helped her up. "Hold on tight," she cautioned. Susan put her arms around Tabitha and tried to lock her knees around the beast's neck.

 _You don't have to tell me twice. I just wish it was Luna I had my arms around right now._

"Home," commanded Tabitha, and the dragon loped forward, powerful wings stroking, and the three took to the sky.

The landscape, mostly gently rolling hills and farmland, sped beneath them. Looking up, Susan was amazed at the brightness of the stars. _Of course, no light pollution here, and less pollution in general I'm betting. Smell that clean air!_

"Doing okay?" shouted Tabitha back to her.

"Great!" _Oh yeah, I could get used to this. I've never ridden a motorcycle, but I think it might be similar._

They flew for some time, Susan trying to see what kind of infrastructure and houses were nearby the school, but it was pretty dark. The moons were both crescents, and looking up at them she was reminded that she did know a spell to see in the dark.

 _I could always fly out here myself, sometime. Hard to say, but this dragon is probably twice as fast as me, even putting max energy into Mercury. Still, they can't have classes all the time, I'll see it soon enough. Right now I think I'll just enjoy the moonlight._

Possibly an hour or so later, the dragon started descending, finally coming to a stop in front of a large house. Looking around the dark, she could tell that maybe it wasn't being kept up quite as it should, as the bushes and other landscaping didn't exactly fit the image of a place this huge. _But then, they don't have power tools, do they? Maybe this is as good as it gets?_

Tabitha and Susan slid off the dragon, Susan stretching her legs and shaking them out as her muscles protested.

"Sorry, should have warned you."

"No trouble. It's not damage, so I'll be fine in a minute."

"Wait," she told the dragon, and went over to the door. "Hopefully she's in bed. We'll have to be quiet."

"You got it."

Tabitha nodded, then turned to the door. She traced a symbol on it and said something, and was able to open it.

 _Some kind of password on the door, or just an unlock spell?_

The two made their way through the house, Tabitha creating a small light for them to see by. She cautiously opened a bedroom door and looked inside. "She's a pretty sound sleeper, because of her condition. I'll put a silence spell on the room, just to be safe."

"Good idea."

She wiggled her staff again, then nodded and beckoned Susan inside. She saw a gaunt woman sleeping in a large bed, a small doll clutched in her hand.

 _Good, she's asleep. Wait, am I going to be able to say the words to the spell? If I had a Moon_ Silence _spell going, I would have to cast as though not saying the words. Guess I'll just take the full time and not bother with the words one way or the other._

Susan went over to the woman and lightly touched her head, then began envisioning the magical symbols she would need to cast the spell. Circles spun and shimmered around the woman for fifteen minutes while Tabitha looked on impatiently. In the end she got an 18 on her _Sun_ check, plus the five for the extra time, minus the two for casting without the incantation. More than was needed to successfully cast the spell, and both watched as the woman seemed to fill out again. Tabitha put her hands over her mouth as her mother's hair went from nattered and lank to shiny and full. Her face became beautiful, and where her hands used to be bone and sinew, they became normal again as well.

"Is... is she?" Tabitha whispered, as though not daring to hope.

"The spell obviously worked. Wake her up and find out."

Susan stepped back, somewhat out of the light created by Tabitha, who gently shook the woman's shoulder.

"Mom?" she asked, her voice sounding like she was about to cry. "Mom, wake up."

Her mother's eyes fluttered open, and then widened in shock. "Charlotte? What are you doing- Wait, what's going on? I feel so different, like I've just woken up from a nightmare that I felt would never end."

"Oh mom!" wailed Tabitha? as she threw her arms around her mother and started to sob. "You're really cured. She did it! She healed you!"

Susan silently slipped out of the room, allowing them their reunion in private.

 _Now, do I make a swift exit, as I did when I cured the Longbottoms? And what is with other forms of magic not managing a decent curative spell? I mean this is getting ridiculous. Their magic really couldn't have handled that? I mean she looked pretty far gone, and without knowing exactly what was wrong it's tough to say what had caused that. Some kind of disease, and they don't know about bacteria and such yet?_

Susan wandered the house, carefully, after doing a quick grade 0 _Sun_ spell for a candle flame sized light. She found a living room, _or maybe a sitting room given where I am,_ and sat down. She didn't have long to wait until Tabitha/Charlotte and her mother came to find her.

"What are you doing sitting here in the dark?" chided Tabitha, ginning like she just won the lottery. "You healed my mother."

"This girl healed me?" asked the woman. "And what strange clothes she wears. But who cares about that, it seems I owe you a debt of gratitude."

Susan got up. "Please, you don't really owe me anything. It was just sheer chance I came here, and I'm just glad to be able to do what others couldn't for you. Oh, I'm Susan, by the way. Susan Felton."

"Susan, I am honored to meet such a powerful mage as yourself. And so young!" She walked over to Susan and threw her arms around her. "What is mine is yours," she said softly. "The kingdom of Gallia owes you a great debt, more so because of your humility." She released Susan, holding her at arm's length. "You must call me Esme."

"I would be honored."

"What is going on-" A man with a white mustache that seemed to wrap around his chin stormed into the room, holding a candle and what looked like a mace. The weighty steel dropped from his hand and clattered to the floor as he took in the scene. "My lady, you are restored, standing before me whole again? How can this be?"

"Faithful Percerin, have you been looking after me all this time? I'll have to give you a raise." She grinned as she said this, and the man went down on one knee before her. "Oh, stop that nonsense this instant. If what I seem to recall about my condition is any indication, you deserve a small holding of your own for what you put up with. But to answer your question, I'm not sure. Charlotte was not very clear about how my recovery was attained, just that a new friend of hers was the cause."

"Friend?" The man seemed a bit shocked, and looked over to Susan, who gave a little wave. "This is a night of surprises. I will get some tea and we can talk." He got up, a bit stiffly, thought Susan, this was no young man, (especially for medieval times) and he picked up the mace and hurried out of the room.

"I've almost forgotten what tea tastes like. It'll be nice to not need to be forced to drink something. And somewhat of a relief to the staff, I'm sure." She gave a rising laugh, and Tabitha once again came over and hugged her. "Ah, my daughter. It's been the hardest on you, I'm sure. Come, we have a lot of catching up to do."

"Perhaps I should just come back later?" asked Susan.

"Nonsense. As far as I'm concerned you're part of the family now. Come on."

Sitting down at a table, Tabitha lit several of the candles in the room while the man busied himself serving tea.

"Shall I wake the others?" he asked. "Would you like something more than tea? I could make you something if you wanted it, my lady."

"Just tea for now, Percerin," Esme replied. "And I think we'll keep this recovery quiet, for the moment."

"My lady, surely this miracle should be told to all!"

She shook her head. "No, my position is even more insecure now, given how long I've been ill. It's been years, at least. My little girl is all grown up!"

"Mom!"

 _Position?_ Thought Susan. _Now what I have done?_

Esme saw the thoughtful look Susan had. "How much did my daughter tell you about herself?"

"We've actually only known each other for a day," admitted Susan. "She found out a secret about one of her classmates, and because of that I was giving her some private lessons in sensing magic. Apparently people here didn't know they could do that, so it'll give her a definite edge in the future. Anyway, she found out I knew a powerful healing spell and asked me to come here. I didn't even know who you were when I healed you. I did notice the resemblance, of course." _Even here, it seems blue hair isn't that common._ "I didn't even know that name you keep calling her, I thought her name was Tabitha."

"You took the name of your doll?" Esme asked, laughing.

"You thought she was me," explained Charlotte.

"Did I? A thousand curses on the man that tried to get you to drink that potion!"

"I always wondered why you grabbed it and drank it instead. I mean you could have just thrown it and had him arrested."

She looked a bit embarrassed. "Who can say what was going through my mind at the time. In any case, what parent wouldn't sacrifice their life for their child? The point is, Susan, you didn't know about our family when you came to heal me?"

Susan shook her head. "Nope. Didn't matter to me. Tab- Charlotte requested my help, I gave it."

"To think such chivalry existed in this world." Esme seemed amazed. "If I could I would knight you immediately!"

"Why don't you, mom?"

Esme shook her head. "We've been left alone probably because of what happened. You still in line for the throne, after all."

"You're a princess?" asked Susan, in shock.

"You really didn't know. Extraordinary. My husband and his bother were both candidates for the throne, and my husband was the favorite. However, he was killed in a "hunting accident" and Joseph ascended instead. That poison I ended up drinking was meant for her, to remove her from the picture."

Charlotte looked down. "As my mother saved me, I was instead sent on impossible missions they thought I would get killed doing. Slaying dragons and such."

"No wonder you picked up _Magic Sense_ so easily. You must have XP to spare after all that!"

"She must have what?"

"Oh, sorry. That's just my regional dialect. I mean you must have a lot of experience after all that."

She nodded. "I'm actually a triangle mage. Please don't tell anyone at the school, I don't want them to feel bad because of it."

"You really are growing up," exclaimed Esme. "I'm so proud of you, my daughter. But our position is far from secure. If the king learns I've recovered he might realize his hold over you is more tenuous. That could be troublesome. Until I'm sure I've fully recovered, and I learn what's been going on while I was... unaware... it's best if I keep a low profile for now."

"You may want to brush up on your magic, too," suggested Susan. "You may need it."

She nodded seriously. "My old wand should be around here somewhere."

"I can fetch it," put in Percerin.

"Tomorrow will be fine. I need a decent night's sleep, quite honestly." She yawned. "I remember waking up all the time during the night for so many years..." she shuddered. "Best if those memories are put behind me."

"I'll let you get some sleep," said Charlotte, getting up. "We need to be getting back ourselves."

"We can come visit anytime," said Susan with a wink. "Just let me know you'd like to come."

"You did say something about that before, what did you mean?"

"Come, I'll show you, if we're heading back. Esme, I'm glad to see you're up and about. It was very nice meeting you."

"And you," she replied. "I know you don't want anything, but I'll think of something to repay your kindness."

"The friendship of your daughter will be more than enough," she said. _Dear Princess Celestia, today I made a new friend._

"Especially if she becomes queen one day, no?" Esme bumped Susan with an elbow.

"I don't plan to stay, actually. As I said, my being here was an accident I need to rectify as soon as possible."

"Then there is something I can do for you! Do you need money to travel?"

Susan shook her head. "It's too complicated to explain now. Some other time, perhaps."

"I'll look forward to it. Come and visit any time."

"I will."

Esme and Charlotte embraced again. "I'm so glad you're okay," she whispered.

"I'm glad you are," Esme returned. "You must tell me all about your adventures. You've grown up to be a fine, strong young woman. I'm proud, so very proud of you my daughter."

After their goodbyes, Susan and Charlotte went out to where the dragon was napping, and she raised her head.

"We won't need you for the way back," Susan said. "If you think the healing spell was good, hold onto your staff for when you see this. _Teleportal!"_

Both were suitably freaked out by the hole in the air she created, allowing them to simply step back through to the school.

 _Yeah, that never gets old._

The dragon took off again, and both silently made their way into the school and up the stone stairs. Charlotte walked Susan to her door.

"Good night, see you tomorrow," Susan chirped.

"Wait. I don't have the words to thank you."

"Like I keep saying-"

"But I have this." Susan was shocked to find Charlotte kissing her, and closed her eyes. It wasn't a kiss of passion, but of thanks, and Susan could feel the warmth in it. It didn't last long, as Charlotte, blushing furiously, broke the kiss off. "It was my first," she muttered quietly, and turned down the corridor, head down. She nearly ran out of sight and turned the corner, disappearing.

"Huh," remarked Susan, touching her lips. "I guess that's acceptable."

She went to bed that night with a grin.

The next day she wouldn't meet Susan's eyes, and Louise demanded to know what had happened after she had left.

"That's her story to tell," said Susan, grinning wickedly. "We all have our secrets."

The day passed normally, but oddly, Siesta was nowhere to be seen. Someone else served them, and by dinner time Susan had a bad feeling about the whole thing. She made her way to the kitchens, only to find Hiraga already there.

"Are you looking for Siesta, too?" he asked.

"Yeah, is she around?"

"Apparently, if I'm understanding this correctly, she was 'transferred.'"

"Transferred? What does that even mean?"

"From what I've been told," he pointed to the head chief, who had eyebrows enough for two men, "some aristocrat saw her when he was here to discuss things with the principal. Count Mott, I guess. He requested her service and when an aristocrat wants something, they tend to get it."

"She didn't say anything about this! That's weird."

"We were kind of busy last night. Maybe she heard you practicing and decided she wouldn't bother you?"

"I guess. Man, I was just getting to know her, too."

The silently mounted the stairs back up to their rooms. "I have to admit, I'm a little worried about her," Hiraga said at last.

"He's a nobel, not a child molester. Siesta is only seventeen, she told me that before. It might be a good opportunity for her."

"Maybe you don't have the same history, but people where I came from had weird ideas about that in the middle ages. Like, you're an adult at maybe thirteen?"

"Oh. Yeah. Tell you what, Char- Tabitha and Kirche are coming for their daily lesson in a few minutes, we'll ask them if we should be worried. After all, we don't know the culture here and this may be perfectly normal."

"That's not normal," explained Kirche. "For Mott to show up and then Siesta to disappear the next day? You're right to be a little worried."

"I knew it," Hiraga said, smashing a fist against the wall. "What's he planning?"

"Mistress," said Charlotte, and Kirche nodded.

"He wouldn't take her against her will, though, would he?" Susan asked, aghast.

"If he did, there isn't much she could do about it," replied Kirche.

"Rescue?" asked Charlotte.

"It would make sense this happened now," explained Sparkle, perking up. "Given who we are. A rescue would be a nice opportunity."

"Wait, are you saying we're to blame for this?"

"Not blame, exactly." Sparkle sat up. "It's a _Paragon_ thing. Without adventures we don't get cards or XP. Without XP we can't advance our skills. I noticed the same thing traveling with your dad. The world was doing fine, we show up, and suddenly in that area there came a problem his group could solve? It happened more times than coincidence would allow. It seems it follows you, too."

"I'm not one to turn down the call to adventure. How about it girls, up for a rescue mission?"


	7. Chapter 7

7

Rescue

Place: High in the air

Time: Twenty minutes later

Everyone there had enthusiastically signed up for the rescue, and Susan created some black outfits for everyone with _Creation._ She managed to do it in two castings, as black, stretchy cloth was not that heavy. One set of tops, one set of bottoms, so everyone could just pull them on. By joining the outfits at the sleeves and pant-leg, this made it "one object" that just had to be cut apart. Hiraga was shooed out of the room and took his own outfit across the hall while everyone changed. She also checked her cards, spending the _Rally_ to get another card for herself and Sparkle, netting a _Took a Night Class_ card.

"Too bad this won't stick around very long," said Sparkle looking wistfully at her character sheet. "This might get us a spell we couldn't get any other way, and thus be much more useful than normal."

"We'll have to think about it," said Susan. "Maybe something will come up on this mission. But if not, yeah, think about what we're missing right now and use it before it's gone."

"So why are we doing this?" asked Louise, staring angrily at Kirche's curvier body as she stripped.

"Because we can't wear school uniforms while we are illegally breaking and entering a nobel's house. Plus with the hoods up it'll be harder to tell who we are."

"Why not me?" asked Tabitha.

"You're hanging back," explained Susan. "If it got out, however that happened, that you were involved, it might get very tricky politically, I'm guessing." She nodded, conceding the point. "You can show us the way, and we'll 'drop in' on Mott and make sure he's behaving himself. If not..." She punched her hand. "He'll regret it."

So the group had _Flight_ magic put on them, and Sylphid the dragon kept her speed down, and they approached the house from the air. The dragon was big, but not large enough to carry everyone, so they were pacing her to the side. Charlotte pointed. "That's the house."

"Then this is as far as you go. Want me to send you back, or are you okay with flying?"

"We'll be fine. Good luck."

"Thanks."

The group watched her go, hanging in the air. Sparkle was in her fairy form, sitting on Susan's shoulder so she didn't tire herself out trying to flap her wings. They hovered over the house, watching as pinpricks of light, probably guards carrying torches, moved about the premises.

"What's the plan?" asked Kirche. "You seem to have done this sort of thing before."

"Oh, I dabble," Susan replied with a smirk. "Okay, do we need to get a little closer? I'd like to be sure she's actually here before we make any other plans."

Sparkle looked down. "If we do, you can lower me while I maintain it. Just a second."

She cast a spell, _Detect Friends,_ and nodded. "There's one person friendly to us in that house. This side." She pointed.

"That's our maid," said Susan happily. "Okay, there's a small something on the other side of the house, that'll work perfectly. Kirche, you're going to go set it on fire. Make sure there are no animals or anything living inside."

"Right now?"

"No, it's our distraction. Let's see if she needs us first. If we need it, I'll send you. Stay there and make sure someone doesn't come put it out right away. We'll come get you. We can't go _Invisible,_ but I doubt those guards will look up. Be quiet and try to stay out of sight. We'll come up with the rest of the plan on the fly."

Everyone nodded, and they all dropped towards the roof of the house. Hovering over it so they didn't make a sound, Susan flipped over and peeked into the windows she saw. The third window was the winner.

Inside, dozens of candles were lit, illuminating the two figures within. One was a naked Siesta, crying and pressed up against the wall by the other person in the room. This was a half naked man, turned away from the window as he struggled with Siesta.

"Kirche," Susan growled, "distraction. Now."

"On it."

She flew off.

"Sparkle, on my signal, silence spell on this window. Louise, blow it open. Hiraga, he'll be yelling for guards once we're inside. Hopefully Kirche's fire will draw most of them off in that direction. Try not to kill any of them. I'll handle the count."

"Got it."

Susan tensely waited, growing more and more angry as the man lost more of his clothes and continued forcing himself on the protesting girl. Suddenly there was an explosion from the other side of the house, and cries of "fire!" rang through the air.

 _Huh, guess she doesn't know how to hold back either._

"Now!" said Susan, and Sparkle cast _Silence_ as she had been ordered.

"It's in place, blow the window," she said.

Louise dropped down and said something, and the window silently blew to pieces, spraying the inside of the room with fragments of glass and wood. The man whirled, and Susan could only imagine what was going through his mind as he tried pulling his pants back up again. Three figures, dressed all in black and with their faces covered hovered just outside.

"Stay here," Susan said to Louise, and she and Hiraga darted forward into the room.

"Mott, I presume," said Susan to the man, staring in shock at the new hole in his wall. "Let's have a little talk about basic human decency."

"Guards!" he shouted, lunging for a length of wood Susan saw was still in easy reach. _His focus? No, I don't think so._

" _Combust,"_ she cast, and the dry wood instantly caught fire, causing him to yelp and flinch back. _I so love fighting magic users with that weakness._

"Get dressed," Susan commanded Siesta, who looked around for something to wear. Looking over there, Susan saw her maid outfit had been torn off her, and growled again. "Check the closet. He won't miss some pants and a shirt."

"Who are you?" demanded Mott. "Guards!"

The door rattled, and Hiraga calmly drew his sword. There was a pounding from outside, as it was obviously bolted shut and would take some time to get through.

" _Thrust,"_ Susan cast, sending the man flying and knocking into the wall behind him. He cried out and went down, and Susan saw the back of his head was bleeding.

 _He'll be fine,_ thought Darkness.

 _Yeah, probably,_ Susan thought back.

 _Wait, seriously?_

Susan strode over to him as the door started giving away as the people outside battered it down. She grabbed Mott's throat and looked him in the eye. "Where I come from, doing that to a person is called rape. There, I would take the matter to the authorities, and let them deal with you." _I wouldn't expect much, even there. People still have funny ideas about 'consent' that only a lot more education and common sense are going to cure. But at least some effort is being made._ "It seems to be a little different here, as you people seem to make your own rules. Fine. Now I'm making the rules. I ever get wind that you even thinking about trying something like this again? I'll be back, and I won't stop at one measly window. Think about it."

The door smashed open, and the guards were surprised to find a black dressed figure tearing into them like a master swordsman. Their weapons were smashed to pieces in seconds, and they groaning on the ground, bleeding from multiple shallow wounds. Susan turned back to Mott. "I'm being clear here, right? You're getting all this?"

Mott hastily nodded, and Susan let him go, allowing him to slump to the floor. _Maybe he's a little bit more hurt than I thought?_

She cast a quick _Healing_ on him, and saw that Siesta was ready. She was holding the pants up, Mott being a much bigger (around the middle) person than she was. Hiraga sheathed his sword and grabbed her up.

"I think we're done here." He and Susan lifted off the ground again and started for the window.

Mott was weakly calling for more guards, but it seemed the fire had done the job of making them all run in the other direction to try and get it put out.

"I'll be watching," Susan couldn't resist saying before she turned and flew out the window herself.

They met up with Kirche, who was having far too much fun shooting jets of fire at anyone trying to get close to the main blaze, and the six took off into the night. They set down a few miles away, as Hiraga couldn't carry her anymore.

"Just as well, we weren't flying all the way back anyway. Siesta, are you okay?"

The maid had her head burred in Hiraga's shoulder, and was sobbing. Realizing she was on the ground she pushed away from him and tried to run, but got tripped up by the pants coming loose and falling around her ankles. Susan tried to suppress a laugh as Siesta tried scrambling away. She pulled off her mask.

"It's okay, Siesta, it's just us. It's Susan and Hiriaga and Louise." The others pulled down their masks as well, and Siesta wilted with relief.

"That was the scariest thing that ever happened to me!" she exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier!?"

"If you were fooled, Mott won't know who we are, so that part of the plan worked. Sorry about that. Come on, let's get you home. He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Siesta shook her head.

"Good. Apart from the fact I don't have an excuse to go back and set fire to more of that mansion of his. Ah well. We'll have you back to the school in no time, give me a second for a _Teleportal."_ Susan cast and opened the portal back into her room, much to the amazement of the others.

"Yup, we'll probably beat Tabitha back," Susan chuckled. "Come on."

Once safely through the door closed, and the familiar stone of the castle surrounded them.

"You really are okay, right?" Susan asked, leading Siesta to the bed and making her sit down. "Physically, I mean." She nodded. "You guys better go," Susan said to the others. "She's just been through about the most traumatic thing someone can, and packing everyone in here isn't going to help. Thanks for the help, though."

Everyone wished her a good night, and hoped she was okay. Siesta managed a weak smile, and Sparkle, back in cat form, nuzzled her as the room emptied out. Susan locked the door and came back to sit down by Siesta. "They're gone," she said softly. "It's just you and me. Did he hurt you in any way?"

"I was so scared!" wailed Siesta, hugging Susan and starting to cry again. "If you hadn't come... or if you had been just a few minutes later..."

"Hey, the hero always arrives just in the nick of time, right?" Susan stroked her hair. "It's okay, you're safe now. No one will hurt you here."

They stayed like that for probably a half hour, Siesta slowly putting the experience behind her. "I'm sorry," she said, pulling away from Susan. "You probably think I'm just a big cry-baby right now."

"Not at all," said Susan. "He had total power over you, both as a noble and as a magic user. If I had my full power here I would have made sure he could never do magic again. Then he wouldn't be a noble either."

"I hate him!" Siesta spat powerfully. She tore off the shirt and pants, leaving her naked again and throwing them as far across the room as she could. "I would rather walk back to my room naked than touch something he wore for one more second!"

 _I'm not complaining._

"Shall I walk you back? I can understand if you don't want to be alone tonight. You're welcome to stay here."

"No, I better get back. But at the same time I don't think I want to walk around like this, despite what I said."

"Here," said Susan. "You can wear this. I'll get ready for bed anyway!" She pulled off her shirt and handed it over, and Siesta tugged it on.

"What is this material?"

"My magic made it. I just wanted something tight, stretchy, and black, and that's what it gave me."

"Amazing."

Having put on the pants, Siesta hugged Susan again. "Thank you again. For caring."

"Of course. And next time, come see me if something seems wrong. I might as well do some good while I'm here."

"I will," she resolved, "and I'll be sure to thank the others tomorrow, as well." She slipped out the door and down the hall, bare feet hardly making a sound as she disappeared down the stairs.

 _Guess I haven't lost my touch. Even used a bit of teamwork to get the job done. How about that, I can be taught!_

-Meanwhile-

Somewhere, in a random weapon shop, inside a random barrel, a sword thinks to itself: _Yup, any day now, he'll show up. I'll be back with Gandalfr again. Just you wait. It'll be soon, I can feel it. Gonna be so great, slice up some baddies. See the world. Any day now._

Oh, how disappointed that sword is going to be.

-Meanwhile-

A thief with green hair helps herself to some jewelry, using Earth based magic to bore a hole in the roof of a castle. There's just no stopping a pro, right?

-Back with our heroes-

The next day at lunch, Kirche asked Louise what she and Saito were going to do for the exhibition, and Louise dropped her fork in surprise.

"I totally forgot about it. Or rather I purposefully didn't think about it because of my peculiar Familiar."

"What's this?" asked Hiraga.

"Sort of a talent show for Familiar Spirits," explained Kirche.

"I'll win," said Charlotte, not having any knowledge of the future and such. She was just confident.

"Yeah, you have a huge dragon," admitted Susan. "Pretty hard to beat that."

"What are we going to do?" asked Louise, staring at Hiraga.

He shrugged. "The only thing I can do, if you're willing, Susan."

"I've never been a straight man before," Susan said, trying not to grin. "Tell me some jokes and I'll see what I can do to match the theme."

"What? Not comedy, I mean sword fighting!"

"Oh, that. Everyone saw that before, though. Still, will they allow me on stage? I'm not your familiar."

"Ring," Charlotte put in, pointing.

"Hey, that's an idea, you could beat up my... no, wouldn't work. They explode when they die, so cutting them up would leave a big flaming hole where the stage used to be."

"Still, I bet if someone who can make Earth Elementals conjured up a few for you to fight, that would work," admitted Louise.

"I think Guiche can do that," said Kirche. "We could ask him later."

"Uhg, that guy? I guess it can't be helped."

"Who is this?" Susan asked.

"You met him. He tried to..." she giggled, "kiss you, after your little match with Hiraga here. Uses a rose because a wand is just too mainstream?"

"Oh him. Don't remind me. At least he's stayed away from me since then."

"Guess you made an impression on him. I doubt anyone's ever held a sword to his throat before!" Kirche said, laughing.

"Ah, it did him some good."

That night, there was a knock on Susan's door, interrupting her training session with the others. She opened it to see the principal standing there, staff in hand.

"Good evening," he said, looking inside. "Hard at work, I see. Interesting. I wonder if I could borrow you for a moment, Susan."

"Sure thing, Mr. Ottman. Be right back, everyone."

She stepped out into the hall and started walking alongside the principal.

"How've you been?" he inquired.

"Oh, you know. An adventure here or there. Attending some classes. Teaching some stuff. The usual."

"Good, good. I must apologize that no magic has yet been found to send you on your way."

"It would surprise me if anything like that existed here. I mean, until you know other worlds exist, why try reaching them?"

He gave a little cough. "Yes, exactly. And how has Louise been?"

"Better, since she understands her magic a little better. Hard to study it when the only thing it seems she can produce is explosions, but it did come in handy recently. If I could still cast _Dead Magic_ I would have her cast into that to improve her control, but no such luck. I'm not sure what I can do for her."

"I do hope the knowledge serves to take away a little of the sting of being called 'Zero' all the time. Turn here."

"Where are we going, actually?"

"All in good time, my dear."

"And here we are." Two stern looking guys in armor flanked the door, and nodded to Mr. Ottman as he stood before it.

"Now that's a big door!"

"Quite. This is our vault, and I wonder what your sense of magic could tell me about it."

"Let me see." Susan slowly opened herself up to the nearby magical impressions, and was quite shocked (or not, he had called it a vault) that even with her 8 result (her lowest possible) she could feel quite a bit of magic sealing the door shut. "Quite an impressive number of spells you have going here," she hedged. "Is there something in particular you wanted me to sense?"

"Well, my true purpose was two fold. First, to find out if your magic could add anything to the defenses here and secondly to ask for your help."

Susan took out her character sheet and looked over her spell list. "Trouble is, I could think of a few things, if I had my book. How would you guys get past them later, though?"

"It's only temporary, as I'll explain in a moment."

"Oh, okay. These walls are made of stone, I could technically use _Sculpt_ to seal it off... or not, as it seems now that I think about it, I would have to 'target each individual brick.' So that's out. I guess not."

"Quite all right. The reason I ask is that there's a thief operating nearby, and we think she is going to hit this vault sometime soon. Our normal number of guards is going to be busy escorting a royal visitor for the exhibition tomorrow, leaving us understaffed. I know you have no real reason to help us, but if there was something you could do, I would certainly appreciate it."

 _Yup, the Paragon adventure train is rolling through town all right. Sounds like tomorrow I'm going to be fighting a thief. Sounds interesting._

"I think I can," she replied, looking around the hallway to fix it in her mind. "I'll have to watch the exhibition from the back, but that's not a problem. I'll catch this thief for you."

"Ho ho! I'll hold you to that!"

"Naturally. Now, if you can just lead me back to my room... I get lost in the corridors quite easily. It's one of my cute little flaws, you see."

"This way."

Neither saw the green haired lady watching them from the shadows. Wonder what's she's thinking about? Probably something totally unrelated.


	8. Chapter 8

8

Thief

Place: Outside the school

Time: About 2:00 PM the next day

Several carriages pulled by magnificent stallions drew up in front of the school where the entire class had been gathered. Susan, having gotten some advice on what to wear, was standing in a somewhat formal dress made with _Creation._ She had made it a little closer to what someone from her world would wear, but either way she was out of place. The teachers all wore robes, while the students had their uniforms and capes on.

 _Don't they have, like, dress robes? Huh._

The princess, who Susan saw was quite young, probably about her age, talked with Mr. Ottman who was kneeling along with the other teachers. She had somewhat short red hair, falling about to her shoulders. She was wearing a rather poofy white dress that covered her completely, and had a weird sort of purple top which covered her upper arms and turned into a cape. Three opals decorated the front, and the simple "crown" that adorned her head.

 _That cannot be practical._ Looking over the line of kneeling people, Susan was struck by another thought. _Why are the teachers wearing those long robes that cover everything, but the secretary, Miss Longbill, right? Why is she wearing a mini-skirt? She does have nice legs though, you have to admit._

She was then hustled inside and probably put under guard.

 _Wait, she's a princess? But I thought Charlotte was the one in line for the throne? I'm so confused._

With that the students dispersed and the day ended normally. Susan wracked her brain for a spell to learn with the card before it disappeared. She figured as the next day was her next "adventure" she would get new cards, not that she needed them for the last one.

 _Yeah, I'm just that awesome._

"Actually, would you mind if I used it?" Sparkle asked.

"Hey, it's actually your card. Just because I got it for you with the Rally, doesn't mean you need to give it to me if you have something in mind."

"It's just I've lost all my attack spells. My two _Elemental Touch_ were _Knockout_ and _Magic_ , and my _Elemental Line_ was Pluto!"

"Go for it." She chuckled.

"What?"

"By taking away _Knockout_ we actually become more dangerous. You'll have to damage something now, rather than just inflicting non-lethal."

"You're right." She got out her character sheet and took a look. "Actually, never mind. I'll just spend the _Wild_ as the _Night Class_ and you can have the other one."

"Ha! How did that happen?"

So Sparkle learned Elemental Line (Wind) but Susan went a little less mainstream. She concentrated on learning a Mercury spell to switch the position of two objects. The card activated and she learned the spell of _Transposition._ This was a grade 6 spell allowing "Two targets within range, of which you may be one, instantly switch positions via teleportation."

 _Think of the fun I could have with this spell! Make enemies hit each other. Switch a pebble and a sword. Throw a pebble in the air, switch it with a person, and watch them splatter all over the ground. The fun could be endless!_

Susan was not privy to the conversation had between the princess and Louise later that night, and the next day rolled around.

 _Don't these kids ever have classes? They've had their Familiar Spirits less than two weeks, right? How are they giving some kind of talent show already? Ah well._

She was stationed in back, wearing a modified version of her "infiltration suit." This one was sleeveless, and featured shorts rather than pants. It was also white, rather than black. Under her chair, Sparkle was interestedly watching the proceedings, while Susan occasionally looked though the egg sized _Teleportal_ she had created to spy upon the vault hallway. She had stuck the other end in a spot she hoped wouldn't be easily seen, but couldn't do much about the light shining in that it generated.

 _Seriously, when he said most of the guards would be out here, I didn't think that meant there would be_ no _guards on the actual vault. What if I hadn't been here? The thief could have just walked up to the doors without any opposition at all. As it is..._ She looked over to the small tent that had been erected for the princess and the principal. There seemed a shortage of guards there, too, hardly five, and while they wore a bit of armor as basically shoulder pads, they didn't seem armored enough to be guarding a _freaking princess._ Also, were they wearing weapons of any kind?

 _I suppose the pads could be_ Imbued, _but then why have the pads at all? Put it into a necklace or something. I don't get it._

As Guiche was laying on a bed of roses with his Familiar, Susan caught movement in the hallway. As she watched, a cloaked figure stood before the doors and started doing something.

 _Show time!_

"Come on," she said to Sparkle, getting up. "Time to bag us a thief."

" _Acceleration,"_ Sparkle cast, as per the plan. Susan stopped maintaining _Teleportal_ and cast _Light_ instead, throwing the glowing ball into the air. Mr. Ottman saw it and nodded, getting up after saying something to the princess. He started making his way past the seats to where Susan was heading to. Basically an open area she could put the thief, out of the way of the princess and everyone there.

"For sacrifices made," she said, holding her ring up. Only the words were necessary, of course, but she felt honoring Harry's sacrifice in that way didn't hurt. A ring of soldiers made of fire appeared, and looked to her for orders.

"In a moment someone will appear in the middle of the ring," she told them. "Detain them, but do not attack unless you are attacked."

They all nodded their understanding and readied their weapons.

"Impressive, but where is the thief?" asked Mr. Ottman, coming up behind her.

"Just waiting for you. Can't start the show without all the actors being present, now can I?"

Susan began casting again, taking the full time. _Yes, see that magical circle appearing around you? Nothing you can do about it, thief. And here we go._ " _Telesummon!"_

Susan felt her resist, and her eyes widened in shock. _What the heck is her RESolve, anyway? Maybe I should have put more energy into that. I'm spending an XP to make her reroll, take that!_

And with that, Fouquet stood in the center of a ring of steel. She was somewhat "disguised," with a hood pulled low over her face. Two long green bundles of hair stuck out from underneath, reminding her of-

"Miss Longbill?" Mr. Ottman took a step back in shock.

"I was just checking to make sure the vault hadn't been disturbed when suddenly I found myself here!" she confessed, looking around. "Are these fire golems yours, then? I've never seen you make anything like them!"

 _Dang, should have had_ Detect Lies _going. I hate not having_ Spell Symbol.

"Then why are you wearing those weird clothes, with your face covered like that?"

"Uh..."

She was wearing a sort of teal dress that ended in the front by her knees, but was longer in the back. Around her waist was a corset, and her sleeves were super long and flowing like a shrine maiden outfit. _And what's with these people and capes? No capes!_

"I think we had better go inside and sort this all out," said Mr. Ottman, eyes narrowed. "Susan, if you could have your constructs conduct her inside, perhaps we can question her more throughly. I would be interested to know exactly why my secretary would be so concerned with security."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," said Miss Longbill, bending down to touch her hand upon the Earth. There was a rumbling, and suddenly a huge construct made of rock rose out of the ground, with her at the head.

Susan and Sparkle rolled _Initiative._ Sparkle began casting _Destruction,_ focused on one of the legs of the construct. Miss Longbill drew her wand, but was too high up for Susan to see it clearly enough to snatch with _Transposition._ (She wanted to use a Mercury spell, because of her bonus from _Acceleration_ rather than the Venus spell of _Telesummon.)_

_Is this thing a creature or an object?_ Susan wondered, as she cast _Lubricate_ on it. In this case, it probably wouldn't matter, as all she really wanted to do was bring Miss Longbill back down to Earth. _The affect in this case will probably be the same_. At the same instant, Mr. Ottman brought his staff down and sent some kind of _Elemental Attack: (Wind)_ at the creature's legs. This, sadly, hardly even scratched it. Above, Miss Longbill stumbled but caught herself, a spike rising out of the construct's head for her to grab onto. _Shoot._

The construct now balled up a fist and struck out, stone fist descending on the group to smash them. " _Deflection!"_ cast Susan, dropping _Lubricate_ as a free action as she did. The fist smashed right through, but rather than spend an XP, Susan mentally declared the use of her card _Extra Action_ , so that action took no time. She tried again, spending more energy this time. Ties go to the defender, so the fist smashed against her magical circle with a crash and stopped.

Susan saw spikes made of Earth crashing down on them, and dodged, her _Acceleration_ finally coming in handy. _Is she laughing up there?_

Sparkle's spell finally went off, cast strongly enough to destroy 65kg (or 143lbs) of rock.

[Here we pause so the Narrator can look up about how much rock that is.]

[Narrator finds a lot of pictures of fish tanks.]

[Okay, not enough to blow the thing's leg off but targeting the lower leg of the thing will at least sever it below the knee.]

The construct started to tip over. Sparkle made a LUCk check, and being a cat paid off, she got a 24. Meaning it's tipping away from the group so they won't be crushed. Above, Miss Longbill struggled to hold on to the spike as the thing tilted.

 _Whew._

Given her _Accelerated_ status, she and Susan now went simultaneously, Susan targeting the construct, Sparkle targeting Miss Longbill. Sparkle tried _Immobilize,_ which thanks to _Acceleration_ went off perfectly, while Susan went for the only spell she had that could deal with larger stuff, _Shrink._ Both cast instantly, Susan spending her maximum energy to get it off quickly. Both succeeded, and the construct instantly shrank to be just a little bigger than Sparkle. Miss Longbill fell to the ground with a thump, bands of force wrapped around her so she was unable to move.

She could still move her wand, which she did, but Sparkle cut her off with an instant casting of _Elemental Line (Wind),_ again thanking her decision to go with that element and get the benefit from _Acceleration._ She threw max energy into it, because she was maintaining a few spells now, but still beat the difficulty easily.

Miss Longbill shrieked as the spell nearly cut her hand off with 13 damage, and she dropped the wand, rolling away from the line as best she could. The construct crumbled to dirt, and Mr Ottman blinked, not having done anything more than one attack that whole time.

"You guys don't mess around, do you?" he asked, bringing his staff back up. People were just turning to see what the commotion was about, and up on stage the princess looked over worriedly as her "guards" got in front of her, swords drawn.

"How did you do all that?" shrieked Miss Longbill, trying to inch away from them. "What are these bands?"

Susan took great pleasure in telling her; "Magic."

"Come on, let's get you somewhere secured," said Mr. Ottman, levitating her. "We can have the council pass sentence on you later. Oh, and congratulations, Susan. You single handily captured the most notorious thief in these parts. I'm sure your reward will be forthcoming." He sighed. "And now I need a new secretary. What a bother."

With that he walked off. Susan was going to call after him that she didn't need any sort of reward, but then remembered her _Resources: Money_ background. _Wondered how this world was going to get me that. Maybe this is the way?_ She dismissed her _Legion,_ some of whom were still getting up after being tossed about when the construct appeared out of the ground.

With the threat and excitement over, the exhibition continued, and Charlotte easily won, because dragon. Susan clapped along with everyone else for her new friend, troubled about the "thief" being someone she knew personally. _Can you imagine, the secretary of the principal being an outlaw? She was decent at magic, too, she could probably have made a better living guarding other people's treasures and such rather than stealing them. Pity._

The lives of the students finally went back to normal, with classes resuming, some of which Susan attended. Some, like their practical magic classes she didn't bother with. She knew how their magic worked, and it wasn't going to help her to learn the specifics. She was still interested in their history, so attended that class as she couldn't just pick up a book and read about it herself.

Two days later she received a summons to appear before the princess, and got directions on how to get there. Then she had Sparkle listen to the directions and look the map over, because she wasn't doing the navigating.

 _Pity they don't have a network of computers and a company obsessed with mapping the planet. I could just step there. Oh well._

With that, Susan was flying towards the capital with Sparkle to receive her reward. The palace was easy to spot, it was easily as big as an entire section of neighborhood that surrounded it. Most of the place was forested, but along the river and bridges that crossed it some mansions had been built. _Rather close together, unless they're all owned by one person?_

Susan dropped out of the sky in front of the gate and told the guard there who she was.

"You are expected," he said, relaxing his grip on the sword. He gave her some directions and told her where to wait, then let her inside. Susan looked around as she walked through, and it was a palace all right. White marble statues, huge rooms, crystal chandeliers, the works. _How do they light those candles?_ She thought, looking up at them. _It must be awfully dim around here at night._

She sat and waited, then was finally called in to see the princess. The guards allowed her in, then closed the door behind them, leaving Susan alone with the princess. _No guards? Strange._

"Please," said Anrietta, getting up from her throne. "Come closer."

Susan came forward and dropped to one knee. "As you have summoned me, so have I come, your majesty."

Anrietta giggled. "Please, we both know you're not one of my subjects, so you really don't have to do that."

"Oh, thank goodness," said Susan, relieved. "I don't have _Etiquette,_ so I wasn't really sure how to react- wait, how do you-"

"Mr. Ottman told me. I know you came from another world, so it's fine. Honestly, people bowing and scraping all the time gets old, can we just talk? And call me Anrietta."

She sat down on the steps leading down and patted a space next to her. Susan sat down and held out a hand, which Anrietta shook.

"Nice to meet you, Anrietta, I'm Susan. And this is Sparkle." A fairy flew around her head a couple of times, landed, and became a cat again.

"Pleased to meet you."

"What a beautiful cat!" exclaimed Anrietta. "And I hear she can cast spells, as well?"

"That's correct," answered Sparkle. "You really did hear all about us, didn't you?"

She nodded. "It's why I've asked you here. I mean the main reason is this, of course." She pulled a rolled up scroll from a pocket in her robe and handed it over. Susan unrolled it, then popped up with a gasp. "This is... Sparkle, come take a look! Oh my goodness!" She held it so Sparkle could see.

"Stop fooling around," said Sparkle, rolling her eyes. She turned back to Anrietta. "We can't read your writing."

She laughed, clapping her hands together. "Oh yes, you two are going to be perfect. I mean nobody makes jokes in my presence. Nobody. I can't remember the last time I genuinely laughed. My being a princess means absolutely nothing to you, does it?"

"Ah, I'm not sure how to answer that question," Susan hedged, sitting again.

"Honestly. Please?"

"Quiet frankly, no. I have no idea the political situation here, or how you came to power. Are you admired by your subjects or detested? Are you fair in your dealings or tyrannical? Royalty is fine, but it's too easy for it to become corrupt. Heck, it's too easy for democracy to become corrupt, how does monarchy hope to avoid it?"

"I hope to," she said quietly.

"I wish you luck."

"I may need it. But back to this." She touched the document. "It's a royal order to allow you to withdraw coin as you see fit, up to 10,000 new gold. I wish the kingdom could give you more, but this is actually the bounty for catching the thief. It was put up by the nobles."

"I have no idea how much that is, but I can see why you didn't just hand me a sack full of coin. Nobody could lift it."

She laughed again. "You're right. If you wish, the royal treasury can handle it, and allow you to withdraw funds as needed."

"How much interest am I getting?" she asked shrewdly. Anietta just looked confused. "For letting the kingdom use _my_ money, I mean. Shouldn't I get some kind of... you don't have that here, do you?" She shook her head no. "Ah, that figures. Sure," she said, handing it back. "I can get back here easily enough. Just have someone show me the way to the treasury and introduce me."

"I'll take you myself," said Anrietta. "But there is the main reason I asked you here."

"Yes?"

"I can't really pay you-"

Susan waved her off. "I was recently reminded by Sparkle that it is a Paragon's duty to answer the call to adventure. To refuse is to deny my heritage and my father. The experience I shall gain along the way will be more than enough, I assure you."

"The task is not difficult, but it is important. You saw the town on the way in? Across the river?"

"From above, but yes. It looked like a nice enough place."

"Thank you. The nobles live on this side of the river, of course. I have been hearing rumors of nobles... overstepping their considerable liberties in the town. I want you to learn the truth of this matter, if you can. I know you'll be honest in your report, because you have no reason to lie or deceive me."

"Gee, I thought it was going to be something tough, like slaying a dragon that threatened the town, or root out bandits along the road. Or something really tough, like catching millions of bunnies before they eat up all the carrots in the fields. That kind of thing."

She laughed again. "If any of those things come up, I'll know who to call. So you'll do it?"

"I would be glad to make sure the nobles are not causing too much trouble here. You can rely on me, your majesty."

"Please, you don't have to call me that."

"I just said it because it rhymed- it didn't actually rhyme in your language, did it?" Susan sighed. "Zecora would be very displeased."


	9. Chapter 9

9

Neighborly

Place: The City

Time: One hour later

"Overstepping their liberties, what does that even mean?" Susan asked, walking down into the village.

"Darned if I know," replied Sparkle, back in fairy form and perched on Susan's shoulder. "We need a plan, boss."

"You got that right. But first we need to blend in more."

It was true. Susan was wearing the dress she had made when the princess first had visited the school, and it was earning her some odd looks. She wanted to see what sort of clothes the people in this town wore, and go from there. She had money now, a jangly pouch full of lesser currency, but magic was still cheaper. Besides, now that she had money, she was going to spend it on important stuff- magical supplies.

The treasurer at the castle had explained that most peasants never even saw gold in their lifetimes, so it turned out the 10,000 gold was actually worth a bit more than she had anticipated. At least here. Susan took most of it, as it wasn't, strictly speaking, coming out of the kingdom's coffers and she figured no matter what reality she ultimately ended up in (if and when she got out of this one) the stuff would be useful. As long as she didn't spend too much of it, her _Resources: Money_ background could be satisfied while on the move, and there was a spell to turn one type of currency into another.

Still, it was a question of how much, exactly, her magic believed items bought with the currency were worth for the purposes of Fabrication. She recalled from her book that "Any form of _fabrication_ has a monetary cost equal to ten times the EXP cost." So was that in gold? It had worked out funny between dollars and Galleons, because of how exactly they counted up their coins. So she wasn't sure how much stuff would be necessary in this world. And leaving it, what if gold was worthless somewhere but copper was really expensive? How would her translation magic handle that? And of course prices might not even be consistent across worlds…

 _I mean if a loaf of bread costs a penny on this world, but a dollar on another, how does the magic know? Plus it isn't a one to one correspondence, because these people haven't heard of the metric system either. It's more like Hogwarts, where so many coins equals so many others. Rather than just ten and a hundred. I'm just going to have to buy some stuff and see how much the process consumes. And I suppose I should get out of here before worrying about currency exchange rates across realities._

Susan's plan was to improve Hiraga's sword to be DTR/OTR 10, so it would be basically indestructible. If people were going to go around summoning creatures made of rock, he was going to need some way of dealing with that. For Louise, an attack spell, one of the two Sparkle and her had between them. Explosions were all well and good, but rather indiscriminate to throw around. One of the reasons Sparkle went with _Line_ rather than _Burst._ Perhaps a new Imbued item or at least a spellcasting focus for her? She hadn't thought that far ahead. _It has to be useful offworld as well as here. I don't plan to be stuck here without_ Spell Symbol _forever. Or perhaps some magical research... With Sparkle's_ Photographic Memory _we might have an easier time recreating some of the spells in my book if I need them._

Susan found her current target, a place that looked like an inn. As expected, the sign was pictorial, as it seemed many peasants didn't know how to read. _Most probably would in a town this size, but an inn has to cater to visitors from outside._ She stepped inside and looked around.

"Can I help you?" asked the man behind the counter.

"That depends. Do you have rooms available?"

"I do!" He named the price per night, and Susan shrugged mentally. _At least it's not thousands of dollars worth of gold for a single bottle of soda._

She paid for a week in advance, and the man handed over a key. "You don't have any luggage?"

"I travel light," she admitted.

"Okay."

With that, she went up to her room and looked around.

"Homey," said Sparkle, flying down and turning back into a cat. "And I think I hear dinner."

"You would really eat mice?"

"Unless you would rather them running across you in the night."

"Enjoy!"

"Thank you."

Susan spent several minutes casting _Creation,_ making herself some new clothes. These were more in the style of fashion here, and she wished for a mirror so she could see how she looked.

"You're lucky you get glass in the windows," Sparkle chided her. "Do you know how expensive an actual mirror would be here? We may take them for granted, but these people don't."

"I suppose you're right."

"Anyway, what's the plan now?"

"Phase two is a little bit more magic, and then seeing what the townsfolk have to say about life here. Hopefully something interesting will come up."

"How's magic going to help there?"

Susan winked. "Oh, they'll tell me anything I want, when I have a fifteen rating in _Information Gathering."_

Sparkle laughed. "This town won't know what hit it."

"You got that right."

Susan also stepped through a _Teleportal,_ leaving it open, back to the school. She found Louise and told her not to worry, but she would probably be gone for a few days on a mission for the princess. Louise looked confused, and said that sounded so familiar, but shrugged and wished Susan good luck.

 _Some kind of echo? Even here? I suppose my presence does change events here, doesn't it? I wonder if I should be more careful about that sort of thing. Oh well._

So Susan left Sparkle to start cleaning out the rats and other vermin from the hotel, and went looking for things to buy. She decided that small but somewhat "expensive" items was probably best, as she didn't want to lug a bunch of crap around. As the cost of the item, rather than size or the composition was specified, this made the most sense. It was also at various shops she should get the information she needed about the behavior of nobles in the town.

On her third try she rolled high enough to succeed (a 22) and the shopkeeper looked around nervously.

"You seem like a nice girl, so I'll tell you. Living here stinks."

"What? Literally? Like the sewer system is backed up or something? I didn't smell anything on the way here. I mean no one obviously cleans up after the horses, which is weird because that could be used as a composting agent and produce some really good dirt. You could just pick it right up, for free. That's crazy, just letting a natural resource sit there to rot!"

"The who on the what now? No, I'm talking about taxes, not... oh, horse manure. Good one. Yeah, our tax collector is what you might call a 'horse's rear end' if you know what I mean."

"Tax collector, huh? What's his story?"

"He got the bright idea that when he comes along to collect the taxes, he takes a casual look around and mentions how tragic it would be if maybe your place caught fire that night. Or if some gang of thugs tore the place up and took your daughter. To make sure this doesn't happen he 'suggests' a small fee be paid, directly to him. Those that don't pay up find their shops destroyed the next day."

"And even if you all got together and protected the place all night, he's a magic user. There's no way you could beat him."

"What, you think he does his own dirty work? He's gotten a bunch of beggars together and they do whatever he tells them. Rumor is he keeps them in line with a combination of threats and just enough money to keep them happy."

"So you could stand up to them."

"Are you nuts? I would rather lose my business then be dragged off to the castle dungeon for not paying my taxes. He reports I haven't paid, and it'll be soldiers after me, rather than a bunch of drunks with torches."

"Haw can the princess allow such a thing?" _Was her attitude towards me a cover?_

The man hesitated, looking around again. They were alone. "Don't get me wrong, her highness is a wonderful girl, but I don't think she's told everything. I mean the laws are clear, and if you were the adviser to a seventeen year old, you would tell them about the poor sucker who can't pay his taxes? The one currently rotting in a cell someplace? No, because she would feel sorry for the man and let him free. Once it got out, no one would pay taxes because the punishment went away."

"Is that the only reason you do something?" she asked seriously. "Avoiding punishment? Not because it's the right thing to do? I'm not talking about taxes, I mean if it wasn't illegal to murder people, would you go out on a rampage? Of course not, because it's still wrong to go kill people."

"As long as we're not talking about taxes- no. But you don't mess with nobles, even you should know that much."

"I'm beginning to see that. Thank you for the information."

"Sure. I don't mean to scare you off if you really are thinking of moving here. I just want you to be aware of what you're getting into." He looked her over. "I'm sure you could find a good man here, settle down and start raising a family."

Susan struggled to keep a straight face. _As if that's even remotely on my mind right now. I have my father and friend to find, and then his world to save. Start a family indeed. But I suppose that's what a peasant girl would be thinking about, moving to a town like this._

"And I do appreciate it. Maybe someday I can repay you. Have a good day. By the way- this tax collector. What's his name?"

"Turenne."

Susan nodded her thanks and was on her way.

A moment later she was ducking into an alley which was clear and thinking about how best to use this information. _The thing is, he probably keeps a secret record of who has paid what, so if a shop starts getting more popular, he knows to shake them down for more 'protection' money later. Finding that book is going to be the key, but proving it exists is going to be my first step. I can't just barge/sneak into his place and start tearing it up without some idea what I'm looking for. Luckily, a man named Tom gave me the technique I am about to use._

Susan dropped _Augment Skill_ and instead started casting _Research._ Several minutes later she had an odd looking book, all about the man named Turenne. Having done that she put _Augment Skill_ back on, this time for _Research._ Smiling, she went to go find a place to have some lunch and look through it. By the end of her meal, her _Research_ check of 25-4 was enough to get his address, things he had ordered that showed receipts, and a listing of all the 'protection money' he had amassed thus far.

 _It's written somewhere, otherwise this spell wouldn't be able to show it to me. With that book handed over to the princess, it'll show evidence of corruption, exactly what she wanted. Even without it, his estate would show he's worth more than his job provides, and I'm sure someone at the palace would love to know where that extra money is coming from._

The book and her _Augment Skill_ went away, and Susan thanked the person that had served her. She left a generous tip and headed for the address she had learned from the book.

 _One problem, I can't read their street signs! Maybe researching that spell to understand written language wouldn't be so bad after all. I'm just glad the_ Research _spell translated everything for me._

 _Crap. How am I going to know the book when I see it? One thing at a time, Susan. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it._

Once across the bridge, she asked the first noble she saw which way she should go to get to the place.

"What, the tax collector's place? Why? Gone to beg for your husband to be released from jail?"

"Yes, kind sir," she tried to plead, getting a six on her untrained _Acting_ check. "Please, if you know the way, can you tell me?"

"Find it yourself, filthy peasant." He walked away, not sparing her a backwards glance.

 _Filthy? I'm cleaner than he is, given I get magically clean every morning thanks to the_ Hygene _spell. Stupid noble. I'm beginning to see the problem with this kind of society._

This presented Susan with a problem. Most nobles rode, not walked. Even going back for her fancier clothes, she would still be out of place going to see the tax collector on foot. _I suppose I could raise my_ Acting _temporarily. Wait a second... Magic Users have Familiar Spirits, and we know Charlotte has a dragon, so why couldn't I have one, too? I'm so smart._

Susan headed back to the inn, getting lost several times because of her _No Sense of Direction._ She could have just used _Teleportal_ , of course, but she was enjoying being outside after being cooped up in the school. Unlocking her door and looking around to see if Sparkle was back, she stepped into her room. She wasn't, so she proceeded to change back into her fancier clothes. She also used _Sculpt_ to reshape some of the stone on the wall and put the items she had bought into the hole, then closed it up again. _I miss my_ Pocket Dimension.

That done she made her way back across the river, and conjured up her _Magical Ally (Major)._ She climbed aboard the horse sized creature and this time when she _demanded_ to know the location of the tax collector's home, the man she stared down couldn't tell her fast enough. Naturally she had to ask twice more, but she finally stood in front of the place, now needing to come up with the next stage of her plan.

 _Option one; Walk up to the door and knock._

 _Option one point one (he isn't here.) Demand to wait inside. Take any forces inside with magic and ransack the house looking for the book._

 _Option one point two (he is here.) Threaten to expose him. Have immunity spells going so anything he tries bounces off. After he changes his pants, get him to hand over the book._

 _Option one point three (either.) Raise my_ Persuasion _skill to a seventeen and just demand the book. Seriously, what chance would they have against me?_

 _Option two; Sneak in using_ Shrink, Unlock, _and_ Flight. _Have a look around. Use_ Time Area _to replay his movements in the house until you find whatever record books he keeps. Steal them all and leave._

Susan took a quick peek at her character sheet. _Yup, still have_ Overconfident. _Option one it is then!_

She took extra time casting _Invulnerability_ and _Barrier Against Spells,_ because she wasn't an idiot, and walked over to the door to announce herself. She was now at a -9 to every check, and once again really, really missed _Spell Symbol._ She was going to drop the _Ally_ once she went inside, which would help a little. _Still, a -9 is a little ridiculous. Maybe I should create the_ Invulnerability _one as an item._

She knocked, then waited.

Soon a man dressed as a butler opened the door and started to enquire what he could do to help. His eyes fell upon the _Ally_ and his mouth dropped open.

"I demand to speak to Turenne the tax collector," Susan said, drawing herself up. "You will fetch him for me. I will wait inside while you do."

"Ah, ah, a thousand pardons, great mage, but the master is not in at the moment."

"I see. My patience is not unlimited, but I will remain until he arrives. You will show me to a suitable location."

"Yes, yes of course. Please, come right this way."

Susan turned back to her _Ally._ "You are dismissed," she told it, for the man's benefit. She waved a hand, ending the spell, and he melted away. "Lead on."

Susan was led into a sitting room, and found a well dressed woman lounging there, reading a book.

 _Okay, his wife doesn't exactly fit into one of the sub-plans. Now what?_

"A visitor? How wonderful!" she said, setting the book down. She looked Susan over. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Anise, is there something I can do for you?"

"Perhaps," Susan replied, sitting down. "How much do you know about your husband's work?"

"Oh, nothing at all," she twittered. "I just make sure his money goes to where it needs to, as is proper with his station. I don't care how he makes it. He works directly for the princess, you know."

 _As a tax collector? An exaggeration if ever there was one. He may work for the kingdom, but that's like saying an IRS agent works for the president himself._

 _"_ I'm glad you brought her highness up. It's on her orders I've been tasked with getting to the bottom of certain... discrepancies... in your husband's bookkeeping."

"Discrepancies? Bookkeeping? What are you saying?" She glanced around nervously.

"Quite frankly? This lifestyle you have," she gestured around her, "isn't possible on his income. The princess wants to know where the extra money is coming from."

"Are you suggesting my husband is taking bribes?" she demanded angrily.

"I'm suggesting that something is amiss, and I'm to get to the bottom of it. You can either aid me in my task or stand aside and allow me to get to work."

"I can't just let you barge in here and say you're under the orders of her highness without some kind... of... what's that?"

Susan unrolled a royal decree, signed and stamped by Anrietta herself, which she was told basically gave her license to do exactly what she was doing. Root out corruption.

The woman stared it, silently reading it over. "It seems I have no choice but to comply," she said, her lips twisting into a grimace. "My husband keeps meticulous records, I'll allow you to examine them."

She turned and made her way through the house, Susan following behind. She was brought to a study, and Anise started piling books onto a desk. "I think there are some more somewhere. You can get started looking through them, I'll be right back."

Susan took the top one off the stack and sat down, then started slowly paging through it. Anise left the room.

 _Now, once she's found whatever it is she's looking for, I'll demand to be left in peace. Then I can use_ Time Area _and figure out where he keeps the hidden one she obviously doesn't want me to find. Because this gibberish isn't going to get me anywhere._

The numbers were different, our modern numerical system having begun around the time the printing press was invented. Mages could write with magic, so didn't need any such system, and peasants didn't need to know how to read in most cases, so that was out. Susan stared at the gibberish, wondering how ethical it would be to begin a cultural revolution by leaving some plans somewhere on how to build certain things. Like a printing press and adding machines. She wasn't sure what this language was supposed to look like, but she felt this guy's handwriting was-

That's when she took a fireball to the back of the head.

"Oh dear," she said, shaking her head as the flames harmlessly dissipated. "I really did hope we were going to do this the easy way."

"Take her!" Anise shouted, and a burly man burst into the room. Susan looked at him with faint amusement as he dropped a thick wire over her head and started trying to choke her. She sighed. "Now I have to add assault charges to the list. And it seems you're in on it, despite what you said, and I know the princess is going to be most vexed when she hears about that."

"What are you doing, you fool?" Anise screamed. "Kill her!"

"I'm trying," said the man, straining to pull the garrote ever tighter. "This isn't working!"

"How perceptive," Susan praised him. "Want to try something else, or should I begin defending myself?"

He let go of the garrote and slugged her in the face with his meaty fist. Again, the impact did nothing.

"Step aside, fool!" she growled, and raised her wand. Susan crossed her arms over her chest. "Go ahead, knock yourself out."

"You... You!" She chanted, and a blast of air shot out, making her hair sway and knocking the desk over. Susan quite calmly remained sitting in the chair, then glanced behind.

"I guess I'll have to do something about this, if you're going to start destroying evidence."

She got up, and the man beside her started raining blows down upon her.

"How is this possible?"

The woman now shot spells at her with total disregard for the man standing next to her, who jumped back out of the way.

 _Have to be something low level, stupid -6!_

"Dazzle!" she cast, taking the full segment to cast it. The two staggered back, the flash of light that resulted breaking both their concentrations.

"And _Thrust."_ This she added an extra segment to, as why not? She only got a seven, having rolled one from minimum, but they were at a -12 to their STRength check to resist, and both went flying away from her.

Neither got up.

Not wanting to kill these people, Susan dropped her spells and did a quick _Healing_ on both, targeting their bodies. She didn't see any bruising on their heads, but wondered if she shouldn't drop _Healing_ and have Sparkle teach her _Regeneration_. It was only 3 more XP and far more convenient, healing everywhere at once.

That done, she used _Time Area_ to rewind time in the area until she saw the secret hiding place for Turenne's books, and grabbed them up. One quick _Teleportal_ later and she was handing them over to the princess, who started going through them and looked more and more angry as she did so.

Anrietta said she would need time to fully read them over, and Susan took her leave. She was exhausted from throwing all that energy around (figuratively, she still had a little left and she wouldn't start getting fatigue until it was all gone) so she went back to the inn and settled in for the night.


	10. Chapter 10

10

Cleaning House

Place: The palace

Time: The next day

That morning, Susan presented herself at the palace as ordered. She was treated with a little more respect, but was asked to wait until her majesty finished her current business. Susan replied that would be fine, and was shown a place to wait and had tea brought.

"Wonder what kind of stir you've caused by fingering that tax collector," mused Sparkle, her ears swiveling. "Seems this place is in kind of an uproar."

"Really?" Susan hadn't seen much more activity on the way in.

"You probably can't hear it, but it's buzzing around here. Quite the difference from the last time I was here."

"I'll take your word for it."

Susan noticed a mirror over in the corner and went over to see how she looked. She was wearing a different dress, newly created just that morning, after having Sparkle teach her _Regeneration._

"Why did you learn _Healing_ in the first place?" she had asked.

"I have no idea."

 _Wish my hair could be done up fancier,_ she thought wistfully to herself, turning this way and that in front of it. _Seems kind of a waste to wear a dress this pretty and... have I ever had my hair cut? I've never even thought about that before. How weird is that?_

The door banged open and Anrietta burst in, looking for Susan and smiling widely when she saw her. Guards rushed past her, obviously unhappy they had been left behind, but seeing no threat to the princess they bowed their way out. Anrietta sagged into Susan's arms, hugging her.

"You really came through for me," she said, smiling. "I can't thank you enough."

"I hope the nobility starts to understand they just can't walk all over the peasants without fear of reprisal now."

Anrietta shook her head, stepping back. "Not after I'm through with that tax collector. He's been stripped of his title, and his assets are being seized to pay back the money he extorted from the people. Plus those books you got? They were a treasure in disguise, because they noted down other noble's behavior he had observed and was using for blackmail material. You've shaken up everything around here. And in a single day!"

 _Whoops._

"I wish I could stay and talk, hear how you went about it. But the place is on high alert now. You know that thief you caught?"

"Don't tell me..." Susan's eyes narrowed.

She nodded. "She escaped sometime last night."

 _And here's me without access to my_ Descry Creature _spell._

"She blasted out a wall or something?"

"I wish it were that simple. Apparently someone opened her cell door and let her walk right out. So somewhere in my kingdom is a traitor."

"Would you like to know who that traitor is?" asked Susan, a dangerous glint in her eye.

"Oh, but I couldn't ask you for another favor, so soon after-"

Susan put a finger over her lips. _Oh my gosh, I'm touching a princess' lips._ "It's a single spell. Bring me to where she was being held and I'll have an image of the person responsible in under an hour."

"Done," she exclaimed, taking Susan's hand and pulling her along. "I'll have a coach readied immediately."

Anrietta seemed to be having an argument with someone before she got on the coach with Susan, and they weren't being subtle about it.

"I insist on accompanying you," he was saying. "This girl, Susan, where did she even come from? You've been alone with her now on several occasions despite my recommendations. Now you're just going to hop into a carriage and visit a prison with her?"

"I have it from a very trusted source that she's of impeccable character," Anrietta countered. "She is an unmatched mage and swiftly becoming a personal friend. Plus she is responsible for first catching 'The Sandy' thief and putting Turenne behind bars. If you will not take my word for it, as the crown princess, at least put your faith in her actions."

"She could be lulling you into a false sense of security-"

"Please! If she wanted to, I'm sure she could steal me away or kill me right this instant. When we went to go take Turenne into custody, two people were found, out cold. One triangle mage and one burly man holding a garrote. She somehow overpowered both of them, but left them still alive, despite evidence they were attacking her with everything they had. The room there was a mess! Personally I feel safer with her around than with you. That is all I am saying on the matter. Now step aside."

"Very well, your highness."

"You may follow on horseback if you wish."

The man's reply was lost, and Susan made her way over to the carriage as Anrietta beckoned.

"I'm sorry about him," she apologized. "I do understand his concern, but he won't even listen to me."

"He's right," admitted Susan. "I could have been a threat to you. Why did you see me by yourself that first time?"

Anrietta grinned. "Didn't she tell you? Louise and I have been friends since childhood. I came to visit her when I was at the school, and she told me about you. Catching Fouquet was all well and good, and I watched your magic take down that golem. But I needed someone I could trust, and she said if it wasn't her, it had to be you."

"Wow. I'll have to thank her when I get back."

The carriage started moving. "So that's why you get to hang out with a princess." She grinned and winked. "It's a great honor, you know."

"Oh, I know," said Susan, bringing up an imaginary fan and fanning herself with it. "All my friends at the academy would just simply _die_ if they knew."

Both fell into laughter.

But they weren't laughing as they stepped into the prison.

"I wasn't told conditions here were quite as harsh as this," said Anrietta, looking around.

Susan thought back to what that man who had told her about the tax collector had said. "That's something you may have to get used to," she admitted. "Always try to see the situation for yourself, if you can. Less chance of misunderstandings that way. Not to worry though, even in my so called 'enlightened' society, prisons are not much better than this. Despite numerous studies that say the threat of punishment does nothing to deter crime."

"I would love to sit down for a week and hear all about where you come from."

"Maybe when things calm down a little. I'd be happy to."

She shook her head. "I wonder if they ever will. Show me the cell, please."

"Right this way," said the warden, leading them inside.

Susan cast _Time Area_ into the cell, and rewound back from the current moment until she caught movement. The princess and warden stared as a figure with a neatly trimmed beard and wearing a mask over the top of his face came into view. She paused it again.

"This is how events played out last night?" the princess demanded, back in princess mode.

"Yes, your highness," said Susan, back in "loyal subject" mode. "I could show you us walking into this place if you would like more proof. I am magically replaying time in this vicinity, and the image is true. Do you know this man?"

A look of determination and rage started taking over Anrietta's face. "I would recognize that beard anywhere. This man is Jean-Jacques Francis, Viscount of Wardes, captain of my Griffin Knights. At least he was, until this moment. Come on, we have an arrest to make." She turned on her heel and stalked out, Susan ended the spell and mutely followed.

"Ride ahead to the palace," Anrietta was saying to the man that had followed her here. "Gather up some reliable men and mages. Do not tip Jean-Jacques off. I will be placing him under arrest personally."

"Are you certain that's wise-" he started to ask, but saw the look on her face. "I'll go at once, highness." He jumped on his horse and took off, leaving Anrietta and Susan to climb into the carriage.

"Actually, I could get us back immediately if you wanted," offered Susan.

She shook her head. "I want to see if Marquis is loyal to me. If he is, my orders will be followed and we will take Jean-Jacques by surprise. If he is not, we shall see how far this corruption goes."

"All right. I'll be there by your side as long as you need me."

 _She is a sucker for a pretty face, it seems,_ thought Sparkle.

Her face softened a little. "Thank you, Susan. What would I have done without you? But dragging you into all this, I feel bad."

"My magic is pointless unless it gets used. Don't worry, I follow in the proud tradition of my father. Making life miserable for those that would abuse their power or threaten the innocent."

"He must be very proud."

"I like to think so. I'll ask him once I've rescued him from whatever world he's stuck on."

Anrietta looked at her curiously, but lapsed back into silence.

 _She probably has a lot on her mind right now. If I had_ Spell Symbol _I would be making her some. Actually, that reminds me._ Susan checked her character sheet, and she new cards as she suspected. _Yup, it's going to be a fight._ Having no use for _Glad I Brought this Shotgun_ she turned it in for 2 XP. _The only real weapon skill I have goes with the gun I already have and can't reload here. Getting another just like it isn't going to do me any good._

But an _Extra Action_ could always come in handy, so she held onto that and watched the countryside fly by on the way back to the palace.

"It may come to a fight," Anrietta said once they returned. "Some of his griffin knights may side with him, and he's an accomplished mage himself. Take him into custody but do not fatally wound him. I need to know if he's working for someone and what their goal is."

"Yes, your majesty!" everyone there shouted.

 _Looks like this Marquis guy is on the level. Until we run into the ambush, anyway._

Susan started to put _Barrier Against Spells_ on herself, but then thought better of it.

 _These people seem to use just elemental attack magic, in other words, magically creating elements. They aren't hitting me with spells like I do,_ Shrink _and the like. They just blast fire or air around. The magic is in the making, it's not magical fire. I think_ Invulnerability _will serve._ Sparkle put _Acceleration_ on them both, of course. Then they marched through the halls of the palace to where she had been told Jean-Jacques was currently.

They found the man commanding some kind of drill in the field outside the castle.

"Good morning, princess," he said, sweeping off his floppy hat and bowing. "How can I be-"

"Jean-Jacques Francis, you are under arrest for treason against the kingdom. Surrender your weapon and come quietly." Anrietta's voice rang out strongly in the courtyard, and Jean-Jacques dropped his hat.

 _Treason? That's a death sentence, isn't it?_

There was a shocked silence as the recruits stopped what they were doing and froze, unsure what they were hearing.

"A poor joke," said the man, snatching his hat up again.

"Not an hour ago, this girl's magic revealed to me an image of you, visiting the prison where The Sandy Fouquet was being held. I then watched as you called her Matilda of South Water and opened her cell. You then handed back her wand and watched as she WALKED AWAY! I will have the truth of this matter and you will stand down. Throw down your weapon!"

"I'm unfamiliar with this magic, are you sure you aren't being tricked in some way, your majesty?"

Several of the griffin riders landed. "Sir, what should we do?"

"The princess is obviously under some kind of compulsion. Quickly, grab her so we can bring her to a specialist and break her out of it. And that blond haired girl too! She's behind all this, I wager!"

"Enough. Seize him!" Anrietta shouted, pointing her scepter. The guards with us charged forward, and the others looked to Jean-Jacques, who calmly drew his sword. They took their cue from that, and engaged the others.

Susan stepped in front of Anrietta, as the scene before them dissolved into more of a brawl than an orderly arrest. One man from the opposing side broke free, and Susan and Sparkle swatted him back with _Thrust._ He went flying back, crashing into another man. She also had a bit of fun with _Transposition,_ switching soldiers fighting on the side of the princess with soldiers fighting against if they were going to be hit. With _Acceleration_ going it looked like everyone else was moving in slow motion, so she was able to pick her targets.

Finally the opposition was down, and Jean-Jacques stood alone, ringed with steel.

"I say again, drop your weapon."

"Odd magic that girl is using. I wonder how she'll deal with this." He pointed his sword and cast, and Susan heard an explosion behind her. Horrified, she watched as the castle wall exploded outward, sending huge chunks of stone towards the princess.

Even _Accelerated,_ she didn't have time to waste thinking if this counted as one attack, so _Deflection_ would catch all of it or not. She simply grabbed the princess and spun her around, putting herself between the rocks. They impacted her, knocking both the ground, and from Jean-Jacques' point of view, squishing them like bugs.

Susan heard voices shouting as the weight of a castle wall crushed her. It was difficult to breathe, but she was on top of something soft and warm.

"Anrietta," she managed. "Are you-"

"Alive," she gasped, then tried to cough. "Hard to get a breath."

"Sorry, little tight here. Usually I date someone at least a few times before letting them this close. And it's a princess to boot! At least it's my lucky day if it isn't yours."

She tried to laugh, but groaned instead. "Stop that. Get us out of here. I think I'm hurt pretty bad."

"As you command."

 _But how, that's the tricky part. If I had some kind of spell to be aware of things that were around me, that would be cool. I could_ Transposition _us out of here._

 _Uh, how about instead of thinking about what you don't have,_ chided Darkness, _think about what spells you do have that could get us out of this._

 _Okay, fine. The trouble is, I have to see my target in order to cast something at it. Let me think. Mercury is out anyway, same goes for Mars, Uranus, and Moon. Great, so the one time I really need physical magic, I can't move. This is just typical._ Susan tried to shift around so Anrietta would be more comfortable. _Okay, wait a second. I'm still_ Accelerated _so I bet I could get_ Teleportal _off pretty darn quick. What if I S_ hrank _us both, then used the_ Extra Action _? The_ Shrink _would therefore have taken no time, so the rocks wouldn't shift yet. Spend the card, position a very tiny_ Teleportal _right next to us. Scoop up the princess and sprint through it to safety._

"Okay, have a plan. Need you to hold on tight, okay?"

"You want to be even closer? I thought that was part of the problem?"

Both tried not to laugh, and Susan gathered her thoughts. _Okay, card first, 0 delay, then_ Teleportal _when my hands are free again._ "Here we go."

She made a Venus check and cast _Shrink,_ taking the full time. After all, it was the delay after shrinking that was the problem. She put in 6 energy, making her rating in Venus a 10, meaning they could become -5 sized, or about the size of a spider. The extra +2 compensating for the fact she was casting on two people, not one. She got a 19, easily enough, and both shrank down to almost nothing. The princess became -5 sized, while Susan, carrying her, became -4, just in case her legs were injured and she couldn't walk.

With one hand now free, the other cradling the princess, Susan cast _Teleportal,_ putting in max energy and trying to cast it instantly. She got an 11 plus the bonus from _Acceleration_ , meaning she could put the other end at least 100km away. As she wasn't trying for anything nearly that far away, she got it, and sprinted through.

"Where are we?" asked Anrietta, looking around in wonder.

"Under the throne," Susan replied. "I thought I would give you the chance to play dead awhile if you wanted."

"Why would I want that?"

Susan shrugged. "I have no idea. Just thought I would give you the option. If there was some advantage to you being dead that you could think of, now is your only chance."

She giggled. "I would love to sneak away and see the world with you, but that might leave my kingdom in a bit of a quandary. I better make an appearance soon."

"Okay, you got it. By the way, you said you were injured?"

"Yes, actually. Please don't set me down, I don't think I can walk."

Susan lifted her dress, and one of her dainty feet was twisted at a weird angle. "That must be extremely painful!" she exclaimed. "How can you stand it?"

She grinned. "I'm not standing, you're carrying me."

"You know what I mean!"

By not thinking about it too much."

 _Of course, I have_ Low Pain Tolerance, _so my ideas of pain may be skewed. Maybe she has_ High Pain Tolerance, _for all I know._

"I'll have you fixed up in a second, hang on."

Susan cast _Regeneration,_ and soon Anrietta was back on her feet again, flexing them and showing off those great legs of hers. "That was amazing. You're amazing. In fact, you're the reason I'm alive right now. How can I ever repay you?" Susan found herself being hugged again.

 _Bet you could take her right here, right now, if you asked for it,_ thought Darkness. _Or at least get a kiss out of it._

 _Shut up._

"Probably by sending me on even more dangerous missions. I mean that's how these things go, right?"

"Sadly, you're probably right," she said, taking a step back. Her hands were still on Susan's shoulders. "But you deserve a title or something. I mean you could have died trying to save me when those rocks hit you."

"Full disclosure, I was utterly immune to any physical force when I grabbed you. Oh, I could have suffocated, true, but not be crushed. That's why the rocks settled how they did."

"Still..."

Susan waved her off. "Titles won't mean anything once I leave this world. Though I suppose when I finally get home, being able to call myself a knight or something, legitimately, would be kind of fun." She shook her head. "Come on, time to figure that out later. As you're still alive, let's make sure your subjects know before everyone starts having heart attacks trying to get you out from underneath the stone."

 _Wait, if Arthur became king by pulling a sword out of a stone, what do I become by pulling a princess out of the stone?_

She nodded, then looked up. "Gives me a different perspective, looking up at the throne from here. How do I fill such a huge chair?"

"Way too many slices of cake?"

Anrietta threw back her head and laughed, pounding Susan's chest with her fists. "You... you... jerk! I was trying to be serious. Just for that I should appoint you my jester. Why don't I have a jester?"

"Seriously? I don't know. I've never been a queen. You have to do what you think is right, and hopefully it's what is right for your people, as well."

She stopped laughing and looked Susan in the eye. "I will. I see now that just ruling over people isn't good enough. I have to give them reasons to believe in me. Like you've given me for believing in you. I have a lot to think about. Thank you."

"Sure. All part of the service. Shall we?" She held out a hand, and Anrietta smiled, taking it.

"Let's."


	11. Chapter 11

11

Elemental

Place: Outside the place

Time: Moments later

"Your majesty!" everyone shouted as Anrietta came into view around the side of the palace. Magicians trying to carefully levitate rocks stopped and stared, some losing their concentration. The rock pile shifted and collapsed, sending up a plume of dust.

"Good thing I wasn't still underneath all that," Anrietta muttered. Susan snickered. Everyone ran over to her and went down on one knee.

"I was certain you were under there," gasped the shocked Marquis. "How did you escape? The cat said you were probably still alive, but we rushed to get you out."

"Be at ease," she replied. "Susan's magic was able to free me, but brought us inside the castle walls. I apologize for worrying you." There was a shocked murmuring that a princess would ever need to apologize to anyone. "I don't suppose Jean-Jacques was captured as I ordered?"

Everyone bent their heads. "I take full responsibility for his escape," intoned Marquis. "Naturally I will accept any punishment your highness wishes to lay out for me."

"You have nothing to say in your defense?"

"Only that I took the safety of your majesty to be of the greater importance. I immediately called for the mages to start moving the stone and free you. The scoundrel got away in the confusion."

Anrietta looked sadly at the jagged scar now cut into her palace wall. "That's going to be a problem. Very well. Begin restoration efforts immediately, and send the griffin riders out to look for Jean-Jacques. He can't have gotten-" Susan was shaking her head. "You wish to council some other course of action, loyal mage?"

 _Yeah, she's back in full princess mode. Pity she can't really be herself most of the time._

"Yes, your majesty. If you give me a moment, I can make sure the rest of the griffin riders are loyal to you, rather than to him. It would be a grave loss to the kingdom if the griffins were stolen out from under you. I assume they are somewhat difficult to train? Whereas new riders can be trained fairly quickly."

"What would you have them do?"

"Line up here. I'll ask them a question and they can begin the search immediately after."

"Very well. You heard the mage- line up!"

Susan put _Detect Lies_ on herself, non-verbally so they wouldn't get the RESolve check against it. After all, they just saw light and symbols swirling around her for an instant, they wouldn't have a clue what that meant. But hearing her shout "Detect Lies" would pretty much give it away.

She went down the line, asking each soldier "are you more loyal to your old captain, who has been revealed to be a traitor to the crown than you are to the princess?" Anyone who said "No" or "the princess" and wasn't lying was allowed to leave. She had to have two of them arrested, and Anrietta shook her head sadly as they were lead away.

"I could get used to having magic like yours at my disposal," she remarked, once they were gone.

"If I had my full ability to cast spells and my spellbook, I could track Jean-Jacques down for you. Sadly, that's not possible, so I'm not sure what else I can offer."

"You have done enough, loyal mage. You rooted out corruption and found a traitor in my own ranks. More I cannot ask at this time. There is much here to be done, and you are no doubt weary from you efforts to free me. You may return to the academy and await my summons, which I shall make once I have decided how best to reward you."

Susan went down on one knee. "Your majesty, I hear and obey. It is my honor to serve."

Anrietta gave a little smile and a wink, which Susan returned.

"You are dismissed."

"You gave me quite a scare," said Sparkle on the way back to the inn. "But I was pretty sure you were still okay because _Acceleration_ was still going."

"It was pretty _rocky_ there for a minute. Wasn't sure I could _pin down_ a solution being so _pressed_ for time. But that princess, she sure does _rock_ my world, but I think if I made a pass at her I would get _stonewalled_."

"Someone's feeling chipper all of a sudden."

"Hey, I saved the life of a princess today. How many people can say that?"

"I can think of a few. Mario. Link."

"I mean people who actually exist!"

"Like you're so 'real.'"

"I think I am, actually."

"Just keep telling yourself that. Anyway, what's the plan now, boss?"

"See if I can get some money back for not staying the whole week at the inn, head back to the school and see what trouble they've gotten in while I was gone. See about spending some XP, that sort of thing."

"It has been pretty non-stop here. Once the adventure train started rolling it's not slowing down."

"Yeah. But that's fine. Think of all the magic I can memorize once we leave here!"

"True."

So Susan went back, cast _Stone Sculpt_ and got her stuff back, and checked out of the hotel. That done she walked around the back and opened a _Teleportal_ back to her room, where she put her stuff away and went in search of the others. Hiraga, across the way, didn't answer when she knocked on his door, so she shrugged and headed to the stairs to go down.

Oddly, the school was rather quiet, and Susan wandered the empty halls wondering if some terrible thing had happened that wiped everyone out.

"They could have left a- forget I said that."

"Wondered if you would finish that sentence. There must still be someone here, want to check the kitchens?"

"Sure, someone there might be able to tell me where our favorite maid is."

"Wait, I'm the one that casts _Hygene_ on you every morning. Doesn't that make me your favorite maid?"

"You're my personal servant, not a maid. There's a difference."

Sparkle rolled her eyes. "I see how it is."

"Summer vacation?" asked Susan once she had found Siesta. "Don't these people do any studying at all? What the heck? If they aren't lounging around drinking tea it's because they're on vacation. Sheesh!"

"We have to take a pay cut, too," she replied, nodding. "Because there's less to do around her now. Many of us go visit our families at this time, rather than sticking around. I was just finishing up a few things... say, would you like to come visit my home?"

"I would like that," admitted Susan, but she shook her head. "Very much. On the other hand, I have some projects I wanted to take care of, and this actually works out perfectly. If they're going to be gone a little while I can probably get them done before everyone gets back! On the gripping hand, I could meet your family and come back here in the same day."

"The what?"

"It's from a book, three handed aliens... you had to be there."

"Oh, okay. It is three days away... by horse. Unavoidable, to only spend a day there and then have to start back. But what can I do? I want to see my bothers and sisters again."

"What can you do? You have but to ask, dear lady." Susan bowed. "I'll have you there before the sun goes down this very day."

"What?" She was shocked. "How?"

"You just leave that to me. Are you taking anything?"

"I had a small suitcase packed, I have to travel pretty light."

"I know what that's like. Show me where it is and when you're ready I'll meet you out by the front gate."

"Okay?"

So Susan got to see Siesta's room and then headed out to the front gate, where she saw Charlotte and Kirche getting into a coach.

"Hey!" shouted Kirche, waving her hand above her head. She turned to Tabitha and pulled her out. "Look, Susan's back!"

"No, this is Susan's front! This is my back." Susan turned around.

"Ignore her, she's in a weird mood," said Sparkle. "Leaving for vacation, then? Have you seen Louise and Hiraga around anywhere?"

Kirche shook her head. "Not lately. Don't know where they got to."

"Ah well. I'm sure they're fine, and have not gotten into any shenanigans while I was gone. See you girls in a week or so!"

"Invitation," said Charlotte quietly.

"Great idea, Tabitha! Why don't you two join us? Tabitha lives pretty far away but you don't want to hang out around here, do you?"

Susan laughed. "My, my, my. Aren't I just the popular one? And here's me wanting to get some work done while everyone is off playing. And usually I'm the one lounging around while you're in class. Odd how that works. I do appreciate the offer, but I've already had an invitation to visit Siesta's house."

"Insistent. Gateway."

"I suppose I could hang with you girls the next day, and still have a few days here to work. And I've already seen your place, Cha- Tabitha. So yeah, I could get there easily enough. If you insist..." She nodded. "Guess that's settled. I'll you see later tonight."

"Looking forward to it."

"Yeah, see you then! Wait, want me to send you on? I can easily make a portal big enough to fit the carriage through. Save you some bouncing around." She looked over at the solid metal wheels and lack of suspension springs on the carriage.

"No trouble?"

"You kidding? Get in, I'll get to casting."

"Thanks!" exclaimed Kirche. "Confidentially, I kind of hate these things." She turned back to Charlotte. "No fair, you let her visit before me? When?"

"Explain later."

The coach door closed, and through the window Susan could see Charlotte already opening her ever present book.

 _How did those two ever get together? Kirche must have the patience of a saint. Or perhaps the_ Patient _background._

Susan sent them on with _Teleportal._

 _You know, it's too bad I don't get better at things by practicing them. That must be nice. With all the magic I do for people, you would think I would already be the greatest wizard in the world. Wait a second, why didn't they just fly on the dragon? People are so weird sometimes._

Probably twenty minutes later Siesta showed up, changed out of her maid uniform and into a simple blouse and skirt.

"Oh yeah," Susan said, looking her up and down critically. "I just had a thought. We need to get you out of those clothes immediately. Strip!"

"What?!" Siesta shrieked, putting her hands over her chest.

"That skirt, it's not going to be practical, I'm afraid. Come with me."

"What? I... that is? How?" Siesta sputtered as she was led by the hand back to Susan's room.

On the way Susan explained how Charlotte had also invited her over, so Susan was only going to get here there and visit a few hours before heading off.

"Not that I don't want to stay," she explained, 'but I do really want to get started on these projects I have in mind. But I hate to refuse anyone…"

"You don't have to apologize, it was just a spur of the minute thing, anyway."

"Here, put this on," Susan said having reached her room. She handed over her "stealth suit," the only other streamlined clothes she had.

"I can't wear this!" Siesta protested. "These are..."

"Mine? Don't worry, I washed them with magic."

"No, no, I mean they're," her voice dropped, "men's clothes."

"By the energetic staff of my father, just put them on already. Men's clothes, do you hear that, Sparkle?" Susan was laughing.

"The what?" Siesta's eyes were wide.

She stopped abruptly. "Huh. I guess that could be taken two ways, couldn't it? I mean my father had a wizard's staff that allowed him to manipulate energy in his environment. I've already said 'by the gaudy purple robe' and something about his pointy beard, so that was the next thing about him."

"Oh. And why do I have to wear these clothes?"

"What? Don't you trust me? Do you want to get there tonight, and have 6 days with your family, or not?"

"Very well."

Susan watched, with some interest, as Siesta pulled off her peasant clothes and hesitantly pulled on Susan's outfit. They stretched pleasantly, and Susan gave a small sigh. "Now, was that so hard?"

"I just hope none of the other staff sees me like this."

"Why? Don't want them knowing how fabulous you look in black? Come on."

"What about..." she gestured to the cast off clothing.

"Oh, go put it with your stuff and we'll get it when we arrive. I'll be waiting out front for you."

"Okay." She lass scampered off.

 _Nice abscond._

"You do realize she's grown up with a very different set of values than you, right? There was a pretty clear divide between what men and women could wear in this sort of time period. Heck, it would be like Harry walking around in Hermione's clothes. What sort of reaction do you think that would achieve? Even in 'modern' society, a man wearing a dress would get them some funny looks."

"You mean Ron? Because Harry is the boy who lived, he can't do wrong. I bet within a week it would become the new fashion."

"In that case I do mean Ron. Ron _before_ he learned martial arts."

"Oh, now again, that's a totally different story."

Siesta was still blushing when she peaked out of the door to the school and hastily looked around.

"Just me. Come on, once we're in the air you'll forget all about it."

"Air?"

"Didn't I say? _Flight!"_ Susan used maximum energy to get the most speed possible, casting on herself and Siesta.

 _"Shape-shift,"_ cast Sparkle at the same time, turning into her normal fairy form.

Susan started hovering.

"You mean I can do that? How?"

Susan smiled. "Just think a happy thought, and you'll find your wings. Come on." She held out a hand. "It's easy, hardly even have to think about it." Siesta tentatively reached out and began to rise, grasping Susan's hand. "That's it. Now, which way?"

"Follow the road for now. I only know that way to go, but we can cut across country later, when we get closer."

"Then come on!"

Susan shot forward, dragging Siesta behind her. "Oh my goodness!"

It didn't take long for Siesta to get over her trepidation, and soon the miles were zipping by under the pair. She even imitated Susan, pretending to swim when they passed a caravan, even playing tag and doing loops and swoops.

"How high can we go?" she asked.

"Until it starts becoming difficult to breathe, why?"

"I want to see the land like a bird. Come on!" She started to climb.

 _Hey, now there's an idea for the princess. Showing her the kingdom from above. But can't mages here already fly? I'm sure I've seen that..._

That high up, Siesta said she saw her village, and stared at the world around her. She was breathing heavily, not from exertion but partially from excitement and partially from the thinner air.

"I'll remember this sight forever," she remarked, slowly spinning. "You've given me so much, and we've only just met. Thank you, Susan. Even if you do make me wear men's clothing."

"Are you still worried about that? I mean if it's still bothering you, I'll take it back and you can fly the rest of way naked."

"How do you always know what to say to make things worse?"

"It's a gift."

The two fell against each other laughing, and started in a straight line towards her home village.

As they got nearer, Susan slowed and stopped, hanging in mid-air. "Do you want to change again? We can walk the rest of the way if you don't want to show up like that."

Siesta shook her head. "I can see why you made me change. Trying to fly like that in a skirt just wasn't going to work. I'll wear it. I mean I've seen my great-grandfather's 'flight suit' but wait until my family sees me in this!" She did a twirl, and Susan was so shocked by her words she didn't even register it.

"Wait, say that again."

"My great-grandfather. I didn't meet him because he died before I was born. But others in my family still tell his stories about... the other... why are you looking at me like that?"

"Other what, Siesta? Other _world?_ Is that what you were about to say?" She grabbed her wrist.

"Ow! Yes, what's the big deal?"

"Sorry, sorry." She released her grip and looked at Siesta as if for the first time. "You... black hair. You have black hair, Siesta. No one on this world has black hair. Pink hair, green hair, blue hair, blond hair, golden hair, red hair- Why didn't I see it before?"

"See what before? They're just stories, Susan. I mean other worlds- oh." Realization finally dawned on Siesta's face. Susan could see it written there- _Oh yeah, I know two different people from two different worlds, and my great-grandfather wasn't just some raving lunatic. Whoops._

"Yes, now you begin to see? Is there some kind of dimensional tear somewhere around here? I mean if others have come through without being summoned by Louise, maybe these two worlds are linked more strongly than I thought. If I could find that tear, maybe I could make it through to Hiraga's world and get all my magic back! Then get after Luna!"

"I'm sorry, I never thought to tell you. I just didn't put the two things together. Honestly, I didn't even think about those stories until just now."

"It's fine," Susan tried not to let too much sarcasm though in her tone. "But this is vital information. I'll need to hear about how he arrived here, maybe that will be a clue as to where the tear is." She grabbed Siestas' hands. "I have hope again, and a lead to what I need to look for, Siesta! And you gave that to me! See, now we're even. Come on, let's go meet your family."

Turned out Siesta had seven siblings, and she was the eldest.

 _Eight kids, Catholic? But I guess these people have never heard of birth control._

She got to see what peasant life was like; noisy, messy, rowdy, and loud with all those kids around. She pitched in with making the meal, despite the families' insistence she was a guest. "Siesta serves me at the academy all the time. It's my turn to pay her back a little."

Of course, with only a 3 in _Cooking_ she slipped a little _Augment Skill_ in there, and managed to help make the best meal they ever had.

Almost immediately afterward the older kids started getting the younger kids ready for bed.

 _Right, lamp oil or candles are probably expensive. And it'll take some time to get this many people to bed before dark. And then get them up in the morning to start work. This is just practicality on their part. It's really no wonder things stayed the same for so long on my world, then accelerated. These two adults have their hands full providing for their families, they don't have time to invent a better washing machine or whatever. Plus they're kept down by the magic users, who have all the wealth._ She shook her head. _I guess the 1% never changes._

With the house quieting down, Susan and Siesta slipped out.

"Thanks for inviting me," Susan said genuinely. "You have a great family, and I can see they really love you. That's a great thing to have behind you."

"I know. I do my best, but I have to wonder what real future I have just working as a maid at the school. That's your fault, I think."

"I tend to do that. You do have one big advantage, if you have the dedication."

"What's that?"

"The library at the school. I bet if you were interested in something, you could learn more about it there. Even if it takes a few years, reading through books a little at a time. Not many others have that kind of resource. Plus time, as you don't yet have a family to take care of. When you're done with work, you time is your own. Don't stop learning, and who knows where it might lead."

Siesta nodded. "I'll have to think about it. What I might be good at, and be able to learn. Sorry I didn't get to show you my great-grandfather's artifacts."

"Clever girl. It's just an excuse to get me to come back again."

"No, I really-"

Susan laughed. "I'm teasing you. Look, enjoy your visit here. I'll come get you in six days, okay? You can show me then."

"Okay. Thanks."

They hugged, and one quick _Teleportal_ later Susan was standing in front of Charlotte's house, pulling the rope to ring their bell.

She was met with a bit less enthusiasm than she expected, and Charlotte looked more pensive than normal.

"I can come back later," Susan started to say.

"Mission," said Charlotte, handing her a rolled up scroll.


	12. Chapter 12

12

Spirit

Place: Charlotte's house

Time: The next day

Susan and Sparkle had spent a rather lonely night in a very plush bed, as Charlotte and Kirche weren't much in the mood to talk after they explained what the king wanted Charlotte to do next.

 _I mean it's a girl's sleepover. We're supposed to play truth or dare, and braid each other's hair and stuff, right? And I wanted to try on some of Charlotte's clothes, I bet she has some really frilly, girly stuff._

Susan, freshly cleaned with magic and full of delicious food laid out by servants sank into a plush chair and looked over at the others sitting opposite her.

"So let me see if I remember this correctly," she began. "There's this water spirit that's causing trouble nearby, yes? For some reason the spirit, that normally lives in the lake, has decided to expand her territory or whatnot and is flooding a village. Our task is to stop it."

"My task," corrected Charlotte.

"Yes," agreed Esme. "This is our families' problem, not yours. We can't drag a guest into it!"

"As if I would allow my best student to go off on some dangerous mission and get XP without me. Esme, please understand this is what I do. I solve problems for people. Usually with magic, because that's what I have. Anyway, didn't you call me family before?"

"I may have said something like that..."

"It's settled then. Let's come up with a plan of attack and then get this thing done. You only have a week of vacation, why waste it?"

"You really won't be denied?" asked Esme.

"Oh no. The creature I am destined to fight, that even now holds my father in its grip on some far away world, would love nothing more. But I have to fight, just as he does, because otherwise world after world will go dark and shrivel away to nothing. Every battle I face is another step on that journey."

"Then I shall wish you good luck."

 _There's a spell for that._

Susan and the others crested a hill overlooking the flooded town. Susan whistled.

"Now that is a flooding. Who does this spirit thing think it is, anyway? It has no idea what it's in for. So, what is it in for?"

The two girls shrugged. "Have to find it first," said Charlotte.

"What she means is, the spirit could be anywhere in the water around here. We have to somehow get the thing's attention, then somehow drive it off."

"Drive it off? Not destroy it? I mean it'll just come back, right?"

Kirche shook her head. "Be like trying to evaporate all the water on the Earth. It's an immortal representation of what water is. Not just a creature that happens to be made of water."

"Dangerous."

"Exactly. Because of the power it wields, one slip up and we're drowned rats."

"And yet we're still out here," commented Susan.

"King commands."

"She was telling me last night that she's done a lot of dangerous missions for the 'king' who hopes to bump her off that way. He's been disappointed every time. Let's make sure he says disappointed, right Charlotte?"

 _Oh, seems 'Tabitha' came clean about her name, at least to her best friend. That's good._

She nodded. "Still no plan."

"I have a plan, if you want to get the thing's attention," said Susan. "Tell me, if I swam down there, what are the chances of me coming back up again?"

"I doubt it would attack you or anything. Spirits like this see us more as vermin, I think. It won't want to expend the effort. Plus it's weakened during the day."

"Why?"

"Sunlight, maybe? Not sure, but water does evaporate more during the day, right?"

"I guess. Okay, I'm going to go down and check it out. After that we can get it up here. It'll be up to you girls to take it out. My only attack magic is fire based, and I'm not sure that's going to work on a water elemental."

"What are you doing?"

"You'll see." Susan started taking her clothes off.

"What are you doing!?"

"I'm not going to swim in my clothes. Besides, no one around here but you."

Stripped down, Susan cast a quick _Augment Skill_ on herself, for _Swimming_. She only had a three, enough to not panic and drown in water, but she thought being a better swimmer than that would be handy right about now. Also she put on _Darksight,_ because where she planned to go was not likely to have much light.

With that she dove into the water with a splash and started making her way towards the center of the village. Once she figured she was pretty close she took a deep breath and dove, powerful strokes bringing her a few feet underwater. Houses here were hardly covered to the roof, so it wasn't all that deep. Susan looked around, then saw what she was looking for.

A well.

She swam towards it, then grabbed the wooden roof that stuck out the top and looked up. _I know I can hold my breath for 10 seconds per ENDurance point, so that's 80 seconds. I don't need to go too deep, I guess. Plus my_ Overconfident _weakness..._

She slipped inside, feet first, and used her hands to descend as far as she could. Her vision steadily became black and white, but she could still see the edges of the stone perfectly.

 _Really wish_ Breathe Water _worked around here. Stupid missing planets._ She let go a bubble of air and watched it float up. _Okay, this is deeper then I thought. This is probably fine anyway._

Susan started back up, and popped up out of the water with a gasp. She made her way back to the others and climbed out, dripping.

"Did you get what you needed down there?" asked Kirche.

"Not as deep as I wanted to go, but acceptable. Now we just need someplace to put it all. Good thing I got a good view of the land yesterday with Siesta."

"Put what someplace?"

"You'll see," she replied with a wink, then cast _Flight_ on herself. _I figure I'll dry in the air, then put my clothes back on._

Susan sped towards a nearby but unconnected body of water and hovered over the center of it. _This looks like a good a place as any._ With that, she cast _Teleportal,_ putting one end in the air here, pointed down, and the other underwater, inside the well. Predictably, water started gushing out the hole in the air, and Susan nodded, satisfied.

"And now we wait," she said, returning to the flooded area where the others were still a bit confused as to what was going on. She started getting dressed and looked over the town. "Hopefully we won't have long."

And indeed, if the Narrator's calculations are correct, a 1m hole placed 7m down inside a well will siphon off a large swimming pool sized amount of water every thirty seconds. Estimating the area underwater at about 40 x 40 swimming pools, (but three times as deep) gives us 512000 cubic meters of water. With a drain rate of 77.21 cubic meters per second, the water should take 110 minutes to totally drain from around the town. Of course, this doesn't take into account the lesser amount of pressure that will result in a partial draining. It also assumes gravity and the atmospheric pressure in this area are constant with Earth normal, which we have no clue is correct or not. Also the Narrator could be totally wrong in how he did the calculations, because he sort of poked around on the Internet for formulas. _And he's collage educated._ So ask him how much of that stuck around. Go ahead, ask him.

 _Excuse me, do you mind?_

Oh, sorry. Back to the story. Wait, who said-

 _DO YOU MIND?_

About an hour later, the water level around the houses had clearly diminished, and Susan had explained how she was using her _Teleportal_ to syphon the water off and hopefully get the attention of the water spirit. They were tensely waiting on the shore when suddenly a gigantic waterspout shot up and seemed to angrily regard them.

"What are you doing to my water, you things?" it roared.

Susan got up.

She looked to Sparkle, who nodded, and cast _Acceleration_ on them both. As she did, Susan cast _Invulnerability_ on herself, after dropping the _Teleportal._ "Spirit of water, hear me!" she shouted at the thing. "I am Susan Felton, and I represent every living thing in that town you have seen fit to destroy. Every bug, every plant, every animal which could not escape cries out for justice. I will see that justice done."

"You presume to lecture me, you thing? I will crush the life out of you and resume my vengeance against all your kind that dirty the water!"

"Not. Likely."

This seemed to enrage the spirit further, causing Susan and Sparkle to roll _Initiative,_ because the fight was on. Sparkle went first, but held her action, as per the plan. She was going to run interference for the other two, protecting them with _Deflection_ along with Susan. Who of course went second, and also held a segment, waiting for the inevitable attack.

It came the next segment, as water shot out of the spout and sped towards the group.

 _"Deflection!"_ both cast, wishing it was a _Mercury_ spell rather than _Sun._

Susan, putting in 8 energy and Sparkle, putting in 6, got one more than the effective attack roll, and the water harmlessly splashed off the magical circle that appeared in the air. They both went up by 1 delay, that being reactive for them. The waterspout, if such a thing can be possible, seemed taken aback.

"What was-"

It never got to finish the question as icicles and a gout of flame shot at the thing, forcing it to dodge twice, as the attacks were not simultaneous. Incredibly, for such a huge amount of water, (Susan estimated a +3 size modifier for the "creature") it managed to dodge. Susan made a _Magic Combat_ check, something she wasn't actually very good at. She only managed to beat the spirit, a seven versus an eleven, and put her hands up again, ready to cast. "Again!"

" _Deflection!"_ both cast, this time getting two less than was needed. Sparkle used her _I Don't Think So_ card, forcing the spirit to re-roll the attack.

It got one higher.

So she played her _Wild_ as a _Lucky Break_ and the water jerked and missed them, as Kirche and Charlotte's magic both slammed into the creature as it attacked. (They went simultaneously.) The creature roared, but more in frustration than pain. Susan now saw the- perhaps- fatal flaw in her plan. She and Sparkle were reacting, keeping them all safe. But only the other two could actually hurt the creature.

"Quick, put _Acceleration_ on the others and drop it on us!"

"Yeah, I get it. On it."

Sparkle did just that, casting it instantly because that one was a _Mercury_ spell, and so she got the bonus from her own _Acceleration._ With that done, she dropped the first casting, and the world sped up again.

Susan dropped _Invulnerability._ That -3 was really working against her, and she felt it was better to protect all of them than worry about herself. As this was a free action, she continued to hold. The water spirit was fast, it was no wonder the two mages were so hesitant to come out here, and it attacked again.

This time they got two more than the attack, and again the water harmlessly splashed away from them. _At least it seems like this thing doesn't have an area effect technique. Just the equivalent of Elemental Bolt (Water)._

Charlotte got in a good hit, ice punching through the water, and seeming to stagger the creature. Kirche followed it up with fire, but missed. Charlotte, now much faster than she had ever been in her life, followed it up with another attack, which was narrowly dodged.

 _At least it's on the defensive now._

Both girls attacked at once, and Charlotte showed how much better a mage she was by hitting a third time, while the fire went wide.

 _Okay, I'm getting bored just standing here._ She decided that, while her magic couldn't make her own magic better, it might just be able to help make the girl's _aim_ better. _It seems their magic just goes in a straight line wherever they're pointing. If they point better, they hit better. They seem to have no trouble actually casting. Seems to work just the same as it did with Harry and the others._

With that in mind, Susan took the full 5 segments to cast _Augment Skill (Wand Aim)_ on both girls.

They got to attack twice more as she did, and when she did, they started not missing anymore. This further enraged the creature, as with their greater speed and now greater accuracy, they didn't give it a chance to attack.

Finally it decided to throw a huge plume of water into the air, and Susan yelled "I can't block that!" in a panic. Charlotte had it under control, as she simply blasted air out of her staff and deflected the whole thing. She now went on the defensive as Susan watched, the creature getting blasted with Kirche's fire again and again.

Finally the waterspout shrank back. "Please, no more," it cried. "I submit! No more pain, please!"

The girls stopped, wary of a trick.

"You'll reduce the water level back to what it was?" demanded Susan.

"Yes, yes, my word on it. Stupid creatures, should not have been that fast. You cheated. Cheated me. Probably sent by him. You already have what you want, why do you further torment me so? I hate you all!"

It disappeared.

"Okay, what was that all about?" asked Susan.

The others shrugged.

"Thanks for the help," said Kirche. "I don't know how you slowed her down like that, but it was a big help."

Susan laughed. "She wasn't slowed down. You were sped up!"

They waited around the rest of the afternoon, watching the water level go down.

"Kept her word," remarked Charlotte.

"I do feel kind of bad though," said Susan. "What she said at the end, and it sounded like she was really hurting."

"She started it," Kirche said with finality, then barked a laugh. "Guess you've survived another impossible mission, eh, Charlotte?"

She nodded.

"What are you all doing here?" asked a familiar voice from behind them. They all turned, and up the hill rode Hiraga, Louise, Guiche, and a girl Susan wasn't all that familiar with. The strangest thing was Louise, who was riding on the same horse as Hiraga, and was making moon eyes at him. Two moon eyes, even.

"Oh, you know," dismissed Susan. "Saved a town. Drove off a water spirit. Well, these girls did all the work. I just helped a little that time. Given my situation, maybe learning some more attack magic would be the thing to do..."

"Water spirit?" The girl hopped off the horse and stalked over to the group. "What are you talking about?"

"Look, you can still see the water," offered Kirche. "It was way higher this morning. We beat the water spirit that was causing it, and we're just making sure she keeps her word."

"You actually took an elemental spirit _in combat?_ That can't be possible!"

"Glad we didn't know that beforehand," she deadpanned. "Though honestly, I don't think it would have been possible without Susan's magic. It's really something."

"Oh, you!" Susan acted embarrassed.

"Who are you again? Oh, wait, you came with Hiraga, right?"

"Susan Felton, at your service, my lady," Susan mocked with a bow. "What brings you all the way out here, so deep into the space sticks there isn't even a space Radio Shack?"

"What?" The girl was clearly confused.

"Let's just go back!" whined Louise, snuggling up to Hiraga more, if such a thing were possible. "I'm fine. The potion just opened my eyes a little, that's all."

"Are you saying we won't be able to get the ingredients, then?" asked Hiraga, trying to push Louise away.

"Did I miss something?" Susan asked, looking the two of them over.

"Suffice to say, Louise accidentally drank a love potion I... may have made."

"Still didn't catch your name." Susan managed after several minutes of howling laugher.

"She's Montmorency," said Guiche, "Shining star, most beautiful flower of the entire school."

 _Eh, I suppose she's decent looking enough._

"Nice to meet you. So, love potion, huh?"

"Never mind why, we need to talk to the spirit and get part of its body to make the antidote."

"Didn't ask why. Louise, could you come over here, please?"

"If it's okay with my love?"

"It's fine, Louise. I think Susan has something in mind."

"That I do."

She got down off the horse and stood very demurely in front of Susan. "Hi!" she said, almost looking embarrassed at such a bold choice of words. She giggled, looking down. "You're pretty!"

"Okay, all in favor of just leaving her like this? Because she is ten times as cute this way." Susan raised a hand. Everyone just stared at her. "No? No one but me?" She sighed. "Fine. _Magic Immunity."_ She tapped Louie's forehead and magical circles appeared around her.

Louise blinked a few times.

Then her eyes widened, as though in terror.

Then she ran screaming away from the group, back the way they all had come.

"Louise!" called Hiraga, trying to turn the horse and failing miserably. He thudded to the ground trying to get off, then took off after her, calling her name.

"That's handled," Susan said, turning back to the others. Montmorency was edging away from her, looking terrified.

"What was that? What are you?" she stuttered.

"Oh, knock it off. You know I'm from another world, is it so hard to accept my magic is different, too? I just made her immune to magic for a second, which knocked the potion out of her system."

"I just met you a minute ago. I don't know anything about you!"

"You saw me arrive with Hiraga there, where did you think I came from?"

"I have no idea!"

Susan sighed. "Anyway, can we go now?"

"No! I have to make sure the spirit is all right."

"Are you nuts? That thing just insulted us by calling us 'you thing' and then attacked us. You want to _talk_ to it?"

"I've done it before," she maintained. "And I'll do it again. You have to deal with them properly, which you obviously didn't. They're not human, they don't see the world the same way we do. To them, we basically just crawled out of the swamp or wherever we came from. We're babies."

"It did say something about us already having what we wanted. I wouldn't mind figuring out what that was all about."

"Just stay back and let me do the talking this time."

"Sure, but I'll have my magic on standby in case it attacks again."

The group walked down to the water's edge, where Montmorency pricked her finger and rubbed the blood on her little frog Familiar. That done it plunked down into the water and the group waited. Some time later the frog came back, and a very tiny waterspout appeared before them.

"I'm lowering it. Please, no more pain. No more torment."

"I'm here to apologize for their behavior towards you earlier. They had no right to attack you like that."

"Yes, those things had no right to do that. When I am recovered I will seek them out and-"

"Be careful how you finish that sentence," threatened Susan.

The spout sank a little lower. "I will not seek out any vengeance. I will not be happy to reclaim the water inside them one day, when they are no more."

"Very well."

"Stop it, Susan. Can't you see she's scared?"

"Does this thing imply that I would be fearful of her? Because she can make the others too fast for me to hurt? That she can make their magic strike me without fail? Because I am not!"

"No, no, what I mean is... I'm trying to... I'm trying to explain things in the way she'll understand."

"That thing will never understand me. Why do you summon me, you thing? I am weary from combat, and raising the water and now having to lower it again. It goes against my nature. Speak and be gone."

"I wanted to know why you came to do this thing. You must have a reason, tell me what that reason is. Perhaps she can use her magic to aid you, rather than hurt you."

"She is now our sworn enemy. Why would that thing help us?"

"If I was in the wrong, I would do whatever I could to put that situation to rights," insisted Susan.

"Ha. Words. They will not sway me."

"Then perhaps my actions will. My magic helped hurt you, perhaps it can help heal you as well. If you give your word that you will not attack us again, I will try."

"More tricks!"

"No tricks. I did not know this girl was known to you. If I had, things would have been different. I am sorry for that."

The spout seemed to change shape, as though thinking it over. "Very well. What must I do?"

"Just allow me to touch you while I cast the spell."

"It cannot be worse than what the thing has already done. I will allow this."

 _That's what you think. If I knew_ Freeze _, or_ Stasis _or something else nasty..._

Susan put that out of her mind and held out a finger. The water rose up to meet it, and she cast _Regeneration_ on the spirit. It shrank back down and seemed to consider. "I am growing whole once again."

"Does that help to convince you?"

"Slightly. You wish to know why?"

Montmorency nodded. "Please."

"Very well. For many years I have guarded a great treasure. Andvari's Ring. It is too dangerous to be in the hands of you things. I must retrieve it. As I can only move within the water, then the water must cover the land so it can be reclaimed."

"All this for a ring? That must be some magic inside it!"

"Indeed."

Susan waited for the spirit to go on, but it didn't.

"Very well. It seems I did attack you without knowing the whole story, and I thought I was better than that. I do not have access to my scrying magic, but I do promise to track down where this ring has gone. Such a powerful treasure will make ripples in the world, I'm sure. When I find it I will keep it safe, and bring it to you when I can."

Again the hesitation.

"It seems I have no choice but to believe you. If I seek the ring again, you will come with your strange magic and hurt me over and over. This I do not want. I have touched you and felt your water. If it joins with me again I will know you have failed, and I will start my search again."

"Agreed."

"Then allow me my rest."

With that, the spout disappeared, and Montmorency breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm never going to get this _Fabrication_ done, am I?" Susan asked no-one in particular.


	13. Chapter 13

13

Letter

Place: The School

Time: More than a week later

Without access to her spellbook and scrying spells, Susan and Sparkle could do little more than _Research_ the ring the water spirit was talking about. She had hoped someone might have written about it in their diary:

 _Dear Diary,_

 _Today I stole this sweet ring from a water spirit!_

But that would be just silly, so while she now knew all about it, she was no closer to finding it than she was before. Things were calm at the school, and Susan got busy _Fabricating_ Hiraga's sword when he and Louise got back to the castle. She explained why he needed to stick around, and for an unbreakable sword he was more than happy to do so and watch her work.

She also exploited a strange characteristic of her heritage as a _Paragon._ She worked a number of hours on the project, but didn't actually make the _Fabrication_ check until the very end. When she was getting close, she put _Augment Skill (Fabrication)_ on herself, raising her skill by nine. As the only thing _Augment Skill_ couldn't increase was spellcasting checks, she shaved nine hours (an entire day of work) off the project. Of course, this was because _Augment Skill_ raised the rating of the skill by the rating in the _Planet,_ and a _Natural Magician's_ rating was determined by the energy they put into the spell.

 _Once I get_ Energetic Accumulation _back, I'm going to have to try putting all my energy in at once, raising my rating by seventy or so. With the total difficulty of this project being a 74, and my skill of 7, I should be able to make an unbreakable item in an hour. Sure, I'd be wiped out for the day, but making the check right before I went to bed, I could make one a day, rather than four a month._

Hiraga went to go chop some rocks or something, as Susan told him the blade would never dull, and he should get used to swinging it around.

"After all," she reasoned, "you may have an unnatural rating in the skill, but your body is still that of a high school student. An actual swordsman would just wear you down and chop you to bits when you can't parry anymore."

"Good point," admitted Hiriga. "I'm off to train."

She had some leftover materials, so she increased the DTR of Louise's wand as well, figuring even if it wasn't unbreakable, at least it would grow back if it ever did become broken.

She was finally ready to start thinking about what to do with the _massive_ amount of XP she was carrying around (36) when out of the blue, the princess showed up at the school.

"Anrietta!" she cried, as the princess came into her room that night with Louise and Hiriga. She popped up off the bed and ran to hug her. Louise's eyes were wide and she was sputtering something about using the princess' name and actually hugging her.

"Oh, we've been closer than this," Anrietta assured Louise when Susan let her go. "Haven't we, Susan?" She narrowed her eyes and purred the last seductively.

"Any closer and we would have been one person," she replied, tapping her nose.

Both dissolved into giggles.

"This is outrageous!" Louise finally managed to get out.

"Oh, don't be so uptight," Susan admonished. "She's obviously not in princess mode right now. Don't make her feel uncomfortable by pretending she is."

"Princess mode?"

"I like it," remarked Hiraga.

"You don't get a vote!"

"Anyway," cut in Susan, "unless you somehow managed to duplicate my _Teleportal,_ your being here means you flew here. That overprotective guy from before won't be too happy when he finds out you snuck out. And you brought Louise and Hiriga, so you're not here to confess your undying love for me. So what's up? You took an awful risk coming here, so there must be a good reason for it."

Anrietta turned serious and made sure the door was closed. "It is, actually. I've come to ask for your help again, I'm afraid."

"Excellent, I wouldn't mind forty XP at the end of the day. What can I do for you?"

"There's a letter," she began, walking to the window and looking out. "I sent it to the man I love, but now I fear the contents will serve to undermine me, politically."

"How so?"

"He is a prince in another country. But I have decided to marry a prince in a stronger country, in order to protect my people."

Susan was silent a moment, pondering. "That sounds like a terrible idea?"

Louise gasped and went to one knee. "Please forgive her, your majesty. She comes from another world and-"

"Be at ease," assured Anrietta, gripping Lousie by the shoulders and making her stand again. "I would value her insight and honesty in this matter."

"It touches on what I said before. Your country is only as strong as your people's belief in you. If you follow your heart, people are going to see you as a person of values. If you marry for political power, they will see you as nothing but a schemer. And what if something should happen to you, or to him? The other will immediately be suspect, and throw the kingdoms into disarray. If you marry for love, the people will know nothing like that happened. You have to think carefully about what image you want to project."

"There is a lot of truth to your words. There's one thing I haven't told you." Anrietta seemed ashamed, and her head fell. "He's my cousin."

Louise gasped.

"So? Oh, right, the whole heir thing. That could be troublesome, but couldn't magic be used to insure a healthy child? I wonder..."

"That's not exactly the reaction I was expecting."

"Yeah, I often try to think how people expect me to react, and then do the opposite. Okay, you're related, so what? If you love him, there's a reason for that. Don't throw it away so easily."

"Is that sort of thing normal on your world or something?"

"My world, or the world I come from? Because I live in my own little world."

"She really does," put in Sparkle.

"Hush, you. Yeah, people there have some funny ideas too, I'll admit. There's a saying I've always liked; 'When you're in the majority, think about the reason the people in the minority are there. What do they know that you don't?' So yes, the majority of people would have Louise's reaction. So I have to ask myself, why? What do those people who wouldn't have that reaction know that I don't. Isn't love- love? As long as you're not using head games to try and manipulate someone into loving you, who cares? Okay, so maybe having kids is a little more dangerous, adopt! Or just don't have kids. Like I said, you're, uh, expected to produce heirs so I can see why it's a problem."

Anrietta nodded her head sadly. "In any case, the formal declaration has already gone out. I need to make sure that letter is never discovered. I think I can trust you to take care of it. I want Louise to go with you, first because she's my friend and I trust her. Second, she can be your guide and show you where you need to go." She slipped a ring off, and handed to Susan. "This will be your proof that you come from me."

Susan gently took it, doing a _Magic Sense_ on it in case it was special in some way she should know about. (It was an item worn by royalty, after all.) She felt a low level magical aura around it, but nothing spectacular. "Very well," she said, slipping it on. "Where do we start?"

"You'll take a ship to Albion. I've already told Louise where she need to guide from there."

"Anything else I should know?" She shook her head. "In that case, how about we get you back? Not that I don't think you're safe with me, because you are. But if someone has found out you're missing..."

Anrietta smiled. "What a good subject you are. Always thinking of the needs of your princess."

"I live to serve."

They both laughed again, but Anrietta only for a moment. "Thank you for agreeing to this." She held up a hand. "I know, you say you get that weird XP out of it you keep mentioning, but I will find some way to reward you for all you have done for the kingdom."

"What did you do, exactly?" asked Louise.

"She didn't say?" Anrietta seemed surprised. "Why, she exposed some corrupt nobles, treason in my own ranks, and saved my life all in the span of a day! I can't believe- no, I can believe it. You didn't even mention it to them, did you?" She looked Susan over like she was some kind of zoo specimen or rare bug no one had ever seen before. "Can there really be a person, on any world, that does things like that and then tells no one about it?"

Susan shrugged. "When you've had as many adventures as I have, it stops being a big deal. I know I did good, that's all that matters. Oh sure, if someone sees me doing something and thinks it's cool, fine. But bragging about stuff isn't my style."

"Showing off, yes. Bragging, no," confirmed Sparkle.

"They're totally separate things."

"Thank you anyway. It probably seems silly to you, worrying about a letter. But I will rest easier once it's no longer out there to be found."

 _If it wasn't a letter, it would have been something else,_ thought Sparkle. _The item may change, but the mission? The mission never does._

And so Susan got her back to the throne room as though she had never left, and made arrangements with Louise to leave the next day for the port town of La Nocher. Basically they would fly there, and Susan asked why they couldn't just fly to the place directly. Louise said that was certainly possible, but it was pretty far away and she was not sleeping outside somewhere when she could be snug on a boat.

"Okay."

With that, Susan and the others made their way to La Nocher and stayed the night, awaiting the next ship to leave in the morning. Susan was impressed with the boat, which she floated over and looked at while it was still light enough. It turned out not to be a sailing ship, but an airship... which looked exactly like a sailing ship.

 _I suppose so it could be used in the water? Because honestly that design is totally impractical for a ship that can float in the air. What if the magic failed? Or they went under attack or there was a fire onboard? They can't land that thing without sustaining super heavy damage to the bottom. If they made it flat, and put some wheels on the bottom, they could land and not have a whole ship to rebuild. Makes no sense to me..._

The next morning she had Sparkle wake her up early to go down into the town. She wasn't worried about getting lost, all she had to do was _Flight_ her way back up to the ship, as the inn was right underneath it.

In town she picked up some more little things she could use for _Imbuing_ or _Fabrication,_ now having a better idea about the cost ratio her magic considered normal. She still had no real plan in mind, but that XP was bothering her. Like money in a savings account that earned no interest, XP sitting there unspent did no one any good.

 _Oh sure, I could raise my_ Planet _ratings, but with energy I've never really felt the need, and I've never run out in a fight. Day to day stuff doesn't even matter, so that's not a concern. Of course, this all hinges on the fact that I usually end fights within a round or two. What if I met up with someone like me? Remember tying to fight Tom? Fighting myself was terrible, because he could counter my magic with his own. There could be others like him out there, or worlds that don't have even as many planets as this one! Perhaps I should train with the sword, and make it unbreakable as well. Putting_ Augment Skill _on it, I could get a pretty high rating and depend less on my magic, should it prove unreliable or ineffective. Then if I lose my magic I would still have a weapon. It doesn't need reloading, and if I have my own skill, the_ Augment Skill _is more just a bonus than anything else._

 _What to do._

She spent a lot of time on the ship that day staring out and thinking about it. Sparkle sat with her, and Susan turned to her.

"We haven't really done much looking into how we're getting out of here," she remarked. "Does that bother you?"

"Why would it bother me? You're the _PC_ here, I'm just the _Companion._ Besides, I think something will come up when its time to leave."

"Awful big thing to leave up to chance!"

 _Well, I know a bit more about how the universe really works than you do. But you haven't traveled enough to pick up on it yet, and I swore not to reveal it until you did. Finding out what you really are... it can break some people, according to your father. Better that you figure it out for yourself and ask the question._ "I don't think it's chance. I mean, think about it; Hiraga appearing as he did, just when you were traversing the worlds? The odds against that are so small, it just smacks of interference."

"By Darkness or Inari?"

"Who can say? We haven't really seen any evidence of Darkness here, but then, until he tipped his hand on our world we wouldn't have known. Either way, I don't think your being here is an accident. I mean your very attitude about leaving confirms it, in a way. Sure, we looked into a little, and they don't really have the magic we would need to leave, but that was the end of it. You just accepted it and we've been going on adventures ever since. That suggests _purpose._ Like there's something you need to do here."

"Our foe is unlike anything I've known. Perhaps I needed more XP, a lot more, before I faced him. Maybe that's why I'm here, and why Luna was taken away. Even if I make it to another world, and get back to Inari's place, I still have to look for her. That means more worlds and more adventures."

"True. It begs the question- can we really fight beings that view entire realities as just marbles?"

"We couldn't kill that water spirit, right? But we could cause it pain, and drive it back. Perhaps if enough people like my father and me step up, we can make him think twice about this invasion plan of his. Make the cost too high for him to continue."

"I hope so. Besides, you've gotten some clues that there is a way back. From Siesta, of all people. A random maid you happened to meet, thought was cute, and got to know. I mean off all the maids in that place, you pick the one that _happens_ to have ancestry from beyond this world? I think that's to keep you looking and show you the path, when you need it and your purpose is done here."

"It all makes sense when you explain it. Glad to have you along my old friend!"

"Nowhere I would rather be."

In the end, she decided to hold off, and just keep accumulating XP for now. She wanted the full range of her abilities to draw from, so making a hasty decision here might cost her later. Sure, it seemed like she had a lot of XP, but making an item or two would make that disappear quite quickly.

 _And I'm not helpless. I can always call upon my soldiers to fight for me. With my new trick I can make an item really fast, so let's get back to Inari's place and see what she thinks is best. She knows the kinds of worlds out there, so she would be invaluable to figure out what was most useful across all of them._

In any event, it didn't matter because the journey only took a day, and Susan and the others headed to a church out in the countryside. They walked in, but Susan didn't see anyone about.

"Are you sure this is the place?" she asked.

Suddenly, a bunch of armored figured, with weird looking swords and helmets, jumped out from behind the pillars of the church and stood ready. The swords they were holding weren't even swords, they were rods with hand guards. The end wasn't even pointy, it was flat, meaning stabbing someone with one probably wasn't going to work very well.

 _I suppose they could be magic?_

One in particular strode up to them.

"I am here by order of Princess Anrietta," she announced, holding the ring up. "State your intentions or suffer the consequences."

"We'll see about that," said the figure, bringing his own hand up. On his finger was a similar ring, in red. He held it near the other ring and a flash of light jumped between them.

"Is that what that spell is? How disappointing. I knew it was a weak spell but that's just silly."

"Really?" asked the figure, putting his arm down and taking his helmet off. "And who are you, to be so young but still so jaded?"

"Susan Felton. And you are?"

"Wales Tudor. You have the princess's ring. If you seek me, then you have found me."

Moments later, in the back of the church, Susan handed Wales a letter from the princess. _I just hope I'm not retrieving that one later, as well. But hopefully she didn't sign her name to this one._

He briefly read it, then went over to a drawer where he pulled out a similar envelope. "This is the letter she speaks of," he said sadly.

"Excellent!" said Susan, looking around the room. The nearest candle was right there on the table, so she held it to the flame until it burned to ash.

"Hey!" said Louise as it caught fire. "You can't just-"

Susan silenced her with a look. "You heard the princess. This is total blackmail material. Why would I allow it to leave this room? She was very concerned about it falling into the wrong hands, I have now made sure that is an impossibility."

"I suppose that is for the best," admitted Wales.

"Anything I can do for you?" Susan asked. "Otherwise I'll just be heading back, I guess."

"No, I don't-" The ground shook, or maybe just the building, like something heavy just hit it. "What was that?"

"Prince," yelled a man, barging into the room. "We're under attack by a huge golem!"


	14. Chapter 14

14

First Shots

Place: Outside the Church

Time: Seconds later

Susan and Sparkle immediately began casting as Wales grabbed up his sword and Hiraga drew his.

"Time for a real test of what this sword can do!" he said, grinning.

Louise looked doubtful. "Want me to hang back?"

"Why? Always something that need exploding in a fight," replied Susan, after she finished _Invulnerability._ "You need the practice too, and in this case we want something blown up."

"Okay."

Susan and Sparkle were _Accelerated_ as normal, and Susan grabbed up a candle with an evil grin. _I should wear an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time, so I always have something to switch things with. Ah well._

The group ran out into the field in front of the church, where a huge construct made of rock was again pounding the side of the building. Standing in front of the door was the traitor, Jean-Jacques, and five soldiers in armor backed him.

"Ah, thought if we followed you it would lead somewhere interesting. Wales, I've found you at last!"

"Don't know what good it'll do you," snarked Susan. "Look around. No castle to throw at me this time."

Jean-Jacques raised his sword. "Ah, it is you. How did you escape from that, by the way?"

"I have a better question. How exactly do you intend to fight us?"

He barked a laugh. "Have you seen me fight?"

Louise, the shortest and slowest character, burst from the doors and stopped dead. "Jean-Jacques? What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Ah, our wayward Louise. Is our marriage still on?"

Susan looked over at her, and she was blushing up a storm. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't it be?"

"Uh, that's the treasonous fellow who threw part of a castle wall at me and nearly killed the princess. Of course you know him, why wouldn't you?"

"That was you?" she screeched. "You're a traitor to the crown?"

"Perhaps I don't believe in that crown anymore. Perhaps I believe in something greater."

"Like what?" Susan demanded.

"Beat me, and maybe I'll tell you."

"Fine."

He laughed again. "With a candle?"

"Take a look at your sword. Now back to me. Now back to your sword." Susan cast _Transposition_ instantly, getting a sixteen, while Jean-Jacques got a 12 (despite spending 7 energy on RESolve, poor guy). He was now holding the candle and she was holding the sword. "Now back to me. What's in your hand? I have it, it's your sword, and you're holding a candle. I'm on a horse!"

He looked down at the candle in his hand. "Attack!" he shouted, angrily throwing the candle down.

Susan and Sparkle rolled Initiativeas the five soldiers in front of them charged.

" _Elemental Line (Wind),"_ Sparkle cast, weaving the line in front of the soldiers, then back on itself to strike out directly at Jean-Jacques. He had started forward, but somehow saw the line and jumped away from it, unharmed.

" _Thrust,"_ cast Susan, targeting him as he was off balance from the dodge. He leaned into it and that -3 worked against her again, he didn't go flying as she intended.

"Man, we're really striking out here, Sparkle."

"Tell me about it. This is so humiliating."

The construct took a step towards them, and Louise raised her wand. "Explosion!" she shouted, and the impact tore into the creature's chest, ripping part of it away.

"Nice!" said Susan, looking over there.

"I was aiming for the head!"

Sparke held, now maintaining the _Line_ and _Acceleration._ She figured the first soldier over the thing would be in for a nasty shock, and she didn't want to deny him the experience.

The first soldier that was going to cross the line got a reprieve, as Wales raised his sword and shot a bolt of wind at him, striking his right arm and spinning him around.

 _Aw!_

 _"Lubricate,"_ cast Susan, targeting the ground under Jean-Jacques, who was still several meters away. She got a 15 total, knocking over half of the people currently over that way. Jean-Jacques stayed up.

Wind erupted from the line as one of the soldiers touched it, knocking him backwards in a spray of blood. He went down and didn't get back up.

Hiraga turned towards the construct, and dashed forward quickly, rune on his hand glowing.

Jean-Jacques, careful to avoid the line and falling down, made his way to the soldier that was down to grab his sword.

 _We can't have that, now can we?_ Susan asked herself, looking around. _Ah!_ She cast Transposition against the sword and a boot from the only soldier still up and running. The soldier did not manage to resist losing his boot, and he found a sword in place of it. He went sprawling, and hit the line, which again triggered a massive blast of wind, killing him instantly. Jean-Jacques looked at the boot and back over to Susan. "Stop doing that!" he called over to her.

By this time, the construct and Hiraga had met, and Hiraga nicked the thing's leg. He did his maximum damage to it, an eight, but that was divided by three so it didn't amount to much.

Louise sent another " _Explosion"_ its way, blowing another chunk off the body.

The prince shot wind at one of the soldiers on the ground, smashing into the guy's helmet and throwing him backwards. Three of the five solders were now unmoving, and Jean-Jacques realized that, in short order it might be five. He was still unarmed, and Susan was eyeing him, as if daring him to make a move towards another weapon.

"I'll get you yet, just you wait," he cried, pulling a vial of liquid from beneath his cloak. Susan had actually been holding for several segments, waiting for him to try something. She dropped _Invulnerability,_ shrugged, and cast _Transposition_ again, trying to give him the candle back and cause the vial to go off into the grass somewhere. She didn't beat his RESolve check, and he popped the cork and drank it down.

 _Shoot._

One of the soldiers was trying to see where the line was, to see if he could edge around it. Sparkle hadn't done anything since the line, so she went ahead and cast _Thrust_ on him, knocking him off his feet and throwing him back nine meters. He barely missed a tree and slammed into the ground, snapping his right arm and causing him to scream in pain.

"So brutal," remarked Jean-Jacques, starting to fade away.

"As if you wouldn't have done the same to us!" Susan countered.

"Oh, bet on it. I'll repay you in kind, somehow."

The last soldier standing saw his boss fading away and decided he would get out of there the only way he knew how, and took off running.

With Jean-Jacques all but disappeared, the two native magic users turned their attention to the construct and started pelting it with wind and explosions. Sparkle recast the line, surrounding them all in case Jean-Jacques decided to sneak up on them from behind while invisible (or whatever he had done). She then joined in with _Destruction,_ once again targeting the thing's legs while Susan almost lazily cast _Shrink_ on it again.

Miss Longbill, or whatever her name was, saw she was once again going to lose and threw up a huge cloud of dust, converting what was left of her golem even as it shrank. This allowed her to get away while the others waited for the dust to settle.

"I can't believe they got away again!" groused Susan. "I should have slapped _Immobilize_ on the guy right off, rather than showing off with _Transposition_."

"You were having a little too much fun with that spell," remarked Sparkle.

"At least I got his sword." She gave it an experimental wave. "If you can call this a sword, anyway."

"I can't believe it," said Louise with a shake of her head. "My fiancee was actually a traitor to the kingdom."

"Yes, let's talk about that," said Susan, rounding on her. "How did this happen?"

"It was something our parents set up," she insisted, waving her hands in front of her. "That's all. I haven't seen him for months! Honest."

"Arranged marriages? Great."

"I can't be out in the open like this," said Wales. "I need to gather my men and find a new place to hide."

"Sorry about this, I guess we brought them here, however unintentionally."

"And help drive them away again. For that, I thank you. It seems the situation in the kingdoms is deteriorating faster than I thought, if they are willing to attack a prince in broad daylight like this. Give my love to Anrietta."

With that, he turned and went back into the church.

"Guess that's our cue to leave as well," said Susan. "All aboard the Susan train."

"This sword still doesn't pack enough punch," complained Hiraga. "Is there anything else you can do about it?"

"Using _Imbuing_ on a _Fabricated_ weapon is possible, of course. The difficulty just goes up, meaning more hours of work. Plus I'm not sure what I know that would help."

"Maybe _Augment STRength?"_ asked Sparkle. "I know that one, but I still don't think it'll help against something like that."

"Yeah, it's a creature made of solid rock. You can't expect too much, even from the sharpest sword in existence."

"It's also partially held together by magic, that makes it harder to damage," added Louise.

"Oh. Still..."

"We can talk about this later. Come on."

"Wait, what about the injured?" asked Sparkle.

Susan blinked. "You're right, I didn't even think about them. I'm used to you using _Knockout,_ not _Wind._ I expected them to get up again." She looked them over. "I think the ones that hit the line are pretty far gone. And they are technically enemies of the kingdom. Can we help them, ethically?"

"I've never really killed anything with my magic before," remarked Sparkle sadly.

"Yeah. I mean I shot Tom, I was prepared for that. This... this is different. But they would have killed us, right?"

"Yeah. They were just doing their job, they couldn't know what my _Line_ would do to them. I kind of feel bad, now. But I didn't have any choice, right?"

"It's just, I don't know. It doesn't feel real, does it? Like they weren't people, just an obstacle for me to overcome. You think it's because of The Darkness inside me?"

"Maybe. I guess there isn't anything we can do. Someone will find them and take care of it, I guess."

"Yeah. Nothing we can do."

Susan opened her _Teleportal_ and they went back to the school.

The next day, Susan brought all of them to the castle and reported to the princess that the letter had been destroyed. However, she noticed the princess seemed distracted, even distant.

"Is there something else I can help you with, Anrietta?"

"This hasn't been widely announced, so don't go spreading it around. But it seems the kingdom of Albion has been subjugated and renamed Reconquista. A man named Oliver Cromwell used a combination of magic, political power, and raw force to overthrow the royal family. It seems they are not waiting around, as reports place soldiers in that area moving to converge on this one. By tomorrow, it seems I must contend with my kingdom being at war."

"Wasn't that prince we saw yesterday from there?" asked Hiriga.

Anrietta nodded. "He was driven from the castle, that's why he was out hiding in the wilderness, where you found him. He's the only surviving member of the royal family."

"At least he's still alive, out there fighting," said Susan.

"I do take some comfort in that. When you first came in here, I feared the worst, that he had been killed. I had the most horrible premonition of that last night, but you say he was fine when you left him."

"That he was. And he had a squad of loyal men with him, so I'm sure he'll be fine. Princess, I can't fight a war for you, but you know my magic is at your command."

She gave a wan smile. "That means a lot to me."

Louise went down on one knee again. _She's always doing that._ "My magic as well, such as it is."

"What, explosions in a pitched battle? Yeah, that could never be useful."

"Will you stay here, in the place? At least for tonight. There will be a meeting tomorrow about what to do, and I'd like your input. I know you can just make it here, but you should at least get a little bit of a reward for all your hard work. Live like a princess for a day!"

Susan laughed. "You drive a hard bargain, Anrietta. We'll stay."

She seemed a bit relieved, and told them she would have rooms prepared. They took their leave and went to go back.

The next day, Susan and the others went to the meeting, and she saw an older version of Anrietta sitting next to her. _Oh, duh, of course she has a mother. I wonder what happened to her father?_

Also around the table were various nobles, and soldiers stood at attention in the four corners of the room.

"We're bringing children into this meeting? No wonder this country is going downhill," remarked a man with a wispy mustache, dressed in green. The man was dressed in green, not his mustache, just to be clear.

"These are my personal-" Anrietta started to say.

"Bodyguards," finished Susan. "And anyone who doesn't like it can fight any one of us, one on one, for that honor instead. Of course, you'll probably die, but..."

"Bodyguards?" he sneered.

Susan walked over to him, looking him straight in the eye. "Yes."

"Okay, okay, just checking. Can we get this meeting started already?"

The nobles were concerned that the attacking country seemed superior in terms numerical advantage. They counseled sending diplomats into Reconquista to try and negotiate some kind of neutrality agreement.

"What do you suggest?" Anrietta asked Susan.

"Do we know this Oliver's motive?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" asked a noble dressed in red.

"Just recently I attacked and drove off a water spirit, because I didn't understand why it was doing the thing it was doing. If I had found that out, the whole conflict could have been avoided. Until we know why this is happening, we won't be able to properly counter it. Perhaps he wants something that just happens to be on the other side of your country, and if we didn't fight him, he would be happy to leave us alone. Perhaps he wants to conquer the world, in which case if we take him out, the war is over. You see? Two different goals, two very different responses from us."

"Let's say he does want to conquer the world. How would you handle that?" asked a man in purple.

"If that's the case, you need friends, and fast. Travel to other kingdoms for soldiers and present a unified front. If that's not practical, you'll have to fight in a totally different way than he does. You say he has the numbers, that's huge in war. Okay, turn that into a disadvantage. Don't strike at them, strike at the supply train. Deny them water. Have mages turn the land into a swamp, or too rocky for wagons to travel on. I've seen one mage raise a huge Earth Golem, hire mages that can do that to provide cover for your front lines. Get creative, because you're going to have to take out several of his guys for every one of your soldiers you lose just to stay in the running."

Several people nodded, it was true.

"Very well," said the princess. "Susan has often told me that the strength of the kingdom lies in the strength of the people's belief in its leaders. I will head the defense force personally, and inspire my people with my example. Meanwhile, do as Susan recommends. Send your diplomats to the new empire, see what they want from us. If that can be learned, perhaps this war can be cut short."

The meeting went on, deciding how best to supply their own soldiers and other mundane things Susan didn't care about. They also talked about how best to utilize magic, which Susan was glad to hear. _You have it, use it, that's my motto._

Susan was contemplating making an item to maintain _Invulnerability_ for her when there was a frantic pounding on her door. She hadn't yet returned to the school, Anrietta having insisted on her staying at least for dinner. Sparkle looked up as she opened it to see a soldier standing there.

"Urgent message from the princess," he told her. "An enemy ship has been sighted in the air over the kingdom! The princess demands your presence immediately."

 _I doubt she said it like that, but okay._

Susan and the others followed the man, and he led them out to the field behind the castle. There, rows of troops were getting ready to ride to meet this new threat.

"Only one ship?" asked Susan. "That doesn't seem like an invading army. More like a mercenary group that somehow got hold of a ship. Are you sure it's from this new kingdom?"

"We think so. Nevertheless, we have to check it out."

"I just hope it isn't part of a faint, designed to lure soldiers away from the where the real fight is going to take place."

"It's a good thing I have you then, isn't it?"

Susan smirked. "I guess I could open a hole in the air for you, if you asked nicely. But I've only been a couple of places around here. We may need to go in totally the opposite direction."

"It's the town of Talb, have you been there?"

"Okay, that's just stupid," replied Susan. She turned to Sparkle. "What are the odds that one ship, probably all that we could reasonably take down, would show up in the one place I happened to have visited? Does that make sense to you?"

"I suppose it does in the larger context."

"Larger... What does that mean?"

"Don't worry about it for now. Just accept it as a bizarre coincidence."

"I guess I have no choice but to do that very thing. Okay, I'll put us right outside the village, everyone get ready to ride through. _Teleportal!"_ Susan made it as large as she could, and watched as soldiers on horseback poured through.

"This magic could change the nature of war," remarked Anrietta, watching her soldiers go through. "With this, even numerical superiority wouldn't mean much, as an entire country's worth of soldiers could be brought to wherever the action was. Fresh, because they didn't have to march there. Or insert strike teams behind enemy lines. Or just dump lava on a town from above."

"Yup, that's all true," agreed Susan. "Aren't you glad I'm on your side."

She nodded vigorously.

Susan and the others watched the ship approach, and Susan waited for the other shoe to drop. It was just a standard sailing ship, converted however they did in into something that would float, and sailed here. It had some cannons on the side, true, but it was made of wood. _Couldn't one fire mage just blow the whole thing up? From here, even?_

"Guess we'll capture it," she said, shrugging.

"Capture? Are you crazy?" yelled Louise.

"Hey, if they're stupid enough to come here with no backup, no troops, no nothing, it's our duty to make them regret that mistake for a very long time. What better way than to capture a powerful military asset like this ship? They can't be that easy to make."

"Can you do it?" asked Anrietta.

"I don't see why not. The four of us-"

"Five. I'm coming too."

"If you're sure that's wise. Okay, the five of us, made _Invulnerable,_ and possibly _Accelerated_ if you think you can manage five, Sparkle? Plus all the soldiers I can whistle up in an instant. We'll be back for tea."

"Then cast your spells and let's go. We have a ship to take down."


	15. Chapter 15

15

Ship

Place: The air above the village of Talb

Time: Moments later

Susan and Sparkle put in maximum time and energy casting their two spells, and both went off perfectly. Susan then put _Flight_ on the group and they took the sky.

"Follow us and take care of any aerial support they have aboard," Anrietta commanded her forces. "Ground troops, stand by in case we fail to take the ship. Bring it down by any means necessary."

They gave a cry and the five were off. They were now hovering above the ship, looking down. It seemed everyone there was in a panic, as they probably didn't understand where all these soldiers had come from. _Wanted to sneak in quietly, huh? Thought maybe you could take a few villages out, soften the kingdom up for a surrender? Not while I'm around. Wait, what is this ship still doing here? Or was it just coming this way and someone got back to the castle fast enough to report it, gather these forces here, and then we just happened to get here before it passed? These people don't have telephones, how long does a message take to get from one end of the kingdom to another? And these people would have had to_ ride _out here. This ship would have been_ long _gone._

 _I don't get it._

"Wait here a second, I'll get things set up. Come on, Sparkle. No holding back now."

"You got it. _Ally?"_

" _Ally._ Let them do the work, our penalty will be pretty high."

"That's for sure."

"Here we go."

Susan slammed into the deck of the ship, going to one knee. Sparkle sat calmly on her shoulder. _Oh yeah, I look so cool right now._ She raised her head and called into the silence that followed. "I am here to accept your surrender! Fight me, and die." The soldiers started laughing. _Okay, you had your chance._ "For sacrifices made."

Suddenly, they weren't laughing anymore as twenty five soldiers made of fire appeared in a ring around Susan. "Sweep through the ship," she called to them. "Kill anyone that fights against you." It was poor orders to give, but Susan figured rather than try to micro-manage them, she would rely on a soldiers' instinct to attack things to make sure they engaged the right people. If someone got smart and just didn't attack, her _Legion_ would pass them by. _Couldn't be helped. Any other orders might result in one of my team getting attacked, and I don't want that._

They moved, driving the soldiers there back. The others landed in the space and joined the battle, as they were able. Hiraga darted forward and started cutting up soldiers. Anrietta started casting magic, and Louise sent _Explosions_ into their midst, further confusing them. Susan dropped _Flight_ and began to cast again, _Magical Ally, Major,_ putting in the extra 4 segments to counteract their penalties from already active magic. A dragon and a lion appeared, and stayed with their respective person to protect them. One of the enemy dragons landed nearby and Susan's tore it apart with hardly any effort.

As her forces were sweeping the ship, she moved about, looking for survivors. After someone could no longer fight one of her soldiers they lost interest and went looking for someone else. So very few were actually dead, but all were majorly wounded. Susan directed those that wanted to surrender or were badly hurt to the front of the ship, where Sparkle's lion could keep an eye on them. She felt confident (or _Overconfident)_ enough to leave the dragon and go looking for survivors on lower decks, and she was marching them up with her sword drawn one at a time.

Of course she had no idea, at the moment, how to _use_ a sword. But after being beaten up by a man made of fire, if someone else comes along and points a sword at you, shouting "Move!" you listen to them. She had come back down and was rounding a corner when she ran into a clean shaven man wearing green, who had a very feminine hairstyle.

"You," he spat, raising a fist and showing her a ring. "You're the cause of all this, aren't you? You're the one with the strange magic, who called up those fire golems!"

"How perceptive."

"Now you're going to work for me!" The ring started to flash, and Susan made a RESolve check against some kind of _Dominate_ effect. She spent ten energy on her RESolve check, getting a thirty one, easily enough to shrug off anything this world could throw at her.

"Shiny," she said, looking him in the eye.

"What?"

"I'ma take it."

"What?!"

With that she grabbed the ring out of her pocket that she was bought in case she wanted to _Imbue_ it and cast _Transposition,_ switching the ring for the ring. She missed it by one, and decided as she had gotten an _XP Bonus_ card at the beginning of this adventure, she was still up even spending one for the +2. She spent it, and the rings switched, the one in her hand going out.

She put it in her pocket.

"Give that back!" shouted the man, going to grab her.

"Make me!" she said, skipping past him, her _Acceleration_ making it easy to slip past him. She bolted back up the stairs, and he followed, running smack dab into her dragon, who had been told to wait. She spun back to him.

"Surrender, and go sit with the others," she demanded, pointing her sword at the man. "You have no chance to survive, otherwise. Make your time."

"This isn't over," he snarled, turning and following her command. "You may have captured me, but the war will go on."

"Oh, you're an important one, are you? That's good to know." They climbed onto the deck, and Susan looked for her _Companion. "_ Sparkle, keep an extra close watch on this one, he thinks he's important."

"Will do."

Moments later, the rest of the group came back up from below and said the ship was under their command. They were going to fly it back to the castle where the prisoners could be put under guard, and see what else the newly establish kingdom wanted to give them as a present. There were going to pick up their forces, which apparently had been battling Miss Longbill and Louise's "buddy" on the ground, and had taken some losses. Both had, of course, once again escaped.

"This guy seems to have an inflated idea of his own importance, not unlike myself. Of course in my case it's deserved, but the point is, he was wearing this and tried to do something to me with it."

She pulled out the ring.

"That's Andvari's Ring, at least I think!" exclaimed Anrietta.

"Oh yeah?" Susan looked it over. "Actually, now that I look at it, this does seem to match the description. How about that, I can keep my promise to the Water Spirit earlier than I thought."

"That ring wouldn't have gone to anyone low ranking. Who are you?" demanded Anrietta.

"Oliver Cromwell," he said sadly.

Susan burst out laughing. "Wait, what? You were really stupid enough to come here, by yourself, with no backup, no soldiers, apart from what you could fit on one boat? How in the world did you think it was going to go? That you would just sail to the capital, announce who you were, and everyone would just welcome you? Honestly, you cannot be that dumb."

"It made sense at the time."

"I bet. Well, I guess we'll have to see if this really does end it or not. If someone was pulling his strings, and just wanted him out of the way now that they didn't need him anymore, that would explain why he's here. In that case the war isn't over, and we need to get back and continue preparations. If it was just him, which I doubt, this war is over before it began."

"You haven't won, if that's what you think."

"Really? We'll see. Meanwhile, there's a more important question here. One that needs to be answered before we go anywhere."

"What's that?" asked Anrietta, concerned.

"What am I going to call my new ship?"

They both laughed.

Sadly, the war continued, though Reconquista seemed in a bit more turmoil with the loss of a battleship and their "leader." Susan and the others remained at the palace, ready to be called upon again if it became necessary.

"How did the blade do against just regular troops?" asked Susan when they had a moment.

"Great!" Hiraga exclaimed. "I mostly went for their blades, which the sword smashed right through. They didn't have much fight in them after that. Plus they couldn't really hurt me, so they gave up pretty quickly."

"All right, so it was worth the effort. That's good to know. After fighting that stupid rock creature so much, it must have been nice to go against regular soldiers for a change."

"Especially when it looked like they were moving in slow motion compared to me."

"Oh yeah, you've never had _Acceleration_ on you, have you? I'm so used to it now, I take it for granted everyone moves slower than me in combat. Anyway, keep practicing, this situation might get worse before it gets better."

With war fever in full swing, Susan had some down time at last, and started putting some points into _Sword: Slashing._ She also took a trip back to the lake, and stood there wondering how to get the ring back to the water spirit.

"How did that girl do it the first time?" asked Sparkle, looking around.

"I think she smeared some blood on her familiar, who went down into the water. I guess we could try that."

"Wouldn't hurt. Okay, just a second."

Sparkle became a frog with _Shape-shift_ and Susan used her knife to get some blood. She stabbed it into her leg and slowly drew it out. The wound healed behind it, but she was able to collect some blood off it and wipe it on Sparkle's back. "I'll be right back."

Shortly, the waterspout was back, and Susan held up the ring.

"As promised, I return this to you." _Don't lose it next time._

"You kept your promise? I can't believe it."

"Believe it. Should I just toss it in the water?"

"That would be acceptable."

Susan gave it a toss, and it plunked into the lake. She watched it sink, and it vanished out of sight.

When she looked up, the waterspout was gone as well.

"You're welcome," she said sarcastically. "Come on, let's go back."

Several days had passed, and it seemed the country of Reconquista wasn't taking the loss of its leader laying down. They continued to mobilize troops, and the princess was crowned as queen. The country officially declared war, and the boys in the school were getting ready to leave and become soldiers.

With the school empty of boys, Susan thought things might become less interesting, but Sparkle perked up her ears the next day and said something was going on. Susan looked up from the notes she was making about _Avatar of War,_ the spell she was researching. It was grade eight, so one higher than _Invulnerability,_ but seemed much more useful. She stood up and looked out the window.

Outside, in the courtyard, the girls were all standing in pairs and seemed to be trying to hit each other with a staff that had a cloth bag tied to the end, blunting it. "Oh, this should be good."

Susan went down to see what the heck this was all about (she had _Curious,_ after all) and walked over to Hiraga.

"What's this all about?" she asked, jerking a thumb back at the girls.

"Training, I guess. Apparently the queen has sent some soldiers here to prepare the girls for any eventual attack."

Susan looked over and saw several people in uniform- no, as she took a look she saw it was several _women_ in uniform. In fact it was only women here, and they carried both a gun and a sword.

 _Wait, a gun?_

"They have gunpowder here?" she asked, surprised.

"Apparently."

One of the girls came over to them. "Who are you?" she demanded of Susan.

"Susan Felton. You're here to train these girls, huh? Wouldn't teaching them how to shoot be better than teaching them how to poke someone with a stick?"

"Oh, you know about guns?" she asked, surprised. "They're relatively new, too."

"May I?" she asked, holding a hand out.

"I... suppose?" She unholstered the pistol and held it out.

"Look at this!" she squealed, showing it to Hiraga. "It's muzzle loading! Can you imagine fighting with something like this?"

Hiraga looked it over with a grin. "That's where it begins, though, isn't it? How long until they have modern firearms? The balance of power might change big time, then."

Susan nodded, looking the gun over. It was obviously a flintlock pistol, single shot, firing a lead ball none too accurately. Made of wood and steel, and probably hand made because the assembly line hadn't been invented yet that she could see. To her, a museum piece, but to the owner, the latest in "you die now" technology.

"What do you mean, modern?" snapped the woman, taking the pistol back. "This is the latest design."

"They've gone a bit further where we're from," Susan explained.

"Oh? Do tell."

"Nope!" Susan answered brightly. "Not giving you technological advances hundreds of years early. You want a better gun, come up with it yourself. I won't be the one responsible for throwing your world into chaos by letting peasants rise up and destroy magic users. And that's exactly what I can see happening, once you have guns that don't need thirty seconds to reload."

"Fifteen!"

"Whatever."

"I still don't know who you are. You wear odd clothes, same as this girl here, and what are you doing here, anyway?" she asked Hiraga. "I thought all men were conscripted into the war effort."

"I'm not a citizen of the country, so that doesn't apply to me. Susan and I came from other worlds. I'm a Familiar Spirit, technically, while she just happened to come here by accident."

"And can you fight?"

Both shrugged. "Sure," they answered.

"I've even started to put points into my sword skill," said Susan, "in case I run low on energy in a protracted battle. And I'm researching a spell you might like, Hiraga. I think it'll serve better than what I gave you at the ship."

"Looking forward to it! A better spell than that one must be pretty special!"

"If you can fight, show me," said the woman, unconvinced. She walked over to grab some wooden swords that were laying out of the way.

"I need a real weapon," protested Hiraga.

"Not for this, you don't," countered Susan. "You need to increase your stamina, remember? This is a good opportunity to do it."

"What about you, then?"

Susan shook her head. "It doesn't work that way for me. Besides, I already have an eight ENDurance. I couldn't, even if I wanted to. I only have 38 XP and I would need 45. I suppose I could increase STRength, that would only take 20."

"What are you two babbling about? Pick up those swords!"

"You're not the boss 'o me," said Susan. "Totally pointless anyway. I don't get better at things by repetition. And he doesn't count as a teacher, so it wouldn't even help me spend XP faster. He might get some benefit out of it, but I better make him something a little closer to what he normally uses."

"Why?" Hiraga asked.

"You don't want to train with a weapon of the wrong type. You'll get used to the way that kind of sword feels in your hand, and then get confused when you go back to the katana. Better to have a wooden katana and practice with that."

"Oh, that's a fair point."

"Hang on." Susan took a minute and a half, and handed Hiraga a wooden replica of his sword. "There you go. I can _Repair_ it when it gets too banged up. Just come see me."

"I will, thanks."

"A sword with a curved blade? Interesting."

"It's the style of my country. I guess as she was nice enough to make this for me, we're doing this."

Susan stepped back and the woman brought her practice blade up too.

And then easily disarmed him.

"Maybe you should just run around the parameter to get your stamina up," Susan remarked.

"Maybe that is best," he agreed from on the ground where he had fallen over after being disarmed.

"That won't improve his sword arm, though," she remarked, pulling her blade back and letting him up. "Swinging a blade around is hard work. How about I take you through some forms first, and you can do them over and over. Even a wooden blade will give you some sense of how long you can go in a fight."

"Sounds good to me."

She put Hiriga through his paces, then told him to continue repeating those motions until he couldn't move anymore. Susan was watching the girls flail about uselessly on the field, and turned back to the woman.

"Never did get your name," she said.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Agnes, captain of the squad."

"Nice to meet you. I couldn't help but notice you're all girls here. Isn't there a war on? I figured you would be at the front lines as well, or at least there would be some guys in your company."

Her face darkened. "The princess- the queen is too soft. She believes war is no business for a woman and sends us to do... this sort of thing, instead." She indicated the mages.

"Yes, this is rather thankless work, isn't it? In reality, shouldn't they be training in battle magic, rather than sticks?"

Agnes snorted. "Do you know how easy it is to disarm a mage, and turn them into someone with no more magic than myself?"

Susan laughed out loud. "You sound like me. I said the exact same thing once, to a bunch of wand using wizards. How about that?"

"And were you preparing them for war?"

"I was, actually. I had them learn martial arts or swordsmanship in addition to their magic. Not that it would have helped, against the creatures they ultimately faced. But I think they were better fighters for it. Still, they should learned unarmed, rather than stick, I mean if you're worried about them not being mages during an attack."

"It's more about training the mind than the body. Readying them to defend themselves. One thing at a time."

She nodded. "You're probably right. There was one difference, between my students and yours."

"What's that?"

"My students came to me, and wanted to learn. Your students were forced into it. And no-one wants to be forced into anything. So they'll only do this halfheartedly, and resent you the whole time."

"Perhaps. Or are you suggesting something?"

"You have to motivate them. Either stage some kind of 'attack' that deprives them of their wands and hope no one gets hurt, or offer some kind of prize to the person that improves the most. That second one I might be able to help with."

"You have something?"

"Not this second, but for the winner? Hey everyone!" she called. "Stop a minute!" Everyone turned to look at her.

"We've decided to make this a little competition! Every day you train like this, you get a chance to face the captain here in combat. First person to touch her with your weapon, oh, three times, I'll make you a magical item. Any piece of jewelry you bring me, I'll put a spell into it. That spell will allow you to tell, without fail, if someone is lying to you. Think that might be useful?"

There was a buzzing of chatter as the girls talked about it, and Susan would have heard the word "boys" and such if she didn't have that _Poor Sense (Hearing)_ weakness. In any case, they all nodded and accepted the deal, then went back to banging each other with the sticks. This time a bit more wholeheartedly.

"That might actually have worked," remarked Agnes, as Susan walked back over to her. "You can really do it, right?"

"What, the item? Sure. I'm not a liar. It's a pretty low level spell, but useful. Wait, you're not going to actually lose to any of these girls, are you?"

"I should hope not," she snorted.

"Okay. Hummm, maybe I should offer you some incentive, too? But you're more a fighter, aren't you? Okay, how about this? If you can go a whole week without getting hit once, I'll make you an item that you can activate and stagger an opponent's senses. That'll keep them off balance and may even save your life one day. How does that sound?"

"You would do that for me?"

"Hey, I'm offering them a prize, it's only fair if I offer you one, too. Maybe an earring," she said, reaching up to touch Agnes' ear. "I bet earrings would look pretty on you, and that way you would always have it with you."

To her surprise, Agnes blushed and looked away. "I'll think about it."

"You do that. I have spell research to get back to, so come tell me how it goes. And no cheating, if you don't get attacked that day doesn't count. You have to do seven days of them trying before I'll make it."

"See you later."

"Bye!"

 _She's cute when she's embarrassed. When I get back I'll have to write a thank you note to Slughorn. I never took his potions class, but Hermione told me about his little "challenges" and how they motivated the class to succeed. Did she ever use that luck potion?_ She sighed. _Wonder what you're doing right now, Hermoine._

"Back to work!"


	16. Chapter 16

16

Keeping Promises

Time: A Week Later

Place: Susan's room

That morning, with only three days to go until Susan could see if she had gotten her magical symbology right for _Avatar of War,_ she looked for the others at breakfast. She looked for Siesta. She found neither.

She started to get worried.

As no one she spoke to had seen them leave, she went to the principal's office.

"Yes, apparently her family wanted her to come home," he admitted. "We can't exactly keep people here against their family's will, so she's gone. They left early this morning."

"And Siesta?"

"Who?"

"My friend, she works here as a maid! I can't find her either."

"Oh, I have no idea. For them to disappear at the same time, well, I'm sure they're together."

"I hope so. I guess no one would steal a maid..." _Except for that one guy, who did. But he did go through official channels. Unless he wanted to attack me indirectly, get some revenge? I hope you're okay, Siesta._

As the principal wasn't worried, and Susan had no idea where Louise lived, there wasn't much she could do. She went back to magical research, having cut the number of days by three thanks to Sparkle's _Photographic Memory. (_ She had rolled a KNOwledge check, and for every five rolled, the number of days decreased by one. Not exactly in the standard rules, but it makes sense, so this Narrator is going with it) So Susan was always asking her to look things over, and help with whatever it was she exactly did that used up "materials" while trying to work the spell out anew.

After her daily eight hours of work (with breaks of course) she decided to wander out to the field and see how the girls were doing with their training. They seemed somewhat improved, and while she watched, several of them challenged Agnes to try and win the _Detect Lies_ item. Agnes was using a sword, making Susan wonder about exactly how fair that was, but she was a swordswoman, after all. _And I never specified they had to use the same weapon._

Flushed and sweaty, Agnes dismissed them, and sheathed her sword. She noticed Susan standing there, and called her over.

"Pay up," she said triumphantly, smiling.

"Not even once, huh?"

"That's right. I'm actually glad you suggested this little exercise. I've been getting a good workout these last two days, so I hope it keeps up. These girls are still hopeless, of course, but at least they have a little bit of motivation now."

"Glad to hear it. A deal is a deal. Come to my room tomorrow morning and we'll go shopping for what you want me put the spell into."

She blushed. "I'll have to get them pierced, you know, if it's earrings."

Susan shook her head. "Doesn't have to be. Could be a ring. Necklace. Ankle bracelet, whatever. I was just saying I think you would look good... sorry, better with earrings. I noticed some of your fellow soldiers wearing them, so I know it's not prohibited."

"I'll... think about it."

That evening, Susan went back to the castle to get out some more money, again minor denominations. She hadn't even spent 10 gold of her bounty. _Stupid needing materials for this stuff is stupid._ She did take out two gold coins though, because what she had in mind would probably be expensive.

The next day, Susan was surprised to see someone she didn't recognize for a moment standing in front of her door, looking a bit embarrassed. "Agnes?"

"I didn't want to be clunking around in my armor, now did I?"

"Wow, you look great. Come on in, I'll open the portal back to town."

"Open the what?"

"You didn't think we were going to walk there, did you? Come on."

Susan pulled her inside, then went about casting _Teleportal._

"This is magic I've never even heard of!" exclaimed Agnes, cautiously sticking her hand through. "How did you learn this?"

"From a book my father left me. I'll tell you all about it, come on."

Sparkle leapt through as well, and the portal closed behind them.

"Now, I think the jewelry store is that way."

"That way," corrected Sparkle. "See, this is why I have to come along. She's hopeless at directions."

"Talking cat. Don't see many of them, even around mages."

"Oh, I totally forgot to introduce you. Sparkle, this is Agnes. Agnes, Sparkle."

"Hello?"

"Hi. Nice to meet you."

"You too. Wait, you didn't use a wand. You really are from another world, aren't you?"

"I really am."

"I asked some of the girls about it, they told me how you arrived with that human Familiar Spirit. I couldn't believe it."

"Yeah, I didn't want to believe it either, but here I am. Come on, time is wasting."

Walking to the shop that sold jewelry, Agnes asked about Susan's world, and she was happy to tell her about it, and about her friends there.

"I made them so much stuff," she said, grinning. "But of course I was gaming the system to buy the stuff I needed. I mean my _Resources: Money_ would have seen me get that cash one way or the other, but beating the system seemed so satisfying. Oh well. Here we are!"

The person behind the counter, a 30ish year old woman greeted them.

"My friend here is looking for some jewelry," Susan said, when Agnes didn't step up.

"We have fine jewelry of all types," said the woman. "My husband makes it, I sell it. What were you looking for in particular?"

"Earrings," mumbled Agnes.

"Sorry, didn't catch that."

"Earrings!" she almost shouted.

"All right, no need to shout. I see you'll have to have your ears pierced then. Not to worry, I'm an old hand at that by now. We'll see you through it. Now, what sort of design would you like?"

"Something that fits pretty close to the ear, nothing dangling," said Susan. "And gold, if you can manage it." Agnes looked over at her curiously. "Less chance of an allergic reaction."

"A what?" asked the woman.

"Do you ever have people come back and say the piercing bother them? Itch more than they should? Break out?"

"Why yes, every so often. You know what causes that?"

Susan nodded. "The body is reacting to the metal. Usually nickel. For some reason, there are people who just can't tolerate it, and their bodies go nuts trying to get rid of it."

"Well I'll be. And you say recommending gold would solve their problem?"

"I've never heard of a gold allergy." _At least on my world._

"I'll have to give that a try, next person that comes in with that problem. Well, we don't have much in gold but I can show you what we do have."

She took a case out from behind the counter and there were four pairs of earrings sitting there. One looked like rubies in a setting, one was probably amethyst. The other apparently didn't even rate because Agnes seemed to make up her mind immediately.

"The purple ones," she said with finality. "The red ones remind me too much of fire."

"Not to be indelicate, but they are rather expensive. Are you sure-"

Susan pinged a gold coin down on the counter. The woman's eyes got a little wider, and she studied the coin. "Seems real enough. How did you come by gold?"

"We both are employed by the queen," Susan answered honestly. "Please do not take our current appearance as our normal one. We're taking a day off and thought it would be nice to relax and blend in a bit."

"Oh!" the woman sat up straighter. "My ladies, please forgive any insult I may have inadvertently-"

Susan cut her off with a wave. "Please, just treat us like any other customer. That's all we are right now."

The gold disappeared. "I'll get the needles and such, wait right there." She put the others back behind the counter and disappeared through an open doorway into the back. Susan picked up one of them and held it against her ear, brushing her hair back out of the way. "I think they complement your eyes nicely."

"Stop it!" she replied playfully. "What are you doing?"

"What?"

The two stared at each other, and the woman returned with a tray. On it was a needle, a lump of what looked like wax, a bottle of ink, a brush and some cloths.

"Have a seat," she said, pulling the chair out and offering it to Agnes. "Now, how high do you want them? About where mine are?" She turned her head and showed Agnes, who nodded. "Fine, fine." She uncorked the ink and made a mark on her ear, then did the other. She looked back and forth. "That seem straight to you?"

Susan turned her head and looked. "Shouldn't that one be a little higher?" (The woman had gotten a 13 on her check to place the first, but a 7 on her check to place the second)

"You think? Yeah, I do think maybe you're right. Let's see." She made another mark. "How about that?" (She got a 14 that time)

"That's much better."

"Fine," she said, picking up the needle and the wax. "Now, I'm going to hold this against the back, and push the needle in-"

"Hold it!" cried Susan, eyes wide. "What are you using to sterilize that thing?"

"Do what?" asked both.

"You know, kill the..." She facepalmed. "You have no idea what bacteria are, do you?"

"Now what are you talking about?" asked the woman.

Susan sighed and shook her head. "Just get me a candle, will you?"

"Okay."

The woman lit a candle and set it in front of Susan, who took the needle and passed it through the flame a moment. She shook it in the air and blew it off, cooling it down.

Both ladies looked at her as if she was nuts. "Look, sometimes people come back here with infections, right? Pus? Pain? Swelling?"

"I suppose so, yes."

"And you've never stopped to consider why? Good news, now you know. Bacteria, or the tiniest life-form you can possibly imagine, are responsible. Passing it through the flame will, I hope, at least kill most of them. That should reduce the number of complications. Making sure to clean them with some kind of alcohol once a day will also help."

"Okay, are you two just trying to trick me or something?" The woman put her hands on her hips.

"Look, you can prove it to yourself, that's the great thing about _science._ The next ten people that come in here, do as I've recommended. Follow up with them. Did they experience more problems, fewer problems, or about the same number of problems? If more, which I highly doubt, ask yourself why _that_ might be and go from there. If the same, the flame isn't enough or there are other factors at work. I'm no expert. If less, I was right, and you've just advanced the understanding of disease by a hundred years. Congratulations. Figure out how to apply that empirical knowledge to other fields, like childbirth and on the job injuries."

"Sounds reasonable enough," she replied, not truly convinced.

"Anyway, it should be cool enough now. Please proceed."

"Right, where was I? Pushing the needle in, right. Are you ready for this?"

"Exactly how much is this going to hurt?"

"Oh, come on," said Susan. "You face down people with swords, and you're worried about this tiny little needle?" She took Agnes' hand. "I mean, sure, it's driving a sharp piece of metal completely through your body and out the other side. There will probably be blood _everywhere_." Agnes eyed the needle suspiciously and started breathing a little faster. "I'm only teasing you. Come on, look at me. I'm right here. One little pinch for each side and it'll be over."

"I never should have let you talk me into this."

And so, moments later Agnes and Susan walked out of the shop. They were still holding hands, and Agnes' other hand kept jerking up like she wanted to feel the new earring. Each time she mastered the impulse.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I noticed you haven't had it done. I was hoping... we would get it done together."

Susan shook her head. "Wouldn't stick. I get _Regeneration_ magic cast on me all the time. They would just heal right up."

"Healing magic? You get injured that much? What kind of dangerous life do you lead?"

Susan laughed. "No, no, it's more like routine maintenance. By leaving _Regeneration_ on once a week, my body gets a nice little refresh. Anything that might become a problem later on is taken care of. I don't know if it extends my lifespan or anything, but it can't hurt."

"I see. So do they look okay?"

"Yeah! Hard to see them with your hair like that though. If you want to show them off, we can trim the hair there a bit."

"Maybe I only want certain people to see them." She mumbled, looking away.

"Fair enough. Come on, let's go stimulate the local economy. I have a ton of gold to spend before I leave this world, and for some reason I'm feeling generous."

"Stimulate the... Are we shopping? What are we shopping for?"

"I'll need various things for the _Imbuing,_ they get used up during the process. Plus I thought you might like a new outfit to go with your new earrings."

And so the two girls went shopping. Agnes was still trying to not touch her new jewelry, and kept looking around for a mirror in the shops they went to. Finally they sat down for lunch at place with outside tables, and they ordered.

"So tell me why being reminded of fire is bad. Did you get burned as a little kid or something?"

Agnes's face fell. "It's not something I like to talk about."

"No pressure!" assured Susan. "If you don't, it's fine. I thought maybe it was an embarrassing story or something like you almost burned down a barn when you were six."

"No, I..." She took a deep breath. "My village was burned down when I was very young. I was the only survivor."

"What?" Susan's hands flew over her mouth. "Oh, Agnes, I had no idea. I'm so sorry to bring that up. I really screwed that up, didn't I? I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It's okay. It's what made me who I am today, so you might as well know. For some reason, when I was very young, a bunch of mages appeared in my village and without warning, burned it to the ground. A passing stranger found me, and hid me, and we escaped. That's when I swore I would get really strong one day, and find the people who would do such a horrible thing. It's why I joined the Queen's army as soon as I was able, and have trained hard ever since."

"That's awful," Susan admitted. "To lose your entire family like that, I can't even imagine. You must really be a strong person, to have come so far."

"I guess. I just hate the fact that those murderers are still walking around, totally unpunished."

"That I can identify with. I've gone a little crazy myself, when one of my friends was almost killed by accident. If she had died because of _that woman_ , I don't think there would have been a force on that world that could have prevented me from murdering her where she stood. If I'm still around when you find one of them, let me know. We'll take them together, for all those that were killed that day."

"Okay."

And so the subject moved on to life around the castle, and things Susan knew about from her world like planes and cars and magic, when suddenly a girl about their age stopped in her tracks and stared at them.

"Captain?"

"Oh no!" Agnes moaned. "Wait, what are you doing out here, Mallory?"

Mallory laughed. "You gave me today off, like two weeks ago, don't you remember?"

"I guess I did."

"Wow, I wondered why you of all people didn't come to practice today. I guess now I know."

"I'm not on a date or anything, Susan and I are just shopping for the stuff she needs to make my magical item. And... and then we stopped for lunch! That's all!"

"I didn't think you were," Mallory assured her. Susan didn't hear her mutter "But I certainly do now."

"What was that?"

"Nothing! I was just surprised to see you out of uniform, that's all. I never see you out of uniform and why do you keep trying to hide your ears with your hair oh my goodness you finally had your ears pierced! Do you know how long we've been trying to get her to do that?" she asked Susan. "But now she's done it for you. I guess you must be pretty special."

"It's just for the magic item! The earring is going to hold the spell, that's all!"

"She was always worried someone would tear them out in combat," Mallory continued, as if Agnes hadn't spoken. "We all said she was too good to let someone get that close, but she insisted. Well done."

"Thanks? I think?"

"I'll leave you two to it. Have fun!"

Agnes sputtered something.

"Oh, and _please_ get her to lighten up a little? I don't care what you have to do. I've never seen someone as uptight as her. No offense, captain, but even you need to unwind a bit every now and then. I'm happy for you two. See ya!"

With that she bounced away.

Agnes sat with her hands covering her eyes. "This is going to be all my squad talks about for weeks, you know that, right?"

"She doesn't know you," protested Susan. "I doubt you told her what you told me. She doesn't know what drives you. We all have our own personal demons to contend with. Please don't judge her too harshly."

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this... date."

"Oh," said Susan, flashing a grin. "Is it a date now?"

"No! I mean, unless you wanted it to... I mean... I should just go!"

Susan caught her arm as she got up. "Sit down, captain. Let's at least finish lunch. I should tell you, I do already have a girlfriend, but she's a world away from me right now. If I don't find a way to leave I may never see her again. I wonder what she would say if she saw me sitting here with you. The point is we're just becoming friends, if that's what you want. Nothing more. Let them tease, we'll know the truth."

"Are you saying you... prefer girls?"

"I take it you do."

"I... I..."

"Unless I hear a no in the next five seconds, I'm taking that as a yes."

"I've never admitted that to anyone."

"Maybe not even yourself? It must be very hard, living in the time that you do." Susan sighed. "Agnes, you have a hard road ahead of you, I"ll tell you that straight out. In this time, in this place? I can see your wanting to keep that a secret. Many people even in my world wouldn't tell any but their closest friends, because of how they would be seen. I don't envy you."

"I always told myself I didn't have time for romance. That boys were just a distraction, and I didn't need them. But I finally realized while it wasn't boys I wanted to make time for, I did want to make time for girls. And you're the same way? I'm not... sick?"

"Sick? No, of course not! Don't even think that for a _second_. You just have a different preference. I mean what makes a boy want to chase a girl in the first place? What makes one person like mushrooms and another hate them? Brain chemistry or something, right? I don't even know if scientists on my world know for sure. Are people with red hair broken? Do blue eyes signify evil? Of course not! Being attracted to someone is the same way, it's just a thing. It's not even a place on my character sheet, it just happened. Sick. Is that really what you've thought all these years?"

Agnes mutely nodded, eyes shining.

"You're not. You're a beautiful, strong, capable woman, and any person you give your heart to is lucky indeed."

Agnes broke down and cried.


	17. Chapter 17

17

What we do for friends

Time: One week later

Place: Susan's room

Susan and Agnes headed back to the castle after lunch, though Susan would have liked to spend more time with her. Of course, she needed to hang around for the _Imbuing,_ but they couldn't really talk while she worked. Susan left the earring in, as the skill didn't specify any actual location for the object while she worked. With her new trick of using _Augment Skill_ it only took sixteen hours total to finish, and she watched as magic settled around the earring and sank inside.

"Okay, your trigger word is _Dazzle_ and thinking about the person you want to stun. I made it energy based, so I'll tell you the same thing I told others I made energy based objects for. You can use it to death. It only saps a tiny portion of your energy, as I've seen you jumping around practicing. So I'm pretty sure you have a high RESolve and ENDurance. But use it too often in a fight, and it'll work against you. It should stun someone at least two seconds, giving you plenty of time to put the hurt on them. It's a moon spell though, so it should be double potent, whatever that means in this case."

"Even a second's hesitation on the battlefield can mean life and death. Thank you."

"Hey, you earned it, didn't you?" She lowered her voice. "Wonder what I should do if you go a whole month without taking a single strike?"

"They're getting better," she remarked, not rising to the bait. "Maybe in a year or two I could take them into battle. I just hope that doesn't have to happen."

"You and me both. It's been nice, having you here. I hope you'll still come talk to me, even though you got your item."

"You know where to find me. Don't let that sword rust in its sheath."

"I have researched the spell I wanted to learn, _Avatar of War._ Another 8 XP gone, so I'm down to seventeen after raising my _Sword_ skill to a five. Man that stuff goes fast!"

"I still have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm sure the loss is keenly felt. I... hope you don't mind if I do come, just to talk, now and again. I have a lot of thinking to do, about things. Who I am, and what I'm doing with my life. Having someone to talk to that understands my position would be nice."

"My door is always open," Susan replied warmly, giving her a quick hug. "For anything."

"Now what?" asked Sparkle.

"Good question. Louise, Hiraga, and Siesta came back after a day. So them being "home" didn't last long."

"Is it just me, or are those two acting even more weird than usual lately?"

"Beats me. They've always had a bizarre relationship. At least she's starting to see him as more than just a beast, I think."

"You would have beaten that out of her if she hadn't."

"Got that right. 8XP, I wonder."

"Now what?"

"An item to hold this _Avatar_ spell. I won't get it back, but I won't need it off this planet. At least I hope. No, in fact I know. If I can't cast the spell, having _Spell Symbol_ wouldn't do me any good."

"Why would you cast it on yourself anyway? Are you planning to rely on the sword more?"

"Since I learned different worlds can take my magic away, yes. I don't care who you are, a sword through the gut is bad news. I wonder how my father coped."

"He had the staff. That wasn't magic, and he could attack and defend with it. I think he said it was the soul of a _Spirit Energist_ that had been placed into the thing. Whatever that was. And he had companions, three of them. Like Inari said, you're alone, and that makes it extra dangerous for you."

"I'm not alone, I have you!"

"While I appreciate the sentiment, I'm in the same boat as you. Without my magic, I'm just a cat. A smart cat, but in the end, a cat. I can't steal people's powers or become part dragon. I'm not sure what the dog did." She shuttered. (Sparkle had _Phobia: Dogs)_ Each person in his team had their strengths, and mostly they worked together well."

"I hear you. Well, leave it for now, until I can talk to Inari. I've been okay with _Invulnerability_ going, the penalty isn't any higher for _Avatar._ Plus the intimidation factor, maybe no one will want to mess with a 3m tall giant in armor, carrying a flaming sword!"

The students were now doing battle magic, as it seemed Agnes had relented and admitted it could be useful. So they now split their time between "weapon" training and magic, which Susan approved of. She even sparred with Hiraga that day, both of them using practice weapons, and more for his benefit than hers. But it gave her something to do.

The day after that Susan went in search of Siesta, and offered to help with her duties around the castle in exchange for what she remembered of her great-grandfather.

"I'll come to your room tonight, you don't have to do maid stuff!" she insisted.

"I'm at loose ends now," Susan protested. "I have the spell I wanted and I don't know what I would research next. Before something else happens I'd like to hear about how he got here, and maybe look into getting home. And won't the day pass a little quicker with some help?"

"Okay," she sighed, then gave a wicked grin. "But you have to look the part."

"Does this mean..." Susan's eyes were wide with hope.

"Come with me!"

Susan gave a squeal of delight and spun around, trying out various poses. "I'm in a maid's uniform! What do you think, Sparkle?"

"Oh, a +2 bonus to your LOOks checks, at least." Sparkle rolled her eyes and wondered if facepawing was a thing.

"I know, right? Oh man, I wish I could take a picture, this is priceless. I'm going to have to work on a mirror for my room before I take this off." She swished her hips back and forth, making the bottom of the dress sway back and forth. "Shoot, why didn't I think of that before? I could easily make a mirror, it's a solid."

"Not all one piece though."

"True, but I could make half a frame, then the glass on top of that. Then _Create_ a highly polished sheet of metal right on top of that. A final piece of wood to lock them in place and hold the thing together, and it would be passable. And it could be pretty big, glass for mirrors is pretty thin, so that's not a concern."

"I guess it would work."

"Sure. Now lead on, Siesta. I want to be the best darn maid I can be!"

So Siesta told her about the "dragon" her great-grandfather rode in on, and about the man he said he came with who returned almost immediately. It turned out he got stuck here, and lived out his life in the village Siesta was born in.

"And a good thing too," remarked Susan. "Otherwise you might not exist!"

It had taken him some time to learn the language, and such, but apparently he had a good life, and Siesta was full of stories he had told. Mostly she didn't have the technological background to really understand the things he had talked about, or the details had been blurred with time. (Or he just made crap up.) Nonetheless, she felt she was hearing about a world that someone with a really overactive imagination had made up, even though she had lived somewhere similar all her life.

In the end, Siesta got about 1.5x the work done she normally did (there was some inefficiency explaining things to Susan, and recalling the stories that accounted for .2. The other .3 was doing things in parallel, like serving the food, that couldn't be accelerated) and she was very thankful for the help.

"I might even be able to stop early for the weekend!" she said, looking over the list of things she was assigned to do that week. "I hope my stories were worth it."

"They were. And being a maid was worth it, too. A lot of people started ordering me around, then freaked out when they saw it was me. They couldn't believe I would become a maid! Maybe it'll help them start thinking of you as a person, not just a person to bark orders to."

"Never happen."

"Yeah, I know. I'm a dreamer. Thanks, Siesta. I'll have Sparkle clean this before I give it back. I really want to try making a mirror before I take it off."

"Can I come? It's not often I get to see a real mirror! Or your magic at work."

"Sure!"

So after some careful thought, mostly about how the wood might fit together, and some _Augment Skill_ magic later, Susan had a rather functional full length mirror in her room. She posed, looking at herself, and Siesta did the same.

"This would sell for a lot of money," she remarked. "And you made it look so easy!"

"Only trouble is, I'm not sure it'll stick around after I leave. Objects I make this way only stick around as long as I'm alive, and I'm not sure being on another world would count as 'alive' here in terms of the spell. That's why I've really only made things for myself, or that I could take with me, like the clothes."

"You made that sword for Hiraga, didn't you?"

"And then improved it. By _Fabricating_ it, I've basically made it more real. Theory states it should stick around no matter what, because of the nature of _Fabrication_. That's the hope, anyway." _If not, that blade I made for Hogwarts is long gone by now..._

"Thanks for showing me this, and how you made it. I guess we traded a lot today."

"Sure. Since you're here, want to take this back with you now? I can change out of it."

"Okay."

So Susan stripped and Sparkle cast _Hygene_ on it, making it cleaned and pressed. She got dressed for bed and said good night to Siesta, who returned the sentiment and went off down the corridor.

"Seems you've made some friends here after all," remarked Sparkle. "They'll be sad when you leave."

"If I can leave."

"That was a segue, by the way."

"I noticed. Yeah, the news isn't hopeful. I think two people came from Hiriga's Earth, in planes. Probably world war two pilots, given the markings she said were on the 'dragon.' One went back immediately, the other couldn't find the portal again."

"Meaning it's invisible, just a small crack some pilots found by really bad luck, or it opens and closes at random."

"Either is troublesome. I mean if it's in the sky someplace we'll never find it! Especially if we look for it and it isn't open."

"The only way I can see is if we scanned the sky constantly, and observed a slice of weather that didn't match up."

"Right, their weather might be different, greenhouse gasses and whatever. It could be raining but sunny here. Still, how would we find even a plane sized hole in the sky? I was hoping it would be something they stumbled through on foot, and we could just go back there and poke around. No such luck."

"Still, if one gateway existed, perhaps-"

There was a knock on the door.

"Coming," trilled Susan, yanking it open. Agnus stood there, looking worried.

"Oh my. Please, come in!"

"No, I'm not here for that," she said, blushing a little. "I need your help. If you're still willing?"

Susan tenderly touched her earring. "For a friend, anything. Tell me what you need while I change." Susan stripped off her nightgown and pulled out her "stealth suit." "I don't mind if you look," she said with a grin, noticing Agnus looking away.

She cleared her throat. "The queen has gone missing. I'm going to get the authority of Sir Lishman to close the roads while we look for her."

"Missing? Oh no, this is terrible! I really wish I had my scrying magic. No time for wishing though." She pulled on her clothes and started to close the door, Sparkle at her side. "I can get us to town in a flash-" Agnus pushed her back into the room and shut the door behind her.

 _Oh, I thought we were in a hurry? I suppose there's time for a little-_

Agnes put her month near Susan's ear. "I think Lishman was one of the people involved in burning my village. Are you still willing to go all the way with me?"

 _Shouldn't we get to first base before going all the- focus, Susan!_ "I don't go back on my word."

Agnes looked into her eyes a moment, but with a 10 RESolve, Susan didn't show any hesitation. "Okay. Thank you." She pulled the door open again and headed out.

 _What, not even a little one?_

"We can leave from my room, you know," she said, hurrying to catch up. "We don't have to go anywhere."

"I left my rain cloak by the door, and we'll have to get you one."

"Rain?"

"It's raining, can't you hear it?"

Susan listened, but shook her head. "I'm slightly hard of hearing, I only got an 8 on that _Perception_ check."

"You say weird things sometimes, you know that?"

"I thought that's why you liked me. Because I wasn't like other girls."

She just gave a slight shake of her head and headed down the stairs. After putting on the rain cloak, Agnus said they would head to the stables to get her horse.

"I'll just let us fly there. It'll be faster. Quieter, too. We won't have to bother with horses."

"You really do things differently, don't you? Okay, have it your way."

Susan opened a _Teleportal_ and they stepped through to the city. Sparkle had already changed into her fairy form and was hiding in Susan's pocket. She cast _Flight_ on them both, and Agnes sped towards the house on the noble's side of the river.

The rain was really coming down, and even with the cloak, Susan was soaked in minutes. _Why did the queen have to choose tonight to disappear?_

"Wait here," Agnes said when they got to the house. "Out of sight."

"You aren't taking him out?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. We need more evidence, and there's more than one element at play here. The queen wants that one. I want him."

"You got it. But if you're not out in five minutes, I'm coming in after you."

"Better make it ten, he'll probably make me wait out of spite, coming to see him like this."

"Got it."

Susan hid around the corner, and watched as Agnes went inside.

"Think she'll be okay?" asked Sparkle.

"She's got her pistol and her sword. Plus, it's been like twenty years. This guy probably doesn't even remember the incident. But listen for a gunshot away, I won't hear it."

"You got it."

Moments later she emerged, and hustled back over to Susan. "Now we wait. If I'm right, he's going to leave in a few minutes now that he knows the queen is missing."

The two hunkered down in the rain to wait. But rather than him leaving, another man arrived. He knocked on the door, and spoke to the man inside for a moment. As he rode off, Agnes rose into the air and motioned Susan to follow.

"He won't dirty his hands, or go out in this rain. That's the man we'll have to follow. Come on."

Susan rose after her, and they kept him in sight, hovering about the road.

He crossed the river into town, and made sure no one was following him. At least, he looked around, but didn't think to look up. Susan and Agnes clearly saw him enter a building from their vantage point on the roof of the place across the street.

"Let's go," she said, dropping down out of the sky. This startled someone in the street, who jumped back.

"Susan?" cried a familiar voice. "What are you doing out here?"

"Louise? How in the world did you get here?"

"No time for that, have you seen Hiraga?"

"He's missing too?"

"Too?"

"No time for that, the man I'm trailing went inside. Wait here a minute. Come on, Susan."

"Right!"

Despite Louise's protests, Susan and Agnes barged into the place, which turned out to be an Inn. She briefly saw the man as he turned the corner, going upstairs, and Agnes wasted no time using _Flight_ as a "jump" to make it up to the second floor silently. Susan followed.

The man knocked on a door at the end of the hall, and a man with a walrus like mustache answered. Susan couldn't make out what they were saying, but she relied on Sparkle to, who was poking her head out of the cloak and looking that way.

Susan felt herself making a LUCk check, of all things, and got an eleven.

 _One from max,_ she thought to herself. _That's got to be enough to avoid whatever-_

"Achoo!" Susan froze. _Have I ever sneezed before? And what does LUCk..._

Suddenly, she found herself being thoroughly kissed, pinned against the wall, as the man they were trailing walked past them. He smirked and nodded his head, probably thinking about heading back to his bunk.

 _So if I'd have gotten a fifteen would she have torn some of my clothes off, too?_

With the man down the stairs, Agnus drew back again, with an odd expression on her face. She shook it off and hopped down the stairs again, bursting out the door and looking for the man.

"He went that way," Louise said, pointing. "Now will one of you tell me what's going on?"

"Can you give her the ability to fly as well?" Agnus asked.

"Sure. Give me a second." Susan dropped _Flight_ on them and recast it, getting all three of them.

"We're following that man. I bet he's headed to the theater, and that's where we're going. Come on."

All three rose into the air and took off after him.

"Wait, so she's not missing?" asked Susan, floating over the theater.

"Do you really think we would lose track of the queen?"

"So it's all a plot to expose the people we're tracking now?" asked Louise.

"Exactly. I'm sorry to have misled you, Susan. The queen said you would help when she explained her plan, even not knowing about it. Seems you've made an impression on her, as well." She went on quickly. "But also said we couldn't tell anyone, and that included you. I trusted you, and her highness did to, I want you to know that."

"It's okay, I understand. What's our next move?"

"Come with me. Louise, here's a ticket. It's a little damp, but so is everything around here. Slip in and wait for our signal. You'll know it when you hear it."

"Got it. Hiraga is there too, right?"

"He better be."

"Okay. I'll see you when it's all over."

"Where are we going?" Susan asked as Louise dropped out of the sky and went inside.

"There's a secret tunnel under the theater I know about for some reason. We're going there. Just in case the bastard tries to escape, we'll be waiting for him."

And so Susan and Agnes waited in the semi-darkness and silence. Light was being cast by their swords, Susan's that she had brought to her side with _Retrieval_ and Agnes' which of course she had with her at all times. Both were under _Avatar of War,_ and stood roughly 3m tall with gleaming armor.

"And we're immune to fire like this?" asked Agnes.

"Won't even touch you," replied Susan. "You should be a little faster in combat, too. Your sword does extra damage as well, fire damage I'm afraid to say. Sorry, it was meant for Hiriga, not you. "

"I'm satisfied to turn that man's weapon against him."

"Sounds fair to me." They waited a few moments in silence. "So, was that your first?"

"First what?"

"Kiss, of course!"

"I am not talking about that now!"

"Oh, okay. I just thought you should know, it was _very_ nice."

"I'm really glad you can't see my face right now."

"Will you two cut it out?" snapped Sparkle. "Flirt later."

"Sorry, mom!"

Both chuckled.

Some time later, they saw a flash of light descend from the tunnel above, and a magic user dropped lightly to the ground. He froze when he saw the two armored figures standing there.

"And so the rat scurries away," said Agnes, bringing her blade up. "That means the queen's plan worked. And now you're mine. I can repay you for my village."

"Village? Wait, is that Agnes? I wondered, since you asked about it earlier." He seemed to take in the fact she was towering over him. "How in the world-"

"Never mind that. Any last words?"

"How about you spare me in exchange for information? You know that record you're looking for? I know where it is."

"Keep talking. Every second is another second you get to live."

"It's hidden in the vault under the magic academy. You can find out who did the deed, rather than just who gave the orders. You want them, right?"

"I want all those responsible dead. But I do thank you for the information. They will soon join you in death."

"Not if I take you down first!"

A massive explosion rocked the tunnel, but Agnes just jumped right through it and stabbed the guy through the chest.

"No way!" he managed, as his clothes caught fire and he slumped to the ground. He didn't even scream as the blade was drawn back and he started to burn.

With the threat gone, Susan's magic receded and the armor around them vanished. Agnes sheathed her sword and walked away, not even looking back.

"Come on, drinks are on me."

Susan didn't think making any flippant comments was really appropriate, so she just walked by Agnes' side, arms almost touching. Sparkle looked back at the dead man, then at Susan, deep in thought.


	18. Chapter 18

18

Concerns

Time: The next day

Place: Susan's room

"Before we go down to breakfast, can we talk for a bit?" asked Sparkle.

Susan froze, her hand on the doorknob. _Okay, this is new. Sparkle never wants to 'just talk.'_

"Sure," she replied, letting her hand fall and turning around. "What's on your mind?"

Sparkle stared at her for a moment from the desk where she was sitting. "Honestly, I'm becoming a little concerned."

"About what?"

"Well..." Sparkle seemed very hesitant. "About your recent behavior."

"What do you mean?" Susan was nearly offended.

"I'm just not sure I like where you're heading right now. And I think, if you take a step back, you won't either."

"Oh, this should be good," said Susan, crossing her arms over her chest. "Please, enlighten me."

"There's this new focus on combat, which I have to question."

"We've always been combat focused, I mean why do you think I made the ring?"

"Yes, you made the ring so you could stay _out_ of combat. Same with the _Ally_ spell. But now you're learning how to use a sword? I mean the gun kind of made sense. Tom wouldn't have expected that. But now you seem almost eager for personal combat."

"It's just being practical. I told you, if we find ourselves in a world where none of my magic works, I want to be ready."

"Is that all it is? You didn't bat an eye when those soldiers died during that attack on the church. You didn't even try to help them, or even feel bad afterwords. I thought maybe it was shock or something, but you just moved on."

"What else could I do? Feeling bad for them, who chose to follow a traitor like Wales, isn't going to help anything."

"What could you do? How about that knife you strap to your leg every morning? One quick plunge into each one and they might have lived! Run away with the others, gone back to being farmers or whatever."

"I-" Susan hesitated, face going pale. "I never even considered it. It's like I just sort of... forgot about it. You don't think The Darkness can actually make me forget things, do you?"

"If so, that's even scarier than I thought. But let's move to what happened last night. You just stood there, no in fact you encouraged Agnes to murder that man in cold blood. You gave her the _Avatar_ spell, knowing she would just off the guy."

"That's on her. I can't control her actions."

"But you didn't even suggest another course of action! Shouldn't that man have gotten a trial? You were all about how the magical world didn't really bother with evidence gathering and such back home. But here, because a cute girl had her village burned twenty years ago, you're okay with it?"

"She needs closure to move on."

"Closure? Is that what they're calling it now? How do you know that village wasn't infected with some kind of plague? That the people responsible don't hate themselves for what they did, even today? She was just a child, she wouldn't have understood what was going on."

"But she must have looked into it since then."

"I hope so. But she still chose to murder a man! Didn't you always take a different path? Think back, like say when those bullies attacked you by the lake. What did you do to them?"

"Snapped their wands, gave them a good talking to."

"Right, but you didn't kill them. You gave them another chance. An out. Then later, when you learned _Dead Magic,_ you dealt with people, evil people, by taking their magic away. Severe, but acceptable, because they were still alive at the end."

"I don't have that luxury here."

"But you still have other options, lots of them! Okay, you lost three useful planets. Your response was to escalate to killing magic, rather than look into alternatives?"

"I haven't had a lot of down time, you know. And you learned _Elemental Line (Wind)_ didn't you? It was you who killed those men, not me."

"I'm your _Companion._ To a certain extent I'm an extension of your will. You want me to do something, I typically go along with it. Anyway, this isn't about me, it's about your behavior. I mean let's go back to Agnes for a second. What are your intentions there? To string her along, seduce her, and then just leave again?"

"No. She just needs a friend, someone who understands her."

"But you like her."

"Sure, she's a great person."

"Is she? How do you know? You just met her, and most of her life has been training to track down these fire mages she talked about."

"Okay, so she has the _Lost Loved Ones_ or _Tragedy_ background cards. Or maybe both! And maybe she has the _Obsessed_ weakness. We don't know."

"Exactly! You don't know. But there you are, making moon eyes at her, and flirting, and I didn't see you struggling against her kissing you last night. Did Luna mean so little to you?"

"I might never see her again! This may be where I spend the rest of my life!"

"And that brings us to the main thrust of my argument. Who is our enemy?"

"The Darkness. You know that."

"I wanted to make sure you remembered. Tell me, if you were The Darkness, how would you make sure a potential threat was out of the way?"

"Why don't you tell me, if you're so smart?"

"Exactly what's happened. Bring you to a place you can't easily escape from. Dangle some people in your way that need help, because he knows you can't resist that. Sweeten the pot with a girl who could fall for you. The only girl around who might fall for you, as everyone else seems to be focused on Hiraga, if you hadn't noticed. And don't forget, that creature is inside you, too. He tried to corrupt you once. Luna seemed to act as a stabilizing force against it, which is when he started talking to you directly. You think he wouldn't try again? Now that Luna is gone, I would certainly try again, if I were him. And here you are, getting more violent, forgetting about Luna and going after another girl... there's more than one way to influence you. If he can get you to fall in love with this girl, you might not want to leave even if you find the opportunity."

Susan seemed to hesitate. "Don't be ridiculous, I still have to find my father, even if I did give up on Luna."

"Maybe he's hoping you'll decide your father isn't worth it. That your love for this girl is stronger than the bonds of family, especially as you've never met the man. If it can influence you enough to forget the _Alleviation_ knife, what else can it do to you?"

"I... no. No, that's crazy. My father fell in love, and he still left. I was the result. To avoid feeling for the people I help is to deny myself. To deny him, and the sacrifice he made leaving my mother and me behind." She collapsed heavily to the floor, staring into space. "I can't not feel, can I? Can't I make friends? Is it my destiny to wander the worlds, alone, forever?"

Sparkle shook her head. "I know, it's not easy to consider all the angles. And I'm not Luna, I don't see things the way she does. But I see you changing, and I have a duty to point that out to you. No one knows you like I do, because I've been with you your whole life. I know you're trying to find yourself. To figure out the best magic, the best path to take to help people with the tremendous gifts you've been given. I'm just saying, _be careful._ The Darkness is in you, and with your power that makes you very dangerous if you should go bad."

Susan's face hardened. "I can't second guess every decision I make, I'd never do anything!"

"I know. But do you admit the danger is there?"

"I... guess I have no choice. After what I now know happened."

"Then I've said my piece. You're the one in charge. I'll follow what you say and do what you want. I just hope I'm not going to watch you become Tom in the process."

Susan closed her eyes. "Sparkle? If you do see me becoming Tom, I want your word that you will take me out. You're right, that my magic is dangerous. And if I keep going on adventures and getting XP, I'll only become more so. I'll try to rely on your judgment, but you have your orders if I get... out of hand."

Sparkle jumped down and padded silently over to her, bumping her head against her knee. "You have my word."

"Thank you," she said, picking Sparkle up and hugging her. "And thank you, for looking out for me. And if you see me forgetting things, don't hesitate to speak up."

"Of course. What are _Companions_ for?"

Susan opened her eyes. "Okay, after breakfast I'll start researching a new spell. Something I can use like _Hypnotic Field,_ that can take out a bunch of enemies without harming them."

"Good girl."

That afternoon, Agnes came and sat down next to Susan. She was eating with Louise and Hiraga, not doing much talking as she was thinking about what Sparkle had said earlier.

"It seems I need to call upon you again, Susan," said Agnes hesitantly. "Sorry if I'm a bother to you."

"Whatever I can do to help, of course."

"Thank you. It concerns the information we got last night."

"Oh, about the vault under the academy?"

"Exactly. As a reward for my help last night, the queen has given me permission to seek out the records of the event. However, the principal claims he never got any documentation about it, so he won't release the seals on the door. I wondered if your magic could help me?"

Susan considered. "I do know _Unlock,_ sadly that's a Uranus spell, and I don't have access to that branch of magic here. Nor can I _Phase_ you through, because that's Pluto. Huh, wonder if I could _Telesummon_ a door off its hinges? Wait, no that only works on people. I mean _Retrieval._ I could try that, but it would mean rebuilding the whole door later." _There's an interesting idea for a Mercury_ _spell. A short range teleport you don't need to see the destination to go to. Of course_ Phase _would work just as well, but Sparkle was just talking about alternate spells. And I wouldn't have to learn it, just research it. I wouldn't be using something like that in combat. I wonder._ "If there was a crack in the door I could probably _Shrink_ us enough to fit through it, burn it down with _Combust_ or just smash it down with _Avatar_ going. But again, that means rebulding the door."

"Oh, I see. What about you, Louise?"

"I would be happy to blow it up for you!"

"Ah. Well, do you know anyone who would help us?"

She considered. "My sister might. She's a pretty good mage, and not above breaking a rule now and then."

"Would you mind asking her for me?"

"Not at all. I'll let you know this afternoon."

"Thanks. I do want you to come, though, Susan. In case she can't we can discuss the other options."

"Suits me."

Later that day, the entire group met up in the girl's bathroom, and opened the storage closet at the back. A fake wall was pushed out of the way, then replaced, and the pair went down a winding set of steps to a hallway. The air was stale and dusty, and the lantern Agnes was carrying cast a dim bubble of light around them. Oddly, no spider webs or tiny rodents were seen, making Susan wonder if this place had been magically proofed against such things somehow.

The hallway was blocked by a door made of heavy stone, and some odd designs on raised plates could be seen.

"Here it is," said Agnes. "See what you can do."

 _I just hope the queen actually did give her permission for this. I guess I should have asked..._

Susan felt around with _Magic Sense,_ getting a 16 on her first try. While she did that, Louise's sister, Eleanor, looked at them through what seemed to be a pair of opera glasses. Having apparently deduced the "combination" she pointed her wand and basically demanded, in what appeared to be English, the locks be unlocked. To Susan's surprise, they sprang open, and Eleanor looked pretty smug.

 _Okay, what was that? That was no incantation, I've heard them practicing battle magic. They're like Harry, they say a bizarre phrase and magic happens. Those phrases aren't translated when I hear them, they seem to be gibberish. But she said something in her native language and that worked. Weird._

An any case, the door opened and the group continued. The hallway went for some distance, then opened up to a bridge over a chasm that the light couldn't reach the bottom of.

"Don't use magic, and don't try to take anything out," warned Eleanor, pointing to a warning written above the door. "Seems like something bad might happen if we do."

"No danger of that with me," remarked Agnes. "Come on. And put those wands away!"

And so the group entered what could only be called a library of forbidden knowledge, and the group set about searching for the record Agnes was looking for. Naturally, they found it after some time, and even more naturally, the page containing the name had been torn out of the book.

"Maybe the page is still around here somewhere." Agnes frantically started looking for loose papers. Susan put a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. Anyone who tore that page out wouldn't have just left it here for someone to find. It was probably removed before being placed here, as the magic would have kept it from working otherwise. I'm sorry, but it seems you'll have to look elsewhere for your answers."

Agnes looked about to argue, but then deflated. "You're right. I'm sorry to have dragged everyone down here. Let's go back."

 _I don't know if I should be relieved I didn't have to talk her out of killing someone else, like I should have before, or sad because now it seems she'll never get closure. Maybe if I'm really bored for a week or two I'll research the_ Question _spell and get the name for her that way._

Two weeks passed.

Susan completed her research for the wide area sleep spell, under the _Moon_ domain to make it extra effective. As _Moon_ dealt mainly with poisons, darkness, and the senses, the spell created a volume of mist that when breathed in, dulled the senses and put people into darkness- in other words, sleep. She called it _Sleep Mist_ for obvious reasons.

And just like that, it came in handy.

Susan came awake to see a scruffy looking man in her bedroom, holding a mace and looking down at her. He had apparently been shaking her, trying to get her to wake up.

"Took you long enough to wake up!" he complained. "Get up! Move!"

Susan blinked at him. "Huh?" she managed, blearily.

"Get up!" he shouted, tossing her sheet aside. He stared, and Susan knew what that LUCk check had been for the night before. She had gotten an eleven, one from max, and decided to sleep naked because it was so hot. The man was distracted, and Susan took advantage of it.

" _Thrust,"_ she cast, using six energy and taking the two segments. Magic swirled around the man, but he dug his heels in and didn't go anywhere. Susan even knew she had new cards, and spent her _I don't think so_ to make him reroll, but he got even higher.

"What was that?" said the man, eyeing her suspiciously. "Oh, forget it. He won't mind just one."

He shot fire at her from his mace.

" _Deflection,"_ she cast, again using six energy. This succeeded, a seventeen versus a twelve, and the flame harmlessly bounced off the swirling light that appeared before Susan.

 _You know,_ she thought in the timeless space between one action and another, _I originally didn't want to learn something like_ Magic Reflection _because I didn't know what sort of casting check other people might be capable of._ _But_ Deflection _works just fine, so maybe I was worried for nothing. It would be nice to just have this guy's fire turn on him._ Susan succeeded on her _Magic Combat_ check, because despite his higher "rating" in the skill, he wasn't that bright. She knew they would act simultaneously, and decided to try a variation on that very idea.

 _Not that this was supposed to be a combat spell, but that's what energy is for, right?_

She cast _Teleportal,_ putting one end in front of herself and the other to the side of the man. As the difficulty of this spell was the distance, and it was less than a meter away, that meant she had to roll a seven or better. Technically a six, but one energy went into the spell, so only nine would be used as extra power, leaving her a minus one to the ten segment spellcasting check. She got an 11, he got a twelve, so Susan spent 1XP for a bonus and the portal shimmered into existence before the flame could hit her. The flame hit the man's body, catching him by surprise and setting him on fire. He failed both his LUCk check and his RESolve check, so not only did he take 10 points of fire damage to the body (randomly struck) he started taking additional damage and dropped his mace, freaking out as the flames climbed up his clothes.

Susan got a 16 on her RESolve check not to freak out, but was still unsure what to do. She couldn't put his flames out, _Elemental Conjure (Water)_ was a Neptune spell, and she couldn't do that here. Nor did she know _Extinguish._

 _Wait a second!_

She took the full time this time, creating another _Teleportal,_ this time above the lake she dumped the water into from the nature spirit. She rolled max, and a hole appeared, leading to water. She shoved him through and he splashed into the lake, dousing the fire. _Hopefully he has presence of mind enough to swim to safety, but he's really not my problem anymore. Sparkle would be pleased, I could have just let him burn. Where is Sparkle, anyway?_

Susan hurriedly pulled on her "stealth suit," grabbed her sword, and peaked out. The hallway was empty, and she wondered if this was some kind of attack directed only at her, or if others were woken up but had left already. _I do take longer to wake up, it's true._ She crept down to the next door and found it opened, with no one inside. She checked the other doors on her floor, and they were also empty.

 _Where's Hiraga? I would have thought he would be out here kicking butt and taking names._ She checked his room, but didn't find any corpse, or even evidence he had been there that evening.

 _Troublesome._

Susan hurried outside, and met up with the other soldiers in the courtyard.

"Susan!" exclaimed Agnes, running to give her a hug. "I shouldn't have been worried, but I was."

"He did take me two whole actions to take out. Stupid spell resistance, but I suppose I'd be grateful for it if it was being cast on... are you crying?"

"No! I'm just grateful you're all right." Agnus wiped her eyes. "Anyway, we've been attacked, as you can probably guess. They're moving the students into the great hall for some reason."

"Not killing them?"

Agnes shook her head. "No, hostages."

"Excellent. I have the perfect spell to use once everyone's assembled. Come on."

Susan and the other soldiers made their way to the window, where they peeked in. It seemed the attackers, which seemed to number only eight, had separated those they had found. Probably to make it easier to watch them. The maids and other staff were being guarded by two between the center and left tables. The principal, staff, and a few other adults were being covered by four men, one in a purple cape. They were between the center and right tables. To the far right two more covered the students.

"Three simultaneous castings? No problem! Just wish I knew where-"

"Want some help?" asked Sparkle, having made her LUCk check to be there on time. "Sorry, I was out prowling and these guys attacked. Took care of one, boy was he surprised to be fighting a cat! Not that I would call what we did fighting, exactly."

Susan looked, and she was obviously _Accelerated._ "Did you kill him?"

"I _Thrust_ him pretty hard, but I doubt that finished him off. I figured getting to you was more important."

"Okay. You learned the new sleep spell, right?"

"Sure did. Figured it could come in handy, being able to make areas that much bigger."

"Good call. This time though I want you to assist me. I don't want these guys making their CONstitution check and breaking out of it. They might hurt the hostages. I want three bubbles of the stuff, by the center of the maids, centered on purple cloak, and centered on the students. That should get all of them in one shot."

"Purple cloak? You mean the guy with the funny mace?"

"That's the one. We'll take the full time, they won't know what my magic means, and it's less then two seconds. They won't reach the edge in time."

"You got it. On three?"

Susan nodded. "One... Two... Three."

Both started casting, getting a combined total of 34 on the spell. (hey, it was Moon, so it's doubled) As the radius was "Moon rating in meters" and Susan's effective Moon rating was currently twenty one, just one casting would have been enough to fill basically the whole room. Everyone inside slumped over, and Susan nodded, satisfied.

"That was easy."

She waited a few minutes to make sure they were all deeply asleep, then ended the spell and told the others to quietly make their way inside and start tying the bad guys up.

"But get their stupid focus away from them. Their staff or mace or whatever they do magic with!" She said when they looked at her funny.

"Oh, right."


	19. Chapter 19

19

Sleep

Time: Several days later

Place: Susan's room

And so, the would be terrorists, who had planned to force the queen into something or other by holding the school hostage, fell without bloodshed. Having their wands returned, the staff quickly tied up the ruffians and floated them away to the dungeons without even waking them. Everyone went back to bed, but scout parties were sent to make sure no more forces were in wait in the area, just in case this first attempted failed.

None were found.

Susan spent several days researching _Relocation,_ just in case something like that came in handy at some point in the future. She was woken up that morning by Sparkle, and there was a knocking on her door.

She blearily opened it, and Agnes was standing there.

"Come with me!" she said, without preamble.

"Can I get dressed first, at least?" asked Susan, rubbing her eye.

"No, I mean, I'm being sent to the front lines with her majesty. Today. This morning, in fact. Will you come?"

"This is a bit sudden!" Susan remarked, waking up a little more. "Why couldn't you have told me this, I don't know, last night? Or two days ago?"

Agnes shook her head. "I kept trying. I didn't know how to tell you. But I made up my mind. Please, I want you by my side. If not for me, then help me protect the queen. You know her and respect her, don't you? She's going to the front, she could be killed. You could prevent that."

"I suppose it's only temporary, not that I've gotten many answers here about getting back on my own mission."

"You'll come?" Agnes grinned widely.

Susan shook her head in mock resignation. "How can I say no to you? Let me get dressed and pack some stuff. Where should I meet you?"

"Out front. Thank you for agreeing. Thank you so much." She turned to go.

"You could stay and watch, if you wanted." _Shoot, there I go again. That is just the sort of thing I was always doing back at Hogwarts. Saying stuff before I thought it over. If I didn't know better, I would say I had some kind of weakness that makes me do that, but I don't, right?_

Agnes laughed. "Win this war for me, and I'll... I'll... be your love slave forever!"

"Promise!?"

"You have my word as a soldier."

"I'm holding you to that!"

Agnes just laughed harder and walked away.

Dressed, sword and bag at her side, Susan went to knock on Hiraga's door to tell him she was going away, "to the front" apparently. He didn't answer. _Does he have_ Deep Sleeper _too?_ She quickly made her way to Louise's room, but she also didn't answer, making Susan a little worried. _They're probably just at breakfast. I'll swing by there on the way out._

But breakfast wasn't being served yet, and Susan ran to the front of the castle to tell Agnes she couldn't leave without finding out what happened to the pair.

She needn't have bothered. Standing with the force getting ready to leave was a sleepy Hiraga and a Louise that looked pensive.

"So you are coming," she remarked, looking over at Susan.

"I'm just glad I was giving the choice," she muttered, shooting a look at Agnes. "As this was a sort of last minute thing."

"Oh, I thought you would have been asked by the queen directly, that's why I didn't mention anything. If I had known-"

Susan waved her off. "It's fine. I would have tracked you down regardless. Are you both sure about this, though? We're heading to a major battle zone here."

"I have to do my part to help the kingdom," Louise maintained. "While I may only have one spell... oh, that reminds me."

"All right, move out!" shouted Agnes, mounting her horse.

"Guess I'll show you in a second. Come on." Louise and Hiraga climbed onto nearby horses. "Oh, shoot, we didn't get a horse for you!"

"Where are we going? If it's someplace I've been..."

Louise shook her head. "I don't think so. It's near the capital, South Gotha."

"Ah well." She cast _Flight_ on herself, and rose into the air. She kept her speed way down and paced the group, sighing with how slowly they were probably going to travel. "So what did you want to say?"

Louise got out a leather bound volume, and handed it over to Susan. She turned it this way and that, looking it over. "What's this?"

"Her majesty gave it to me the last time we saw each other. She said it was a book with void spell incantations in it, but so far it's been blank. I wondered what you could make of it."

"Tough to say now," replied Susan, flying backwards and opening the book to shield it from the wind. Indeed, the pages were all blank. "I'll take a look when we next stop." She handed it back.

"Okay."

They stopped for lunch, and Louise dug the book out again. Susan did a _Magic Sense_ on it, getting a nine. Sparkle got an eleven, and between the two of them decided it did feel like the type of magic Louise did when she made things explode. She handed it back.

"I don't think she was mistaken. There is magic in there, connected to Void. The book I lost access to when I came here may be similar. I could ask it for spells and the next day it would have them inside. Maybe it's similar, you have to need a spell before one shows up. Trouble is I don't know what you would ask it for, because I don't know what 'element' Void is. Obviously destruction, blowing things up kinda destroys them. But there must be more you can do. I don't know, ask it for things mages around here can't do and see what it turns up."

"Okay, I'll think about what to ask. Thanks."

"Sure!"

After several rough days of travel the group arrived at the town. Susan had thought about going back to the school to sleep at night, but decided if the musket squad was going to be out here in the wilderness, so would she. Even Louise didn't seem to complain too much, and they neared the city.

Anrietta greeted everyone warmly.

"Thank you for coming, Susan. I didn't ask you to get involved because this isn't your fight. But I guess you came anyway."

"Agnes asked me. She wasn't sure if she could protect you as well as I could. Plus she said if I ended the war, she would do something nice for me."

"Oh? What's that?"

Both looked over at her, and she was pointedly not looking back at them. "Just a personal matter between the two of us. Nothing to worry about."

"Could you? End the war I mean?"

Susan considered. "Tricky. Given time I could research something like _Elemental Storm_ and rout any size army. Short of that, with just what I know now? Hey Hiraga, how do you feel about taking on an entire army with just the two of us?"

"Would you have your fire soldiers going, and that _Avatar_ spell of yours?"

"Naturally."

"We could take them."

Susan laughed. "You think? Well, anyway, I've recently been reminded that taking lives may not be the best habit to get into. I've been considering those words, and destroying lives is rather final. It's sort of the lazy solution, the easy way out. Any fool can kill, but to humiliate your opponent? Sap their will so they never want to fight again? That's the best way."

"I don't think that's what I said at all!" piped up Sparkle.

"Okay, I was paraphrasing. The point is, if I can't come up with a better solution for this war than just slaughtering thousands, what good am I?"

"Do you have something in mind?"

"Depends. What's the situation here?"

"Several days ago this town was occupied by enemy forces. They pulled back and allowed us to retake it. We think we know why, now. According to our scouts, tens of thousands of solders and mages will be descending upon this town once again in mere days. Possibly as early as tomorrow."

"Basically, they didn't want to be boxed in by the town, and retreated, waiting for their reinforcements?"

"We think so."

"How many troops do you have standing by here? Can I get more here with _Teleportal?_ "

Anrietta shook her head. "Not enough, and probably not. We're spread pretty thin. But I don't want to abandon this town again, not after we just retook it. How would that make me look, as a queen? Going back and forth, not being able to hold onto territory I was able to take."

"But how would it look if you died here? What would happen to your kingdom?"

"Dying for my subjects? They would fight twice as hard in the future because of it."

"I suppose that's possible. Let's make sure that doesn't happen, so we don't have to find out which of us is right."

"Deal. What's your idea?"

"Depends. How much rope do you have?"

Susan asked for a piece of paper, and started sketching out some circles. "The spell I used to put the men to sleep back at the academy can be made 24m across, using just my base energy. I can cast it 16m away, so putting it at the maximum range I'll be 4m from the affected area. Taking the full time they should drop instantly, given it's a Moon spell and I'm at twice potency for that planet. At just a little over a second per casting, taking the full time doesn't concern me.

"However, it still costs me energy to cast. That means I can cast the spell about eighty times in a row before I go unconscious. As I'll want _Avatar_ going it'll be a bit lower. In any case, Hiraga and I will be armored up and waiting for the first troops to arrive. I'll put a 24m swath of them to sleep. At this point, as many people as possible will rush out and disarm them. Hopefully they can be tied up at the same time, depending on how quickly you can do that. I'll want a steady stream of weapons flowing away from the battlefield, carried by anyone and everyone we can get to do the job. I'll move up as the army marches forward and repeat the sleep spell so the first ones don't get woken up. Repeat eighty times.

"Hiraga, it's your job to protect me so I can keep casting the sleep spell. I'll have my blade out, and I'll defend myself, but I'm looking to you to keep anything off me. The more enemy soldiers I put to sleep, the less our side has to fight through."

"I'll be right at your side," he promised.

"As we go, any forces you can muster, Anrietta, will be hitting them from the flanks. Mages and archers will probably tend to clump up, so I'll be able to put large groups asleep and keep your forces safe. With the demoralizing tactic of huge areas of soldiers dropping at once, I think it'll be a rout before long. With the enemy soldiers disarmed they won't be able to fight, and will be forced to surrender. Strip them and march them back where they came from, in shame. Tell whoever sent them they can have their solders back, but if they try anything like this again, their soldiers will just disappear instead.

"If that doesn't discourage war in your kingdom in the future, I don't know what will. Then have your own mages start researching a similar sleep spell so you can do this in future yourself. Thoughts?"

"You would just stand out there, unprotected?" asked Anrietta. "You'll be slaughtered by arrows or spells! A bow can shoot way further than 24m."

"Sure, but an arrow pierce metal twice as tough as your best steel? I don't think so. You haven't seen the spell, but Agnes here has."

"It's pretty impressive. If she says not to worry, then don't worry."

"I guess you know your magic best. I'll have this information told to the townspeople. If they want to help disarm the sleeping enemy, I will welcome them. Tell them I myself will be fighting at their side. Also have them bring any and all rope they can lay hands on. Susan, if you could open a portal to the towns you have been to, I will have agents gathering rope there as well. Also more mages, possibly even from the school, as even an untrained mage can manage a simple rope trick."

"They have been training, but to put those girls on the battlefield?" asked Agnes.

"Guess we can see how good a trainer you really are," joked Susan.

"I'm sure they'll do just fine."

And so the town got ready. Stockpiles of rope were created, and many of the men from the village said they would be honored to fight beside the queen. Many of the women said that as well, but they were sent in the opposite direction with the children of the village, an equally important task.

About a third of the girls from the academy volunteered, including Kirche and Charlotte, who Susan greeted warmly. "No rushing off," she told them. "Your dragon isn't any more invincible than you, and I don't want you getting killed out there. Disarm and enchant only!"

Charlotte nodded, but Kirche fumed.

And so it was the night before the battle. The current estimate of troop movements put them arriving in about twenty hours. In other words, just about sundown.

 _Great, we'll have the sun in our eyes when they attack. Someone planned this well._

Susan, with her 10 RESolve and _Overconfidence_ , had no trouble falling asleep. Pity her, for because of her _Deep Sleeper,_ she didn't feel when someone slipped into bed next to her. A person in search of a little closeness before the coming battle, who put her arms around her and wondered if this odd girl was going to her death despite her confidence in her magic. But she did snuggle closer, and dreamt nice dreams about worlds without war.

The next day, Susan refused most requests that involved magic, saying she wanted to have as much energy as she could for the coming fight. _If ever there was time I missed_ Energy Drain, _this would be it. With the energy from even half the townspeople here, I could probably cover the entire land in sleep mist and end this war without a single death._

 _Was my coming here no accident? Is Inari trying to tell me something? To be creative, like I'm doing now, and rely on others? Rather than just throwing energy at the problems in my way? I really wish you weren't such a trickster, Inari. Maybe you could have just, I don't know, given me a powerpoint presentation on the subject?_

And so, with the enemy army in sight and the queens forces in place, Susan took a deep breath and stepped up to Hiraga and Louise.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Ready!" Hiraga confirmed.

"Good luck, you two," said Louise sadly. "I wish I could be of more help."

"In a war where we want to kill everyone, you would be. But killing that many people... I don't know what it would do to you. If we do get overrun, though, it falls to you and the others that are back at the hospital they've set up. Don't allow them a single step they don't pay for."

She nodded. "I won't."

She hustled off, and Susan turned back to Hiraga.

"Two castings of _Avatar of War,_ coming up."

"Three, actually, if you don't mind," said Sparkle.

"Are you sure? I thought you might want to hang back, maybe do some healing at the hospital. I don't mind if you want to protect Louise."

Sparkle shook her head. "My place is at _your_ side. Especially if something goes wrong and you need _Acceleration._ I don't have your energy, but I know the sleep spell. Even I could turn the tide of battle, you know."

"Okay, but stick close. Even being small and armored, it's still going to be dangerous for someone your size."

"Who said I was sticking with this size? _Shape-shift."_ Sparkle became a small mountain lion, currently -1 size modifier, or about half as big as a person.

"Oh, as you grow another size modifier, you'll be human sized and armored. Good idea!"

"Thank you."

Susan cast, using the extra time and minimum energy to get a 10 rating for the spell, with three targets. She did lift a busted up sword and a burning torch, the enhancer for the spell. That gave them both an effective rating of 12, so hopefully if it worked the same for him, his difficulty to be hit went up by that amount. With Susan's _Passive Dodge_ against arrows at a 9, an archer would have roll better than a 20 (she was +1 size) to bypass the armor and hit her. Possible, with energy, but what archer was putting energy into each arrow, when they had forty or fifty arrows to put downfield at a time? Not one, that's who.

She drew her now +1 sized katana and it was sheathed in flame, and she noticed Sparkle's claws were similarly alight. She laughed. "You're upping our intimidation checks, that's for sure," she remarked. "I feel powerful," Sparkle admitted. "I can see what you see in it."

They started forward.

The line of soldiers stretched back quite a ways. But they were marching, and in formation, at that.

"I was pretty nervous a minute ago, but now suddenly I'm not," Hiraga remarked.

"The spell makes you immune to 'moral effects.' Facing down an entire army would count."

"Oh."

The leading edge of the marching soldiers took in the three enormous figures before them. Two were human, but no human ever stood so tall. No armor ever flashed so brightly in the setting sun. No animal like the one that stood by their side, claws dribbling flame like water, had ever been known. They seemed confused. Did they attack? No other forces could be seen, did these two believe they could fight the entire army?

Suddenly someone must have shouted orders from the back, and weapons were raised. A cry went up, and they began to run, bloodlust taking over, months of training and preparation bringing them to this moment. A moment they knew they could win, and add this kingdom to the glory of their-

They fell asleep, faceplanting into the ground and losing their grip on their weapons.

 _One down, seventy three more to go._


	20. Chapter 20

20

Victory

Time: The next day

Place: The palace

And in the end, Susan's plan came off perfectly. Because honestly, if one person (Hiraga) in the original timeline can break the enemy line and kill that number of soldiers, that same person can do it while revved up with Susan's magic. Both Hiraga and Sparkle focused not on killing their foes, but smashing their weapons so they could no longer fight. Seeing a giant moving about the battlefield, feeling the heat of the weapon it wielded as it tore the sword out of your hand? These were enough to demoralize the toughest of... peasant. Fire spells washing over them, leaving them unharmed frightened the mages, and Susan put a significant portion of the enemy army to sleep right there on the battlefield.

Plus Anrietta was there with her forces, driving those who did not get caught in the mists back with deadly magic and arrows and bullets. The death toll was high, but not on the side of good, and when the retreat sounded, the cheer that went up almost woke up those sleeping on the battlefield a hundred meters away.

Almost.

Susan's conscience was clear. She had enabled a great victory for the kingdom, and did it under her own terms. She hadn't just stood on a mountainside and called down fire or acid upon the advancing army, though that potential was in her. (She would have preferred to do that with _Knockout,_ but even she can't have everything.) She had fought on the ground, her energy steadily ticking away, but taking out dozens of soldiers with each tick. The queen's forces from each side had done their job, keeping the enemy from spreading out and avoiding the worst of the spell. With her foes boxed in and tripping over each other in their rush to avoid her magic, they had nowhere to go.

And so the war came to an end. Susan was one of the first, having stayed at the castle with Agnes, to hear about the peace treaty being signed. If it could be called such a thing, as Wales was back in power. The Reconquista leaders having been taken out when the victory they had promised hadn't materialized. That, and actions by allied countries, ended the war quite nicely. That it was possible at all was because of Susan's planning and magic at the last battle, but the general populous was just being told battles had been won and that was that.

With the proper nobility once again in charge, the country changed its name back to Albion, and basically said "yeah, we aren't at war with you guys anymore. Here's some money for reparations." Of course, it wasn't Wales' fault, so Anrietta didn't want to accept it, but she did have a kingdom to run. Her marriage, put off because of war breaking out, was never mentioned again, probably because the person she actually wanted to marry was back in power. They were probably just trying to figure out the legal way of doing so. Without the looming threat of a more powerful kingdom swallowing them up, they now had the time.

The day after the peace treaty was signed, Agnes came to see Susan and become her "love slave." After an honest discussion that Susan did still plan to leave and neither could get too attached to the other, they decided to spend the night together anyway. Both liked the other, had no other real opportunity for intimacy with another person on that world, and were rather flush with victory at the moment. They had a lot of nervous energy to work off.

A very good time was had by both. The morning after, Susan invited her back any time, and Agnes merely said "You have but to say the word, my master," and couldn't stop giggling for several minutes. Tickling may have been one of the causes, but this is unconfirmed.

And so the students went back to the magic academy. Susan refused all titles, honors, and ceremonies, saying it was her magic that won the day, not her, in the strictest sense of the word. So honoring her was like praising the plow that tilled the fields in the springtime. It was the horse doing all the work, while the farmer guided it. In this case, she was the plow, her magic was the horse, and destiny itself was the farmer. Susan managed to escape while Anrietta, eyes crossed and giving random minor twitches, tried to figure that metaphor out.

Several days passed peacefully. But one morning, Susan was awoken again by a stranger in her room. A well endowed stranger.

"Not again," she groaned. "What is it this time?"

"You sleep like the dead!" said the creepy lady looking down at her. "For a moment I thought you were dead. Now, you will come with me, void mage!"

"Will I?" Susan asked, interested. "Wait, what did you call me?" She got up on one elbow.

"Void mage! I watched as you used your magic during the last battle. Only a void mage could be so strong!"

"Oh, right, yup, that's me. Void mage. Been one all my life. How exactly do you intend to leave here with me?"

"Do not underestimate my power!"

"What about your muscles? Can I underestimate them?"

"What are you talking about? If this is some attempt to stall me-"

"Oh, no, nothing like that. I just notice you don't look very strong, that's all."

"Enough of this! Get dressed immediately, and if you cry out I'll make you pay for it." She raised a wicked looking dagger.

"How about I do this, instead? _Immobilize."_ She cast it instantly, so the woman wouldn't have time to react, and put in her maximum energy. Sadly, while Susan had gauged her STRength appropriately, she underestimated this woman's RESolve. As she spent seven energy on her STRength check, she threatened to break out with a twenty-one. Susan, thinking that might be a bad idea, spent two XP for a +4 and she went nowhere. "Right," she said, hopping out of bed.

"What is this? How? Release me immediately!"

"Oh, I think not. Tell you what. How about I just go get the principal or someone," she went over and closed the window, "and they can throw you down in the dungeon. How does that sound? I've seen them, very posh. You'll love it."

The woman struggled. "I will not be trifled with!"

"Wouldn't dream of it. I'll request the embassy suite for you. Now don't you go anywhere!"

Susan left her room, shaking her head. _Seriously, how did she get up here? Must have come in through the window._

She managed to make it to the principal's office and almost all the way back before she felt her spell somehow be broken and knew, before she opened the door, that the woman was gone. Sparkle came padding up. "What's going on?"

"I can't believe I just did that," said Susan, shock written all over her face. "I just left someone totally unguarded, believing they couldn't escape. So naturally they did. I'm some kind of super villain!"

"Someone was in the room? Does that make them the good guy?"

"It was a girl, and I hope not. She was too creepy to be a good anything."

"Perhaps you should start at the beginning," said Mr. Ottman.

So Susan explained.

"And she called you the void mage? This is troublesome. If someone is moving against void mages, we need to discover why. Obviously they got it wrong this time, because Louise is not using her magic openly. But it is still a concern. Get dressed and come to my office later, with her. I'll need to speak to you both."

"Where were you, anyway?" asked Susan, as they headed to the office.

"Just wandering around. I do have _Short Attention Span_ you know, and watching you sleep isn't the most exciting thing in the world to do. I have to play my weaknesses, same as you."

"As long as you have some excuse. Honestly, doesn't this place have wards or something to let people inside know someone evil just snuck inside?"

"Ah, you're here, good," said Mr. Ottman, when Louise and Susan had arrived. "Please, sit down and I'll explain a few things." Both did. "I've been looking into legends about the Void element, and about those that have used it in the past. It's hard to separate fact from fiction because the last time it surfaced was so long ago. One thing is clear, only four people can use Void at any one time. And the historical precedent is that'll appear in the world at about the same time. Legends differ. Some say that the four together will cause a great calamity, while others say the four arise in response to one, and defeat it.

"What does this mean for you two? Well, it seems clear someone wants to get you together. That's why this odd woman you say appeared in your room was insistent you come with her, rather than just stabbing you in your sleep."

"Comforting thought."

"It could have been worse. Plus, with attention focused on you, they do not know about Louise, and so we have the advantage. We knew some of their plan, plus they want the wrong person. Even if they manage to catch you, I am more confident in your ability to escape, Susan, than in Louise's ability to do so. No offense, Louise."

"None taken," she grumbled, obviously offended.

"Our task now is to find the other three."

"Why would they want us together, though?"

"Perhaps to cause this great tragedy that legends speak of? After all, there's a fifty/fifty chance of that. Or, in the event that doesn't happen, destroy you so you can't combat whatever it is that caused you to be able to channel Void in the first place. And thus, again, bring about tragedy."

"Have there been any indications of something stirring in the world that would require power like hers?" asked Susan.

Mr. Ottman shook his head. "Nothing like that. But we are forewarned, and I'll alert the allied kingdoms to watch for any unusual activity in the world."

"Sounds like just about all we can do. Looks like I better start researching the _Question_ spell."

"Anything you can do to help make our job easier would be appreciated."

"I don't suppose the academy could provide me materials and a place to work? That would be easier than me going back to the city to buy stuff, and be more comfortable than working in my room."

"We have plenty of space for magical research! I wish you had said something earlier. Louise, can you show her? Use whatever you need from the labs!"

"Thank you."

"You may also want to become roommates with someone, just in case this lady comes back."

"I'll ask Charlotte or Kirche, they might not mind."

"You could ask me," pouted Louise. "Or am I not good enough for you?"

"Uh, I don't want to sleep in the same room as the Void mage. If she comes back and you use Void magic, she might recognize it and switch her focus to you!"

"As long as there's a reason."

And so, Susan researched _Question_ for ten minus three days, Sparkle having rolled a 16 on her KNOledge check to remember the symbology of the spell. Susan had moved in with Charlotte, who very nearly almost somewhat showed a hint of excitement at the prospect. But she was honored to be asked, and Susan was able to talk about how her mother was doing since her recovery. She always became more animated then, but soon went back to reading. _If ever there was a person that exemplified the_ Bookworm _background, it's her. Say, how do I know about other backgrounds and weaknesses I don't have? Must be a_ Paragon _thing, just being able to recognize them in others._ She also insisted that another bed wasn't necessary, and while nothing happened between the two, Susan would sometimes awaken to find them snuggled together, which suited her just fine.

The day Susan finished _Question,_ she went to the principal's office with the formula and Louise, and announced her intention to ask the universe where she should look for the nearest Void mage not in the room. Mr. Ottman said to proceed, and Susan took her time casting the fifteen turn spell. (Recalling that's only a minute) The answer she got back was:

"The Fairy Woods"

"And so we have our answer," said Susan.

Charlotte didn't mind flying them both out there to take a look around, and riding the powerful dragon it didn't take long to reach the wood. Looking down through the trees, neither saw any sign of habitation in the forest, just vegetation.

 _This place is pretty big,_ thought Susan as she peered down. _And why would someone be living out here rather than in a village or town? That doesn't make much sense._

"There's a clearing, let's land because I'm going to try something!"

Charlotte just nodded, and set the dragon down.

Susan pulled out her notes for _Question_ and set about casting it again, at least twice. As they were at the edge of the forest, and she could use _Compass_ to know which way was north, she was going to ask the magic how far East and how far North or South they should go to reach the nearest Void Mage. _That_ Compass _spell finally came in handy. I learned it because of my_ No Sense of Direction _but just knowing which was North is was never as handy as I thought. Oh well._

The spell told her to go a certain number of steps East and South, so Susan and Charlotte made their way on foot in the indicated direction. They soon came to a cabin, highly camouflaged so it couldn't be seen from the air.

"This must be the place," remarked Susan, walking up to the door. She knocked. "Hello?" she called. "Anyone home?"

There was no answer.

"Look, we just need to talk to you for a moment. If you're there, please come out. We mean you no harm but you are in great danger!"

"I should say so," said a familiar voice behind them. "Thank you, Void mage, for leading me to the very place I needed to go."

Susan and Charlotte spun, and there stood the creepy lady Susan had seen earlier. She had weird marks under her eyes and very long hair. She was also wearing a tight outfit that may as well have been painted on for all that it concealed. Around her, a dozen wolves stepped out of the forest and growled menacingly.

"I won't lower my guard around you, this time. Surrender and come with me."

"I don't think so. You want the person inside this cottage, you'll have to go through me first. And as you want me alive, I don't really feel I'm in much danger."

"But what about this other one? Attack!" she commanded the wolves. Charlotte blew them away as they raced at her.

"Oh, you brought a sensible bodyguard after all," she sneered. "But there's more where they came from!" More wolves appeared out of the darkness of the forest.

"Okay," said Sparkle, stepping forward. "This is a clear case when _Line_ is called for." She started casting.

"Odd, you have an animal Familiar? I thought all void mages got humanoid ones. Shows what I know."

The line appeared, snaking towards the woman, then encircling the house. As the wolves charged forward they got blasted with wind, and were none to smart as they kept running into it. Rather than explode into gore they just sort of melted away, leading Susan to believe they were just summoned constructs of some kind. Suddenly, flying creatures also appeared, and Susan shouted to Charlotte that the line wouldn't handle them. So she blew them out of the sky without apparent effort.

"It appears you are quite well protected," said the woman. "But my master can wait, for a time. We know who the last void mage is now, so it's only a matter of time. Farewell!" She melted into the woods and was gone.

Sparkle waited a moment to make sure nothing else charged the house, and let the line go. As she did, the door cracked open and the person inside peeked out.

"Like I said, you're in danger. I guess I have to apologize, as I led them right here. You'll have to come with us, I'm afraid. At least until we learn who is trying to grab up Void mages. Can we come in?"

The figure glanced around nervously though the cracked open door. "You defended me," she said at last. "I guess you can come in." She opened the door and stepped back.

"Hello!" Susan said, getting a good look at the woman. She shook her head to clear it. "I mean, hello. I'm Susan, this is Charlotte, and my companion Sparkle. You are seriously going to have back problems when you're older. I mean, uh, little help here?"

"Jealous," was all Charlotte would say.

"Don't stand there gawking, she did invite you in," said Sparkle, moving past the pair. "You'll have to forgive them. Please, what's your name?"

The woman stared down at the cat like she had never seen one.

"Before that," said Susan, finally tearing her eyes away. "Let's make sure you really are the one we need to see. Charlotte, you know this skill, why don't you try as well?"

"Okay."

Both called upon _Magic Sense,_ Susan rolling the check and Charlotte doing whatever she did to determine success or failure. Susan got a 14, enough to feel the power of Void in the woman, now that she knew what to look for. She had spent some time feeling out Louise before she left, just in case there was some question of who the actual Void mage was. Charlotte shook her head, getting a bad roll and not succeeding.

"Keep trying, I felt it," said Susan, entering the house. "You're a Void mage, all right." She stuck out her hand. "What should we call you, anyway?"

"Tiffania," said the woman, shaking it.

 _Tiffania joined the party!_


	21. Chapter 21

21

Gathering

Place: Tiffania's cabin

Time: Moments later

The group was seated around a table, sipping tea, as Susan explained why they were there. She also took a good look at their host and the inside of the house, which were neat, spartan, and filled with natural tools and implements. The cups, for instance, were just sections of branch hollowed out and smoothed. The teapot was metal, but the stove was a stone block. There was only the one chair at the table, so the three were sitting on the floor, and it was clear Tiffania's dress was the only thing she was wearing.

As far as her appearance, she was golden haired, and her body was toned and tanned, probably from living alone in the forest for who knows how long. Her dress was simple, a sleeveless affair held up by a length of cord that went around her neck, which threatened to spill her out at any second. Tied around her waist was a thin piece of white cloth, and coming down barely to her thighs was the rest of the dress, slit completely up the side to her waist. She was also wearing a floppy hat, which she had jammed on her head and kept reaching up to smash further down onto her head.

Susan estimated her looks at least at a seven or eight, if you were into that sort of thing.

"So you live all alone out here?" she asked, having finished her rather lengthy introduction about why there were out here tramping around in the woods.

Tiffania nodded.

"I see. Seems you're going to become a rather important person very soon, especially now that creepy lady knows where you live."

"No, I'm not very important, and I can't do magic, you have to believe me."

"Maybe you think you can't, but I can feel it within you. Sorry, but your time of solitude is over. I won't force you to come, of course, but if we leave that woman who attacked us will return. She will force you to go with her, and I have no idea of her intentions. I guess in the end it comes down to you. Do you trust us, who defended you but also have unknown intentions towards you, or her, who was happy to use force to get what she wanted?"

"Right now I just don't think I can answer that question."

"Sadly, we'll have to stay here while you think it over. I don't want to lose you so soon after I found you. But if you say we should leave, we'll leave." She took another sip of tea and waited.

"Let me think for a moment," she pleaded, moving off and looking around. As though in a bit of a daze, Tiffania gathered a few things into a bag and set it down next to them. "I guess I'll have to trust you."

Susan smiled. "I'm glad. Come, finish your tea and we'll go back to the academy right away. I know it might be a bit of a shock to meet so many people at once, so we'll try to keep you away from the students until you're more comfortable. Okay?"

She nodded, and finished her tea. She cleaned up the dishes and finally it seemed she couldn't put it off any longer. She said she was ready to go.

"Don't be nervous, we can come back here as easily as we leave, you'll see. This isn't the last time you'll see this place. Now prepare yourself, people usually freak out a bit when they see my _Teleportal!"_

And so, Tifannia came to the school and was introduced to Mr. Ottman. He stared a little too creepily at her, but finally shook it off.

"So what's the plan now?" he asked.

"Finding number two was a snap, let's go after number three tomorrow. I'll use _Question_ right now, if Louise is out of class, and we can get a fix on the next Void mage. We'll have them together in no time." She paused. "Of course, if the disaster happens... well, you've got me so it should be fine. Better to get them together under controlled circumstances, right?"

"I suppose."

And so they got their answer. "Romalia"

"You'll have to take a ship to get there," Mr. Ottman informed them. "I can book you passage, you can get to the port town easily enough, right?"

"Not a problem."

The next day, Susan and the others, that being Tiffania, Hiraga, Louise, and Sparkle stepped through a _Teleportal_ to the town of La Nocher, to take a floatship to the town of Romalia. The trip took a few days, but no one bothered them. Tiffania obviously had not been out of the woods in some time, and kept asking about things they were passing over. Susan deferred to Louise about that sort of thing. She was quite excited to be traveling, though still painfully shy if any of the other passengers happened to speak to her.

Landing at Romalia, the group was impressed with the architecture here, and the huge structure in the distance. The main road seemed to run right towards it, and Susan eyed it suspiciously.

"Come on," she said, looking around. "We'll find a quiet place for me to cast _Question_ a few times, and narrow down where this next void mage is."

The spell indicated they should basically go straight, right up to the huge tower.

 _Figures._

"Why didn't I use this spell instead of all that _Descry Creature_ and such before?" she asked Sparkle. "This seems way easier."

"They aren't just going to let us walk in," said Susan, as the group walked closer to it. "Any ideas for how to get in and find this Void mage?"

Everyone shook their heads. "Something odd about that building," remarked Hiraga, "but I can't put my finger on it."

Susan snapped her fingers. "It's like the school! Look, there's the five spokes of the wheel or whatever, that represent the five elements here. Man, you guys do take magic seriously."

"Of course," said Louise, simply.

Once nearer to the structure, Susan saw there were windows at the top, and some were open.

"What do you think?" she asked, pointing them out. "Fly up there and let ourselves in? The place is pretty big though, and it could be anyone inside."

"If that's the case," put in Louise, "they could be in any one of the five side buildings. We could wander around the tower while they're over there!" She pointed randomly.

"Why not just ask the _Question_ spell for the name of the person?" asked Sparkle, somewhat annoyed.

"Oh yeah, this isn't like the forest. I could just ask that, couldn't I? A name is short enough. Give me a second." She found another quiet place under some trees and bent over the spell again, reading it for the forth time that day.

"Vittorio Serevare," was the answer from the spell.

Louise gasped and put her hands over her mouth.

"You know that name?" asked Saito.

"That's the pope!"

Susan groaned. "We aren't going to get in to see him. Not without a lot of fast talking. I suppose I could increase my _Persuasion_ rating with _Augment Skill._

"You know who he will see?" Susan shrugged. "The queen! Can your portal open into the castle? You know she would come if you asked her."

"Good point. To have the queen randomly pop up though... I guess we can ask. I can always get back here, now that I've seen it."

So Susan and the others went behind some buildings and went back to the castle where Anrietta was, and asked for an audience. As the queen's orders stated nothing was to be denied these people, she was quickly summoned and told the situation.

"And this woman is a Void mage as well?" she asked, shocked. "And now you've found out the pope is the third? You don't mess around!"

 _Where have I heard that phrase before?_

"Do you mind getting us in to speak to him?" asked Susan.

"Not at all." She clapped her hands, and ordered a carriage be readied immediately. "We'll just head back through your portal, if that's okay with you."

"I like this plan, I'm proud to be a part of it."

Within the hour the group was back in front of the building they had just left, and the queen caused quite a stir when she stepped out of the carriage.

"Forgive us," said the guards. "We were not informed of your arrival!"

"Yes," she replied, trying to hide her grin, "we decided to come rather suddenly."

The group was brought into the building, and the pope was summoned. They were waiting in a large chamber, when they heard footsteps from the passage on the right. A man dressed in a white suit, who had two differently colored eyes, appeared and looked them over.

"Julio Chesare," he said with a bow. "You all caused quite a stir coming here as you did."

"We do apologize," said Anrietta. "But the matter was quite urgent."

"It must be. My master will be along in just a moment, I'm sure. I don't recognize any of them," he pointed to us, "and they don't seem to be your bodyguards."

"I will tell his holiness why we are here."

"As you wish, your majesty."

The group didn't have long to wait, as a guy with a funny purple hat and robes stepped in from the left.

"Your majesty," he said formally.

"Your holiness," she replied, just as formally.

Louise went down on one knee, Tifannia followed her, but Hiraga and Susan remained standing. The man was young, Susan saw, probably late teens, and had long hair like a girl's. He carried a staff topped with an inverted teardrop with wings, and wore the same symbol around his neck.

"You should kneel!" hissed Louise.

"I don't see any reason to," remarked Susan. She looked down at Louise, who was trying to tug her down. "I've met as near a thing to a god as any mortal ever will, and my enemy may as well be one itself. This," she pointed to him, "is just a man."

"A very curious man," said the pope. "Even more so now, with that kind of claim. May I ask your names?"

"Your holiness," replied Anrietta, "this is Lousie, a friend of mine since we were very young. Her Familiar, Hiraga, from another world. Susan, a most extraordinary mage that was brought here by accident, and her Familiar, Sparkle. Lastly, Tiffania, a girl I actually just met myself."

"Pleased to meet you all, I'm sure. But this cannot be a social call, your majesty. Please, speak freely in front of Juilo."

"Your holiness, Louise and Tiffania are both Void mages."

"Ah!" Vittorio's eyes widened and studied each person in turn. "And so the four can finally be brought together. I knew the other two must be out there, but I never thought they would just appear out of nowhere. How was this accomplished?"

"Yes, how was this accomplished?" Anrietta asked the others.

"Just a little spell. As no one told me there were four of you guys, I never thought to look. But when someone mistook me for one, and tried to abduct me not once, but twice, I thought maybe I should move on it. And here we are. By the way, if you're a Void mage, and I know you are, and you say to speak freely in front of this man... should I take it he's your Familiar?"

"I am," said Juilo, taking off one of his gloves. A rune similar to Hiraga's was seen.

Susan snickered.

"What?" snapped Louise.

"You know how contracts are made."

She thought for a second, then went really red.

"Yes, that aside," said the pope. "This will cause me to accelerate my plans quite a bit."

"What plans?" asked Susan, suspiciously.

"We must reach the heart of the forth void mage, King Joseph of Gallia."

"Wait a minute, I've heard that name before."

"That's Tabitha's uncle," explained Louise.

"Wait, the guy who had his brother killed so he could take the throne? Who tried to off Charlotte and got her mother instead? Who put her through all those trials to try and bump her off after that? That King Jospeh?"

"Uh, yes?"

"He's a void mage as well? That's just great."

"I admit, he's a ruthless man, but his kingdom holds together."

"Oh, I'm sure it does. Under his iron fist. So is he the one that's trying to have me abducted? Why?"

"I cannot say. I can only hope he will change his mind once he sees we three together."

"Highly doubtful," mused Susan. "In any case, if someone can point out his rough location on a map and show me a recent portrait of the man, I could have him here within the hour."

"We mustn't rush," cautioned the pope, putting up a hand. "Do you know why Void exists? Why it hasn't been seen in the world for so long?" Susan shook her head. "It means that something terrible is coming. Something that only we Void mages might be able to stop. We're going to need his power, and soon."

Louise looked worried, and Susan could guess what she was thinking. Her explosions weren't really all that powerful, and Tiffania just found out she was a Void mage. What could she do, against something so 'terrible' that the pope was willing to try and rehabilitate a man like Joseph, in order to get his power?

"What sort of terrible thing are we talking about here?"

"The texts say only 'a calamity that burned the world.' Please, accept rooms here as my guests while I figure out how best to use the knowledge you've given me. Julio can show you our guest quarters. I must go and pray for guidance."

 _While I do something worthwhile, and actually get some answers._

She opened a _Teleportal_ so the queen could go back to the castle, and the group waved her off as she rode through it. She seemed very pensive, and with good reason, if what the pope had said was true.

The group got rooms all next to each other, and once settled in, Susan got them together for another casting of _Question._ She asked her magic what was the nature of the "calamity that burned the world," but got back "unknown." She tried various other ways of phrasing the question, but even asking if there was some kind of looming threat to the world, all she got back was "unknown."

"What does that mean?" asked Louise.

"Something is blocking my magic, and it would have to be pretty powerful in order to do that. The book you got, it hasn't shown any spells yet?" She shook her head. "Great. You two girls better figure something out, because if my magic isn't going to work on this thing, it falls to you two and the pope. I don't care what he does, someone like Jospeh isn't going to just change his mind after doing all those terrible things to Charlotte. I mean he killed his own brother, or had him killed, anyway. He's got the power, and he's not going to give it up. We can't count on him, so the three of you are going to have to be able to compensate for his not being around. I hope you're up to it."

 _And I hope this isn't The Darkness taking a hand in things here. Burning the world sounds like something it would do, because then it could gobble up all the energy without resistance. And it could easily counter my magic, like it did before, showing Tom how to set up areas my summoning magic couldn't reach. Just like now with my scrying magic._

 _I'm worried._

"I have a confession to make," Tiffania said softly. "I do already know some magic."

"That's great news! What is it?" Susan began to get a little excited.

"I can erase memories from people."

"Oh." Susan began to get a little less excited. "I'm sure that'll come in handy. At the very least, you girls can trade spells, right? Better to know two spells than one, that's my motto."

Both girls looked at each other. "I don't think so," Louise said at last.

"What? Why? You both use the same element, right?"

"It's not that, it's just every spell I try to do causes an explosion. Wouldn't the spell to wipe minds also cause an explosion?"

"It's similar for me," explained Tiffania. "I just wind up erasing memories. It's like I can't control it."

"Then what good is that book, if any more spells ever show up inside it?" Neither had an answer for that. "Okay. Wait though, you did the Familiar summoning spell and it worked, right?"

"It still exploded," she said, looking down. "You probably couldn't tell because you were in the middle of it."

"Ah. We'll have to ask the pope what his special power is sometime. Maybe Void magic just works that much differently, and you each get access to only a part of it. That would be weird, but I suppose there could be some logic to it. Like it's so powerful you can each only use a tiny portion of it? I guess if we say there's only a finite amount of magic in the world, and all mages draw from it, that would make the magical 'well' pretty low. Thus each mage can be roughly the same power. But with you, and only four people drawing from that 'well' the potential is higher. I don't know!"

"Should we get people preparing for some kind of disaster?" asked Hiriga. "I wouldn't want to cause a panic, but it might be a good idea."

"That could work against us. People might see the Void mages as the cause of the event, and try to murder you. Then when and if it happens anyway, they'll have no way to stop it."

"Yeah, she's sort of a dower sometimes like that," remarked Sparkle.

"But only scholars know about things like Void mages," protested Louise. "And no one would connect some old legends with what's happening, right?"

"I don't know enough of your old stories to be able to answer that question."

"There is one consideration," said Sparkle. "What if this legend of something that can burn the world is true. Further, what if time runs at a similar speed between all our worlds. I mean Hiriga hasn't talked about any technology we don't have, right? So that's roughly equal. What if this civilization has actually arisen twice? Once the first time, then the world burned, and then the second time after that, when it got bored or defeated or whatever. Wouldn't that explain why they're still at this level of technology and we aren't? It's because they had to invent everything from scratch again!"

"Okay, now who's being a downer?"


	22. Chapter 22

22

King

Place: Main hall of the vatican

Time: The next day

"Have you made a decision, your holiness?" asked Louise, bending down on one knee before the pope, like always.

"I have, and that is why I have called you here. I believe a direct approach should work best. We will all travel to the kingdom of Gallia where I will ask him to join forces with us against whatever comes."

"Oh boy..." said Susan, not believing her ears.

"Do you foresee some problem with that plan?" he asked her.

"I just hope he doesn't annoy me so much I just take care of him then and there. Do you know what he's put his niece through? Plus, it will mean showing him the real Void mages. Are you sure that's wise?"

"Some risks will have to be taken. Why would showing him the Void mages be an issue?"

"Because of that creepy lady that's shown up twice and tried to abduct me. I don't know who she works for, and she's got the wrong idea that I'm the Void mage. To tell her she's wrong will put Louise at risk."

"I can't hide forever," protested Louise. "And I never asked you to pretend to be me in the first place."

"Still, it worked out for us. I even gave some thought to letting myself be captured to see who was behind all this. But if we're going to some other kingdom, there's no time for that."

"Her presence could be explained," put in Hiraga. "Let's say I'm your Familiar, and Louise is the Familiar of Tifannia."

"Hey, that could work! Well done, Hiriga."

"Thanks. Your magic does me the most good anyway, so I'd want to stick with you if things went bad."

"There is that. Fine, but I want him off balance. Before we leave, or actually as I've never seen the place, just before we arrive I want to call up some other people to join us."

"If you think it will be beneficial, please, call upon whoever you would wish," replied the pope.

"Oh, you are okay with being named as a Void mage, right, Tifannia?"

"This is all moving so fast. I'm not sure what to think any more. As long as you all think it's for the best, I'll go along with it. I mean, if the pope is willing to reveal himself as a Void mage, can I do less?"

"Hey, wait a second!" interrupted Louise. "She's right. I don't want to hide behind anyone. Besides, if everyone finds out I'm the Void mage, they'll finally stop calling me Zero! Let's just tell him the truth."

"I guess the risk is yours to take. My presence will be a little harder to explain, in that case, but I guess it'll work out. I can always just be your bodyguard. It would fit, given I did stand in for you in the creepy lady's mind. We could just say the time has come to reveal yourself and leave it at that."

"Fine. It's about time I got some credit for what I can actually do. Rather than just listen to people teasing me about what they think I can't."

"So we are decided?" asked the pope.

Susan shook her head. "It's a crazy plan, but who knows, it might just work."

And so the group headed to Gallia. True to her word, Susan _Teleportaled_ back to the castle to collect Queen Anrietta and the school to collect Charlotte. She waited until she was between classes, then pulled her aside.

"Hi, Charlotte, got a question for you!"

"Okay?"

"We're about to go confront your good old uncle. Turns out he's a void mage. Who knew?"

"Socked!"

"I know. How did the pope find out, anyway? Huh. Point is, how do you think he would react seeing your mom up and about?"

She shook her head. "Unsure. Quite surprised."

"Do you think we could go ask her if she wants to tag along? We'll be arriving in just a few minutes and I want to get as many high ranking people that have cause to hate him as possible. That will show him how serious it would be to refuse us."

"Why go there?"

"The Void mages. The pope has this crazy idea that he can be reasoned with if we're all in the same place."

"Impossible."

"That's what I told him! But I figure if his way doesn't work, my way will. How do you feel about becoming queen in his place?"

"Intrigued."

"Good enough for me. Want to go see your mom?"

"Okay."

So they stepped through to her house, and her mother was more than happy to finally see some action.

"I've been cooped up so long pretending to be crazy, I'm actually going a little crazy. It's time for all the charades to fall away!"

"I'm ready," said Susan, back with all her forces again. The pope looked between them all.

"You've made some influential friends," he remarked.

"Yeah, all part of a days work. You go in there and do your thing. But just know that if it doesn't work, I'm stepping up and we'll do things my way."

His face hardened. "I'm still not really sure who you are, that you think you can just take over this mission. The others seem to defer to you, so I've not said anything, but your attitude could wreck everything. This situation must be treated with care, we need his help."

"Long story short? I'm a dimensional traveler from another reality, and we do things my way because I get results. And because I'm falling back into my old pattern of just running people over. Darn it, why did I have to lose Luna!?"

"Who?"

"The person I started traveling with. That's part of the long story. And no disrespect to your office, but we don't need the help of a psychopath like this so called king."

"Remember what you learned with Mz Umbrage," cautioned Sparkle.

"Hey, what I did worked, didn't it? This man doesn't deserve to be in power, just like her."

"He thinks he does. He'll see it as the result of the tragic sacrifice of his brother, who had to be eliminated so the 'right' man could take the throne. Him."

"Which is exactly why he shouldn't have it."

"I agree, I just want you to keep in mind his point of view."

"I'll try. Don't worry, I'm not just going to float him around. I don't know what Void spells he knows, for one. I'm not stupid."

The group stood just behind the door, waiting to be announced and enter the king's chamber.

"I suppose you won't be bowing to the king, either?" asked the pope.

"No chance," agreed Susan. "I'll bow to Anrietta, because she's earned my respect by being a good queen and fighting for her people. I mean she came to support her troops and fight alongside them knowing she could be killed at any moment. This man is the opposite of her, with what he's done."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"His holiness, the Shield of the Founder, St. Aegis the 32nd!" announced the guard. "His bodyguard, Julio Chesare."

"Her majesty, Queen Anrietta of Tristain!"

"The lady Esme d'Orleans, and her daughter, Charlotte Helene d'Orleans, Chevalier de Norfatul!"

"Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere..." The man visibly paled. "Void mage! And her Familiar, Hiraga Saito from... Japan?"

"Tiffania Westwood Tudor of Albion. Uh, Void mage!"

"Susan Felton. Walker of worlds, slayer of dragons, Natural Magician, and seeker for the moon. Her familiar, Sparkle!"

"The moon?" remarked Sparkle.

"Luna."

"Ah. And what dragons have you slain?"

"I captured some. I could have killed them if I wanted. Same difference."

The king was not looking as startled as Susan had hoped, but he did look down at them, interestedly. The others were on one knee, but Susan swaggered up behind them and looked up at the man.

"Goodness," he said at last, "to what do I owe the company of such auspicious names? And I see you're up and about, Esme. I was not informed you were feeling better, I would have visited!"

 _Yeah, with a sharp knife._

"We have much to discuss, your majesty."

"I'm sure it's something serious, to bring the pope, a queen, two Void mages, and whatever it is that girl is, together." He pointed to Susan. She gave a little wave back. "Shall we retire to the banquet hall? I've had some refreshments brought, I'm sure you're all weary and thirsty from your travels."

"I would like that very much," said the pope. "There are urgent matters I must discuss with you. Best if we're sitting down for them."

"Very well. Please, rise. I will be along in a moment. Guard, see they are taken care of. Oh, why is that angry looking girl still armed in my presence?"

"I'm sorry, my king," said the guard that announced us. "We insisted she be disarmed, but as we were carrying the blade away, the sword returned to her, several times. She said she could keep this up all day, and could we get on with it? We thought it would be fine, after all, she was in the presence of His Holiness. And we did not insist on depriving Her Majesty of her magical focus, which we thought would be the greater overall threat..."

"Very well," he waved the man off. "I suppose a sword won't be of much threat to me in any case. Proceed."

The group was led to a large table, where Hiraga sat down and started filling a plate.

"Aren't you going to eat anything?" he asked, as Susan just stood against the wall watching everything.

"You do know his penchant for using poison, right?"

"Oh yeah. Maybe it's best not to." He pushed the plate away again.

"He's not going to poison the pope!" Louise said, exasperated.

"Exactly. Because the pope isn't going to eat or drink anything in the stronghold of a potential enemy!"

"Is he my enemy?" asked the pope, filling a goblet. "I choose to trust, and have him as a potential ally instead." He drank it down.

 _Well, if he starts writhing and thrashing I'll hit him with the knife. Hey, I remembered it!_

He didn't.

A moment later, the king entered with some of his guard, who took positions around the room. They eyed Susan suspiciously and she eyed them back, equally suspiciously. With him walked the creepy lady, who did seem surprised to see them all there. She kept looking back and forth between Susan and Louise.

"Please, don't be shy, make yourselves at home," he offered, sitting down.

"Why don't we get down to why I'm here?" suggested the pope. "Then we can put this mistrust that some have behind us."

"I agree. Please, speak openly."

"As you heard, two of our members are Void mages. That was not the complete story, as I did not announce that I too, am a Void mage. Julio here is actually my Familiar. And I see you have brought your Familiar, as well?"

"You may call her Sheffield."

"We've met," snarled Susan.

"Yes," said the king, "it seems my intelligence was incorrect about a few things. But why now... ah, of course, you found the other two before I did, and so the four meet at last. Congratulations."

"It's not a matter of finding anything. The four Void mages are together, for the good of the world. I have traveled here to ask that you pledge yourself to our cause, whatever that may be, when the world is threatened."

 _Wait a second, is the awakening of the creature or whatever is supposed to threaten the world the cause or the result of the four coming together? I mean, presumably the four Void mages have been around since the youngest was born. Why would the thing wait until they were old enough to threaten it? I guess that means the creature is about to wake up. But how does the world know to respond with the Void mages? Is magic that sentient to choose four people in the world after so long and go into them? I don't get it._

"Is that why you've come here? For my help? Is the world being threatened, then?"

"Luckily, no, not at this time. However, it is only a matter of time now that the four have come together. At least, that is what I believe, according to prophecy."

"Perhaps. You speak of the creature that destroyed the world long ago."

"I do."

"What sort of thing was it, I wonder? I'd be interested in seeing it myself."

"You must be joking."

"Oh no," he replied seriously, shaking his head. "To look upon the devastation caused by such a creature of legend? To see cities destroyed, lands blighted... it might be quite moving. I have to wonder, would I shed tears for those who had lost their lives? To look upon the tens of thousands dead, would I feel pity? Helplessness? Or would I feel nothing at all? I'm almost eager to find out."

"Eager? Now you must be joking!"

"I find little comfort in humor of late. No, if that is why you have come then I fear you will leave disappointed. You will not be getting my pledge of support, should this creature you fear appear somewhere in the world. If I did, you would expect me to rush to your aid should you wish to battle it. If you wish to battle it, you will mean to stop, or destroy it. If it is stopped, I will never be able to look upon the full devastation it causes, and never know if I might feel sorrow for those that were lost. So, as you can see, my support would be quite impossible. If there is nothing else?" He started to rise again out of his chair.

The pope seemed quite flummoxed. Susan had to admit, it wasn't the reasoning even she had expected. She had believed maybe he would hold his support hostage for land, or wealth. Maybe demand yearly tributes to keep him on "standby" should the beast attack. She had hoped seeing his family and the queen and the three Void mages would at least give him pause, maybe say "Give me some time to consider your words" and such. But he apparently went off the deep end, and basically said, "Let the world burn, I want to watch and warm my hands on the flames. Oh, and maybe cook some sausages."

"Shall I take over?" she asked, when the pope tried several times to frame his thoughts and failed.

"Oh, you have a different proposal?" asked Joseph, sitting back down. "I wondered about your role in all this."

"Quite different. The pope, or should I say 'his holiness' has given you option one. I will now give you option two." She laid a hand on Charlotte's shoulder. "You've been a real jerk to the rest of your family to secure that throne you're warming. Personally, I don't think your attitudes are good for the kingdom, and your being a Void mage just makes it that much worse. So here's option two. You step down from the throne and my girl Charlotte here steps up. You apologize for all the wrongdoing you've participated in over the years, and accept exile from the kingdom. You can become a monk or something, and spend the remainder of your years in quiet contemplation of your sins. You can help them when this creature appears because that can be the start of your atonement. I'm not sure even that would be enough to remove the whole stain of your sins from your soul. But it might be a good start."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I personally will declare war upon you. My Familiar has reminded me that getting into the habit of killing the people that you disagree with is a bad one. I'm sure I could come up with something creative that still fits all the terrible things you done. I've heard Charlotte's stories of you, and I'm inclined to believe she's leaving the worst parts out."

"Why is that?"

"Because I think you're probably smart enough to keep the worst parts secret."

He seemed to take this as a complement, rather than laugh, which is what Susan was expecting. _What's wrong with this guy?_

"Rather unconventional, declaring war on a person. Are you sure it shouldn't be queen Anrietta threatening my kingdom with war? I assumed that's why she was here."

Susan shook her head. "I have no problem with your kingdom. My problem is just with you. I'm sure she would back me, but there's really no need. I would be enough to take care of the problem, myself. She's here because I hoped a display of how many would be against you if you didn't cooperate would show you we were serious. I see that didn't work, so now it falls to me. They've already been in one war, I don't want to push them into another. You deal with me, as an independent agent, and leave Anrietta's kingdom out of it."

"How intriguing! You do know I'm a Void mage, correct? And I know you are not one, because the other three are right here in this room. I doubt the _pope_ would lie to me, after all."

"He hasn't. The other three are in fact Void mages. I am not, but I'm confident in my skills, and my magic."

"How confident?"

Susan regarded him suspiciously. "What did you have in mind?"

"A duel. Your magic and sword against my magic, and sword. If you win, I'll step down."

"Now I'm intrigued. You're really that confident? You say I don't know what you can do, but the same applies in reverse."

"I am. It seems the most direct way to show my resolve in this matter. I fear if I don't make my position clear from the start, his holiness will be hounding me the rest of my life. No one has time for that."

"And if I win, you'll do as I said? Help the Void mages? Give Charlotte the throne?"

"Of course!"

Susan turned to the pope. "What do you say?"

"Oh, I do get a say in this. I was beginning to wonder. I wonder... perhaps a wager?"

"Wager? The pope wants to make a bet with me?" The guards seemed about ready to faint from shock, but Joseph seemed to taking it in stride.

"That's correct. I'll wager a substantial portion of wealth, we can decide the specifics later, that you'll win. If you do, you'll agree to help us when we need it, and your kingdom gets the gold."

"But if I lose, I have to help anyway. I lose either way."

"True. But perhaps the money will help ease the sting of not being able to watch the world burn."

"Wait, are you betting against me?" Susan was shocked. _But of course, he doesn't know what I can do either._

"I'm betting with the world in mind. My wealth will be of no use to anyone if we are wiped out. This way I get what I want either way."

"Perhaps you could," said the king. "But it would have to be something else. I have no interest in money. Your life, perhaps, and lives of at least a dozen shrine maidens. Yes, I think that perhaps killing you with my bare hands might be the equal to seeing the world burn. Yes, snuffing out the life of some young women, watching them breathe their last, with my hands around their throats. Making you watch, again and again, as I go down the line. Until only you are left. That might be enough, as it would be more personal. Hummm."

 _Okay, this guy is going down, I don't care what I have to do._

Again, the pope seemed a bit out of his league. "It would have to be after the world destroyer was stopped, of course," he sputtered.

"Naturally. It is one or the other I crave. Your life in my hands, or the fate of the entire world. And it all hinges on one overconfident little girl. It seems fitting."

 _You mean_ Overconfident _but that's just my local dialect again. This guy is insane. But the pope... is he really confident enough in my skills, or just willing to throw his life away if it means the world get saved? I guess I don't know enough to answer that question, but if it's the second... dang. He just went up a couple of notches on the Susan Scale._

"Then it seems we have a deal?" The pope looked back at Susan.

"I want it in writing, and displayed prominently throughout the kingdom," she insisted. "I don't want the people thinking I'm just attacking you, or anything. It has to mean something, and for that, they have to know what's at stake."

"That I'm fighting you to avoid fighting for the sake of the world? Shrewd, they would turn against me in an instant."

 _Crap, he picked up on that fast. He's no dummy all right._

"You can word it however you wish. Even keep part of it secret. But your subjects have to know that if you lose to me, your crown is broken and a new one is forged for your niece. Fight the duel for your honor, or something."

"That much I will agree to."

"Then it seems we have a deal."


	23. Chapter 23

23

Duel

Place: Gallia castle

Time: Two days later

The morning of the second day dawned stormy, with flashes of lightning in the distance. King Joseph had stayed away from the group, but true to his word had spread the news about the duel far and wide throughout the kingdom. With no idea what Joseph's magic would be, there wasn't much they could plan, so Susan and the others that had remained basically hung out at the castle. The plan was for Susan to maintain _Augment Skill: Sword (Slashing)_ while Sparkle maintained _Armor of Magic_ and _Acceleration._

"After all," she reasoned, "he did say my magic. Just because it doesn't come from me necessarily doesn't mean one _Natural Magician_ is different from another. He didn't know Sparkle could cast spells, but that's no reason to assume she couldn't."

"There was every reason! Cats here don't use magic. Aren't you sort of cheating?" asked Louise.

"Hey, I either cheat or I do not cheat. None of this 'sort of' stuff. And no, I don't see it as cheating. If he wanted to have an arm wrestling contest or something, fine. But he's pitted my magic and sword against his, and Sparkle is my companion. That makes her magic my magic. I mean if she used a completely different type of spellcasting, maybe you would have an argument. But she doesn't, so there. Besides, you want me to win, don't you?"

"Winning with an underhanded trick isn't winning at all."

"Uh, I'm still going to be in the ring with him, you know. I could just as easily send in my dragon, or my twenty five soldiers made of fire fighting for me. That's my magic too. So be grateful I'm doing it this way at all."

"You're trying to humiliate him or something, aren't you?" observed Hiraga. "For what he did to Charlotte."

"That's part of it. A big part, probably. And I don't want him to cry foul later, either. He doesn't know what I can do, I don't know what he can do. He could have used yesterday to prepare all kinds of tricks. I'll have to deal with that just like he'll have to deal with what I can do. I have no idea if something I see him do is part of his magic as a Void mage or something else. I can't call him on anything he does, he can't call me on anything I do."

"Seems fair to me."

Louise harumphed. "I still don't like it."

Susan also worked out _parry or dodge, that is the question. With my_ Augment Skill _going my range of rolls will be 20-27. With_ Acceleration _going, my range for dodge will be 13-20._ _I guess parry it is, then. Mostly because I can put more energy into my_ Augment _than Sparkle can with_ Acceleration _and my dodge is terrible to begin with. Wait though, I'll have the_ Armor _going, that will add +12 to my difficulty to be hit. So even if I rolled minimum, he would have to roll a 26 to get past the armor and hit me. So that range is actually 26-32. Glad we had this little talk._

The duel was taking place near the castle, where an area was already set up for tournaments for things like jousting and magic proficiency. (And no weird hoop games, Susan was interested to note) There was a ring already marked off, and the stands were quite packed with people as the group made their way there.

Susan had swapped her sword for Hiraga's, just in case, and looked confidently up at the people who were yelling and cheering. _Do they even know who they're cheering for? But I suppose an event like this doesn't come along very often, so really any excitement is better than none. I have to remember these people don't have the Internet, or any real means of getting news from other places. This will be something they'll be telling travelers about for weeks. They saw the king fight, and that's probably pretty rare just by itself._

Joseph appeared from the other side of the ring, looking regal in his oddly stylized armor these people seemed to favor. It left the legs free, so was mostly a Half-plate, and he didn't bother with a helmet. _Those things can save your life, you know. Wear your helmets, kids._

He waved to the crowed, who cheered and booed him in equal measure. He stepped up to the ring and took his broadsword from a young boy, probably a squire. He stepped into the ring but looked up, as though unconcerned.

"Not a great day for it!" he called. "Are you sure you don't want to postpone this?"

"Worried all that metal will attract lightning?" Susan called back, drawing her own sword and handing the scabbard to Hiraga.

"I see you aren't wearing any. I guess you are confident!"

"I see you are, so I guess that means you aren't?"

He cocked his head to one side. "I suppose, given what I said, that would be the proper thing to say, wouldn't it? It is rather traditional, but then, given that the nature of this fight is rather untraditional, I could dispense with it. Make the sides more even, as it were."

"Do what you like. I don't mind." _My blade will cut it like tissue paper in any case._

"Very well. Shall we begin?"

Susan raised her sword into a guard position and stepped over the line. "Ye-" She didn't even get the whole word out before she was throwing herself to the side, dodging his blade.

 _How did he-_

And the fight was on.

Susan narrowly dodged, and the armor didn't activate though she swore his blade was millimeters from where it would have. She took her 1/10 movement, 2m as part of the dodge, and started thinking furiously.

 _He was across the whole freaking ring, can he control time or something? Let's feel him out._

She made her attack, not doing a called shot but just seeing where the dice would fall. (Figuratively, the Narrator has the dice) In this case, it landed on his left leg, which was unarmored, and she got first blood with six points of damage out of her possible eight. He tried to do whatever it was he had done to get over to her, which worked, but he staggered slightly as he appeared over on the other side of the ring.

He stared at his hand, which was now coated in blood as he had slapped his hand down over his wound reflexively. "You can't have seen through my technique already," he remarked, as though commenting on her hairstyle. "You must have just gotten lucky."

"Try me again and we'll see."

Susan held her action, as even with her increased speed, she knew there was no way she was crossing that distance. Joseph vanished again, appearing this time behind her, and she again threw herself to one side as he swung his blade. The ghostly form of her armor appeared around her, and the blade bounced off, causing him to snarl. Susan swung again, and he again tried to vanish and reappear elsewhere. Figuring she would keep her momentum going, she did a called shot to his leg and just nicked him as he vanished. Once again he appeared on the opposite side of the field, and both stared at the other.

"Seems you have some kind of armor after all," he remarked. "Seems it's gone invisible again, though. Or is it gone now that I've hit it? Care to tell me which it is?"

"Seems to me your leg wound isn't slowing you down any. Care to tell me why that is?"

"So you haven't figured out my ability. Or are you just feigning ignorance?"

"Stop bouncing around, come over here and fight me like a man, and find out for yourself. Or are you so afraid of a little girl you have to keep your distance?" Susan tried an untrained _Taunting_ check, but only got a six. Jospeh saw right through it.

"I fight the way I fight, girl! You won't get lucky a third time."

Susan by now had figured out that when Joseph disappeared from in front of you, it meant he was soon going to be near you, so she was ducking even as he faded out. But this time he didn't appear next to her, swinging, but rather off to the side where he threw a knife at her. She popped up, not technically having dodged yet, and swung her blade. She made a called shot to the knife, getting one more than his attack, and knocking it aside.

"Getting smarter, huh?" she asked. "How many of those do you have?"

"You're not human! No one could have deflected that blade out of the air. You're some kind of demon, sent here to topple my throne! I see it so clearly now!"

"Yes, a demon... who walked in with the pope."

"You even have the pope under your vile spell! Archers, destroy this abomination of Hell before it does more evil work here!"

 _Wait, archers?_

Susan looked where Joseph was calling to, and saw people in the stands raising crossbows. Everyone else was starting to panic and push to get to the edge and get the heck out of there. The archers were trying to get a bead on her, but with all the pushing and shoving, they couldn't get a clear shot. _That won't last long, have to think of something._

"You never intended our duel to be fair, this was your plan all along!" Susan accused, taking a step forward.

"Did you really think I would give up my crown, just like that? Don't take another step!" He pointed, and Susan looked over to the stands. The others, having been in the front row, were busy fighting the soldiers that had been concealed with the peasants in the rows behind them. The regular people were mostly getting in the way, so it was confusion in the stands. Hiraga, of course, was doing just fine. He was protecting Louise, who didn't want to explode anyone but was holding her wand ready. Sparkle was on her shoulder, doing the occasional _Thrust_ if someone got too near. Charlotte was also handling herself well, freezing people into place by sticking their lower bodies to the ground, or freezing their weapons in solid ice. The pope and Julio were nowhere to be seen. Esme was being held by solders at swordpoint, and the two were moving off to the side out of the way of the fight. Charlotte was too busy fighting to have noticed.

"And now you're taking people hostage? I don't believe this."

"Believe it. I can spin this little duel to my advantage in so many ways, even going so far as to say the pope has been tainted with evil. They all saw what you did. No human could have kept up with my speed, the plebeians will believe their eyes and my reputation will grow. I'll be the one that saved them all."

"You haven't taken me yet," snarled Susan.

"Would you sacrifice Esme to escape? The other seem to be holding their own, but how long until a stray arrow takes one out? You really are a demon!"

"Who said anything like that? _Transposition!"_ Susan cast it instantly, hoping her bonus from _Acceleration_ and some energy would be enough to switch Joseph for Esme. It wasn't, and Susan thought about possible options. She realized Sparkle was somehow giving her card 3, _I Don't Think So,_ and forced Joseph to take another look at his RESolve check to stay where he was. This resulted in a much more favorable result for her. As Esme didn't exactly know what was going on, but knew she was in a bad situation, she allowed whatever was happening to happen. Suddenly, Joseph found himself being held by his own soldier, who was quite surprised by this turn of events.

 _He's right about the arrow thing. They won't pierce my_ Armor _but they could hit someone else. Probably by accident. We need some cover and a hasty exit, both of which my magic can provide._

" _Magical Ally, Major!"_ Susan cast, taking the full time. Her newest _Ally_ appeared, as Susan remembered now that she had reworked it after learning _Avatar of War,_ having forgotten how to cast the original that knew _Deflection_ and _Elemental Bolt._ This one just knew _Thrust_ and got all the benefits from having _Avatar of War_ put on it. Its claws and teeth (when it opened its mouth to bite) were covered in flames, it was armored, and now a +2 size modifier rather than +1. _Portable cover, on demand._

And if the peasantry thought a bunch of people pulling off loose clothes to reveal armor and crossbows was scary, the appearance of a fully armored, elephant sized dragon really made them lose it.

 _Do they have elephants here?_

The soldiers let their arrows fly in the general direction of the thing, which of course bounced off the DTR 6 armor harmlessly. Joseph gave the soldier that was grabbing him a shove, and shouted to fire at the girl, the dragon must be a trick! Sadly, most didn't hear him over the mad scramble to get out of there, and any that did now had the rather lengthy process of reloading to look forward to.

Susan, having taken cover behind her dragon and now relying on it to take care of anything that got too close, dropped her _Augment Skill_ and started working on _Teleportal._

 _Thank goodness that's a Mercury spell, even if it's grade 10._ Two and a half seconds later she had a portal that could go more than ten million kilometers, more than enough to get back to where they had met the pope in Romalia.

"Get through," she shouted to Esme, who was still staring at the dragon. She shook herself off and nodded, running towards it.

"You aren't getting away," said Joseph, appearing in front of it suddenly.

"Neither are you," Susan remarked, " _dazzle."_

She saw him shake it off (getting a 27 on his RESolve check).

"What are these spell you're using?" he asked. "And where's your wand? You aren't using that sword as a focus, I see that now."

"Bite-" She didn't get to finish the thought as he suddenly disappeared again, reappearing next to her and swinging his sword. Ties go to the defender, as his blade bounced off her midsection. _Argh, this -7 I'm under is killing me. And swinging my sword at him now would be 1d8-2! That's not going to hit._

However, the dragon was not so encumbered, and lashed its tail at him, which being used as a weapon burst into flames. It got a 45 to hit, having a rating in _Unarmed_ of 15 and a COORdination of 17. It really wasn't Jospeh's day, as the dragon hit a 4 on the _Hit Location_ table, that same left leg that was hit before. The dragon easily tore it off, not even counting the extra fire damage, even as Joseph disappeared and reappeared elsewhere.

As he only had one leg to stand on (too soon?) he toppled over, dropping his sword and screaming in agony. That is, until he passed out.

 _Oh great._

"Get through," she called again, unstrapping her knife.

"You want me to do it?" Esme called, holding her hand out for the knife. "I hate to make a girl as young as yourself a cold blooded killer."

"What? No, you don't- just get through!"

"Okay." Esme shrugged and dived through the hole in space. With her greater speed, Susan easily made her way to Jospeh's prone form before anyone else could, and raised her knife to plunge it into him.

 _Good thing the leg went with him. That means I "have the whole creature" though he is in "separate pieces." Actually, why did the leg... never mind that now._

 _Are you sure you want to do that?_ asked The Darkness. _I mean you know what he's like. Toss the leg away and heal him if you must. That will save his life, which is what you want, right? But he'll never be able to fight again, and will probably have to step down, which is also what you want._

 _As much as I would like him gone, after what he said I can't leave things like this. You both really would turn me into a demon. My running now will prove him right, and make him a martyr. This way, anyone who heard him call me a demon will have to question why a demon would turn away from her escape and save his life._

 _I suppose you know best._

The knife came down, and magical energy swirled around him, and suddenly he was whole again.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" she called to the others, who were, along with everyone else who had seen the king fall, staring at her.

"I healed him, rather than letting him die," she shouted over the noise and confusion. "You all saw it. I'm not your enemy, he is! I won the duel, call for him to honor his word!"

She and the others took off towards the portal and got through, leaving the confusion behind. Susan dropped it and the _Ally,_ resheathing her knife.

"Are you all okay?" she asked.

"What did you do?" asked Esme. "I watched through that hole in the air. I thought you were going to slit his throat, but it put his leg back instead? What kind of magic is that?"

"Susan magic. His injury would have been a rallying point for any plans Joseph would have made after this. He could have declared war anywhere, citing demons and his injury, and the people would have gladly allowed it. This gives him two legs to stand on, so he has no case."

"You're fired," said Hiraga.

"Plus he could have died before any healers could get to him, or from infection later as I already know you don't know what bacteria are. Anyway, that could have gone better. Where's the pope, by the way?"

"We were all told he wasn't feeling well this morning. I guess we should have investigated further, or come told you about it," admitted Louise. "Sorry about that."

"Never mind. Which way is the place we just were?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean which way is it? If I wanted to walk there, which direction would I go? This actually works out better, because I need to know the "general distance and direction" which I know better now than I did before. While I was there, he could have been anywhere in that area. But now I know he's still somewhere in that area, but I'm here, so the entire kingdom is in one direction rather than half of it being behind me. Just point it out and let me worry about my magic."

"That way," said Charlotte, pointing.

"Thank you. _Telesummon._ " Susan took the extra time, and as she was no longer maintaining anything, a surprised looking pope popped up out of nowhere.

"Goodness," he said, looking around. "I guess now I know how Familiars feel."

"Yes, how do they feel?" asked Susan, looking pointedly at Louise out of the corner of her eyes.

"What about Julio? He was in the cell with me."

"Cell?" asked Louise.

"Just a second. Explanations later. _Telesummon."_

Susan got the exact same result, and the Familiar of Vittorio appeared beside him.

"Hey! Help!" he was shouting, and he stumbled as though no longer holding onto anything, which he must have been doing before. "He- oh. Uh, what?"

"It's all right, my friend. We seem to be safe. What happened?"

"The king planned a little bit more ahead than I thought. The duel went south when he saw he couldn't win, and there was a sort of fight. We ran away."

"Not that you couldn't have taken his kingdom by force, should you have wanted it," remarked Esme. "I've never seen two people move like that. And he was at your mercy just then. I wouldn't have healed him like that."

"Yes, well, he was doing something, that's for sure. I was sort of in the middle of it, Sparkle, did you get anything from what he was doing?"

"Near as I could tell, it was some kind of _Swiftstep_ effect. I mean he disappeared from one place and reappeared in another. If he was actually crossing the distance his legs would have snapped from the strain of stopping. Plus his cape wasn't fluttering everywhere, and if he was running that cape would have been in the way. So he was just sort of willing himself where we wanted to be and his magic did the rest."

Susan nodded, that was the best explanation. After all, _Acceleration_ made her faster, but not fast enough to vanish and reappear. Even to someone _Decelerated_ she would still seem to move from place to place, not just appear somewhere instantly. "Didn't seem to help him much. I nicked him with my sword... sorry, your sword Hiraga, and you can have it back." They traded again. "Anyway, I nicked him both times."

"He would still need to do an _Active Dodge_ I guess," postulated Sparkle. "Your enhanced sword skill beat his evasion roll both times. He still _Swiftsteped_ you just cut him before he totally got it off."

"Think I'll stick to long range stuff unless absolutely necessary. Anyway, are you all right, Mr. Pope?"

"Mr. Pope?" mouthed Vittorio. He shook his head. "I'm fine. I was detained coming out of my room this morning and marched down to the dungeon 'for my own safety' and left there. They didn't explain anything and went away again. Despite the rough treatment I am unharmed. What happened at the duel?"

Susan and the others began explaining what happened, when suddenly someone burst into the room.

"Your holiness, you have returned early! You must come quickly, something terrible has happened!"

The group traded glances, then followed the man out. Passing a window, Susan saw that it was stormy here as well, even this far away from where they had been.

 _No, that's not ominous at all._

 _Here's Johnny!_ said The Darkness.

 _Oh crap._


	24. Chapter 24

24

Beast

Time: Moments later

Place: Meeting room at the vatican

A haunted man sat, staring at nothing, as the group walked into the meeting room. He stared blankly at them for a moment, then seemed to come to his senses and register who he was looking at. He jumped up out of the seat and started to go to one knee.

"Don't bother with that, I've been told something terrible has happened. What is it?"

"Your holiness, I saw it with my own eyes. Fire and devastation as far as I could see. I hurried here as soon as I realized the cause, but I doubt anyone can stop the beast."

"Beast? What beast? Please start at the beginning, my son."

"I'm sorry, your holiness. At the beginning, yes. I am a messenger that flies between several villages on a griffin. I was delivering a message to someone in the town near Dragon Fire Mountain. That town..." The man seemed distraught, but pulled himself together again. "That town doesn't exist anymore. It was burned to the ground."

"An entire town! This is worse than I feared. Go on," urged Vittorio.

"Of course I looked for the cause, checked for survivors, but there were none to be found. I thought perhaps the mountain was actually a volcano that had gone unnoticed for hundreds of years, because it looked like part of the mountainside had exploded outward. But something crawled away from the village, leaving a burning track behind it. I didn't need to get very close to see what it was. I still can't tell you, but I can tell you what it looked like. A dragon, made of stone, and covered with a black fog. Other, lesser dragons, hovered nearby. Where it walked the land burned, and the sight of it terrified me beyond words."

"But to burn an entire village, how big would you say it was?"

"I believe it would stand as tall as this building, your holiness, if not taller."

Vittorio's eyes widened and he sat down heavily. "To think it would come so soon. We aren't ready, and one of the Void mages is now even more heavily against us. But we must try, and do everything we can. How long ago was this?"

"I flew straight here for hours. Yesterday, midday."

"And could you tell where it was heading?"

"Gallia."

"Where we were?" breathed Susan.

"It wants us. The Ancient Dragon wants to consume Void, the thing it most fears. Just as happened before, long ago in history. And there are only three, to stand together against it. I fear we may be outmatched. If it destroys us the world will have no hope at all."

"Eh, you have something better. Two _Natural Magicians._ Wait a second, can it sense Void mages somehow? I guess we would have to believe it does, right? Given it was making a straight path towards where you all were. Will it turn aside and come here now? Or will it go for Gallia because it believes alone, that one Void mage is easier to destroy?"

"It matters little," insisted the pope. "We must stop it before any more towns are burned. Do you know how many lives are between the mountains and Gallia? How many villages?"

"Even one is too many, I agree. I could get troops and such closer but I've never seen these places you're talking about. Unless you want to return to Gallia and leave from there, but I don't think we'll be really welcome there. Especially when the king learns he no longer has you hostage. He's not going to want armies pouring out of holes in the air into his kingdom."

"My kingdom," said Charlotte. "Stupid uncle."

"Yes, well, sadly you haven't been crowned yet, so you ordering the military to start marching might be met with skepticism."

"There's no time to waste," said Vittorio, standing again. "We must send messengers to all nearby kingdoms. Susan, if you can take us to see queen Anrietta, at least we can get her troops mobilized quickly." Susan nodded. "Thank you, brave messenger. Stay here as my guest, and when this situation is taken care of, you will be rewarded as is your due. Your early warning may have saved many lives. Come Julio, I have messages to write."

He swept out of the room, leaving the others at a loose end.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" asked Louise.

Susan shook her head. "I could ask the _Question_ spell where it might go next, but remember, I asked it if the creature existed and it couldn't tell me. I don't see why it would work now. I could let us fly somewhere, but you guys could do that on dragons or whatnot. Or take a ship there. I don't think I can really help here, sorry."

"Wait, the book!" she exclaimed, and ran out of the room.

"Book? What book?" The others looked confused, and a few minutes later Louise was back, holding the book of spells that was still blank. "Void magic is supposed to be geared towards fighting this very creature, right? Maybe this book will finally reveal the Void spells we need to combat the... what did his holiness call it? The Ancient Dragon?"

"If it's going to, now would be the time."

She held the book close, and closed her eyes. Everyone in the room waited, holding their breath until suddenly the book illuminated, filling the room with light. Louise gasped. "It worked!" The light cut off, and she opened her eyes excitedly, then started paging through. "There's two spells here. An actual _Explosion_ spell, which I have to believe is much more potent than me just casting other spells and having them blow up. And something called _World Door._ That sounds promising!"

"Try it and see what happens," suggested Susan. "Try to focus on the creature. I know it wasn't the greatest description but I have to believe you and this Ancient Dragon are linked somehow. That's why it woke up when it did, because the Void mages came together. It stands to reason you should be able to track it down."

She nodded, and got out her wand. Setting the book on the table, she pointed the wand to the side and started reading, causing the wand to glow with energy. It seemed like a long spell, _but of course she's casting from writings, which for me would increase the time by fifty percent._ When she was finished, a small hole appeared in the air, just like Susan's. They all crowded around it and looked through, and Susan could see a forest burning off in the distance. There was a dark shape that towered over the trees in the area, and it seemed to stop and look their way, as if sensing the magic of Void being used.

"Can't... hold it!" Louise complained, and the portal winked out. "We'll never get through if I can't make it bigger or hold it longer than that. I'll try again!"

"Wait," said Susan, "I saw through it. I can take us there with my magic. If yours is anything like mine, the size will be relative to how practiced you are casting the spell. Don't tire yourself out though, we'll need you more for that _Explosion_ than for anything else."

"Okay. Come on, let's find the pope."

"You actually saw the creature?" he asked, looking through the book. "At least we know he's not too near anywhere populated. Still, we'll need to move quickly before he gets too far away to be useful."

"I was thinking I could go through and scout the area," volunteered Susan. "Maybe I can find a good place to lure it to, though I can't imagine what that place would be."

"If you're willing, I won't stop you. Any intelligence we can gather about the creature is more than we know now, six thousand years later."

"Okay. I'll be back."

"You want us to come?" asked Hiraga.

"No, better not. You saw how it turned to look at us. It sensed Void magic. Let's not let it know some is in the area until we have a plan of attack."

Susan opened a _Teleportal_ and stepped through. Sparkle came with her, then jumped up on her shoulders.

"What, no fairy?" she asked, looking around at the fire that was spreading across the forest in the distance.

"I'm trying to save my energy, we might need it all before the day is out."

"Yeah, and I used a bunch fighting that useless duel. I should have specified chess or something. _Flight._ "

High in the air, Susan looked the area over. The creature was just as the man had described it, and enormous.

"Do you think damage works the same way here?" she asked Sparkle.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that thing is a +6 size modifier, wouldn't you say? I mean it's hard to judge, but those dragons flying around it are +2 or +3. It's easily eight times as big as they are."

"Probably."

"So what's the most damage you can do with _Elemental Line: Wind?"_

"Here? My planet rating can be as high as 12, so 2d12."

"Now afterwords you divide that by 6. So the most damage you could do it would be 4. And that's on a maximum roll! How many times would you have to make it cross that line before damaging it, one at a time, would even make it notice?"

"I'm guessing a lot. It's made of rock, or at least it can smash through rock if it was sleeping in that mountain. That means it's pretty dense, and probably has a high DTR and thus, a lot of health."

"Exactly. I have one actual combat spell _that it's immune to_. Even if I could hit it with something I would still have to get close enough. Those dragons flying around aren't going to-"

"SUSAN!" cried a deep voice, reverberating over the landscape.

"Yes?" Susan said in a small voice.

"SUSAN!" the voice called again.

"Oh no, it knows you're here. Wait, how is that possible?"

 _Why not go down and see what I want? Maybe I just want to introduce myself. I mean, I've not met you yet, in this guise._

"Darkness says that's him down there. Wait a second, if you can take the form of a giant dragon, why didn't you in my world? I'm not buying it."

 _Don't be stupid._ Darkness sounded annoyed. _I have to work with what I find on each world. To go there in my real form would totally unmake an entire reality. I can't have that, I need its energy. So I have to choose a suitable vessel that will allow me to gather it. On your world it was that slightly crazy Tom Riddle. This world has an engine of destruction unlike any other. I mean, honestly, was your world even trying? I had to take your magic and his to even be a threat. Look at me down there, isn't that a magnificent form?_

"So that is you, down there?"

 _Part of me. Just like part of me is in you. And is attacking countless other world even as we speak. Parallelism for the win, in other words._

"Okay, we're worse off then I thought. Imagine Tom taking the form of that thing down there, and you basically have what we're facing. It won't have his magic, because that magic doesn't exist here. But it can do whatever this creature would normally do, and have at least a human level intelligence, rather than being just a beast."

 _I think I'm being insulted._

"Uh, it's looking at us."

"And that's our cue to leave. _Teleportal!"_

Susan stepped back through, snapping the portal shut behind her.

"Did you see it?" asked Louise.

"I saw it," she replied sadly. "And learned a few things. I don't even know if it's possible to beat it. Not unless that other new spell of yours is orders of magnitude larger than anything we've seen you blow up so far. It's just too big." _And it can probably do things with Darkness' power that the original creature couldn't._

"We can't just give up! We have to try everything!"

"I know, I just want you to know what we're up against."

"Did you see anything in its path we could use?" asked Vittorio.

"Unless you can collapse a mountain on it, no. I mean if it could be lured to the middle of that valley it's passing by, maybe that could be collapsed and slow it down. But to actually kill the thing? You couldn't six thousand years ago, why do you think you would be able to do it now? We need to seal it back up again, or drop it into the ocean or something."

"We don't know how it was stopped all those years ago," he replied sadly. "I doubt it ran out of things to burn, after all, we're still here. We can only battle it as well as we are able."

"I'll help as I can, of course."

"Thank you. Just being able to move troops around quickly will be of tremendous benefit. In fact, my forces here should be ready within the hour. Can you take them to meet up with Anrietta's troops? As we are the only ones available, we shall be the first into battle."

"Of course."

"Then please open the door now, so we can go there and tell her what has happened. She'll need that same amount of time to get her forces ready as well."

"Very well."

And so, Susan watched as a depressingly small number of troops filed past, through her _Teleportal_ into Anrietta's kingdom. She had left it open, going back and forth between the two places to deliver messages and such. Finally the last soldier was through, and Susan started opening a portal back to the place she saw the creature.

 _It was big, but not really all that quick. Hopefully it won't be too far away. These people can't ride dragons, they would risk the creatures turning on them if they got too close. And there aren't that many griffins in the kingdom they can ride._

At Vittorio's insistence, Susan placed the other end of the _Teleportal_ near the valley she had seen, and both forces started marching through. Susan decided she should keep it open in case they needed a quick retreat.

"I'm hoping it will turn and come through this area when it senses we're all nearby," explained Vittorio. "Then, our Earth mages will collapse the area and pin it. That's when Louise will hit it with _Explosion._ I will also be seeking to harm it with my Void magic of purification. It should harm a creature of evil, such as this monster. Tiffania, your job is to erase the memories of any dragons that should come near. Hopefully that will confuse them and make them wander off without attacking."

"I'll do my best!"

"So will I," promised Louise.

 _If it does get pinned down, maybe I can get down close enough to cast_ Shrink, _not that it would help much against something as huge as this thing._

"Are you sure using a dragon is wise?" asked Hiraga, as Juilo and the pope mounted the white dragon Juilo had brought through the _Teleportal._

"My ability as a Familiar is to control beasts," he explained. "I can keep control of it."

 _I hope you're right._

The Ancient Dragon did seem interested in what everyone was doing over there, and slowly turned to head towards them. It seemed the lure of the three Void mages was enough to make it turn, just as the pope had hoped. Earth mages were raising elementals, like the one that Miss Longbill had used, though they were not as big and impressive as hers had been. Others were weakening the structure of the nearby cliffs, making them more ready to collapse. Susan looked her character sheet over as everyone worked, trying to figure out a way she could help.

 _Makes you feel kind of helpless, doesn't it?_

 _I admit, it's not a feeling I'm used to._

 _Relying on others when you're so used to taking care of problems yourself. Must be pretty grating on you._

 _Do you have a point?_

 _Just making conversation._

Soon, the dragon came into range and looking around. Soldiers lined the walls, which Susan thought was a bit dangerous. Weren't they going to collapse those walls in a second? How far away could they reach with their magic? The pope was with Juilo, the rune on his hand shining with inner light, and both were on the dragon. Hiraga, Tiffania, and Louise were with the ground forces, ready to strike when the creature was buried. Susan and Sparkle were again in the air, hovering near the pope in case their magic could be useful in some way. Susan's _Legion_ was also out, patrolling the area, with orders to attack any dragon in range. The air felt charged, and lighting struck nearby, setting more fires. The ground trembled with every step the Ancient Dragon took, and it seemed a cloud of dragons accompanied it now, ready to follow it into battle. Susan could see the shape of the creature through the cloud of darkness that shrouded it, and its glowing eyes swept the scene.

"What are you little people doing down there?" it asked, sounding amused. The creature's voice was low and projected like thunder. Everyone there seemed amazed it could speak. "Did you think to lure me down into that place where you weakened the rocks? And harass me with these little Earth elementals?" It crushed one, as if making the point. "I don't think so." It took in a mighty breath, then shot fire at the walls of the valley, making them tremble, melt, and start collapsing. "Go, my pretties," it intoned, and the dragons shot forward towards the knights.

 _Wait, if they can use magic, aren't they nobles? If they're nobles, why are they knights? Figure that out later!_

"Now I must do my part," said Vittorio, standing. "That black mist will interfere with my spell, but it cannot be helped. We will need to move closer, Juilo."

"All right."

The dragon slowly moved forward as the pope started chanting, and his hand lit up with magic. The dragon roared at him, and for a wonder it seemed to actually start hurting the thing.

 _Oh, I see. The way you deal with huge things is to give them the opposite of_ Regeneration. _That will tear anything down pretty quickly. That sort of thing wouldn't be divided by the size of the creature. Now why didn't I think of that?_

Lower to the ground, Tiffania was wiping the memories of what dragons she could, and that actually seemed to be working. They would glow briefly, then give up the attack and fly away. Hiraga was protecting Louise, his OTR 10 sword able to slice dragon scale quite easily, while she harassed them with minor _Explosions._ It didn't do much more then give him an opening, but it was enough.

 _Gee, maybe they can take it out with only the three of them. My_ Legion _would be the equal to stupid King Fancy Pants, as even he can't be in twenty five places at once. We can do it. We can win. We feel great!_

The dragon knew it was the pope that was hurting it, and so through the pain of its degeneration it drew in another mighty breath.

 _Oh boy, I hope this works!_

" _Deflection!"_ both Susan and Sparkle cast, as the dragon breathed fire at the pair. Technically, even if it was huge, the stream of fire it shot out was a "single attack" and was not "area-effect." It was actually just a scaled up version of Susan's own _Elemental Attack: Fire_ and could technically be blocked by a shield. A shield used by a giant, perhaps, but the rules didn't specify a shield held by a human hand.

The attack bounced off, and Julio nodded his thanks for keeping them from being cooked alive.

 _Used ten energy for that, can't do that too many more times, even with_ Energy Boost.

"Ah, Susan," said the dragon, its fire expended. "Causing trouble wherever you go. One of these days I'm going to really put some thought into paying you back for that. But today, I think I'll eat this guy."

"Eat?" Susan and Sparkle said together. As they watched, a third eye opened on the Ancient Dragon and the one the pope and Julio were riding started being drawn towards the mouth of the Ancient Dragon. Susan saw she had one chance. _"Augment STRength, now!"_ she said to Sparkle, who was confused but complied. As she cast, Susan readied the spell she was going to use, and flew backwards away from the creature. Julio tried in vain to do whatever he did to control his dragon, but it was no use, and both were drawn ever closer to their doom.

Just as the teeth snapped shut, Susan cast.


	25. Chapter 25

25

Defeat

Time: Just then

Place: The air over the Ancient Dragon

As the jaws of the Ancient Dragon closed over the poor, defenseless minor dragon the pope and his Familiar were riding, Susan cast a spell. She cast the only spell she could think of that would get the two out of there in one piece and deprive the Ancient Dragon of its meal. She cast a spell, and she actually didn't bother to put much energy into it, as the difficulty was the distance and they were honestly right there. But it was being cast on two people, so she put a little energy into it. I mean she'd be a fool not to, right? She can put in four and be almost guaranteed to get two back with her rating in _Energy Boost._ Even as high as six and three in a pinch, though that isn't as sure a thing.

But what is a sure thing in life? I mean, there you are, being pope, right? Then this weird girl starts acting all high and mighty and these two other Void mages are found. The very next day you're staring down a dragon and thinking maybe being up where the thing's mouth was wasn't such a good idea. You can feel the heat of the flames as the dragon you're riding helplessly inches closer. Teeth as big as you are can be seen, and you can't help but wonder what this creature would need to eat in a day to actually support this amount of mass.

Oh right, the spell. Susan cast _Telesummon,_ getting a 16 by taking the full time (it was only 1.6 seconds, and it took longer than that for the Ancient Dragon to open its mouth. She was at a minus two for casting it on both of them, but used four energy, so it worked out. As the jaws closed, both men found themselves in Susan's arms, and with her STRength augmented by magic, for a total of eleven, she could easily lift 350kg. That's over 770 lbs for those that are more used to those measurements. Both men were strapping, healthy boys, but they didn't weigh nearly four hundred pounds apiece.

Susan continued flying away, fast as she could. It took a second for the dragon to realize it hadn't gotten the meal it wanted, and started inhaling for another blast of fire. Amazingly, the pope hadn't lost the spell, apparently willing to give his all even to the last second, and he went up another slight amount on the Susan Scale.

"We're getting too far away!" he said. "My magic won't be able to reach him."

"I can't defend us with both hands holding you guys. Sorry, I have to drop you, Julio!"

"NO!" cried the pope.

"I'm only teasing. Hope you've got this by yourself, Sparkle!"

"I'm at half energy, I can't promise to deflect too many more."

Susan changed direction, with the majority of the dragons having flown to follow his "attack" command, the sky was now much clearer. She figured if she could get behind him, he wouldn't be able to effectively shoot fire at her.

Sparkle _Deflected_ another blast of fire, but had to spend her card 71, _Lucky Break_ to not die.

"Okay, that's all my cards, unless you have something up your sleeve, the next one might hit us."

"Yeah, _Extra Cash_ and... oh, a _Damage Add_ ," that she immediately played on the pope. _Forgot about that one, wasn't thinking we could hurt this thing at all, so I didn't bother playing it._ The Ancient Dragon roared as it took more damage that turn, and decided it was not in the position it wanted to be at the moment. It took one more breath, this time directing fire away from Susan and towards the soldiers on the cliff. It was petty, and some of the dragons got roasted, but it didn't care about that. The humans there died, so it felt it had accomplished something, at least. It deliberately didn't roast the side with the Void mages, probably because it wanted to eat them too, but raw, not cooked. It then raised up on its hind paws and shouted "Enough of this!" Slamming into the ground it knocked people over for a mile (or so) and a shimmering energy barrier sprang up around it.

Susan could tell the barrier was blocking whatever Vittorio was doing, as the Dragon's flesh started to heal again rather then peel away. He stopped maintaining the spell and looked at that barrier.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Unless you want to _Teleportal_ down below the barrier and be cut off totally from our support, I don't know. Watch it to see if it moves and start attacking it when it does? That spell of yours hurt it, but awfully slowly. We're going to need a good plan for our next attack."

"I agree. But we have hope now, we've shown it can be pressed, and even frustrated. To think it could talk! Come, set us down and let us take stock of who made it through the attack."

"We only made it through because of you," Julio put in. "Thank you for saving our lives like that."

"Not a problem. I once used that spell totally inappropriately so I like to think my using it today has made up for that, somewhat. Come on."

Susan flew down to the ground, where everyone was picking themselves back up after being knocked over by the Dragon's attack.

 _Was that a power, or just the raw STRength of that creature?_ she wondered.

It turned out, half the soldiers that had come had perished in the creature's last fire attack, and Vittorio made a point of asking the captain for the names of the men that had died when this was over.

"I'll have some kind of monument made in their honor," he promised.

 _Yeah, made of this thing's bones, I hope._

"So what's our next move?" asked Louise, as everyone gathered around to see what was next. Susan was busy plunging her knife into anyone who was wounded, or into their armor to repair that.

"We need to get more people attacking it directly, rather than just the pope," suggested Hiraga. "Did you see, when he was using his spell that mist or whatever started to clear. I bet some phosphorus grenades or rockets would put a dent in it. If only I could get something like a modern fighter jet, put some missiles into it while the pope weakened it. We really still have no clues as to how to move between worlds? Siesta's great-grandfather got here somehow, right? And Void magic is supposed to help us fight this creature, right? So now would be a great time for some kind of spell to appear in that book to get me home."

"Actually," said Louise, getting out her book, "it may have already, and the clue might be in the name. This spell is called _World_ Door. What if that means I can open doors to other worlds, too?"

"Hey, that would be amazing! You really think it would work?"

"I'm happy to try. If your weapons are really that much better than our magic, we could certainly use them."

"How about it, Susan?" he asked. "We have all the planets, and you're always saying how much more powerful you would be if you could only have access to all your magic. Could you help me clean out an army base or something, get some explosive weapons to use here?"

"Sure thing! It would let me get my book of magic out, at the very least. And if it works once it'll work again, and once this situation is over I can go back, then have a little chat with Inari. That creature though, it knows I'm here. I should probably tell you, it probably now knows our plan, too. Sorry, my fault kinda, but can't be helped. As soon as I'm gone it may resume the attack. We'll probably want to get more people here, maybe fire or water mages, people who can deflect or neutralize that fire breath of his."

"With some more time, we can get additional forces here. You dropped that _Teleportal?_ "

"Yeah, when it started shooting fire at you and I needed all my concentration for that."

"Then let us go back and start bringing more forces here. The call has gone out, and people should, I hope, be rushing to aid us. We'll both stay here, Julio, you can go and organize things on the other side. That way all the Void mages and Susan will be here, and it'll stay bottled up in that shell while it thinks of what to do next."

"Got it."

Susan opened the _Teleportal_ again, hoping she might get some rest soon. Even her energy wasn't limitless. People started coming through, in small groups at least, and all wearing different styles of armor. Some didn't have armor at all, and claimed to be mercenaries.

"I put out the call for them, too. Not all magic users are nobles, of course. Some lose their titles, or have no use for them. Some just want to further their magical arts and can't be bothered with the other things that come along with being a noble. But everyone has to eat. So they hire their services out, and I figured with a large enough bounty on the head of this creature, everyone who helps can take a share and make some money. Like I said before, I'd rather be poor and alive then rich while the world burns."

"Sensible," agreed Susan.

He started coordinating their positioning around the Ancient Dragon, based on what they said their specialties were, and while the force looked pathetically small in Susan's eyes, she herself was a good example of not judging a book by its cover. Who knew what sort of magic these oddball characters knew, _I mean that little guy is carrying around some kind of tuba or something. What's his deal?_

Night started creeping up on them, and Susan told Vittorio she would have to close the _Teleportal_ to sleep. She needed to get her energy back, so when the creature started moving again, she would be ready. He said that was fine, and told Julio to just have people wait there for the next morning, ready to fight at sunrise. He said he would, and Susan shut it down for the night.

It passed peacefully, the glow of the two moons and the energy shield around the creature lighting the place up enough so watchfires weren't needed. Susan got to sleep as early as she could, in case it picked midnight to start attacking again, but to an immortal creature like the Ancient Dragon, one night was hardly worth considering, so she woke refreshed the next morning.

"Ready to try this?" Louise asked, after a light breakfast brought through the portal.

"I better shrink us," Susan cautioned. "Remember, the one just between two places on this world was pretty small. To go between worlds might be even smaller."

"Good point."

Susan put _Flight_ and _Shrink_ on Hiraga, Sparkle, and herself, and hovered in front of Louise.

"Wait," said Hiraga, "how will we get back?"

"I can get us back," explained Susan. "My father left plenty of notes in my spellbook about moving across worlds. Four times he had to move these enormous towers between worlds, to put them back in their right positions. They had been moved to disrupt the energy they were keeping in check so The Darkness could take it for itself. So a variant spell of _Dimension Gate_ can be used. It's just you have to see the dimension you want to go to, or have certain information he was able to gain from the towers themselves in order to do it. So normally most people can't. As I've been here some time, I can open a door back here."

"Guess I shouldn't have worried, you really are powerful!"

"Magic is powerful, I'm just the conduit."

"Whatever you say. Okay, we're ready! Good luck, Louise!"

She held out a hand, and Hiraga perched there. Louise raised her wand, and intoned the gibberish words to the spell she needed to open the World Door. To Susan's amazement, it worked, and a modern day Japan met her eyes.

"Let's go!" said Hiraga, flying up and pulling her. "That's home, let's get through before it closes."

"You better come back, Hiraga!" shouted Louise as both darted through. Susan felt Hiraga's hand leave hers, and suddenly she was full sized again, and standing in an odd room that some kind of energy barrier in front of and behind her. The one behind her vanished, and she heard a pleasant voice from out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, Hiraga looked back through the hole, looking for Susan. "Didn't she come through?" he asked.

"She isn't there?" Louise managed, before she couldn't hold the spell anymore and the door closed.

Both looked around, wondering what had happened, as Susan was on neither side of the door.

Back with Susan...

"Please remain calm. You have been redirected from your intended transit destination. Your transit is very important to us. An agent will be along shortly to assist you. Please remain in the holding area while your threat level is determined. Thank you for your patience."

"Uh, what?" asked Sparkle, looking around.

"Yeah, what?" asked Susan, also looking around. The cell she was in was stark, little more than a metal box with one side open. That side shimmered with energy, and probably not the 'oh that tickles' sort of energy, should you be stupid enough to poke it with some kind of appendage.

"If you would like the previous message repeated, please say 'repeat that.' Otherwise, remain in the holding area while you are scanned. The scan is non-invasive and completely harmless." There was a pause. "You have not said 'repeat that' so the scan will now commence." A beam of light swept over Susan, and she shielded her eyes. She needn't have bothered, it was gone again a second later. "Your results will now be computed, and an agent will be dispatched to assist you. We thank you again for your patience."

"Right. Sure," said Susan, wondering what in the blue blazes was going on. Heck, it might even be shifted up to Navy blue blazes. She didn't have long to wait as almost immediately a figure approached the cell from down the hall. It seemed her cell was directly opposite the hallway leading away, and the energy barrier vanished.

"Sorry about that," said the figure, which was roughly human shaped. It was covered, from head to toe, in a silvery liquid armor that reflected Susan's worried face back at her. Where a human would have eyes, a faintly glowing red visor was inset into the metal. Otherwise, there wasn't a seam or rivet on the entire figure. A staff, pointed at both ends, could be seen sticking out from behind one shoulder and the figure's leg. "You bear the mark of Inari, so you must be okay. Are you in some kind of trouble, or shall we just put you back at your intended destination?"

"You know Inari? Can you take me to see her? My friend got lost between worlds and I have no idea where she is!"

"I guess you are in trouble. Please, come out of there and we can see about finding your friend. And greetings to you as well," he said to Sparkle, giving a little bow.

"What is this place?" she asked, stepping out and looking down the hall. It seemed to be filled with a bunch of identical cubes, each with an energy barrier across it.

"Welcome to The Hub, I'm Silverstreak, and I'm sure you must have a lot of questions. Come, I'll offer you something to eat and we can sit down to get you squared away."

"I just ate, but some answers would be nice."

"Right this way!" He indicated the hallway where he had come from, and both started walking through the narrow corridors.

"Homey."

"Ah, yes, this area is rather stark, isn't it? Don't worry, it opens up further on. If something should come through that isn't as pleasant as yourself, we need to be able to contain it and this sort of layout helps. Here we are." They came to what looked like an elevator, and Silverstreak stepped inside. "Meeting room 453 is free, I believe. We'll head there."

"Fine with me." The doors closed, and then a second later they opened again.

"And here we are. If you'll just come this way?"

"People say I don't mess around, they don't even know."

Silverstreak chuckled. "Yes, one of the advantages of having a complete understanding of how time and space work means no tedious waiting for elevators."

Susan followed the being into a very rich looking meeting room, all ancient wood and plush chairs and though she couldn't see any lighting devices, the space was still evenly lit. Silverstreak motioned her to sit, and she did, a cup with what looked like water materialized on her right. Silverstreak also sat, and she noticed the staff now standing straight up next to him, as though balanced on the point.

"Who are you? What is this place? How did I get here?" A million more questions fought their way to the forefront.

"Let me give you a little background, that should answer most of your questions. Any you have after that I'll be glad to address. Sound fair?" Susan nodded. "Great. Let's tackle the last one first. How did you get here? It's actually a security system I created, triggered by a being leaving a world by a different means than they entered. Consider this situation- a nefarious type gains access to other worlds and starts to exploit them. He or she brings some magic or technology of a level unseen on the world he travels to. The beings there banish them using what means they can, either to just get rid of that person back to their own world, or to another so it's not their problem anymore. Well, instead of doing things at random or inflicting someone like that on another unsuspecting world, they're redirected here. If needed, we can take care of the situation or help the person if they need it."

"I need help, there's no doubt about that."

"And it shall be freely given, if your story is what I think it will be. But now let's go back to the second question; what is this place? This is the Hub. It's where my agents and those I deem worthy to get my direct assistance meet. From here we watch the comings and goings between worlds, and defend those we can by keeping Darkvoid away from them. I take it you two have met, given you carry a piece of him inside yourself."

"You're talking about The Darkness?"

"It has many names, usually given by those that meet it. Is that why you're traveling? But no, let me answer your questions first, after all, I am the host. Where was I, ah, who am I? Well, you've met my 'cousin' for lack of a better term, Inari."

"You're another higher order being?"

"Correct. There's a few of us running around, and we each seem to have found our specialty for interacting with the, no offense, lower dimensional planes. Inari went with magic, and being a trickster, usually. I focused on technology, and trying to be as straightforward as possible. In fact, I can probably wager, and win, that she really didn't tell you much of anything at all."

"You got that right! She didn't even mention about the language thing, or that I could understand all languages."

"It's actually far worse than that. If you don't find it too creepy, may I see your character sheet?"

"Finally! Someone who knows about them. I guess it's okay, I mean you scanned me, I have to think you already know about as much about me as you could learn from this." She handed the sheet over.

Silverstreak took it with reverence, something Susan didn't even think was possible for others to do. He looked at the front, then flipped it over to the skills section. "Yeah, I was afraid of that."


	26. Chapter 26

26

Answers

Time: Just then

Place: Hub meeting room

"Afraid of what?" Susan was concerned, looking over the page to see that maybe her skills had gone away or something. They seemed to be all there.

"Oh, it's nothing bad!" Silverstreak hasted to assure her. "It's just... Inari. She really didn't tell you anything, as usual. 'Let them work it out for themselves, Silverstreak, it's more fun.' My shiny metal butt it's more fun. There's a couple of skills here that you really need as a dimensional traveler, and she just expected you to figure them out on the fly while dodging whatever the world was throwing at you." He shook his head, laying the paper down. "We can fix that in a moment. I was telling you about myself, and my kin. Like I said, I'm Inari's counterpart, but for technology rather than magic. We both do similar things, and that's to send people to various worlds to take care of problems there. We can't go ourselves, for various reasons, but beings like you have no trouble passing between worlds. It's like we watch the tree, you keep the branches free of parasites."

"Tree?"

"Ah, yes, it's best to think of the different realities as branches of a tree. Here, I'll demonstrate." He waved a hand, and a hologram of a tree sprang from the table. "The trunk is where the realities started. There was one reality, and the tree was small. But as time went on the tree grew, and branches appeared. This is why most places have humanoid type lifeforms and somewhat similar conventions. They all came from the trunk. Now as each reality grew, more branches and then leaves appeared. We're concerned with the main branches, or how close to the original way the dimension is supposed to run. See, if Darkvoid, or The Darkness in your case, gets the original branch it gets all the sub branches too. So it doesn't bother with individual leaves, out at the fringes of possibility. It's why, when you travel, you see worlds that are so radically different. If you stepped only a little ways away you would end up with only minor differences. You see?"

"Sure. If you're attacking a castle you start at the bottom, and pound the heck out of one wall. Not at the top and arrange your forces to attack the whole thing. Once one wall goes down, the castle is finished."

"Exactly. So, have you been to many worlds?"

"Just the one. I was actually supposed to be tracking down my father, but literally ran into someone going from Inari's place to where my father first went. That's how I ended up where I did."

"I see. Wait, that was your first dimensional hop? Has it been going okay?"

"Hardly. I got stuck there because they didn't have all the planets, and I couldn't get out my magic book so I had to rely on just spells I had memorized or could research myself. Now this huge dragon thing is on a rampage and burning everything in sight. It's not going well. We were trying to get some weapons from another world to fight it."

"Yeah, that's a standard solution. Just a second." Silverstreak turned to the side and drew a line through the air diagonally, which seemed to light up like a computer display. On the other side was a woman sitting down at some kind of terminal, and Susan could see many other beings behind her, all busy with stuff. Talking, comparing what they saw on their screens, getting water, it was like an interdimensional office building.

"What can I do for you, boss?"

"Check up on the situation in 3874734 for me, would you? And what's going on with 7543485?"

The woman shook her head. "Getting worse. Darkvoid clones keep popping up, and they're getting closer to the key to destroying the whole place. The one clone is resisting, but I don't think he can hold out much longer."

"Keep me posted. I think I may have found someone who can help." He pointed a thumb at Susan.

"Oh, that would be wonderful!" gushed the woman. "I'll put it on my priority list. And you wanted 3874734, right? I'll have that for you in a few minutes."

"Thanks." The window closed, and he turned back to Susan.

"Sorry about that, it doesn't stop around here, I'm afraid. Where were we? Oh, right, you came here because you used a different type of magic to leave 3874734 in order to get weapons to fight this creature, right? I guess I better go over some of the rules, before you get caught in a really bad situation."

"Rules?"

He nodded. "I didn't make them, but they exist. It pays to keep them in mind, and it relates to the skills I talked about earlier. This is actually going to be much easier for me than most, as you're a Paragon. I can just put the skills on your _character sheet_ and not have to spend time explaining how to do them, and tediously teaching you the slow way. You just make the checks, you don't have to understand the theory."

"True. But you should give me some explanation, right?"

"Oh, of course! Now the first skill is something we call _Adaptive._ Basically, it lets you pick up the fringes of something unique to the worlds you visit. For instance, if you went to a world where everyone piloted some kind of mech, you could jump in one and start piloting it. Something like that is trained only, see, so you couldn't use _Augment Skill."_

"You still know about my kind of magic?"

"Sure. Just because I don't specialize in it, that doesn't mean I'm ignorant of it. Now, the great thing with _Adaptive_ is that you can swap it out. You have a 5 rating in the skill, but you don't have to throw that skill away in the next world and pick up another. It may use a different stat, but the skill roll remains constant. Secondly, it will let you bypass the need for certain backgrounds. Like using a different type of magic, if everyone on that world has that type of magic, you can use it too. The basics, anyway, like I said."

"That would have been nice to know beforehand," she remarked darkly.

"Inari, am I right? Now the next skill is _Dimensional Attunement._ With this skill you can... wait, you have _Magic Sense._ It's that, for Dimensional stuff. You can use it to sense out other travelers like yourself, or tell if an object doesn't belong in a certain dimension."

"That would be great for telling who was being influenced by Darkvoid."

"That's right. Now, about objects- be careful. Any object exclusive to a world will stay there when you leave. Even if you put it in your pocket dimension, it'll stay behind and you won't find it when you ask for it."

"That's no fair!"

He shrugged. "Perhaps, but it's the way things are. It's a way to keep contamination to a minimum, I think. Technology will generally come along, because most worlds will eventually come up with most devices. And any that are too advanced won't be figured out because the people won't have the background information to construct duplicates. Maybe not power sources, so keep an eye on that. Super efficient power sources may come from material only found on one world, so you might find a gun but not the battery!

"Like back in the world you were just in there's a rock called Windstone, if I'm reading this report right. Makes an island float I guess?"

"Yeah, I visited that place!"

"Okay. That wouldn't come along because that stuff is native to one place. But if you brought a wand or one of their pistols it would be fine. You see where I'm going with this? You can pretty easily tell what will and what won't, because anything that won't you probably haven't seen before." Susan nodded, frowning. "Don't worry, there's a way around the restriction, for things you really, really want to bring along. The sub-space pocket. Items you put into that can be pulled out everywhere. Plus it's not magic, it's an act of will, so it'll work without casting any spells! I don't know exactly where it came from, but when people, long ago, started moving across dimensions and sometimes found they could summon up things they fell in love with on certain worlds, I looked into it. The technique was refined, and it's been in use ever since."

"What's the catch? There must be one, if it's breaking the 'rules' like that."

"The catch is, the size of the pocket directly relates to your skill. It rises pretty fast, but you won't be putting a car in with a one rating. You can fit... a book, at most, to start. I guess whoever set it up figures if you put the time or XP or practice into making the space bigger, you can probably be trusted with whatever you put in it.

"So that's three things to put XP into. Now, if you can think of two trained only skills I can make it a skill group and get you them for free. Otherwise, with your permission, I'll take 3 XP and put them on your sheet so you have access to them."

"Are there magical skills I don't know about? The people where I just was didn't know about _Magic Sense_ but I could teach them about it, and they picked it up."

"Let's see..." He picked up the sheet again and scanned it over. "No, not really anything you don't already have." He looked her over, or at least the red in his visor seemed to shift a little bit. "Apart from your companion, you're traveling alone?"

"I wasn't. The person traveling with me, Luna, got knocked into when Hiraga hit us. She went spinning off somewhere."

"You did say something about a friend. I think you better tell me your story before we go any further."

"Sure." Susan proceeded to tell him about her father, and how he had left and left her the book. (She got it out of her _Pocket Dimension_ with a sigh, and Silverstreak looked it over as he listened. While she was thinking about it she also got a few other things out, mostly spell formula she thought she might like, and set them aside to take) She told him about how Tom had been taken over by Darkvoid and how he had taken her magic as well. She talked about fighting him inside Harry and deciding to go after her father. First to make sure he was all right and if not, take up his quest to save his world. She finished by talking about what she had gone through with Louise and the others, and finally coming here.

"That's quite the task you've set for yourself!" Silverstreak seemed impressed. "I think I've heard of your father, actually. There are so few dimensional travelers around, I hear about them all sooner or later. Yes, quite the challenge." He picked up her character sheet again. "Fifteen XP. It would be enough..."

"For what?"

Silverstreak considered his words carefully a moment. "I could give you a new background. If I'm thinking of the right person, your father effectively had it, given he carried a staff which gave those that touched it certain abilities. This would be a little different, but still pretty effective for you. It comes with about seven skills, most of which you probably wouldn't need. But two you would really like, and that would make up the skill group. I'll give you a rating of 0 in the others, just to say you've gotten the "training" in them, if you want to pick them up later. How does all that sound?"

"Like a once in a lifetime deal."

He laughed. "It pretty much is. And if you don't mind me keeping this book for a little while, while you finish up taking out that Dragon you were talking about, I can get you some new magic, as well. I've got some good spell casters around here, they can put some spells you're missing into the book, and I can augment it with some sensors. That way it could analyze things from other worlds and come up with equivalents in your magical 'language' so to speak."

"I would need to at least get the _Dimension Gate_ spell and my father's notes so I can make it back to the place I was. Other than that, you're welcome to it."

"I can make you a copy, it's no big deal."

"And you're really willing to do all this for me?"

"Ah, yes, remember what I was saying before about you being a possible solution to a problem somewhere?"

"Yes?"

"In return, I want you to give up your quest, temporarily," he hastened to add, "to find Luna, and help these other people out. I think one of your spells in particular is going to solve their biggest problem quite nicely. I hope it doesn't go that far, but if it does, I would like an agent on the scene and you have the spells for it. The one I'm thinking of is not even that high a grade! While you do that I'll work out some possible vectors your friend took, and get you the data so you can check those worlds where there's a high probability you'll find her."

"That would be such a big help. Wait, can Sparkle get the background too? She has XP to spend, and if it'll help me it'll help her."

"Sure, if she's willing to spend it on this. Trust me, it's well worth it, for your particular situation."

"I have been saving it for when we left that world. I suppose now is a good a time as any," Sparkle remarked.

"Deal then. Let me see your character sheet, too."

Sparkle jumped up on the table and her sheet appeared, and Silverstreak materialized a pen out of somewhere and started marking them up. "There you go!" he said brightly, handing them back.

Susan eagerly looked at the BACKGROUNDS section, and it seemed she was now a _Spirit Mage._ It also seemed she knew about _Spirit Energy_ now, and how to tap into sources of power like _Ley Lines._ She was down to 3XP, but told herself it was worth it.

"You can check them all over mentally later," he told them. "And I'll add some notes about the skills I've put down in your book. Time passes quickly here in relation to most places, but it still passes. Let's make sure we've gone over everything and get you on your way. The situation in 7543485 can't wait too long."

"And I always pay my debts. Thank you, for everything."

He shrugged. "You paid for it. I just made it possible for you to access. It seemed only fair, given your situation. It doesn't make up for losing your friend, but hopefully it makes it a little easier to find her."

"I hope so."

"Great. Now, let's get you some equipment so you can get back here!" He stood up and the door opened, leading into the space she saw earlier.

 _Does this guy not like to walk, or just show off? Making a map of this place would probably prove to be impossible, if this guy can just rearrange the corridors at a whim._

Everyone looked up at Susan walked in with Silverstreak, and given her _Overconfidence_ she looked them all right in the eye. They greeted her warmly, and went back to work.

"How much time do we have in 7543485?" he asked the woman he had spoken to earlier.

"Hours, at best. She's about to leave her party and go off on her own. She'll get slaughtered for sure!"

Silverstreak shook his head. "And that would be a waste. She's the last of her kind on that planet, and there's a lot the people there could learn from her. Okay, come on over here."

He led Susan over to a shelf where there were sitting some watch looking devices. He picked up a smaller model, and handed it to her.

"Put it on, then make a code so if someone steals it, they can't use it." Susan did as she was asked, snapping it around her wrist. It lit up, and a five digit number appeared. "Turn the crown to move the numbers." She did, then Silverstreak had her draw a shape over the numbers, which activated the display. "Normally it'll show you local time, but the real power is in the press. Click the crown in." She did, and the clock was replaced with a bunch of tiny icons, all circles, that probably meant various things. "See the one that looks like a Japanese archway? Scale it up with the crown, that's the way. That's the one you'll use to get back here. It'll make a portal big enough to step through, and the watch will also serve as your pass around the hub. When you get a moment, have a look around! After you do what I want you to do, that is." Part of his visor went dark, meaning he must be winking.

"I know."

"Just teasing. Now, click the button under the crown." She did, and Silverstreak's picture popped up. "If you want to talk to me without coming back, like if you have a question or something, feel free. You might get one of these fine people depending on how busy I am, but they can answer your questions too. I would ask you don't do it around others, I like to keep my existence a secret, for the most part. Those that already travel between worlds is fine, but if bunches of people start trying to get in here... well, it just adds to my workload."

"I can see where that would be an issue. They would be wanting you to solve all their problems."

"You got that right. You can play around with the other functionality later, but really it's pretty mundane. You've probably used similar devices, just bigger. The nice thing about this is, it's technology. So even if you run into a world with little to no magic, it'll still work and get you back here."

"That would have come in handy- I keep saying that."

"Don't get them started. They all have some story about her. Now, unless you have some other questions, let's get you back to fighting that Ancient Dragon!"

"I haven't had time to think of any more! Now I know how Tiffania felt, being whisked away by me into a war with a dragon! Oh, I do have one. Where is best to go in order to get the explosives we need to take out the Ancient Dragon?"

"Let's take a look." Silverstreak went over to an unused console and started tapping things in. "You'll land in Japan, there's the Yokota air base, bet you could get a pretty advanced plane there. You're sure your friend can fly it?"

Susan nodded. "It's a weapon."

"So it is. Very well, is this picture good enough?" He showed her a view with a snowy mountain rising in the background, then there were some lower hills, then the base itself.

"It should be."

"Great. If you think of more, I'm only a press away. Come on, your friend will be worried about you, though only a few minutes should have passed." He brought her into a room with an archway and some equipment attached to it, and started punching things in. "Good luck. And thanks. Every agent I have blocking Darkvoid is another branch of the tree that stays safe. Drive him out of that world for good."

"Is it for good? What prevents him from coming back?"

"That's... technical. Believe me, we do something to branches he leaves so he can't go there again. It works."

"Okay. I'm ready."

"Step through then, it's all set, you'll appear where you were going to, and it's been about eight minutes."

"Thanks. I'll be back!"

"I know."

Susan stepped through the archway of light, and looked around for Hiraga. Several people reacted to her suddenly appearing there by edging away and walking quickly, or just rubbing their eyes because they didn't believe them.

"Now if I was Hiraga, where would I be?" Susan asked herself.

"Right over there?" said Sparkle, pointing with a paw. He was leaning against a wall somewhat out of sight, trying to hide the sword he was still carrying.

"Who has the best perception checks? You do, that's who! Come on."

"Susan, you're here! I was getting worried," he exclaimed as she walked up. "I hoped if I hung around here you might eventually show up. You're the only way I have to get back, after all."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Little unscheduled detour on my part."

"What happened?"

Susan grinned. "Something good, for a change. Come on, let's find a place I can open a _Teleportal_ from and we can get this show on the road. I know where we have to go to get the good stuff, so let's get to it!"


	27. Chapter 27

27

Assault

Time: Several minutes later

Place: Outside the Yokota air base

"Well, it's too big to get in a _Hypnotic Field,_ and I suppose that would be a bit over the top anyway," remarked Susan, looking the base over through the fence.

"So what is the plan?" asked Hiraga.

"Your main goal is a plane, right? We'll have to _Shrink_ one down and just walk it out of there. I don't know what would happen if I stuck one that was _Shrunk_ into a... wait, I wouldn't be able to get it out again when we got back. Forget that. Okay, we'll see if we can find an unwatched armory room with some explosives, grab them, and then get a plane."

"What, they're just going to let us walk in there? I don't think so."

"Who said they would even see us?" She put her hand on Hiriga's shoulder. "We're going to be _Invisible."_ Susan cast, taking the full time and targeting all three of them. They faded out.

"This must be one of those spells you lost access to on the other world."

"That's right. And Sparkle is going to give us another."

"That's right," she replied, " _phase."_ The three were now invisible and could pass through normal matter, so Susan dragged Hiraga through the fence and towards the base.

"That was weird," he remarked, looking back. "Can anything touch us right now?"

"Not unless there's wizards on this world you don't know about."

"I highly doubt it."

"That's what someone from my world would say, just keep that in mind. You might want to look around if you ever get the chance."

Susan and Hiriga walked through the base, staying still when someone passed near just in case they noticed the odd distortion being caused from the _Invisibility_ spell. It wasn't _Veil,_ after all. Susan found she could sometimes tell when someone was coming down a hallway towards them, and once she stopped them as someone came out a door.

"How are you doing that?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's part of that new skill set I got while I went 'missing.' Do you know, I think it's _passive._ I'm actually sensing their energy, not unlike how I sense magic. Magic though, I have to actively try and feel out. This skill just seems to tell me things are around. I can't wait to play with the others!"

They stuck their heads through various rooms until they found some explosives and stepped through.

"Ah, now I have to start thinking about technology again," remarked Susan, looking around the room. "Cameras."

"True, stuff disappearing from this room might cause a few alarms to be raised."

"Don't forget about me," piped up Sparkle. "I have _Illusion_ back again. I can just cover the whole room with an _Illusion_ and let you scoop up everything. Once we're ready to leave I'll just drop it. They won't know what happened, as to the cameras everything will have just disappeared at once!"

"Sounds good to me! You're not touching anything, are you, Hiraga? We'll have to drop _Phase_ and I don't want you losing any limbs."

"Go ahead."

So Sparkle dropped _Phase_ and cast _Illusion_ in its place, making the room look totally normal as the two cleaned it out off all things that go boom. They made a big pile and Susan used _Creation_ to create a large box to hold them.

"I can only put a single object in," she explained, "so I'm going to put in the box rather than the individual guns. They'll come along for the ride in any case."

"I can't see what you're doing anyway."

"Oh, right. Sorry."

She opened her _Pocket Dimension_ so they didn't have to lug the box around, but Susan still needed _Augment STRength_ put on her to shove it inside. "I'll need it to get the stuff out, too, so keep it on me until we get out of here."

"Sure thing."

"Aren't we being a little too wasteful with energy?" asked Sparkle, with the group now walking through the halls in search of the hanger. "We have a huge dragon to fight once we get back."

"Oh, not to worry, there's plenty of energy around here, if you know where to look. I have a good spell to use now, and it'll even give those I steal from a nice nap. I'll find some people on the way out near the plane. We can't have anyone raising an alarm there, right?"

"Guess you've thought of everything."

The three found a hanger full of planes and Susan had _Energetic Accumulation_ put on her. She gathered energy until she could fill the entire hanger with _Somnolent Smog,_ which she did. With the crew inside asleep, and _Magic Immunity_ put on Sparkle, Hiraga, and herself, she went through and grabbed energy from everyone who was there. This gave her 160 energy so she was at 210 total. _More than enough, I hope?_ She was almost as twitchy as if she was _Accelerated_ because she was bursting with power, and Hiraga looked her over. (Both were visible again because they were immune to magic.)

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm great. I really, really missed Pluto spells, you know that? Come on, you found a good plane? Let's _Shrink_ it and get it out of here. This is really great, don't you all think it's really great? I haven't felt this pumped up since we got to Louise's world and I think I've really missed it-"

"Take a breath!" commanded Sparkle.

"Oh yeah sorry. Plane?"

"Yeah, it's fueled and armed. You think we can really just walk out with one?"

"Sure. Lead on."

It was tough to see through the _Smog_ but Hiraga led her to the fighter he had chosen, and Susan cast _Shrink_ on it, allowing her to gently pick it up. She put _Invisibility_ back on them after ending the _Smog,_ which of course let people inside again. They started running around inside almost immediately to try and figure out what was happening.

"I don't want to be the guy in charge who has to explain where a bunch of explosives and a whole plane went to!" said Hiraga, laughing, as they walked past people running in the other direction.

"I don't envy them. Still, we'll put this stuff to a much better use than they will, trust me. We'll save an entire world, rather than just blowing up people who happen to have a different opinion than they do."

"Isn't what they do and what you do basically the same thing?" asked Sparkle, aware of irony. "Just you use magic?"

"I'm a surgeon, this stuff is a blunt instrument."

"If you say so."

Now some distance away from the base, Susan got the box of weapons out again and read her notes about how to open dimensional doors to get back. It was a variant of the spell that opened the gate to Inari's dimension, but with some changes. Her dimension was actually protected somehow, so the magic had to punch through that too. This spell was simpler, and opened a hole back to the area they had left.

Susan set the plane down and let _Shrink_ go after stepping far enough away that they didn't get knocked over when it grew again. They flew back to the area where the dome was still up around the Ancient Dragon. Hiraga landed and everyone crowded around the fighter, having never seen anything even remotely like it. Susan started passing out explosives, and Hiraga told people how to use them. Luckily most were point and shoot, expending their payload and then becoming useless, because these people couldn't make more ammo. She hoped one shot would be enough, as long as there were enough of them at one time.

"So how do we get it out from under that dome?" asked Louise, hefting a grenade she had been given. Susan had opened another _Teleportal_ back to the kingdoms, moving more troops through for the final assault. There were now hundreds of mages in the area, griffins in the air, and a great number of different elemental forms stomping about.

"How about an _Explosion?"_ suggested Susan. "If it's anything like my _Elemental Burst,_ I can specify the point the explosion starts from. Can you place it just under the barrier and blow it to pieces from the inside? If it hurts the creature it may lose it that way, too."

"I'm willing to try."

"Okay. Vittorio, you and Julio are going to be under _Avatar of War._ I should have done that earlier, I keep forgetting it makes you immune to fire. I'll put it on the dragon you're riding too. Try and stay away from that third eye, and you should be all set."

"Wait, that implies you're not going to be there!" he protested.

"I'm not. I'm going to be using a spell I got out of my _Pocket Dimension_ called _Elemental Devastation._ It's the only thing I can cast here that will even have a chance to take out a creature that big. In fact, I'll hit him in the face, that'll keep that third eye closed and hopefully discourage it from breathing flame at all. Along with your spell, Vittorio, a barrage from Hiraga's fighter, the elementals, and whatever else the mercenaries can do, I think we have a chance. Of course any _Explosions_ you can do, Louise, would also be helpful. All of you, try to avoid the big ball of wind energy that's going to tearing it up in the front. If you fire into that, the explosive will just be torn to bits rather then actually harming the beast."

Everyone nodded, and turned to get into position to start the final assault.

Susan started reading over _Elemental Devastation_ as Louise chanted her _Explosion_ spell, trying to get it under the barrier that covered the Ancient Dragon _._ Hiraga was in the air, circling the beast in his new toy. Knights, mercenaries, arial troops on griffins, everyone was ready and hoping this would end the threat of the Ancient Dragon once and for all. They didn't know they were also saving other worlds, by keeping The Darkness (she didn't want to use Silverstreak's name for the being) from sucking up the energy of this dimension. Saving their entire world was enough of an incentive for them.

The area lit up from Louise's _Explosion,_ and even Susan was impressed by the devastation that would have resulted. She knew because her _Magic Sense_ went off quite by itself, the spell was powerful enough to overwhelm her senses even when she wasn't concentrating on them. As it was, the Ancient Dragon roared again and the barrier went down.

"You worms think you can defeat me?" it bellowed. "Don't get above yourselves. I have burned worlds!"

"Burn this," Susan muttered, letting go with _Elemental Devastation: Wind,_ the only real element this world had that would do enough damage to this creature. She found she could spend eleven energy now, thanks to her new skill of _Spirit Manipulation._ That meant she could put ten energy into her spell with the one to activate it, giving her a rating of sixteen. That meant the intense elemental energy was that radius, and the creature felt it. With the pope above, shining with Void energy from his spell and rockets hitting it from all sides, the Ancient Dragon was in a bad way. It totally didn't expect Hiraga to scream out of the sky and fire at it from a fighter plane, or feel the blasts of modern grenades. Elementals of all kinds surged around it, pounding it as best they could, while other magic, some nearly as strong as Susan's spell, pelted it.

In reality, it didn't stand a chance.

It tried to get its barrier up again, but Louise was always there to blow it down again with minor _Explosions._ Susan noted that subsequent ones weren't as strong as the initial one, and wondered if she had played some local equivalent to a _Power Overwhelming_ card for the first one. Susan had to move the area of _Devastation_ as the creature tried to get away from it, but with energy to burn, she had no trouble casting it several times. Finally, some time later, the creature crashed to the ground and moved no more.

A cheer went up from the assembled forces, and Hiraga put the last few missiles the fighter carried into it for good measure. But the eyes were dark, and the black fog that had surrounded the creature was gone.

The Ancient Dragon was no more, and The Darkness had been driven off another reality.

Louise looked exhausted but was all smiles as Susan and Sparkle walked over to her. "What were we worried about?" she chirped. "It just took two different kinds of magic, and technology this world has never seen. We could have handled it."

"Not to mention they still have a pope," said Hiraga. "So, I see you have a new watch, another gift from wherever you went?"

"That's right. It'll get me out of here and onto the next world that needs me. It's already been lined up, in fact, so I can't stay. Apparently the situation there is falling apart, and they can really use my help."

"Are you sure? I'm guessing we're going to have a huge party after this, you should at least stay for that!"

Susan shook her head. "I've never been one for the glory part, for whatever reason. Ask Hermione." She shook her head. "I'll just collect all the stuff I've made around here, and be on my way."

"You'll go say goodbye to Siesta, at least, I hope!" insisted Louise.

"Of course. I might leave her my stealth suit, and hope it sticks around when I leave. It looked good on her."

"I wish I could have seen it!" put in Hiraga, and Louise elbowed him.

"Look, in case Louise can't open larger doors, you want to go back to your world now?"

"I think we can come up with a potion to shrink him, if it becomes needed," said Louise. "And I'm pretty certain I can make them bigger. Unless, I mean, you don't want to stay?"

"No, I'll stay, at least for now. I mean we're all heroes now, right? I don't want to miss the party! And we can can go back and forth, I'd like to show you my world. I'm not sure where my place is now. This Void stuff may be done but I'm still a Familiar, right?"

"Okay. Good luck you two, I mean that."

He started unbuckling his sword. "You want this back?"

She waved it off. "Keep it. It's yours, you paid the XP for it, whatever that means for you. Use it well."

"I will. Thanks."

"Sure. It's been interesting, Louise. I'm glad you found your place in this world. Keep studying Void magic, now that we know all your spells don't explode. I'm sure there's more to learn about it, and maybe one day in the future someone will read the book you write about what you find out about it. Save them from being called Zero."

"Yeah, I have a lot of school ahead of me, especially now that I can show everyone I'm a Void mage. Maybe even teach _Magic Sense_ to people!"

"Sounds like a plan. Just be careful of King Joseph and his creepy Familiar. They'll probably still be after you."

"I will."

The pope landed nearby, and hopped off the dragon he was riding. "The Ancient Dragon does seem to have perished. We owe you a great debt, Susan. Thank you for everything. I wasn't sure about you when I first met you, you seemed quite overbearing. But your magic came through for us."

"Yeah, it's something I have to work on. Glad I could help. Don't waste that life you've been given."

"I won't."

Susan talked with some of the others, and then said her goodbyes. Queen Anrietta was also there, and spoke her gratitude. She also knighted Susan then and there, who laughed and said she would get everyone to call her "Lady Felton" from now on.

"I'm still calling you Susan," spoke up Sparkle.

"Spoilsport."

She went back to the school to say goodbye to Siesta, and gave her the clothes. "They'll be impractical to carry around anyway. I can always make more, if I need them."

"But you say they might disappear if you leave?"

"Yeah. Sorry to give you such a lame parting gift. But if they don't, as long as I'm alive they'll be around. So you know what's happened to me if they ever vanish."

"I'll keep them nearby. I hope I disappear long before they do."

They embraced. "Thanks for letting me be a maid for a day, I really did enjoy it. Bye."

"Bye, Susan. I'll never forget you."

That done she went back to her empty room and activated her new watch, opening a portal back to the Hub.

 _Goodbye, crazy world. I didn't ask to visit, but I'm glad I was able to help out everyone here. You cost me a friend, but I'll find her, I've already sworn that. And I learned a few things, like how to survive without all my magic, and that I should carry my book between worlds in case I can't get at it any other way. Though I suppose now I can put it in the sub-space pocket._

"Ready?" she asked Sparkle.

"Ready."

Both stepped through, and found themselves back in the transit room they had left from. The room was empty, and Susan stepped through back to the "control" room. Silverstreak was nowhere to be seen, but everyone looked up to see who was arriving.

"Oh, you're back!" said the woman she and Silverstreak had been talking to. "You're just in time. The situation in 3874734 has deteriorated and we were afraid you wouldn't make it. Come on, I'll put you through. Do you need anything?"

"Where am I going? What's the magic situation there? What do I look for? Where's my-" The woman handed her the book of magic back, and it seemed to have several gems now inset in the cover. "That answers that one."

"These are the sensors," the woman explained, pointing them out. "Just put whatever you want analyzed on the book overnight, and if it can make a spell that's similar, it will. Also you'll find a bunch of new spells, as promised. As for the type of world it is, there's not a lot of time to explain it all. It's very different, but then I guess they all are, in a way. It has all the planets, I understand that was a concern in the last world you were at?" Susan nodded. "No worries then. But their magic works quite differently. Silversteak said to tell you to keep your eyes open, you should be able to get some decent equipment there, and some good ideas for more magic. Come on, you have to save her, there's moments left!" The woman pulled Susan back into the transit room, and started punching in numbers.

"This is the girl we were talking about." On the screen, a young looking woman in a pink dress and red half-jacket seemed to be praying atop an odd pillar stuck out of the water. She was quite pretty, and was lit from behind by a green light coming from a gem set in her bow, holding her braided brown hair. "Look up there." Susan looked through, and a man with a blade that must have been taller than he was slowly descending upon her. "She'll get chopped to pieces. See the break in the wall? This place is ancient so it's falling apart. That's your way through. Don't engage the man in black, leave that to the others that are already there. He'll slaughter you because you won't understand how to fight him."

"Hah. Don't be so sure."

"Seriously, don't. That's the local version of Darkvoid!"

"Oh. Never mind then. Better learn how their magic works first, like you said."

"As long as you understand. Just grab up the girl and jump off into the water. He shouldn't follow, he'll be too busy dealing with the others. You can call back here later to get more specifics, but they should be able to answer your questions. Get through, quick!"

Susan made a _Sub-space pocket_ check, getting a 7, enough to stick in a book I guess (since I made the skill up), so her tome of magic disappeared from her hand. _Neat._

 _"Augment STRength,"_ Sparkle cast, figuring if she was going to be hauling someone around, it might come in handy.

"Thanks!" Susan said, moving back a few steps to get a running start. "This can get wet, right?" she asked, holding up the "watch."

"Of course, it'll go anywhere!" replied the lady.

"Just checking. Okay, here we go, wish me luck!"

"Please keep her safe!" said the woman as Susan bolted past her, emerging into the next world. Both the girl, the guy with the thick sword standing in front of her, and the hot looking guy with the scraggily hair and long katana seemed quite shocked to see her appear out of nowhere. She took advantage and grabbed up the girl, jumping the break in the surrounding barrier that was probably to keep people from slipping and tumbling off.

"Hope you can swim!" she called as they fell.

"I can't!" managed the girl.

Splash

 _Oh, great._


	28. Chapter 28

28

Susan lands in Terra

Time: Just as she hits the water

Place: Underwater, the Forgotten City

Susan hit the water with the girl she had saved, and found it icy cold. The girl struggled in her arms, but with her STRength augmented by magic, she didn't stand a chance of breaking free. Susan saw she was starting to panic and bubbles were flowing from her mouth and nose as they went deeper.

 _I've got just the solution for that!_

Susan cast a non-verbal _Breathe Water_ taking the extra .2 seconds, because why not? The spell went off, and Susan called to her. "Calm down! You can breathe underwater now, you won't drown. You're okay."

Slowly the girl stopped thrashing about, and blinked at Susan, realizing she was right. She looked around, interested.

"Who are you?" she asked rather petulently. "Do you know what you've done?"

"Susan Felton, at your service. And as to what I've done, I think it's called saving your life. So, you're welcome for that."

"I have to get out of here, he's up there!" She tried to pull away.

"Uh, no, I just saved you from that guy, and he doesn't look happy about it." They both looked up, and through the crystal clear water they could see the face of the man who tried to stab the girl in the back scowling down at them. "In fact, let's get a little deeper before he gets any ideas about coming down here after you."

"No, no!" But the girl's struggles were useless, and Susan pulled her deeper underwater. They both came to rest under the pillar, where by now it seemed some kind of combat was taking place above them. Susan could see flashes of magic and some kind of large creature battling it out where they had been, and Susan wondered where the heck that thing had come from. With no air in their lungs, they didn't float much, and Susan released the girl's hand when it was clear she wasn't going to try bolting for the surface again.

 _Maybe that guy can shape-shift? But why go from wielding that huge sword to being a tentacle monster? Of course, maybe that's how people fight here, I can't take anything for granted. But her companions still seem human, so maybe it's only bad guys?_

"You want to tell me what's going on?" demanded the girl. "You just doomed this entire planet, you know."

"What? No I didn't. Look, the people that sent me here were falling all over themselves to save your life. What were his exact words? Something about you being the last of your kind, and how your death would be a pointless tragedy, and how you had a lot to teach people here. Something like that."

"I am the last Cetra, that's the whole point. That's why I had to do it!"

"Do what?"

"Summon Holy, of course!"

"Hard to summon anything when you're dead. Can't you just finish that ritual or whatever when they're done killing that thing up there?"

The girl shook her head emphatically. "You don't understand. Holy requires a _sacrifice._ Don't you see? That's why I left them, because I knew Sephiroth would come and kill me. I have to carry the wish for Holy to appear into the Lifestream if I want it to work. I knew he would come and make that happen, thus sealing his own doom!"

 _Using your own soul for a spell? That's got to be the worst_ Enhancer _ever!_

"Look! The white Materia doesn't shine any more!" She pulled the marble like orb from her bow and thrust it out to Susan.

"Okay, now I know what other people feel like when I talk about Paragon stuff. You want to go where? And I take it that's a Materia thing?"

"You don't know what Materia is? Where've you been all your life? How did you even get here?" She was seeming more and more exasparated.

"Look, I think we both are going to have a lot of questions to ask the other. I know you don't know me, but look around. Where are you right now? Could your magic do that?"

"Well, no," she admitted.

"Okay. This is the very least I am capable of. Please put a little trust in me and the beings that sent me here. Don't ask me how, but I can feel you have a very pure and strong energy. Losing that would be a waste, especially when there's another answer. That guy you're obviously fighting, he's not what you think. Let me help you deal with him, as I have twice before. Don't take the cowards way out and wish for death, even if you think it can solve your problem. Living to fight another day, that will solve your problem. Okay?"

She shook her head again, but sadly. "You can't understand. But okay, I'll try and put a little faith in you. Look, I'm Aerith... and thank you, for saving my life."

Susan broke into a wide grin. "Now we're getting somewhere! I'm Susan, nice to meet you!"

They shook hands and sort of looked away from each other, a little embarrassed.

"So, uh, do you do this often? Save young girls and pull them underwater with you to have your way with them?"

"Whenever possible," Susan said seriously. "But that last second rescue was actually a first for me. Did I look cool busting out of nowhere like that or what?"

"You certainly surprised me. And Sephiroth, by the look on his face that I caught on the way down. Have you been following us this entire time, or something? Why show yourself now?"

"No, nothing like that. I saw you only a few seconds before I rushed through and saved you. So I have no idea what's going on here, like you said. As to where I came from, that's a little bit complicated. Better to explain that when we're not both shivering and frozen underwater."

"Very well." Aerith looked around. "I guess this place would have been my tomb, huh? Strange, to experience it like this while I'm still alive. I am still alive, aren't I? I haven't been turned into some kind of ghost and you're trying to trick me?" Susan leaned over and pinched her. "OW!"

"Would a ghost feel pain?"

"I don't know, I've never been one before, have I?" She grinned suddenly. "I guess not, it was kind of silly, wasn't it?"

"Not at all. In fact, exploring the possibilities is a sign of a good mind, and you asked for evidence of your predicament. Seems reasonable to me."

"Thanks, I guess? Look, I think they're done fighting, can we please get out of this water now?"

"Sure thing. Look, it seems lower over there, we can climb out. That dress of yours wasn't built for swimming in, and neither were those boots. We can just sort of walk over there and not worry about you trying to swim that distance."

"We can give it a try."

So Susan helped Aerith, both holding onto each other as they half swam, half walked around the bottom of the pillars, and Susan helped her float upwards. Once they broke the surface and got the water out of their lungs, the spell broke and by that time, her friends had come over to help them out. Susan looked them over. The largest was the man with dark skin, and the apparent machine gun grafted into his arm. _Okay, so they have cyborgs here?_ The spiky haired one looked the most worried, and still had one hand on his enormous sword as if expecting another attack. His other hand he offered to Susan to help her climb out of the water.

Next to him was a good looking girl in a t-shirt a couple of sizes too small, which showed off her assets just as the black mini-skirt showed off her legs. Sitting and watching with interest was a four legged beast, with a tattoo of a XIII on one leg and a tail tip that was _on fire_. The oddest of the group was the pure white, short, wide, tusked, purple winged thing that had a cat with a cape and a crown sitting on its head.

 _Oh yeah, there's a story there all right._

Rounding out the group were one more man and one more woman, the man was holding a lance and smoking a cigarette, looking bored. He looked the oldest, while the other girl looked the youngest, and was bouncing on the balls of her feet like she couldn't keep still. She had a huge throwing star in one hand, and a weird guard or something over one arm.

Susan gave a start as she registered movement nearby, and a creepy looking guy stepped out of the shadows. He was wearing a long red cape, carrying a gun, and his scraggly black hair looked like he had slept in for about five years and never bothered to comb it when he woke up.

 _Quite the assortment._

Suddenly Susan found herself being hugged by the spiky haired guy, and she wondered how he had moved so fast. "I don't know who you are," he said, relief in his voice, "but thank you. Thank you for saving Aerith when I couldn't."

"Happy to help," replied Susan.

"And you!" The man whirled on Aerith. "Why in the name of the Black Materia did you run off like that? You must have known he would immediately come after you!"

"Yes, I've gotten that speech from her just recently, I don't need to hear it again, Cloud." She took off her jacket and rung it out. "I'm wet, freezing, and a little bit angry right now. I thought five minutes ago that I would be dead, but now I'm not. I was trying to save you all. If that meant giving up my life so that Sephiroth believed he had won when in reality my death would have cost him everything, it was a small price to pay."

"You wanted to die!" Cloud sounded like he couldn't believe his ears. Aerith just stared him down and started struggling with her jacket to put it back on.

"So you are not against us?" asked the red caped guy, "casually" inspecting his gun but promising violence with his eyes.

"No, I was sent here to help you, and that's what I'll do, if you'll have me," Susan replied. "Has anyone seen a black cat around here?"

"Present!" said the cat atop the white thing.

"Uh, I meant the one I came with."

"Over here," said Sparkle, leaping down across the oddly spaced stone cylinders that led up to the area they had arrived at. "They seemed rather busy with that odd creature so I thought I would stay out of the way."

"Great, another one," remarked the black guy. "You going to spy on us as well, cat?"

"Spy on you? Why would I do that?"

"Don't know. We already had one spy, I'd rather not have another."

"Don't worry."

"If you say you are friends, then until such time I learn otherwise I will treat you as such." His gun vanished, and he held out a hand. "I am Vincent, formally of the Turks. May I have the honor of your name?"

 _That was a neat little trick with the gun. No apparent effort, no magical spell cast, no trigger word. How did he do that?_

"Susan Felton, and this is Sparkle, my friend and companion. I'm pleased to meet you all."

"Introductions can wait," said Cloud, finally putting his own sword down, and then it too vanished. "Aerith is right. We need to get these two dried off and warm. If Susan is going to travel with us she's going to need to know what we're fighting for, and why. Plus I want to hear what Aerith has to say. It's the middle of the night and we're all still exhausted, especially after taking down another piece of Jenova. Let's head back to the shell upstairs, trade stories, and get some more sleep."

Susan looked at her watch, and yes, it seemed it was only about 2:00 AM here. Strange, the place seemed pretty lit up. In fact, as she finally had the chance to really look around, she did. "Wow," she breathed. "This place is really pretty!" Soft light filtered down from high above, and the scant buildings here were rounded and smoothed, almost seemingly carved from single pieces of stone rather then built. Across the way stood a bell in a high tower, and high overhead, some kind of crystalline substance arched up hundreds of meters. Also rising up from somewhere nearby was a crystalline staircase, hanging in the air without apparent support. The place radiated peace and serenity, and to both her _Magic Sense_ and her new _Spirit Sense_ this place was alive with power.

 _I guess it's no wonder Aerith came here to try activating some big magic. This place seems custom made for such a thing._

"Hi, I'm Yuffie!" said the young girl, bouncing over to her as the others made their way to the staircase. "That was a neat trick you did, appearing out of nowhere like that. Can you teach it to me? I'm a ninja myself and I've never seen anything like that. Nice sword too."

"Thanks, made it myself."

"Seriously? How many Materia slots does it have?"

 _How many what?_

But Susan was spared answering that question as the black guy turned back. "Knock it off, Yuffie. You'll have to forgive her, she's a little obsessed with the stuff."

"It's okay. I'm sure I would be too, in her place."

"Oh, you know about Wutai? Wait, how did you know I came from there? Oh, right, being a ninja, duh! Do you have any good Materia?"

"Yuffie!"

"Okay, okay. Geese, he's so uptight."

"No, I just haven't forgotten that you stole all our Materia just recently. I'm keeping my eye on you so you don't try stealing something from her."

"That was, like, days ago. You're not over that yet? I gave it all back, didn't I?"

"After we chased you down and rescued you from the Don. As far as getting it all back? I'm still not sure. I thought we had three fire but now there's only two."

"You probably just misplaced it. Don't blame me for every little thing that goes missing. Anyway, it was three ice that we had, and about a zillion lightnings, thanks Vincent."

"I only have seven at present, please don't exaggerate."

"And they say I'm obsessed. Who in their right mind uses seven lighting Materia at the same time, am I right?"

Susan was unsure how to answer this rather odd question. "You said you were a ninja? Does that mean you actually know ninjutsu?"

"I sure do!"

"Excellent. Could you teach some to me?"

Yuffie missed a step and had to be steadied before she fell. _Wait, is she really a ninja? Or does she just have_ Clumsy? "You really want to learn from _me?_ I mean, of course, who wouldn't want to learn from the number one Wutai ninja? I just cleaned the pagada you know! _"_

"I didn't know that!" _What does that even mean?_ "Why shouldn't I? If there's a real, live, ninjutsu master in front of me I would be a fool not to take some lessons. My fighting skills can always use some more polish, and I've heard good things about the style."

"Well, _someone_ finally appreciates me! You guys could take some lessons."

The black guy grumbled something Susan didn't catch.

"Man, I'm glad you're joining us. Not that I don't mind a bunch of men running around, but this team needs more girls. With Aerith gone, hey Aerith, I'm glad you're not dead!" she shouted.

"Thanks!" Aerith shouted back, panting from climbing the steps.

"Anyway, with her gone it was just me and miss boobs over there."

"I heard that!"

"You are joining us, right?"

"That's the plan. It's the reason I came here."

"Great. Looking forward to see what you can do!"

They topped the rise and came out in a weird circular room, set with funny glowing lights and made out of something Susan couldn't identify. As she was led out, she saw the structure looked like a giant shell, and it had a small pond in front of it.

"What an odd structure!" she remarked.

"Yeah, now that we know how to get past the Sleeping Forest, I'm sure those archeologists out there will be having a field day in here soon. I bet we'll learn a lot about the Ancients by studying this place," said the older guy.

 _Man, I should start making a list. Ancients. Cetra. Materia. Slots. Sephiroth._

They passed through a short area full of what looked like petrified remains of various plants, and stepped out into a wide open area with a path that led to a T going left and right. Susan closed her eyes as she felt the power of this place, and made a _Spirit Sense_ check, getting an eight. It was enough to tell there was spiritual power here, but not pinpoint any kind of source for the stuff. She took a deep breath, ignoring her frozen clothes for a moment.

"This place is just saturated with _Spirit Energy,_ isn't it? You feel that, Sparkle?" She only got a seven, but agreed.

Aerith spun to face them. "Wait, you can tell that? Are _you_ Cetra somehow?"

The others looked at her, awed.

"What? No, I just happen to have recently picked up a technique that allows me to sense energy in people, places, and things. That's all."

Aerith didn't seem convinced, but with the chill night air blowing around her, she didn't want to argue.

"We were staying in a shell over to the left. Follow me. Oh, and don't worry, there's no random encounters around here."

 _No what? Add that to the list._

Susan accepted that with a shrug, and they made their way to an odd looking dwelling that really did look like a shell. Inside, more of those odd lights were strung from the walls, and it seemed much warmer in here. Either the shell trapped heat from the day or the lights gave off heat. It was hard to say, but the lights did seem a bit warm.

Cloud looked around. "All right, stay here. I'll go check the nearby houses for some supplies. Aerith, you think if I hung a curtain right here, you two could get out of those clothes and hang them up to dry? Then we could at least hear each other and trade stories."

"Sounds like a good idea, Cloud," she said, sounding rather surprised. "I have to say, I'm a little shocked you suggested it. If my leaving has made you more sensitive, maybe I should do it more often."

"Please don't even joke about that, Aerith. I won't be more than a few minutes. Barret, Vincent, want to help me carry stuff?"

"Yeah, whatever," said the black guy.

"Have my sins reduced me to a pack mule?" mused the red caped guy, but he went too.

Yuffie looked the two over after they had left. "You know, we could dry you off with some fire magic. Fire 1 wouldn't hurt you too much, and we could heal you afterwords. It would totally work!"

"Yuffie! Please do not suggest setting the person that saved me on fire!"

"But it would work I'm telling you. Right? Don't you think?"

"I think I'll just do it the slow way," replied Susan. "As fun as being hit with fire sounds... I'll pass for now."

"Spoilsport. It would work."

Susan hadn't recommended any of her own magic, wanting to see what these people did. Now having a chance, she did a _Magic Sense_ on them, and get some weird results. It was like they were carrying around a bunch of magical effects on their person, but they weren't magical in the least. _So is this world like my father's, with both magic and technology? I mean my world couldn't do that cyber arm! And I think Cloud's eyes have been augmented, because they were actually glowing. But if they do have magic, why not use it? Why suggest the radical step of hitting us with a fire attack just to dry us out? I'm going to need more information. And wouldn't it burn our clothes off rather than just drying us out?_

With the men back and with a heavy piece of... something... strung across the room, the two girls disrobed and hung their wet clothes up to dry. Yuffie looked them over, shrugged, and started stripping herself.

"What are you doing?" asked the lady with the tight shirt.

"It's uncomfortable for people if they're naked, to be around people who are clothed. And vice-versa. You should take your clothes off too, otherwise it'll just be awkward for everyone. Then we'll all be the same and there'll be no problems! Oh, did you two get introduced? That's Tifa."

"Is that short for anything? Tiffania maybe?"

Tifa shook her head. "Nope, just Tifa. Why?"

"Oh, you just remind me of someone I knew named Tiffania. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too. Sorry I'm not all with it right now, I'm just exhausted."

"No problem. If you all want to get my story in the morning, that's fine."

"Maybe we better," said someone from the other side. "I'm pretty beat myself."

"Sure, if you all think that's best. I guess I'll say goodnight, then." _I think that was Cloud._

Everyone said goodnight, and curled up on the bedding that Cloud and the others had brought. Susan stared at their prone forms, as most of them went to sleep almost immediately.

 _Go to sleep? Are you nuts? I haven't even had lunch today. It's like eleven in the afternoon for me! This sucks._


	29. Chapter 29

29

Doing some Homework

Time: Late that night

Place: The shell house, outside the Forgotten City.

Susan was not idle while the others slept. She popped her book out of the sub-space pocket and paged through it, looking for the new spells and things that Silverstreak had given her. She found greater detail about the skills of 0 she now had, in case she wanted to put some XP into them. The skills she now had access to as a _Spirit Mage_ were:

Aura Reading- with practice, she could actually "see" the energy that surrounded all living things. This could reveal their emotional state, general health level, and if the person was generally good or evil.

Resisting- Apparently requiring a five rating in _Spirit Manipulation,_ this skill could help resist mental assaults, possession, or anything else that might cause her to act against her wishes.

 _Oh, that one is getting some points. If The Darkness really is influencing me, that skill could really help! Did he know? He must have, he said the scan showed him I carried a piece of The Darkness inside me, didn't he?_

Spirit Aura- This one required a ten in _Spirit Manipulation,_ something Susan wouldn't have very soon. Keeping it active was a -2 to everything, and honestly, _Avatar of War_ was better in every way. Pass.

Spirit Shape- What was with all these skills requiring ten in _Spirit Manipulation?_ It seemed interesting, acting as more the _Animagus_ skill from her homeland than anything else. With it, you could turn into a normal animal, or even a child version of yourself. But that animal couldn't be changed, and you were for all intents that animal. So if someone was looking for you, they would have to look for the animal form. And things like _Magic Sense_ and _Spirit Sense_ didn't register you. And you couldn't use magic or other skills that normal animal didn't have. Tough to learn, and _Shape-shift_ was more versatile overall. _I'll think about it, someday maybe._

Spirit Step- Now this one was interesting. She could do the exact same thing with magic, just as King Joseph had in the last world. But this wasn't magical, just a _Spirit Energy_ thing. Her speed needed to be a ten, but that was easy with _Acceleration_ going. Imagine having the better dodge, but also being able to vanish and reappear without needing to cast a spell! She could, with Spirit Step! Oh look, it too needed a ten in _Spirit Manipulation. Sigh._

Spirit Sense- She already had some sense of what this could do. Let her sense energy that was around her, or inside people. Basically she could tell if they had more (she hoped not) or less energy than she did. It could do a lot, from keeping track of people in the dark to telling if a person had a particular power going. She felt she would probably get a lot of use out of that one.

Spirit Manipulation- Ah, the granddaddy of them all. In simple terms, it let her spend an additional amount of energy equal to her skill rating. Or she could make a check before spending energy, and put that amount into her next action! But even better than that, if she found an external source of energy with Spirit Sense, she could actually hook into it and get some free energy out of it.

 _Well, I'll probably work on getting Manipulation up to a ten in any case. Imagine spending twenty energy on a spell without having_ Energetic Accumulation _going. It's not always feasible to have it up, and it does take an action to gather any extra. This would just let me spend more, all the time. Wait, could I use_ Augment Skill _to make this better?_

She had to stop that line of thought for the moment, her giggling was threatening to wake the others, and she didn't want that.

She also put on _Augment Skill_ and got out her magical book of _Research,_ centered around the physical law of this reality. She didn't want to look like a total idiot when they started explaining things, after all. She made some notes, and it seemed _Materia_ and _Lifestream_ went together. _Lifestream_ was an almost liquid manifestation of the _Spirit Energy_ she now was able to feel that ran in "streams" under the crust of the planet. Apparently when things died their energy returned to this stream and it was drawn from when new things were born.

 _Wow, how has knowing, with certainty, what happens after you die changed these people's attitudes about death? Has it at all? Has it made them respect nature more? Live in harmony with the land? I can't wait to find out._

Now _Materia_ came from this _Lifestream_ when cracks in the Earth allowed it to reach the surface. If left alone, it could crystalize and become solid. This would allow anyone that stumbled across it to pick it up and utilize it. Apparently it could also grow in power and fission off, creating a copy of itself.

 _That figures, it is made of life energy, after all. And life wants to reproduce itself and grow. Huh, an object that gets XP, what will the multiverse think of next?_

It was specially designed weapons and armor, with _Materia Slots_ that allowed a person to use _Materia_ best. This explained Yuffie's earlier question about her sword. These slots could be independent or linked, depending on the quality of the craftsmanship. Linked ones could work together in certain ways, with different colors of _Materia_ working differently. Green ones was direct attack magic, while Yellow allowed you to do certain things like... steal?

 _Wait, these people need a chuck of rock to let them swipe something off another person? That doesn't make a lot of sense._

So she got a background on the world and sat watching the others sleep, which was boring. She made herself some food and had lunch, then decided to put herself to sleep with the _Somnolent Smog._ After all, these people were already asleep, they wouldn't notice. And she could begin attuning herself to their day/night cycle rather than having lunch at 3:00 AM the rest of her stay here.

 _Good thing I don't have the_ Poor Traveler _weakness. That would be a total killer in a situation like this, where I was always traveling!_

Susan cast the spell, allowed herself to fail the check to resist, and next woke up with someone's arms around her. She opened her eyes and found Yuffie staring at her.

"Morning," she said, somehow already chipper and sounding full of energy.

"Ah, good morning," said Susan, unsure how to respond.

"Oh, I hope you don't mind!" said Yuffie, not moving so Susan wasn't sure it would matter one way or the other. "It's just I woke up last night and you seemed, I don't know, so lonely somehow. I think you were saying something about the moon? I just couldn't help myself."

"It's okay. Look, I think I should start asking this directly, that way I can save myself embarrassment later. Do you like... girls?"

Yuffie thought for a moment. "Never gave it much thought, I guess. First I was real busy with my ninja training, and my master wouldn't have any of that relationship stuff getting in the way. After that I left and started traveling around looking for _Materia._ Not long after that, I ran into these guys and tried to take their _Materia._ Oh, they totally forgave me, don't you worry. I haven't really had a lot of time to consider the question."

"Oh. Well, you might want to start if you make a habit of getting into people's beds. They might misunderstand, and you know that awkwardness you talked about earlier? That would be a million times worse, believe me."

"I guess. Or it could be a fun experience, and no harm done! It's all in how you look at things, right?"

"Well, it is with that attitude!" Susan replied with mock seriousness. Both laughed.

"Come on. Somehow food appeared overnight, so the others have been, for lack of a better term, pigging out. You better get up if you want any."

"These red things are delicious, and I'm taking the last one!" someone shouted from the other side of the curtain.

 _Red things?_ "Apples?"

"Some kind of fruit I guess. Come on, Cloud says he knows which way Sephiroth went, and he's probably anxious to hear your story."

"As anxious as I am to tell it, and get your stories in return. Uh, you'll have to let me go if you want me to get up."

"Oh yeah, there is that!" Yuffie sprang up and helped Susan up, and both got dressed, then took the curtain down.

"Oh, our sleeper awakes," said Vincent, a half eaten apple in his hand. "Don't suppose you know anything about this?" He indicated the now much smaller pile of food her _Create Foodstuffs_ spell had made. "I figure strange fruit from a strange girl..."

"Didn't stop you eating it, though, I see. Yes, I made it last night. Eat it up, it'll vanish by tonight. It was technically lunch time for me when I arrived. Hopefully since I got a little sleep I should be on your schedule now, but I am starving. I missed dinner, after all, so I'm all screwed up."

"Your magic can make food?" asked Aerith. "I guess you can do more than let people breathe underwater."

"Yes, I wanted to ask about that," said Cloud. "How did you two stay under so long? I was afraid you had been saved only to die in a different way!"

"Let me eat and then I'll tell my story."

Cloud seemed to bristle at the delay, but the food was technically hers, so he couldn't really deny her. He waited as she picked over what was left and got some food in her belly. That done, Sparkle came back in and reported all was quiet outside, but that this place was really weird to her new senses. "And no little critters to chase, either. Usually you would think someplace abandoned like this would be teaming with wildlife. Not so much."

"Plenty of that where we're going," grumped Barret. "Can we get to it?"

"Very well. My name is Susan, and I still don't think I got all of your names last night."

They introduced themselves. There was Cloud, Aerith, Barret, Na (the animal, who could also talk Susan was surprised to find. His name was short for Nanaki) Cait Sith ( _still not sure what he is)_ Cid, Yuffie, and Vincent.

"Got it. I'll remember them... eventually. Now, here's the story. I'm from another world, or more accurately, another parallel reality..." Susan told them about her travels, and how she had been sent here to help out. "He said a low level spell I know would solve your biggest problem, and that I would know it when I saw it. Then I got hustled here because Aerith was about to be killed and he didn't want that. So I know only a little about your physical laws and what _Materia_ is capable of, and all that. I have my own powers, of course, so hopefully I won't need any, but he also said I should get some ideas here so I'm willing to learn all about it."

"Can you show us a little more about your magic?" asked Cait Sith eagerly.

"Yeah, but I don't think you should be here, spy!" said Barret, looking pointedly at him. "You're just going to tell your Shinra buddies and try to find some way to exploit her. I won't have it."

"I would need to submit a report based on my observations, yes. We aren't evil, Barret, we just want what is best for the most people. Yes, certain experiments and such maybe didn't turn out all that well, I'll admit. We were just trying to-"

"Line your pockets by killing the planet."

"Boys!" snapped Tifa, "not now. This is Susan's turn. You can argue later."

"Sorry," said Barret, rolling his eyes.

"The fact remains," put in Vincent, "we should get a sense of what you can do, if we're going to fight along side you. I know roughly what everyone here can do, because I know how they fight and what _Materia_ they've chosen. I can count on them to watch my back. Can I expect the same from you?"

"I can hold my own, if that's what you mean. I can serve as support, healer, and general attacker. I'm slightly above average with a sword, know several different defense spells depending on what's needed, and can both knock people out or set them on fire depending, again, on what's needed. Sparkle, my companion and friend also knows a variety of magic, and together we could probably take pretty much anything." _That wasn't a +1 size modifier or greater. Have to learn_ Degeneration _at some point._

"Ah, we can stick her in the back row and load her up with HP Plus if we need to," said Cid. "I mean you guys let the spy stay, and if this girl can use magic _without Materia_ that's pretty amazing in my book. I'm sure she'll sing out if she sees something she can help us with, right missy?"

"I'll do everything I can to help, you have my word."

"Good enough for me. Sign her up and let's get a move on!"

Cloud shook his head. "We need to make sure she knows who exactly she's fighting. Sephiroth is no joke, and we can't protect her and fight him at the same time."

"I know who you're fighting, better than you do, actually. Let me give you the real scoop, and possibly tell you part of the story you would no doubt tell me. First off, this Sephiroth character; I'm guessing he's more powerful than he has a right to be, and probably has abilities like mine. In other words, he can do things you can't."

"Yeah, like fly about. Love to know how he's managing that," said Cid.

"Or apparently coming back from the dead," put in Tifa.

"So that's a yes," said Susan. "Furthermore, his goal is to somehow suck up all the energy this planet has, grabbing it all for himself. How am I doing so far?"

"Pretty well," Cloud admitted, grudgingly. He also seemed a bit suspicious.

"Like I said yesterday, it's a similar story. I've lived through it twice before, because the being _behind_ Sephiroth, that I've named The Darkness and I've heard called Darkvoid, is attacking basically all worlds right now. He wants all the energy of all the realities so he can ascend to even higher dimensions. I've stopped him, with some help of course, both times. Now I have even more skills and tools to find him and stop him, and with your help this world too can be cut off from him forever."

"Dang," said Barret. "We were fighting something like that and didn't even know it? I mean thinking Jenova was an Ancient was bad enough, turns out she's not from outer space but from another reality altogether? You're blowing my mind, little girl!"

"It does explain certain things," said Na. "But raises certain other questions. If this being of darkness is so powerful, why doesn't it just stomp all over us and be done with it?"

"From what I've learned, it could. But that would scatter the energies it wants instead to gather. So it works through agents, and uses their natural abilities, in addition to anything it can figure out what to tell the host it can do. It selects the most powerful, easiest to manipulate people in a world, and goes at it that way." Cloud looked troubled. "But it can be beaten. I've done it. Once by turning an attack it was using against itself, though I can't take credit for that one. Someone else did that, and once directly by just throwing everything from three different worlds at it at once. Magic and technology. That killed the host, forcing the Darkness to flee and allowing other beings like him to seal the world off so it couldn't return."

"And we'll do the same!" promised Barret, smacking his gun arm.

"I don't doubt it."

"I'm bored!" whined Yuffie. "Can we go now?"

Everyone chuckled. "I guess you're in," said Cloud, rising. "With that ringing endorsement. Anyone truly opposed to making her a member of the team?"

"She's AVALANCH material in my book," gruffed Barret. "Welcome to the team!"

Everyone else nodded, smiling, and Susan felt a little glow of pleasure, being accepted it the group.

 _Don't get too comfortable, they'll turn on you if it suits their needs. Look at them, no military discipline at all. They'll get slaughtered by me, just you wait._

"Okay, you're in the party. You want to take point with me, so we can see what you can do in combat?"

"Wow, thrown right into it, huh? I guess, but I'm still not clear on all your physical laws yet. It was implied they were a bit different from I was used to, so I'm hesitant."

"Can't be that different," countered Barret. "You see something in front of you that's trying to kill you, you kill them first. End of story."

"And that happens a lot here?"

"How else do you get experience points?"

"I get them by doing things, like having adventures and solving problems. Wait, you know what experience points are?" Susan gave a fangirl like squee. "This is great!"

"Looks like there's still some explaining to do, but we really do need to get going. We can explain things as we run into them. You're in the party, so you should have access to our inventory. Anything is fair game, that's the rule. If you think you can use something, equip it. Help yourself to the swords, as I take it that's your primary weapon? Any _Materia_ that isn't being used, too. Though we've got all the best stuff equipped already."

"Slow down, captain. You lost me at _Inventory."_

"I'm not sure how to explain it. We get a shared space to put stuff and pass it back and forth. Just sort of concentrate on... it? You should have a connection to it."

Susan looked doubtful, but closed her eyes and felt around "inside" herself. To her surprise, she did somehow know that this group had stockpiled what could only be termed "a butt load" of items, from healing to weapons and armor. She reached "into" this space and pulled out a sword that seemed interesting to her.

 _Huh. It worked. Do these people all have a shared_ Pocket Dimension _they can access at will? Must be nice._ Susan was now holding a sword much like her own, that she somehow knew was named "Murasame." She knew it had two linked _Materia_ slots and one unlinked one, and had a base attack of fifty one. It also seemed to be raising her "magic" by twelve.

"Good eye," said Cloud, "I just bought that in Wutai. I'm still using my Force Stealer because the _Materia_ slots are double growth." He suddenly was holding an oddly shaped blade that flared at the top.

"Wild," said Susan, sliding her blade out of the scabbard. She did the reverse for that one, shoving it into the _Inventory_ and it disappeared, leaving her the space to put the new sword in.

"Don't forget to equip some Materia into it!" cautioned Yuffie, as she went to slide the blade in. "Here, see the slots?" She pointed them out, and Susan "felt" around to see what kind of _Materia_ was free for her to use.

"Okay, just put it in the little holes?" she asked, pulling one out to look at it.

"That's right. Same with armor. Oh, and take an accessory too! What's left, anyway. We'll buy you something that fits you better later."

 _Accessory?_ Susan felt around, and sure enough there were items in the inventory that weren't armor, and she pulled out one at random. It was a "white cape" and apparently it protected against the "Frog" and "Mini" conditions.

"I guess you guys don't get resistance checks against things, do you?" They all looked blankly at her. "Yeah, didn't think so." She selected the "Fairy Ring" much as she wanted to see what the "Power Wrist" would do for her, she didn't exactly have a stat called "attack." _Now if I can find something that raised my STRength by 10, then we would really have something. I guess "accessories" are just what I would call imbued items, and this one happens to have several spells stuffed into it. Seems reasonable. But why not wear one ring, one cape, one etc.? Maybe they interfere with each other?_

As for armor she selected "Diamond Bangle." Again there was the "Aurora Armlet" which had a much better "Defense" stat, but she didn't exactly know what that was. The "Bangle" had one more _Materia_ slot, and she wanted to experiment. She selected enough _Materia_ to fill up all her slots, green, blue, pink, yellow, and red.

"Guess I'm ready!" she exclaimed. "Just one question, how do I actually use this _Materia_ stuff?"

"Just will it to happen. You know what each does, right?"

"Yeah, somehow I can just tell. Like this green one is Exit, and this one is Fire. Even though they look identical."

"You'll get the hang of it. Enemies have to wait their turn anyway, so you can take your time and figure it out."

"They'll actually stand there until you take your turn?"

"Sure, doesn't that happen where you come from?"

Now that Susan thought about it, maybe that was true. How many times had she taken a "free action" to tell someone something, or think about things? Probably more than she would care to admit.

"Yeah, I guess so, if you want to be totally accurate about the situation. Okay, lead on, fearless leader!"


	30. Chapter 30

30

Combat Lessons

Time: Moments later

Place: Looking up at sheer rock wall

Susan made to leave the house, but Cloud put up a hand.

"If we're ready to go, I better rotate you into the party. Vincent, mind sitting this one out for the moment? If she really wants to learn being a ninja from Yuffie, they might as well be together."

"I suppose that would be fine. I do want to see what she can do."

"Settled then. Yuffie, Susan, you're with me." Cloud got a puzzled look on his face. "Susan, Yuffie, you're with me."

"I heard you," replied Susan. "Is your brain broken all of a sudden?"

"No, I think the world is."

"What are you talking about?" asked Barret.

"It's not a party of three," Cloud replied.

"Hey, man, I count real good up to three. You're one, Susan is two, and Yuffie is three."

"I know that! Tell the world that! Even with Susan I haven't made a party of three, I'm telling you. Something's up!"

"So put Vincent back in the party," suggested Aerith.

"Okay, worth a shot. Susan, _Vincent,_ Yuffie, you're with me. I don't believe it, that worked."

"You just made a party of four you know?" asked Barret.

"What are all you people jabbering about?" Susan asked, unable to contain herself any longer.

"Party size," replied Yuffie, as if that explained everything from classical Newtonian physics to Quantum Mechanics in two words.

"Yes, but what does that mean?"

"When we get into fights, only the three people in the main party take part."

Susan stared at the others like they had lost their minds, but they were all nodding like Yuffie had been trying to explain the pointy end of the sword going into someone while you held onto the rounded bit at the other end.

"It works, let's just go. We'll worry about her getting into fights with us later." Cloud left the house, shaking his head.

The trip out of the city was short and uneventful, and now the group was standing at the base of a sheer rock wall, wondering how to get everyone up there.

"I could scale it, and Yuffie probably wouldn't have any trouble," remarked Cloud. "But getting Na or Cait Sith up there? That could be a bit of a problem."

"No problem!" said Susan cheerfully. "I'll just fly up there myself and open a _Teleportal_ back here for you all to use. Just hang on a second."

The others watched with either outright skepticism, interest, or both. Susan put _Flight_ on herself, taking the extra time so she didn't need to put extra energy in. That done, she flew up and opened a _Teleportal,_ allowing the others to simply walk through.

"Is there new stuff in the inventory?" asked Tifa, head cocked to one side as if listening to something.

"Yeah, on the way up I saw these weird boxes just sitting there!" replied Susan. "I opened them up, and found a new _Materia,_ a strange looking tiara, a potion of some kind, and some armor. Who do you think left all this crap sitting around? I mean it wasn't in a pile, someone didn't just drop it all there, it was scattered all over."

"That's normal around here," said Cid. "You get used to."

"Oh. Uh, okay? Like party size?"

He nodded.

"Anyway, this is seriously cool!" said Yuffie, sticking her head back and forth through the _Teleportal._ "I'm here, now I'm here. Now I'm here. Now I'm over here again. Look, now I'm-"

"Knock it off!" shouted Cloud.

"Yes, who would have thought magic could produce something like this?" asked Vincent. "Can this take us anywhere?"

Susan shook her head. "Only places I've seen. And as all I've seen of this world is that lost city, the only other place I can take you for now... is there."

"Still, useful."

Na looked over the edge. "More than that, I have no idea how I would have gotten up here otherwise. Thanks for the shortcut."

The group felt icy wind blowing from the mouth of the cave they headed towards, and stood looking at at the snowy expanse before them.

"Most of you are going to freeze to death," remarked Susan, looking at the collection of shorts, mini-skirts and barely there jackets on the girls. Na would be okay, _still don't know what that white guy thing is but he does look furry,_ and even Barret wasn't dressed for the cold.

"There should be a village somewhat nearby, maybe we can find some shops and get some warmer gear." said Aerith.

"I don't know _Withstand Weather_ either. I could cast it from writings, of course."

"You'll never cast it on all of them," protested Sparkle.

"That's a problem all right. Not without spending extra energy, anyway. I could get them in groups, just take the penalty, it's got to only be minus one. Do you guys want to do the same thing? I'll head to the town and just send the _Teleportal_ back for you?"

The others traded glances. "We would have had to push on if you weren't around," said Cloud. "I hate to make you do all the work around here. Plus, there's going to be random encounters past this point. I'm actually surprised we got this far without running into anything. Inside the city I can understand, but out there is a different story."

"Random- no, forget I asked." She shook her head. "Party size," she muttered. "Okay, up to you, but if any of you feel your digits freezing off, let me know and we'll head back here. It's not exactly warm, but we could get a fire going in here somehow and warm you up."

"Hey, I know how we could get people warm!" exclaimed Yuffie.

"Don't suggest setting people on fire again," said Vincent.

"Aw, you're no fun."

Susan had to grin, this girl was a regular Pinkie Pie, wasn't she?

That decided, the group pressed on, and didn't get ten steps before the world seemed to swirl and Susan staggered. When her vision cleared she was holding her sword and what looked like three wolves were standing there before her. She looked over, and the three in her "party" were also there, weapons out. Looking further around she noticed the others seemed to have vanished.

"By the creepy stare of my father, what just happened?" Susan demanded.

"Like we said, random encounter," answered Yuffie. "Don't tell me you've never had one before."

"No, I haven't. I've never just been walking along, minding my own business, and suddenly been in the fight for my life."

"Ah, don't be so dramatic," said Vincent. "They don't look that tough. Haven't you got the _Sense Materia?_ You could find out for yourself."

"Want to let her take this one?" asked Cloud. The others nodded. "We'll all just _Defend_ on our turns and you can get used to things."

"I guess that's for the best." Susan found, to her surprise, that her own _Initiative_ seemed to fit into this world perfectly, and she knew exactly when every other person in the battle would act. In fact, now that the battle was on, she knew two of the wolves were faster than her, and one charged her.

"Yipes!" she managed, doing an _Active Dodge. Have I ever been in a combat without_ Acceleration _up? Where did Sparkle go, anyway?_

She got a 16 on her dodge, and knew the wolf had gotten a 20. She considered spending 2 XP to get a bonus, but this was only a few meters from the cave. If this was going to keep happening, she needed a better strategy, and besides, she knew these people had healing magic. _Let's see what they do if it hits me._

As it did, the world seemed to go wonky again, and it was back in position.

"Ow? I think?" The wolf had hit her, that much was clear. She figured it would try knocking her to the ground, tearing her throat out, but no, it had just somehow damaged her and then run back into position. But where... she couldn't exactly tell. She did however know that her character sheet had changed slightly, and she suddenly had 440 "HP," down from 445. _Is that some kind health indication? This world is weird. And what's my penalty rate now, I don't seem to have one anymore?_

"Odd that it did so little damage," remarked Vincent. "How much HP do you have?"

"Four hundred, base. I think I'm getting a 10% boost from my _HP Plus Materia._ "

"Is that all?" He seemed shocked. "I have over two thousand."

"IT'S OVER TWO THOUSAND!" Susan shouted. The others looked at her like she had gone nuts.

"Oh, you don't have that one? Ah, never mind. What were we talking about?"

"I guess it's a good thing it did only slightly damage you, then. Anyway, I think another one is up. What are these things, anyway?"

"Wolves?" ventured Susan.

"No, I don't think so."

The wolf was looking at them like "can I finally take my turn now?" and lunged at Yuffie, doing damage to her. She didn't seem that concerned.

 _What kind of ninja doesn't even try to dodge? Am I sure I want to learn from this girl? And wait, why are they all standing back here with me in the front?_

The others put their weapons into a guard position, _how do you guard with a gun?_ and it was Susan's turn. She tried out her _Sense Materia_ and suddenly knew these things were called "Bandersnatch", had 860 HP, 100 MP (whatever that was) and were weak to fire.

"Told you," smirked Cloud. "Wolves indeed. What a weird name for something."

"Wait, you know their name now?"

"Of course. You used _Sense,_ didn't you?"

"I suppose I did. What now?"

"Now we wait until it's your turn again."

Which it finally was after everyone "defended" again. "I guess I'll try this _Fire Materia_ as they're weak to it."

"Sounds like a plan, for go it!" said Yuffie.

Susan concentrated on the _Materia_ in her armor, willing it to call forth fire.

Nothing happened.

"Well?"

"I... okay, I tried, but I somehow now know I don't have enough MP. What the heck is MP? The wolf- sorry Bandersnatch, had 100 but I have zero?"

"How do you cast spells then?" asked Vincent.

"I envision the mystic symbology and put energy into it, while speaking the incantation. Usually just the name of the spell, because you can't say much in a half a second or so."

"You really are from another world."

"What's energy?" asked Yuffie.

"You know, putting extra effort into something, like lifting a heavy box?"

"No, you can lift something or you can't, based on your _strength_ stat. You can't put extra into it. I mean you could wear an accessory that raised it."

"Okay, you know about stats, but not energy? But apparently you have something similar, you just call it MP. But it's used totally differently."

"Magic Points," offered Cloud.

"Right, Magic 'points.' You have initiative order, but not hit locations. Your health just sort of gets rolled up into one number, which goes up or down depending. This world is like some weird amalgamation of my fathers' and the one I was just at and maybe with some extra bits sprinkled in for good measure that I haven't run into yet."

"The point is, I don't think you'll get much use out of Green _Materia,_ or Red"said Vincent. "Which is good to know. We'll have to load you up with Pink and Yellow."

"If we can ever get through _this_ combat. Do you want to try something else, they're starting to fall asleep."

The Bandersnatch looked at alert as ever, though slightly confused as to how things were playing out.

"Let me see how much damage I do, then."

She attacked the lead creature with her sword, doing twenty damage to it. _Okay, that means it would take, what? About forty hits for me to take down one of these things? There's got to be something I'm doing wrong here. Of course, I never really was a physical fighter. My STRength is too low._ Almost beyond her control she find herself moving back into her position as well, just like the creature had.

"Great," said Cloud, "you do minimal damage too. Try and steal next time, you have that one, too, right?"

"Yup."

So she tried, but it seemed they didn't have anything to actually steal.

"Pity. That's it for your Yellow, right?"

"Yeah."

"Great. Blow them away, Vincent, and we'll heal up and discuss our next move."

"You got it." Vincent waited for his turn, then stepped up to cast _Lit 2._ Lightning stabbed down out of nowhere and fried the three of them. Oddly, Susan somehow knew that he had received both "HP" and "MP" back for this action, in fact he got more "MP" back than he had actually spent on the attack. The three did a funny little dance, earning them a weird look from Susan, who just stood there.

"Come on, get into the spirit!" chided Yuffie, and suddenly they were back in the snowfield again as if nothing had happened.

"That was surreal!" remarked Susan.

"What was?" asked Sparkle.

"You didn't- no, never mind. And did we just get money for that?" Somehow she knew the party's total _Gil_ had gone up by a small amount.

"Yeah, great, isn't it?"

"I guess. You guys all got XP, our _Materia_ got a slight boost, and we got richer. Who needs a job, just buy a sword and start slaughtering your way across the countryside. By the time you reach the other side, you're stronger, more capable, and rich. What's not to like?"

 _Wait, how am I going to get XP? It seems they got 1530 XP for that, which quite honestly would set me up for life. I could spend 200 just on accelerating my training and getting all my skills up to a ten in like a month. I would be set for life, but it seems they would need to fight hundreds more of the things to raise their levels. Am I not going to be able to learn anything here?_

"It's a living," said Vincent with a shrug.

"And what was that lighting thing all about, anyway? Did I really see you get _more_ MP than you spent on that attack? How is that fair? And how did I even know that?"

He grinned. "It only works out that way in larger groups. It was pretty close that time, actually. If it had been five it would have been even better. I might have completely healed myself. Here, take a look." He popped two _Materia_ off his armor and handed them to her. As she touched them, the realized they gave back 1/100 of damage done as MP and 1/10 as HP.

"These are just cheating. How did you even get something like this?"

"They were in Wutai. Just kind of sitting around, oddly enough now that you mention it. They're pretty rare, I've never seen another copy. I'm hoping to make another set though."

"I wonder why," she remarked, handing them back. "That was certainly educational."

"For all of us. Do you want to stay in the party?" asked Cloud.

"Try your healing magic on me, see if I'm actually cured, then I'll answer that question."

They did, and she was.

"Okay, then I think I will. For one, my _Materia_ did get their funny XP they seem to want in order to grow. Even if I can't use Green, I can use the stuff you guys aren't and raise it. And a little damage is better than none, right? I'd like to try my magic, too, though if that's going to happen every couple of steps I'll have to save it for emergencies. I don't think I can take energy from you guys as you don't have any. And your recovery items won't work on me, because they restore MP not energy."

"Putting yourself in danger to raise _Materia_ for us? I knew I liked you for a reason," said Yuffie with a smile.

Susan shook her head ruefully. "I need to figure out how to do damage around here. If that's the best I can do, there's no way I can help you take down Sephiroth. I guess she was right, he really would have just slaughtered me when I first arrived, huh?"

"Probably," put in everyone.

 _HAHA. Not so great here, are you?_

 _Quiet, you._

Susan learned she could not carry Sparkle into fights, she would just find herself back in the same position she entered them in, Sparkle none the wiser. However, Cloud could include her in the "party" and she would be brought in, making Barret go a little cross eyed at the new party of five.

Susan learned that they had a _Shrink_ magic they called "mini" and it didn't help increase the damage to creatures it was cast upon. All it did was take their damage down to one, which she supposed was useful. _Deflection_ worked just fine, and they were actually raising some _Cure Materia_ to get a _Regen_ spell, which worked the same as her _Regeneration._

 _Invulnerability_ worked as advertised, making her breathe a sigh of relief. _At least if we do run across something nasty, that and_ Barrier Against Spells _should do the trick._ Her _Ally_ and _Legion_ worked quite differently. She brought out the _Legion,_ who each did one attack on the enemy she specified, and then went away again. Same with the _Ally._ The other's considered that as her local equivalent to a _Summon Materia,_ and she was blown away when they showed her what they meant.

That amazement went both was, as the group was rather impressed by the sheer amount of spells the two knew between them. After several fights trying stuff, Susan felt she could contribute best to those fights the others called "boss creatures" like that Jenova thing they had been fighting when she rescued Aerith. As long as she wasn't too wasteful with her energy and stuck to physical attacks in "minor" combats like these, she felt confident she could contribute meaningfully.

"Think you've got the hang of it?" asked Cloud, the five of them having run around outside the village so she could try a bunch of things.

"I know what works and what doesn't. I might look into some more damaging spells, now that I know casting time isn't an issue here either." It seemed that no matter how long Susan cast for, enemies would just stand there and wait, allowing her to put extra time, rather than effort, into casting. That didn't raise her effective planet rating like energy did, but for the higher level spells that might not be so much of an issue. She would let them take out the mobs they seemed to think it was normal to slaughter on their journey around the world, and she could take out the big things for them. It seemed a reasonable compromise.

 _And there's the new spells that Silverstreak gave me. I haven't looked over the_ Elemental _ones that much yet. There might be something good there._

So the group entered the town, and Cloud looked around. "Let's check the town out, see what's going on in this part of the world, and continue after Sephiroth. We have to keep going north, and that means down the mountainside. We'll have to figure out a way to all get down there."

"One thing at a time, let's see if there's any good _Materia_ here," said Yuffie, giving a little hop and throwing one fist in the air.

"Yes, Yuffie, we'll check for _Materia._ Honestly."

Susan was shocked as Cloud seemed to pick a random house in town, and without knocking or even seeing if someone was home, opened the door and let himself inside. Yuffie followed.

"I'll check over there," said Vincent, going into yet another house as Susan watched, fulling expecting cops or something to swarm out of nowhere. Or at least the sound of gunfire and people screaming about intruders.

"Just a grounded kid with a snowboard, could be useful," said Cloud, coming out. "Have to keep that in mind. Let's check that one next." They headed off in that direction.

 _THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALLY INSANE!_ Cloud just opened up another door, letting himself inside.

 _Are you sure you don't want me to wipe them out for you?_ asked The Darkness. _Because I'd be happy to. It's no trouble._


	31. Chapter 31

31

Ifalna

Time: A moment later

Place: Icicle Lodge

Susan left the others to their breaking and entering, as Tifa was waving her arms trying to get her attention. She was standing outside a house, having just come from the inside.

"Come on, we found something!" she called, motioning Susan forward.

"These people are so getting arrested," Sparkle remarked.

"I know, right? What is wrong with them?"

But she walked over and Tifa pulled her inside. Looking around, it was clear no one had been here for some time, as dust lay thick everywhere inside. Susan couldn't be sure, but she thought she heard someone crying, and looked at Tifa questionably.

"Yeah, it's Aerith. You better see for yourself."

Susan walked through the entranceway to see Aerith, transfixed by a monitor screen and watching what seemed to be a log entry by a man in a white lab coat. The others were poking around or looking embarrassed, so Susan went over to see what was up.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Aerith as she got near. "Look at me, going to pieces like this." She wiped her eyes.

"What is this place? Do you recognize these people?" She tapped the screen.

She nodded sadly. "That's my mother and father. And this?" She spread her arms wide and turned around. "This must be the house I was born in."

"Wow, Aerith, I... I don't know what to say."

"It's okay. I didn't even remember what she looked like before this. Or the sound of her voice. But here it is, after all these years. I was so young when she was killed. So young."

"Then it's a rare treasure indeed." Both stood silently as they watched the logs, as Aerith's mother and father talked about various things, from Ancients and Cetra to Weapon and the "crisis for the planet." The last entry showed soldiers in blue uniforms bursting in and marching them off.

"Shinra!" said Tifa, and both jumped. Neither had heard her approaching. _Maybe I should be taking my ninja lessons from her._

"You know those goons?" asked Susan, tapping the screen again, after rewinding the footage a bit.

"They're the cause of most of the planet's troubles," she explained. "Shinra Electric. Turning Mako into electricity without regard for the consequences."

"We'll see them get their due someday!" promised Barret.

"Wait, you're at war with an electric company?"

"Not just any electric company," he explained. "They got big that way, yes. But after that it was news feeds, and space exploration, and genetic experiments. All in their search for the 'Promised Land.' Makes me sick."

"Wait, back up. Mako... I saw that referenced once before. That's another word for Lifestream, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Okay, let me get this clear in my mind." Susan began to pace. "This company discovered a method to turn _Spirit Energy_ into electrical power, much like burning coal or something to drive turbines, right?"

"Don't get me started on coal," growled Barret.

"Fair enough. Maybe they didn't realize it was _Spirit Energy,_ just something like oil they could burn. Whatever. This company then became so rich it started branching out into other fields, according to you."

"That's right."

"What I don't understand is that you _do_ already have a method of generating electricity, and without messing about with converting from one form to another."

"Yeah, coal, like you said."

"No, no, I mean magic. I just saw Vincent call down lighting out of the clear sky. He even got more MP then he spent, so he could sit and do that all day as long as he was fighting something. And it seems monsters just show up as you walk around, because in the ten minutes we were out in the cold there didn't seem to be any less of them."

"What's your point?"

"The point is, lure a bunch of monsters into a chamber designed to absorb lighting and put it into batteries. Or just have a bunch of people cast lighting into it and then give them recovery items to get back MP. It doesn't tire you guys out to cast magic, you could do it all day. Do you know how much electrical power is in a bolt of lighting?"

"A lot?"

"Yeah, a lot. Or say that's a bad idea. Maybe it won't work because you can't channel the power fast enough into the batteries. Fine. Get a big pot of water and use the 'Yuffie Style' of heat generation. Cast fire on it. Heat that puppy up and you get steam. The steam drives turbines, flows through some pipes, and people on the other end cast ice magic on it, turning it back into liquid water. It's fed into the tanks again and the process repeats. Set up stations like that all over the world and your power needs are met forever." She whirled on Aerith. "You want to get back at Shinra? Want to totally destroy them? Fine! Put them out of business by being a better electric company than they are. I mean I don't know what _Materia_ exist, but I came up with two ways of generating power just from what I've seen you guys use in combat so far. There must be others."

The others were quite taken aback, and kept looking from one to the other.

"Hey, you think that could work?" asked Barret.

"The Shinra cooperation thanks you for your excellent ideas," said Cait Sith. "Would you like a job with us? I think you would make an excellent researcher."

"Stupid cat! I'll kill you myself!" Barret's gun arm started to spin up.

"I was just joking! Only joking! I wouldn't tell them about it, honest! This is just a robot body, remember? Don't forget your daughter!"

"Aggh!"

"Wait, what? You're just a robot?" Susan looked closer at him. "Wow, I didn't even know. That's some fine craftsmanship there, actually."

"Thank you," he said, looking a little embarrassed, though how that was possible for a robot Susan couldn't say. "We at the Shinra Corporation do take pride in... actually, scratch that thought."

"You better. Dang! I'm checking out the rest of this town. You one messed up girl, you know what?"

He stormed out.

"What did I say? And Yuffie's probably already stolen the town blind, so don't bother looking," she shouted after him.

"She probably has, come to think of it," Tifa agreed.

Aerith burst out laughing, and after a moment, Tifa joined her. Aerith's eyes were still shining with tears, but she came over and hugged Susan. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Nothing, if you don't know. I do feel a little better though."

Cid cleared his throat. "You know kid, I think you're gonna fit in just fine. I just joined this little group not so long ago myself. And I think you've done more to lift spirits here than I ever could. Good on you. Come on, boys, let's let the girls have a moment."

He and the others left, leaving the three girls alone in the house.

"Do you want to be alone? This is your house, after all, right?" asked Susan.

Aerith quickly shook her head. "No. Right now I think I'd like to be among friends, if that's okay."

"Friends."

"Always," agreed Tifa.

They watched the videos again, and Susan could see a lot of her mother in Aerith. They were both beautiful, and while their eyes held a great pain that only they could see, (especially when Ifalna spoke of being the last Cetra or about the 'crisis') they didn't let it drag them down. She also saw the same wisdom and bearing that Aerith seemed to possess, like they had knowledge, terrible knowledge, but didn't lord it over anyone that they did.

"I think she would have been proud of you, surviving like you did," Susan said quietly when the last video was done. "I wish I could have met her."

"She was a strong woman, and you are too, Aerith," put in Tifa. "You're right there in the thick of things with us, never shying away from combat or doing what has to be done. You even would have sacrificed yourself for us. I... don't know if I could have gone through with that, if I was in your shoes." She paused a moment. "I can't believe what the Shinra did to you, and I thought I knew all the horrible things they had done in the past. What other atrocities will be revealed on our journey?"

"I guess we won't find out sitting around here," Aerith replied, with forced cheerfulness. "I bet the guys are off freezing somewhere, too dumb to come in out of the cold."

"Yeah, it's a good thing they have us to look after them, isn't it?"

"Sure is."

"Look, Aerith, we can't take this with us, but as long as I'm with you, if you ever want to come back, just say the word. My _Teleportal_ is at your disposal."

"Thanks. But I've seen her now. Heard her voice. I'll always remember."

Susan nodded, and the girls stood up again. Aerith took a deep breath, looking around one last time.

"Come on, let's take care of Sephiroth and get this over with. Time to reminisce about the past when our future is secure."

When they went outside, it seemed Cloud and the others were having some kind of argument with people in dark suits, and Shinra soldiers were blocking the path out of time.

"The serpent wakes," muttered Susan.

"Oh no!" cried Aerith.

"We can take them," assured Tifa. They went to see what the fuss was about, but as they got nearer Cloud dodged a punch thrown by the woman in the suit, and she went tumbling down the mountainside.

"Should I get after her, make sure she's all right?" she asked, rushing up to peer past Cloud.

"She's tough, she'll be fine," remarked Cloud. "You all ready to go?"

Susan saw that the others had bundled up, and looked ready to go. "We'll have to fight our way out," she said, pointing back the other way.

"No, no, it's this way we have to go. North. I'm going to see if I can't borrow that snowboard and we'll just slide down there."

"Uh, that's all well and good, but how are the rest of you going to get down there? We can't all fit on one snowboard."

"Oh, yeah, you're right. What... huh."

"We are dealing with a real mind here. You and I can go down, with _Flight_ magic on, because I don't want to be alone in this crazy world I can't hardly do anything to. When we're safe, I'll send the _Teleportal_ back for the others. Meanwhile, Aerith and Tifa can do some shopping and get some more appropriate clothes. I'll just get my heavy jacket out of my _Pocket Dimension._ The rest of you, hang out at the Inn. I'll open the _Teleportal_ over in Aerith's house, and come get you. I don't want anyone else seeing it, after all."

"Oh, and I was so looking forward to snowboarding down," said Cid, sarcastically. "Too bad. Too bad."

"You're welcome to!" Susan invited. "I could make you one with my magic if you give me say a minute and a half. What do you say?"

"Which was the Inn? Come on you slackers, follow me."

Sparkle jumped up on Susan's shoulders but Susan said she would just take the full time and she could fly on her own. Sparkle agreed, and the three said their goodbyes and were off.

"Hey, this is kind of fun!" shouted Cloud, skimming the snow on the way down the mountain. "I can see what Sephiroth sees in it, anyway."

"Glad you're enjoying yourself. Hey, who do you like better? Aerith or Tifa?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Just curious."

"Don't even go there."

"Tree!"

"Yipes!" He dodged at the last second.

Susan chuckled. _Thought so._ _Nice reflexes, too._

The path split, and Susan and Cloud went right and then left, ending in what would have been a jump that dumped them nearly at the base of a cliff they saw in the distance. Both hovered over the ground, looking at the desolation around them. There was a single tree in view, and Susan wondered how it got enough light and water to survive. There was no melting going on around here, after all.

Susan's _Spirit Sense_ was tingling, and she got a 2 on her check, which was garbage. She felt it was important enough to spend an energy and get _Augment Skill_ going. This gave her a much better result, a 16(-2 for the spell), one from max. (She hadn't put any extra in, so she had a 7 in the skill currently.)

"There's a huge mass of _Spirit Energy_ ahead of us, that's for sure," she informed Cloud. "But there's something else."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, if you hadn't told me, I could easily believe that _Materia_ is related to _Spirit Energy_ in some way. This is a very dead area, so sources of it really stand out. Come on, this way I think." She and Cloud flew north east, then directly north, and Susan homed in what she was feeling with another check. She got the same 16, and bent down to dig in the snow.

"Tada!"

" _Materia?_ Way out here? Nice find."

"Thanks. And I think there's another close by. Come on." She put the sphere into the communal inventory and wondered if someone back at the village would notice it there.

They flew back the way they came and a bit north again, coming to the mouth of a cave, which they entered. Inside was a strangely pale woman in what could almost be called a bathing suit, who jumped up as they approached.

"Hello!" said Susan. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Out here? I live here!" said the woman. "What are you two doing all the way out here?"

"Making our way north, do you know what we can expect from here out?"

"A lot more snow and then a wall of solid rock. Best turn around now while you're not frozen."

"I must go forward!" protested Cloud.

"Your funeral. You want something?"

"Do you have any _Materia?_ I thought I felt some around here."

"Felt? Can't feel _Materia,_ can you?"

"Not exactly. I feel the spiritual power within it. As it's basically life energy, and I can sense life energy."

"Can you now? You must be pretty special."

"I suppose. So do you have it?"

"Maybe. I'm not just going to give it away free, though. I want something from you in return."

"Name it."

"It's kind of embarrassing, but I want to travel."

"I can't make you fly, if that's what you're thinking. At least, not for long."

"No, no. I stuck here in this ice cube because, well, technically I'm a snow monster. I mean you can see I'm not human."

"The thought had crossed my mind."

Both laughed. "But since you didn't have your companion over there start swinging his sword around the instant he saw me, I thought I would take a chance. Maybe you can trade me? If you're some kind of _Materia_ hunters then maybe you've found something in your travels that could keep me from melting. Then I could leave here and take a look at the wider world."

"Literally melting? Like you're actually made of snow?"

"I am actually made of snow. I can't help it, but I want to feel the sun on my face. It's silly, I know-"

"No it's not. You may be more human than you give yourself credit for."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because humans strive. They want what they cannot have because sometimes, with hard work or whatever, they can have it. Without that motivation to become more than they are, well, they're little better than trees. As for your problem," she popped her book out of her sub-space pocket. "Let's see what my book of magic has to say about the situation, shall we?"

She looked over the new Neptune spells, which had been put in order along with the others. She was most interested in _Deep Freeze,_ a new spell to keep ice from melting. It was grade 4, but she figured she could read it over, but more importantly, P. Which could also be a problem.

"Shoot, it may wear off," she explained. "The reasons why are... wait a second, I can actually ask! Stay right here." Susan went to the other end of the cave and pressed the button on her watch, then touched Silverstreak's face when it popped up.

"Yes?" asked one of his agents, their face appearing on the screen.

"Susan Felton, I have a question about _Paragon_ magic if you're familiar with it?"

"Just a second and I can look it up. What's the question?"

"If I cast a P spell, and I die, the spell goes away. What happens if I cast a P spell and then leave the reality? I haven't died, but I'm not around any more either. I can't exactly check, but maybe someone looked into it once?"

"Ah, let's see here... Yes, here it is. Yes, leaving the reality seems to actually break the bond between the caster and the spell. It will continue in your absence, and even through your death."

"That's very good to know. Thank you!"

"Sure thing. Let us know if anything else comes up."

"I will."

The face faded, and Susan turned back to the others. "Okay, we can do this. Give me a minute to read it over."

Susan did, getting a 17 on _Magical Scripture_ to read it and a 21 on _Magical Theory_ to understand it. That done, she realized there was another snag. "How much do you weigh?"

"How should I know?"

"Ah. Now there's a useful spell, something to tell the weight of an object. Oh well." _I can use Magic Combat to estimate the distance to a target, but not the weight? Seems like an oversight to me._

"May I?" asked Cloud, walking over to her.

"May you what?" she asked, taking a step back.

"Lift you. I want to see how heavy you seem."

"I guess that's okay."

Cloud scooped her up. "Oh, she's not that heavy at all, really!"

"All right, but I better give the spell some extra oomph in any case. Sheesh, just when you need a _Ley Line_ you're out in the middle of a frozen wasteland. Such is my lot. Sparkle?"

"You got it. _Energetic Accumulation."_

"And now for my part. Come over here, I'll need to touch you."

"You won't find it, you know, if you just kill me."

"If I wanted you dead I would have had my friend cut you to pieces. Come on, when it comes to it you're not going to trust me?"

"I... okay." The snow lady came over and Susan put her hand on her leg. (Her book being on the floor where she was currently sitting) She did feel made of ice, and Susan wondered how such a being could even be sentient, much less express desires like this creature could.

 _Can more creatures they've killed along the way think like this? If they had met Na in the wild, would they just have killed him and moved on? It bears thinking about._

She read the spell over, then put the accumulated 22 energy into it, making sure she could get 27kg of ice with the spell. (It was 1kg per rating) She wasn't sure how much she succeeded by, but she knew the spell had worked.

"Done!" she announced. "You won't melt from now on."

"What, ever?"

"Well... if someone cast really high level fire magic on you, or maybe a dragon breathed fire on you, maybe a little. But for the most part, no."

"You don't mind if I test it, do you?"

"No, no, please," replied Susan, waving her hand and putting her book back. "But how-"

She grabbed cloud and hugged him, holding him close.

"Uh..."

"Oh, deal with it big guy. Oh, you're warm all right. Stay close now." The pair waited a moment. "I don't seem to be melting. But there's one more test. Come with me."

She led them south, then north west, where they came to a hot springs of all things, which the lady stuck a toe into it.

"I used to hate this place," she admitted. "It's the only place around here that could kill me. I seem to be fine though. I guess there's just one more thing to do."

Susan thought that might be handing over the _Materia_ but instead the lady dived headfirst into the water!

"Oh great, we got suckered!" moaned Cloud. "Now we'll never get- Oh."

"The water's great, come on in!" said the lady, bobbing up to the surface again. "This is amazing!"

"I'm sure it would be. But getting out again, that's where we might have a little bit of a problem," said Susan.

The lady laughed. "I guess you're right." She held up a hand and Susan and Cloud pulled her out of the water. "I owe you a _Materia,"_ she admitted, and held out a Red orb. "Take it with my thanks. I'm going to get out of here and see the world. Thank you."

"My pleasure," said Susan, accepting it. The lady turned and started to walk away, then thought twice. "Oh, just head up there and then keep going north to get to the cliff. Don't die, okay? Bye!" She waved and disappeared down the path.

"You certainly do things differently," Cloud admitted, as they once started flying north again. "I wouldn't have hesitated to cut that creature down, but you actually spoke to it and helped her out. I can't say I would do the same, I need XP, but it does make me question if just doing that without regard to the consequences is really the best thing."

"Only you can decide that for yourself," Susan told him. "Now come on, the cliff is just ahead, race you!"


	32. Chapter 32

32

Cliff Notes

Time: Ten minutes later

Place: Outpost outside Gaea's Cliff

"And that's why we have to get up the cliff," finished Cloud, having told part of his story to the lone man they had found in the house. As usual, he had simply barged into the place, leaving Susan to follow in his wake, shaking her head in disbelief. The man was quite unsurprised at this behavior, merely greeting them and saying he didn't get much company out this far. While Cloud had been talking, Susan went and opened her _Teleportal,_ stepping through and going to find the others.

"We're at the next leg of our journey," she explained. "Oh, and here." She threw the Blue _Added Cut Materia_ to Vincent, who caught it and looked it over. Yuffie also perked up and came to peer over his shoulder.

"This will be quite useful," he said gratefully, rearranging his _Materia._ "Being able to attack while I use my lighting combo? Very nice. Where did you get it?"

"Found it in the snow down the cliff. Seems I can sniff them out, so to speak. As long as there isn't too much other _Spirit Energy_ interference in the area, anyway. Maybe as I get better at _Spirit Sense_ I'll be able to do even better." _Not that I can, given our XP isn't exactly compatible._

"You can sense where _Materia_ are?" asked Yuffie. "I knew there was a reason I liked you!"

"Here, got you a present too." She tossed the Red summon over, and Yuffie plucked it out of the air. "Alexander? He does Holy type damage, not many things do that. Thanks."

"It's for the group. I just wanted to make sure you saw it."

"Sure, sure, the group. I'll just put it back in the inventory, shall I?"

"There's a weapon shop next door, if you want to pick up a new sword. I think it's quite a bit better than the one you're using. Cloud will want to keep raising his _Materia_ in the double growth one, but I figure we should pick it up just in case. Thought maybe you might want to buy it yourself."

"I'll take a look, thanks."

Barret went into the shop with her, which was the building next to Aerith's house, and they went inside.

"Ah, is this the girl you were talking about?" asked the shopkeeper.

"That's her. Let's see the sword."

"Sure thing." He got out a wicked looking sword that was more like a really stretched out ax blade then the thin katana like sword she had been using. She checked the slots, and the owner nodded appreciably. "Six of them, miss, four linked. What are you using now, if you don't mind me enquiring?"

"Murasame."

"Ah, yes, I know that blade. This will give you 12 more attack, 3 more magic and 3 more hit percentage. A fine weapon, this. It's called Organics."

"Why are _Materia_ slots always paired?" she asked, still running her fingers over the grooves.

"They aren't, like that one has two that aren't."

Susan looked up. "No, no. What I mean is, why don't we see three linked slots? Or even four? Why can't I put an _Enemy All_ on the center slot, and then a fire to the left and ice to the right, and have them both fall under _Enemy All?_ Why do I have to waste a slot with another _Enemy All?"_

The shopkeeper actually looked uncomfortable. "Why, no sword like that exists, miss. Never heard of such of thing. Have you heard of such a thing, sir?"

"I don't know much about _Materia,_ but Susan has a point. Why do they only come in pairs?"

"I think if you could answer that question, you would be the greatest smith who ever lived."

"Hummmmm." Susan was suspicious of his evasion. _But can't guns take Materia slots as well? They aren't "forged" are they? In fact, why in a world of modern guns is anyone using a sword anyway? Seems rather odd if you ask me._ She hefted the blade, oddly it didn't really seem heavier than her other sword. "And 12 more attack, you say?"

"That's right miss!" He seemed relieved to be back to safer territory.

"Why is that?" she asked Barret. "I mean how can one sword cause more damage than another?"

"Well, look at it," said Barret. "You're using that thin little twig of a blade now, right? This one has some heft on the downswing, you better believe it."

"It is a chopping weapon, I guess."

"Plus it's sharper," put in the shopkeeper. "Better edge, more cutting power."

Susan stared at him, mind awhirl. "He's right," she said to Sparkle, who stopped licking her face and looked up.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the way I calculate damage is screwed up, isn't it? I can make a TR 10 swordblade, right? I've done it, twice. That should be the sharpest thing in existence. Yet that is meaningless when I go to hit someone with it. Like take a steak, right? Try and cut it with a kitchen knife and you'll be there all night. Knife isn't sharp enough. But sharpen the knife a little and it gets easier. Now imagine the sharpest knife in existence. Shouldn't it nearly pass through the meat without resistance? It should be the same with a sword- I chop someone up with a TR 10 blade and their limbs should go flying. But they don't, because only my STRength is a factor when doing damage."

"I admit, I never thought much about it. TR usually just means if you _can_ cut a surface or not, not how much damage you do."

Susan started to pace about the store, staring at the Organics. "Why are light sabers so feared in the Star Wars universe?"

"Because they're used by Jedi, people with superhuman reflexes and decades of training? And they can bounce blaster fire back?"

"I mean apart from all that. A wave can chop through limbs like butter. Or robots. Or walls. If that's not TR 10 then what is? Yet even if I got hold of one, I would still only do my pitiful 1d6 damage while hitting something with it. Should one even be considered size 0, and those things are thin. I mean this is +1 for sure! That can't be right."

"I admit, this sword doing twelve 'more' damage does seem to make more sense, given it could be sharper, and differently weighted, than the previous blade you were using."

"So... are you going to buy the blade or not?" asked the shopkeeper.

Susan mentally checked the party's funds, and they had plenty to cover it.

"Sure. How do I even get _Gil_ out of inventory, anyway? It just sort of passed into it when we beat up monsters. I don't think I've actually seen a single _Gil._ "

"Here." Barret handed the money over. Susan still didn't catch exactly what it looked like.

"Thank you, sir. And miss. A good day to both of you." He seemed quite relieved to have these weirdos out of his shop.

 _Why does a weapon shop even exist in this remote location? Do these people really need that many weapons around here?_

She transferred her _Materia_ to the blade, added one more into the empty slot, and "equipped" it, shaking her head the whole time. _I didn't get to ask why my magic should get better because of the sword I'm using. Maybe the quality of the metal brings out more power in the_ Materia?

And so, the group was now warm in Mr. Holzoff's hutt, and he was explaining how dangerous the climb up the cliff was.

Susan, still thinking about damage and _Materia_ and slots and blade sharpress and exactly how much Yuffie liked her and they hadn't known each other for very long and was she just joking around because love at first sight was totally a myth right and finding someone who liked girls in this small a group was probably not realistic but how did she know what the percentage was on this world it could be double hers or even higher so- "Climb?" Every eye turned towards Susan. "We aren't climbing the dang thing. I'll go up first, just like before. By the time we meet Sephiroth I'll only be at about half energy, but it can't be helped. That's if there isn't too much more between us and him."

"We could rest for a little while," suggested Cloud. "We've gained time, not having to fight our way through the snowfields to get here. And we'll gain more flying up the side of the cliff. The trade off is XP and dropped items. We need to be as high a level as possible if we're going to match Sephiroth. So I'm not sure which is more important now."

"I can't help you there. Our two physical laws are too different. I seem to have adapted to HP but your XP doesn't help me. I'm happy to raise _Materia_ though, so if you want to do some combats, sleep here if you don't mind Mr. Holzoff, and start again in the morning, that's fine."

"No, I want to press forward. If you can get us up the cliff safely, so much the better. This is our world so it should be our fight. You get us there, we'll take care of it."

"Okay. If that's what you've decided, that's what we'll do. See you in a few moments, everyone."

Susan put _Flight_ back on herself and Sparkle, and headed up the first leg of the journey towards the top of the cliff. About half way up she spied a cave, and poked her head in.

"Think there might be treasure in here, like before?" she asked Sparkle.

"It's not that far, go back and ask."

"Good point."

"There's a cave partway up. Then another, probably a connecting cave, that leads to the second climbable area. You want to go through the cave? You can probably get more of your 'random encounters' there and may find some treasure."

"A good compromise," said Na. "Who knows what we might find inside such a lonely cave?"

All the others nodded, so Susan opened the _Teleportal_ to the cave entrance, and they all thanked Mr. Holzoff for his hospitality.

"Sure thing. You guys stay safe now. Even if you can open holes in the air, which is quite a sight let me tell you. What will you kids think of next?"

Once inside the cave, Cloud and the others fought some giant Icicles, bats, dragons! and other assorted creatures. They found a new lance for Cid, some armor, and an Enhance Sword which Susan immediately took and equipped, feeling stupid for having bought a new sword not twenty minutes ago. This one, according to Cloud, had a lower 'attack' than the other, but the _Materia_ slots were linked. She put in some Green and Blue _Materia,_ as well as linking Alexander to _Elemental,_ so at least her sword did Holy type damage. She couldn't summon him, but he could still be useful to her in that way.

She also did a bunch of _Stealing_ and _Sensing,_ vowing to get the latter _Materia_ on top of her book so it could be analyzed. _After all, telling something's health level, energy level, and weaknesses? That would be nice._

There were spells like _Reveal Defenses_ but this was a bit different. She was interested to see what it would come up with. _Though, I could just pop it into the old Sub-space pocket. It's tiny, and doesn't need my magic to work..._

Finally they came to a weird red question mark looking thing floating in a field of blue energy.

"When did we save last?" asked Cloud, walking over to it. "With Susan rushing us ahead like this, I've not paid attention."

"Since before she showed up. We have been rather casual about that," answered Tifa. "Who was in charge of- oh."

"Sorry, that was me," said Aerith. "After Susan rescued me, I just sort of forgot about it. I guess being ready to die will do that to you. Sorry everyone."

"Okay, you're all speaking Greek again. What is this thing?"

"It's a save point. Usually they appear right before a major battle. That way if we all fall, we can try again from where we last saved. It's pretty handy."

"You can 'try again?' What does that mean, exactly? You can rewind time itself?"

"Don't have those either?" asked Cid. "That must be tough. Every choice you make better be the right one then!" The others all laughed.

"Wait, wait. If you guys can do that, my saving her was pointless. You would have just gone back in time, and tried something new, right?"

Cloud shook his head. "Aerith planned it too well. We didn't know where she was going, we had to try and track her down. We couldn't go without saving for that long, it's too dangerous. By the time we had caught up, we had saved several times. How did you get there, anyway? We had to take the Tiny Bronco."

"What was left of it," complained Cid.

"Oh, one way or another," she answered, mysteriously.

Cloud scowled at her, not liking that answer.

 _Okay, one more thing to let my book analyze, if we can find one near a bed._

"Are there any of these near beds?"

"Beds?" Cloud asked. They all looked at each other. "I think there's one near the beds at the reactor with the huge bird on top."

"Remind me to insist we spend a night there at the earliest convenience."

"You got it," said Cloud, touching the save point, which glowed briefly. "We go there pretty often anyway, as Shinra keeps attacking the place to get their reactor back."

"Hey, this little pond is great!" said Yuffie, taking a drink. "I just got all my HP and MP back!"

"They must bottle this stuff for _Elixers_ or something," said Barret, also taking a drink. Susan waited until everyone else had some, and shrugged and took a drink herself. She found she had full energy again!

"Hey, now we're talking! Why didn't you guys tell me springs like this existed?"

"Never seen one before," explained Aerith. "Glad it worked for you."

They then took out a weird two headed dragon, were Susan successfully stole a _Protect Ring,_ and passed into the crater. All around, green energy swirled and lighting threatened their every step.

"Wow. If it wasn't for the devastation this area would be really pretty," remarked Susan. "Look at that light show!"

The others agreed, and made their way across some perilously narrow walkways towards the center. Black cloaked men were seen, shuffling along and dying, and Susan had to wonder, given the trails it took them to get there, how these insane people had done so. It didn't look like they moved all that fast, either. Yuffie seemed quite excited to find another Red _Materia,_ which she named "Neo Bahamut," while Vincent took the Blue _"MP Turbo" Materia_ they found, saying it would help his lighting combo quite nicely. They got attacked by some weird creatures in the pit, but the path was short, and there was another _Save Point_ in the center. They used it and pressed on, coming to a winding path were they saw Sephiroth himself, cutting down men in black cloaks like he was mowing grass.

"Ah, the girl from nowhere!" he exclaimed, coming over to them. "Bringing me a second chance to finish what I started?"

"Leave Aerith alone, Darkness. Your fight is with me."

"Darkness? My name is Sephiroth, Susan. Perhaps you have me confused with someone else?"

"I know who I'm talking to. Plus you just called me by name, dummy, so I know it's you."

He laughed. "Ah, so I did. Suppose I don't need to hide it anymore. Anyway, all I need to do is delay you all long enough to use the _Black Materia._ See you!"

He flew away, but left in his place another one of those weird monster things, and Yuffie got a kick out of using her new Neo Bahamut to smack it around. Susan had to admit, watching the enormous dragon swoop down and shoot an energy blast at it was rather satisfying. She kept the party healthy with items and used what magic she could, but it seemed off to be fighting opponents that just stood there and took what the others dished out. Plus the creature didn't seem to get worse at anything as it took damage. She supposed it balanced out because neither did her friends, or her, but it still seemed strange to her.

This was no tactical way of fighting, as she chose her action, did that action, and then stood there waiting for the others to take their actions. She couldn't attack from cover, or use the terrain to her advantage. _Not that I really ever did that anyway, did I?_ She had to admit, seeing her new friends in action up close against a "boss" let her know just how powerful they were.

Suddenly, Cloud took a hit and yelled "Enough of this. Limit Break! Meteorain" He swung his sword above his head, generating a circle of wind around himself. After that he jumped in the air, and from out of his _sword_ came a bunch of _rocks._ They smashed into the creature and finished it off.

"Victory pose!" said Yuffie, spinning in place. "It didn't stand a chance."

 _Okay, what was that? This world continues to surprise me._

With the creature dead and the world returned, Cloud bent down to pick up a floating black piece of rock, and the others all looked extremely relieved.

"The _Black Materia,"_ breathed Aerith. "He just left it? Why?"

"I don't know," replied Cloud. "But it's good for us. We keep this away from him, and there's no _Meteor._ Susan, you have that magical space that we don't, right? I don't want this in our inventory, or anywhere near me. Can you keep it safe?"

"I take it this is one dangerous chunk of rock?" Susan asked, looking it over.

"With that, in this place, Sephiroth could summon a meteor from space and destroy the planet," Aerith explained.

"Pocket Dimension it is, then!" Susan stuck it inside, and everyone visibly relaxed.

"Come on, Sephiroth himself is just up ahead. We'll take him out, the threat is over, and we can all go home."

Everyone smiled, even Susan. _Some of us are going to spend a few days having my book near a few interesting things I've seen, and maybe get some training from Yuffie, but I do share their sentiment._

"I don't like it," said Sparkle, hanging back with Susan. "Why would he leave that here with us? It doesn't make sense."

"You're right, it is strange. But it's out of the way now. You think it's a fake of some kind? Is he trying to trick us in some way?"

Sparkle shook her head. "Can't be. No point to it, right? They're still going forward. I mean yeah if they turned to leave, but this _Black Materia_ isn't their goal. Their goal is killing Sephiroth."

"True. Keep your eyes open, something's going on."

"You too."

They had hardly stepped forward when Susan found herself looking a town, and the only others there, Cloud and Tifa, looked around in somewhat of a panic.

"Did we get teleported somehow?" asked Susan, coming up to both of them. "Or is this some weird feature of your world I should know about?"

"This is just a trick, ignore it!" said Cloud. "He's trying to distract us."

"What? None of this makes sense. Are we just standing there with drool coming out of our mouths? The others will notice and break us out of it."

"You're the magic expert, you tell me."

"Ah. Well, one thing I can tell you, even if we are he's not getting that _Materia_ back. It's forever beyond his reach, unless he somehow mind controls me into opening my _Dimension_ again."

"Is that likely?" asked Tifa.

Susan made a brushing off motion with her hand. "I have a ten RESolve. No way he's getting past that. Though I didn't get the REAson check against the illusion, or the RESolve check to come under this spell..." Susan looked troubled.

"I hope you're- Cloud, look!"

From the edge of town strode Sephiroth, and the three raised their weapons. Susan planted herself in his path, but he didn't even seem to notice. Behind him were two men in Shinra uniforms, and a black haired dude Susan had never seen before, carrying a huge sword on his back.

 _Why doesn't he have that thing in his inventory? Showing off?_

He apparently wanted to play chicken, and Susan leveled her blade as Sephiroth walked closer and closer.

The blade sank into his chest.


	33. Chapter 33

33

Betrayal from an unexpected quarter

Time: Just then

Place: Nibelheim illusion

"Poor little Susan," said Sephiroth, looking down at her. "Can't even tell what's real anymore. Can't you sense life energy or something now? Or at the very least the _Materia_ I'm sure to be carrying."

"How do you-" Susan realized how almost as soon as she asked it. "Never mind."

"Quite."

"End this charade, Sephiroth," said Cloud, lowering his sword. "This serves no purpose."

"No purpose?" he asked, as if shocked. "How little you understand."

He vanished, along with the others.

Suddenly, the world went white, and Susan found herself standing with the others as the town burned. "Are we sure this isn't happening right now?" she asked.

"This happened years ago," replied Cloud. "Just ignore it. I was here during this time, he's trying to make me think I wasn't. That black haired guy you saw will probably be the one to come out of the- yup, there he is."

The man did come running out of a nearby mansion, and jumped some flames towards them.

"Hey look, it's my old master, Zangan! Whatever happened to that guy?"

"Don't look at me."

The man Tifa called Zangan checked a man standing there, then went into a burning house to look for survivors while the black haired man did the same.

Suddenly Sephiroth was back, and the two bantered back and forth about how Cloud wasn't who he thought he was, and how he wasn't here at all. Cloud said that if that was the case, how did he remember being here, then?

"In any case, let us out of this little fantasy, and face me! It's time we ended this!"

"Cloud, you see us as enemies, but I see you as more of a brother. Did you not give me the _Black Materia_ that day? Have you not asked yourself why you did that? Your heart knows the truth, that my path is the right one. That is why you aided me then, and why you shall aid me again."

"Never!" he shouted.

He laughed. "Don't be so sure. Hojo built you well, on that day five years ago. A little of this, and a little of that, and now here you stand. You're like Susan there, in a way."

"Hey, I was born, and I know who my mother and father were," shot back Susan.

"Oh, allow me to be more clear. What I mean is, you both have a piece of me inside you. Directly, as part of my experimenting in your realm, Susan, and indirectly, through Janova, in the case of Cloud here. But you both hear my voice, and you have both done my bidding in the past."

"Not by choice and never- what, what?" She looked over at Cloud. "You hear The Darkness as well?"

"No!" Cloud immediately refused, but Susan could see he was haunted... by the truth.

"You do, don't you? I never even guessed. But you can fight his influence, I've done it. You don't have to listen, and your choices can be your own."

"Silly Susan, you really didn't know? Ah, but you're new to this traveling business, aren't you? The veteran you would never have been so careless. Some who travel between worlds become so paranoid they can't move without checking everything and everyone around them to make sure they aren't from another reality. It's quite amusing to watch. I wonder if you'll one day become the same."

"If it will help me track you down."

He shook his head. "That's just it. Will it?"

"Enough of this!" shouted Cloud. "I came here seeking you and I will kill you. That's all that matters."

"I'm just trying to spare you pain later on, brother. Come, I can prove it. Wasn't your picture taken when you arrived here? Or should I say, wasn't a picture taken? I've recreated this 'illusion' quite faithfully, and the man with the picture is right over there. Go ahead, see for yourself."

"I can't trust an imaginary picture inside this imaginary place."

"That's funny. You say that, but you have no trouble trusting an imaginary girl with your imaginary life."

"What do you mean, imaginary girl?" Susan demanded.

 _Oh no, is he going to tell her?_ thought Sparkle. _I don't know if she's ready!_

"Oh, didn't your father tell you? Certainly I don't want to ruin the surprise for you when you find out. Wander enough worlds, and you'll come see your reality as all the people of his realm do. I wonder if your father thought he was doing you a favor, not telling you directly?"

"Okay, now I'm starting to get annoyed with all this."

"Well, if you both choose to remain ignorant, that's your business."

"Yes, it is," put in Tifa. "So go away, Sephiroth."

"Go away? I thought you were all here to kill me, dear Tifa. Was that not the case? Here I am, back your words with action, if you can."

She lunged for him, but he was suddenly standing elsewhere.

 _Can he use_ Spirit Step _or is he just part of the illusion?_

"This is how you hope to match me? For shame."

"I should be in the picture," muttered Cloud, moving over to the man on the ground. "Why would he change just that one detail?"

 _Did he forget about the changed detail about the other guy being here and not him?_

"Cloud, don't!" said Tifa, but he reached down and pulled something out of the pocket of the man. There was Sephiroth, and Tifa, and the black haired guy Susan had seen running about.

"At least he's consistent. It's the same guy. Where did you pull this guy from, anyway?"

"I didn't pull him from anywhere," protested Sephiroth. "I am merely showing you the truth. We may seem to be at odds, but have I ever misled you, Cloud?"

"I know the truth. I came back to my hometown at sixteen, to help inspect the reactor. I wandered about the town, thinking about how little had changed in five years. We spent the night at the inn, and went up the reactor in the morning. I was excited, because that was my first mission since becoming SOLDIER first class." He paused, and Tifa looked almost in tears.

 _Wait, is there something else going on here? I don't have enough information!_

"When did I get into SOLDIER? How did my training go? Who did I know that was also in SOLDIER?" Susan watched, concerned, as he started pacing and muttering to himself. Suddenly he clutched his head, and fell to his knees, screaming in pain. Susan took a step to rush to his side, but suddenly the scene changed again, and they were standing in a very odd place indeed.

Three other people were there. The scientist she thought she recognized from Aerith's house, on the tapes. He was the scientist who came in and started exclaiming over the data the two had left "for him." The second was a woman in a red dress, looking more like she was going to a dance than standing around some weird cave. The third was dressed in a white business suit, and had a no nonsense look about him. All were surprised to see the Cloud, Susan, and Tifa appear out of nowhere.

"Hey, where did you come from?" asked the woman. Cloud ignored her, holding something up as if to inspect it in the light.

"Oh no! That's impossible!" Susan yelled. "He's got the _Black Materia_ back somehow. But I put it in my _Pocket Dimension,_ nothing should be able to get at it but me."

"Ah, Susan," said Cloud, sounding odd. "Do you really believe me as small and limited as yourself? Do you feel you know all that I can do? All that is even possible to do? You know nothing."

"I know I'm taking that _Materia_ back. _Retrieval!"_ Even though she cast instantly and put extra energy in, Cloud simply waved a hand and her spell splintered and shattered. "What?"

"Learned that one from your father. Interesting backgrounds he has, along with that staff of his. Soon I'll have all his secrets, and a greater understanding of these lower realms. That will allow me to better extract their energies, don't you think?"

"I won't just stand there and let you do this!" Susan pulled out her sword, but Cloud simply flicked a hand and she went sprawling. _I didn't get a STRength check to remain standing? How is that possible?_

"Like there's anything you can do now but watch. Ah, and I see Hojo is here as well. Thank you for all those clones you made, Hojo. Even this defective one. In return, let me show you something interesting."

With that, Cloud rose into the air, shooting high above where there was some kind of cocoon held together by branches. As he got nearby the entire place started shaking, and the cocoon dropped a little, showing the figure inside. Susan tried _Transposition, Teleportal,_ and _Elemental Burst: Knockout_ in succession, but Cloud just gestured without even looking and shattered them all.

"What's he doing to my magic?" she screamed at Sparkle.

"Too much to explain," she said back. "I think we need to get out of here!"

"We have to stop him somehow!"

"Too late!" As she said this, Cloud stuck the dark orb into the cocoon, and it started to glow with a blackness like the very heart of space. Energy swirled around the form, and the ground beneath their feet began to crack and buckle as creatures Susan had glimpsed through the oddly transparent wall began to move, cracking out of the substance that held them. Rock began to fall from above, and Susan got to her feet and was almost knocked over again because of the shaking.

"Get to the Highwind, it's the only hope!" shouted the man in the suit, and took off himself. The woman pulled off her heels and ran, and the scientist strolled out as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Tifa, calling for Cloud, had to be dragged away by Barret and the others, who had finally made their way to the place Susan had appeared. As a group they followed the man in the suit to some kind of floating ship and got aboard. Susan watched from the deck as they flew away, and her energy senses went wild as curtains of light shimmered around the crater they had just flown out of. She saw huge forms climbing or flying out of the hole as well, even one that dwarfed the size of the ship they were flying in. It didn't seem to give them more than a passing glance as an aura of power rippled around it, and it flew off.

Finally the light show seemed to be over, and Susan could see, now far below, as a barrier of the type protecting the Ancient Dragon sprang up around the crater area.

 _Not getting back in there any time soon._

"Everyone all right?" asked the man in the suit.

"Tifa's not," said Barret, the unconscious form of the girl in his arms. "I don't know if she hit her head or what, but she's out of it."

"Bring her inside, we need to be away from here."

Susan gripped the railing of the deck, watching as the crater and the barrier fell behind them. _I failed. He splintered my magic, and said he learned it from my father. Does that mean he has my father captive somewhere, and is taking his backgrounds like Tom did mine? Or did he just study the technique because my father used it so much?_

"What did he mean?" she asked Sparkle, who was calmly washing herself.

"You mean _Counterspeller?_ Yeah, don't ask me how he got that particular background. Your father said he never knew another _Paragon_ that had it, one of the reasons he was chosen to see Inari. He was unique in many ways, possibly even born to leave his homeworld as he did to save it." She shook her head as if spraying water off of it.

"Basically, someone like that gets better and better at negating spells as they put points into it. Normally you have to cast the exact reverse, right? Well, a _Counterspeller_ gets a +2 bonus at one _Background Point,_ can use any spell of the same grade for two _,_ or simply not cast a spell at all for three. At that point they just make a _Planet_ check, and if they beat the casting roll... well, you saw."

"The magic is negated instantly."

"Pretty much."

"Seems he's getting better at countering me. Maybe countering all travelers like me, because I shouldn't think the multiverse revolves around me. That's going to be a problem."

"It could just be this place. Maybe there's other forms of magic here these people don't know about, but he can tap into."

"But it would take doing my kind of magic to negate my kind of magic. Did he learn that from his time inside Tom? And then once he figured out what my father was doing, did he use that knowledge to create the technique? I'm useless enough around here as it is, if he can negate my magic like that... I can't hit him with a sword, he probably has ten thousand HP or something bizarre like that!"

"We haven't tried an _Augment STRength_ on you. I could put _Energetic Accumulation_ on myself and get you a pretty high rating's worth. That might help."

"Yeah, we're going to have to do something, and with very little XP to work with, too. I thought this place might be nice, with Sephiroth gone. But now it's just gotten worse."

"Yeah, that trick with the _Pocket Dimension_ troubles me most. Without pulling everything out, how do we know he didn't steal something else?"

"Wait, aren't I usually the downer? Besides, it was just camping stuff and such in there for the most part."

"I guess. Come on, let's get inside. It's too windy here."

"Yeah, okay."

Susan went inside, to find Barret shouting at someone he called "Rufus" about what should, or should not, be done next. Aerith was hiding behind Na, who was bristling at Hojo. The scientist was looking at them curiously.

"Everything all right here, Aerith? Na?" she asked, coming over to them. "Not that I can't say I'm pleased to see him, but he won't try anything at the moment, will you 'doctor?'"

"Oh, I'm famous, a girl I don't even know thinks she can intimidate me. How quaint."

"Let's just say I'm not adverse to tossing you over the side as an 'experiment' to see if you can grow some wings before you hit the ground."

"What did I ever to do you, young lady, to deserve such treatment?"

"You hounded and destroyed the lives of Aerith's parents, and then stole all her father's research. Naturally the first is the more terrible thing, in case you didn't know."

"Aerith? Oh, the specimens. I never learn a specimens' name, seems counterproductive when they'll all get dissected in the end."

"Go somewhere else. Now. Before I really lose my temper."

Hojo gave a dry laugh. "You're on an airship crawling with Shinra soldiers. What do you think one little girl is going to do?"

"What I always do in situations like that. Get creative."

"Bah. I have no interest in them as specimens anymore, anyway. It's a little late for that, don't you think? All my theories have been proven true, and there can be nothing greater for a scientist. You don't look intellectual enough to understand. Good day."

He walked away. _Shows what you know. I have an eight REAson and a seven KNOwledge. Both above average and probably just as high as yours._

"You okay?" she asked.

"If I asked you to, would you kill him for me?" Aerith said with a surprising amount of hatred. "Just as a personal favor?"

"What if I just turned him into a frog instead?"

"No, _Toad_ would wear off."

"I keep forgetting you guys have that 'spell.' No, I'm talking about a _Cursed Form._ He would be a frog forever. I think I also saw a spell, something about _Ultimate Justice._ It insures someone gets what they deserve in the end."

"I guess you weren't kidding about getting creative! And here I was just wishing he was dead. I guess I don't have much imagination."

Susan laughed. "Come on, I'll help you. Let's find a quiet place to sit and wait for whatever is going to happen next, and we can think of some horrible things to do to Hojo."

Aerith grinned. "Deal."

"There's one thing first," she said, looking around to make sure they were unobserved. The Shinra soldiers were at attention, watching them, but had no specific orders at the moment to detain them. (They couldn't go anywhere but down, and these people had no idea Susan could actually leap from this boat and then think about her _options_ to survive hitting the ground. Including not hitting the ground, because she could fly.) "We know how things turn out now. We saved just before this. Let's rewind time and go back to that save. We must remember what happened, otherwise we would just repeat the same useless actions over and over. So let's go back and think of some other way to approach the problem!"

Aerith shook her head sadly. "We can't. When that barrier went up, access to that _Save Point_ inside the crater became impossible."

"What, through time?" She nodded, and Susan rubbed her head. "Well that's just great. So you guys have no save right now, is what you're telling me?"

"Nope. And it's an odd feeling, let me tell you. We'll have to be careful until we see another one."

"Yeah. Man, to think his control over this reality was so complete."

Sparkle spoke up. "Didn't you tell me he once said to you that different realities were more or less compatible with him? That's why he could suck your dad's dimension dry directly, but yours he tried to get through, well, you and Tom."

"He did say that, I'm sure of it. So maybe the next place I meet him in, outside this world, he won't be so super strong."

"It's a faint hope, but all we have right now."

"Wait, you're not leaving us, are you?" Aerith asked, alarmed.

"What? No, of course not. The people that sent me here wanted this world saved, and by my father's creepy humming, that's what I'm going to do. And I haven't seen the thing he talked about, that a low level spell of mine was the solution to. So it's not over yet."

Aerith looked relieved. "Oh, good."

"Keep quiet about what I can do, though. I don't think I want them knowing. To them I'm just another girl with some _Materia._ "

"I'm not stupid, you know!"

"Sorry, I just thought it should be said."

"Guess I'll forgive you. This time."

The airship flew back to a port city in the south, and Tifa was transferred to a hospital there. The resistance fighters were not exactly under arrest, at the moment, and Susan wasn't wanted anyway like Barret and Tifa and Cloud were, but she had been found with them. So it was made clear they shouldn't go anywhere, and were given rooms with guards on the outside. Susan wasn't concerned, she could get everyone out in a jiffy should it become necessary.

In the hours that past she rested up, reading her book of magic to become more familiar with the new spells. She'd had the book all her life, so she had a pretty good idea about the old ones. But these new ones... like _Elemental Confinement,_ which worked like _Immobilize_ but damaged whatever it was holding as if the bonds were the element the spell was cast under. (So fire for Mars, burning them, and so on.) _What I need is massive amounts of damage, because these creatures here have so much more health than I'm used to. But I don't know how that's going to be possible._

She had Sparkle cast the _Illusion_ that she was just reading, and called up Silverstreak again.

The man(ish) himself answered.

"Susan, how goes the fight there?"

"Not well, actually. The Darkness overpowered me totally, just like you said. I didn't even get into combat with him, he just walked all over me."

"Ah, that's the point though, isn't it?" he said. "You have to follow the rules of the world, you know. Yes, sometimes things work out in your favor, because you kind of warp reality a little so you get resistance checks and such where natives wouldn't. But of course you 'offer' them to others that you cast spells on, so it works out. The point is, you weren't in combat with him, so he could play with reality a little more than he could if you had been in the party and actively taken him on that way. He was sure to keep his distance from you, right?"

"He actually possessed Cloud, one of the people I was traveling with. I wouldn't have attacked him in any case. It's the others that get into combats, just by wandering around, I don't know how to initiate one anyway."

"Ah, clever. He is just as smart as Inari and myself, and we are, well, what we are. So keep that in mind, plus he has lots of time to plan things out. But he's not unbeatable, you know that what I am I telling you that for!? How else can I help?"

"XP. I don't seem to be getting any. Or in reality I'm getting too much, slaughtering the local wildlife. Plus I don't have MP so I can't use Green _Materia,_ and I hardly do any damage to anything when I hit it. How can I be effective here? You said a single spell could solve their issues!"

"And it will, have a little patience. Now, the XP thing. You'll have to make do for now, maybe cannibalize some of your school skills? You are getting that XP, it's just a little incompatible with you. That's the trouble with visiting a place that's somewhat, but not quite operating under your own physical laws. Now, you won't walk away with thousands or even hundreds, but once you leave that place it'll convert and you'll get a bunch at once. So don't think being there means you'll miss out on improving yourself. You can stay here and train, we have teachers for just about everything. You have a high REAson right? You'll burn through it in no time. Or if you want to make some stuff, we can provide a lab and such. Are you getting some good ideas?"

Susan shook her head. "I'm not sure. It's been pretty non-stop around here since I got here. This is the first chance I've really had to sit and relax."

"Give it some thought, you're not done there yet. And don't worry, I anticipated him getting the _Black Materia,_ it's what comes next that's important. You'll see. Don't worry about combats too much, let your new friends handle that. Stay alive, raise _Materia_ and offer support. You'll be the key, don't worry."

"That makes me feel a little better. Thanks. Can I use _Materia_ outside this world? The Yellow stuff, I mean. Or maybe Pink, like _Long Range,_ letting me strike from a distance."

"Sure. Not _Enemy Skill,_ that takes MP. But the others, yeah. I don't know how effective _Steal_ would be though."

"I'm talking about _Sense,_ mostly."

"Ah. Sure, as long as you use armor or weapons that have slots. You will have to spend some XP bonding it to yourself, just like an _Imbued_ item. But not as much as the full _Imbuing_. We can talk about that when you get here. Oh yeah, your book can actually tell you how to _Fabricate_ weapons or armor with slots! If you ask it to look into that and put something that has some on it overnight. The sword and armor will come with you, though, if you want to just bring them along. Never know how the knowledge might come in handy, though!"

"Good point. I'll do that tonight."

"As far as MP, can't help you there. Your _Adaptive_ skill is your _Limit Break,_ in case you hadn't realized it yet. You can use some _Materia,_ anyone can, but the skill can't give you MP. It's a skill, and _Limit Break_ is actually a skill for the people here. Unlike magic, that's just sort of automatic."

"I saw one of them, at least. But I have to get _hit_ to activate it?"

"True. And you're stuck at level 1 until you raise the skill. Could come in handy, but don't stress over that either."

"I just am usually more helpful than this! I'm feeing useless here, and having Darkness reach into my _Pocket Dimension_ a little while ago didn't help matters."

"You will be. Believe me. Your time will come, I got excited about you showing up for a reason. Remember that. Now, new skills working out okay?"

"Oh yeah! _Spirit Sense_ is amazing. I even found some _Materia_ with it. I can't wait to raise that and _Manipulation."_

"Glad to hear it. Anything else for the moment?"

"Can my book analyze a save point?"

"Sure, just stick it inside. It can get you a similar spell."

Susan thought a moment. "I guess that's it."

"Good timing. I think you're about to have some visitors. Good luck!"

With that he vanished, and there was a knock on the door.


	34. Chapter 34

34

While Tifa Recovers

Time: Moments later

Place: Meeting room somewhere in Junon

Susan, upon hearing the knock at her door, knew it was probably not an invitation to dine, but rather the talk the man in the white suit said he wanted to have that day. She had been thinking about how she wanted to play things from here on out around the Shinra, and decided she didn't really want them knowing about her powers. Given how the others really seemed to hate the company, and her own experience watching Ifalna being carted away, she couldn't trust these people not to try and exploit her in every way possible.

That being decided upon, before she opened the door she cast a quick _Augment Skill: Acting_ on herself, and allowed the soldier on the other side to escort her to the meeting room. Inside, only part of the team was seated, and none looked particularly happy. Cloud, of course, was missing, as was Tifa who must not have recovered yet. Oddly so was Yuffie, and Cait Sith was also absent. _Of course, if he works for the company like they said, he would be having his own meeting._ That left Aerith, Barret, Na, and Cid. Of course there were a smattering of soldiers, the woman in red, a fat guy dressed in green, and the president also seated around the table. _Wait, someone's missing._ "Where's Vincent?" she asked.

"As a former Turk, he's talking to Tseng and the others," said the guy in white. "Now that we're all here I'd like to get your side of the story. Barret, of course, is known to us, wanted for many acts of terrorism over the years. Aerith is a Cetra and so too valuable to just let go. Cid... probably would have cooperated with our earlier request for the Tiny Bronco, had we not been interrupted by you guys stealing it. Na is... whatever he is, and I may yet hand him over to Hojo. The only person I haven't seen before is you, my dear. What's your story?"

"Like, wow, am I really important enough to be questioned by the actual president of the Shinra Corporation? You are the president right? I mean it's so great to actually meet you!"

Rufus looked questioningly at her. "Really? I thought all you AVALANCH people hated me."

"Oh no! The Shinra Company has done, like, so much to improve our lives, how could I hate you? I mean I just couldn't believe some of the awful stories these guys were telling me. That's why I tagged along with them, you know, so that I could show them they had you all wrong, and stuff?" She lowered her voice. "And have you seen Barret's arms? Like oh my gourd!"

"Yes... yes I have. Who are you?"

"Oh, so stupid of me. My name is Susan, and I hope it's okay I brought my cat with me. I just can't stand to be apart from her, you know? If someone could put a litter box in my room for her, that would just be amazing. I would hate for her to have any accidents on your beautiful carpets. Like, were they really super expensive? I mean everything is just so gorgeous here!"

Now everyone was staring at her like she had lost her mind, and Susan could almost feel Rufus trying to make checks to pierce her 22 _Acting_ check. _Good luck, suckers._ She almost ruined the effort by giggling, but her 18 RESolve check kept that under wraps.

Rufus started to say something a few times, but then turned to Barret. "Where did you find this girl?"

"Uh..."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to admit it either. Really, is this your type?" He shook his head. "Anyway, it seems certain things have been kept from me, most notably from my chief scientist, so I want to hear your take on what's going on. Perhaps from that I can form a more complete picture."

So Barret and Aerith told him about how the planet was in peril, because Hojo had gone and put Jenova cells in people, turning them into Sephiroth clones. _Or as I like to call him, The Darkness._ They talked about his plans to basically become a god by absorbing all the energy of the _Lifestream,_ by injuring the planet with a meteor strike. _Wait, a what strike? That's what the Black Materia does? Summons a space rock? I thought it would be something, I don't know, a little more immediate._ They spoke of the land dying, due to draining the Mako out and turning it into electricity, and what harm the reactors did. He used this to explain his actions of blowing them up, and Rufus asked if he thought that would somehow stop Shinra from building more.

"I man has to have some dream," he replied.

"Quite. Go on."

They talked about how Aerith was going to release Holy, but that Susan saved her at the last second, thwarting Sephiroth from killing her and Aerith from committing "assisted suicide."

"Whoops!" said Susan, throwing up her hands.

With that, Rufus explained what Hojo had told him about this so called "reunion." Apparently, Hojo discovered that Jenova was basically immortal, and that any cell of hers that was removed would ultimately make its way back to the main body. That way it would come back to life.

 _Seems reasonable, after all you're not a creature from around here, are you? This version of you isn't you, just like the version of you in me isn't you. So you can reanimate the body as long as it's intact._

 _Very good, Susan. And wonderful acting job, by the way. Good thing Hojo isn't here though, he actually spoke to you so he would be mighty confused right about now._

 _Bah, he wouldn't have seen through my_ Acting _check either._

 _Whatever you say._

"So the question remains, what do we do with you all? Susan I'm inclined to let go, as she hasn't blown up any Shinra property that I know of. Cid and Vincent used to work for us, and are entitled to their opinions of us. As long as they don't go blowing stuff up, they can think well or ill of Shinra as they please. But you, Barret, and Tifa when she recovers... no, I don't think we can let you go."

"Didn't expect you would. What about Aerith?"

"I haven't decided on Na's, or her, fate. Hojo does have a claim on them, but he's not my favorite person at the moment."

"She's a human being!" he yelled, pounding the table. "Not some lab animal."

"She's a... person of interest," countered Rufus. "Can we really let the last Cetra wonder around out there? It's dangerous, even with Sephiroth now focused on the Northern Crater area. If she decides to try and summon Holy again, he might know and come after her."

"I won't," Aerith declared. "That was my one chance I think, and I've..." she glanced over at Susan, "been thinking maybe it wasn't the right choice after all."

"In any case, I'll have to ask you all to stay as our 'guests' until I figure out what to do with you all. Susan, if you wish to go back home, I'm sure we can drop you off now that the Highwind is finally functional."

"That is so nice of you to say!" she gushed in reply. "But if you want to know what to do with the others, I might have, like, you know, a suggestion?"

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "Do tell."

"I couldn't help but notice those weird monster things that crawled out of that big hole in the ground back there? I can't help but wonder where they were all going? I mean I doubt they're out collecting flowers and bringing tea to their grandmothers, you know what I'm saying? These guys are professional monsters hunters, I guess? And I would sooooo hate if you had to send any of your precious solders out to get killed by them! So send these guys instead, you know? Maybe they could even, like, redeem themselves if they actually win."

"What an interesting idea. I suppose if they start attacking cites or something, we could find a use for them. I'll keep it in mind. For now, head back to your rooms, and I'll have some dinner sent up for you."

"Wow, just like in a fancy hotel!? This trip is going to be soooo awesome, I can just tell that right now. I'm so glad I tagged along with these guys, you know? Though I would be kind of sad if you decided to, you know, kill them?"

"Yes, I'm sure." He walked out of the room shaking his head, and the soldiers escorted the others back to theirs.

 _So far so good. Now to see what the others want to do and perhaps make a break for it._

Susan watched some TV, but the room had no computer access so she was kind of bored. She looked her character sheet over, focusing on what she could sacrifice to raise her new skills, and decided Silverstreak was right. She probably wasn't going to need _Herbology_ or _History of Magic_ ever again. For one thing the plants here were totally different (as Vincent hadn't known what an apple was) and knowing the history of magic on her world was not going to help her in, say, this one. Also Astronomy, Pistol (unless she got more ammo, it was useless. _Wait, have I ever seen Barret or Vincent actually reload?)_ and Arithmancy.

 _It figures. Dozens of new spells I'm itching to try out, a handful of really cool skills, and I have all of 8 XP at the moment. Sure, I might get 50 when I leave this world, but that doesn't help me currently, does it?_

Dinner came, and Susan found it to be excellent. She then popped the sword on top of her book, told it to figure out _Materia Slots_ and went to sleep for a few hours.

She was woken by Sparkle, as agreed, and read over the _Dream Link_ spell she had once used to contact Dumbledore, and that Tom had used to talk to her. She had Sparkle cover the room in _Illusion_ again, not for the first time cursing her magic and the light show it created. She figured the minor flash that the _Illusion_ made was nothing compared to the ten minute pyrotechnic display she was about to commence, and wanted it covered up. Ten minutes later, Aerith and Barret appeared in her shared dream, the meeting room of the Star Ship Enterprise D. After a moment of disorientation, Barret looked across the table (from where she was sipping Tea, Earl Gray, Hot) and leaned closer to her.

"So is this reasonable, intelligent Susan or vapid, valley girl Susan?"

"Which one would you like, Barret? This is a dream, and I can be any kind of girl you want me to be." She batted her eyelashes, which was actually rather annoying, now that she had attempted it.

"I'll take the one that can actually get us out of here. Where are we, anyway?"

"A dream, like I said. Thought we could take some time to plan our next move."

"Oh, so you hadn't cracked under the strain. I did wonder."

"Be nice, Barret," chided Aerith. "She was throwing them off, and a good job she did too, I think. They don't think she's anything special now, and may be more lax at watching her. I think she did fine."

"Yeah, yeah. Cooped up all day in basically a cell. You call that fine?"

"It could have been a smaller, danker, more crowded cell, you know. We spent some time in one so we know they have them. Be glad you're here instead."

"And here we'll probably have to remain, at least until they slip up. Unless you want me just making some holes in the air. That won't be obvious something's up with me."

"No, I can handle it. I'm just worried about Tifa. Who knows what that so called scientist will do to her while she's out?"

"Could you wake her up?" asked Aerith.

Susan considered. "Again, risking them figuring out I have magic they don't know about. I can, or at least Sparkle can, she uses the spell to get me up every day because I'm such a heavy sleeper. But if she's in a coma, that could be pretty dangerous. The brain does that to heal itself. And again I have healing magic, better than yours, but the brain is pretty tricky. It won't cure a psychosis, if she gets one from me waking her up forcibly."

"Sounds like it's safest to wait, Barret. We'll give her some time, and Susan can always try her magic if we feel there's no other option."

"Yeah, all right. I guess we're all stuck here, then. I'm not leaving without her."

"We could leave though, and just bring her along afterwords. I know a spell to grab someone and bring them to myself."

"Cloud!?"

Susan shook her head. "I need to know roughly where they are, and doing too much magic in my room will draw suspicion. If he's still at the crater, I might not get through that barrier. If he isn't, I'd have to track him down, and that means even more magic. There's always a chance someone will see through Sparkle's _Illusions_ I use to cover it. And I hate to be crass, but do you really believe he's alive after all that? I mean that place crumbled, and he was right in the center of it."

"I have to have hope. And I don't hear his voice in the _Lifestream."_

"You can do that? Huh. Okay, so he's still alive. I guess he's part Janova, so he won't die easily."

"Yeah, that was a shock. Old spiky hair handing the _Materia_ over. Again. Can we ever trust him after this?"

"He has to learn to master the impulse to do what the Janova part of him wants to do. I have to have hope," she inclined her head to Aerith, who nodded.

"I guess you're right. If we are going to plan anything, shouldn't we include Cid and Na?"

Susan shook her head. "No can do. While the majority of spells specify a number of targets based on rating, or allowing more targets while making the difficulty higher, this spell specifically says only two others can join. I guess maybe my brain is hosting all this, and more than two could just fry it? I'm not inclined to ask my book for a better version for that very reason."

"Oh. Guess you'll just have to tell them later."

"If necessary. It takes ten minutes to cast, you know."

"Ten? Okay, never mind. I guess we'll just see what happens, and what they decide to do with us. But if they decide to off us or something, you better come through."

"Of course."

"And what was that whole 'send them to fight those creatures' all about, anyway?"

"How much easier would it be to escape in the confusion of fighting one of those things? Especially if you're outside to do it? Plus I've seen you guys fight, you can take it, right?"

"I guess we'll have no choice if they send us out there. Escape plan, huh? Actually seems logical. That whole act of yours had me worried."

"And them fooled, I hope. Anything else?"

The other two shook their heads.

"Wait, there was one other question I had. Silly me- where do you buy ammo from? I have a gun but only about 50 shots. Vincent seems to just keep shooting without worrying about it, but even he must run out of bullets sometime. I was wondering, as you guys had guns, maybe I could show you the type of ammo it uses and you might have something- what?" Barret was looking at her like she was going crazy, again.

"What do you mean, bullets?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean, bullets? You know, the things that come out of the gun to actually do the wounding? Hot lead? Shoot 'em up, shoot 'em up, pow, pow?"

"Don't know what you're talking about. Guns cause damage same as swords do, they don't shoot anything out. I mean swords aren't shooting stuff out to cause damage, do they?" He laughed. "You pull the trigger, and something gets damaged. Easy as that."

"Right, forgot where I was. Never mind."

The next day, she read a new chapter about _Slots_ and her suspicions were confirmed. There was nothing keeping manufacturers from linking all the slots together, it was just an increase in DIFficulty. At least the way she made things, as it could be different for them. They had to be prepared, and each linked slot added 10 to the DIF of doing the _Fabrication._ In her terms, each slot also cost 5 XP, in addition to the XP cost of increasing the TR of the weapon, should she wish to do so. But it did inform her that even non- _Materia_ things slotted in would act like _Materia_ if properly prepared. It didn't take any more time or XP to _Imbue_ the spheres that would fit, it was just a matter of preparing them properly. In this way, she could hook her own Elemental spells to something like _HP Absorb_ and actually get some benefit. The spell would have to be cast from the _Imbued_ object, so she wouldn't be able to put more energy into it, but conversely it wouldn't cost any energy to cast. (If done as 50 charges, as usual.) She could also hook up any number to that linkage, rather than needing a bunch of separate copies of _HP Absorb,_ as in the example given. So unlike Vincent needing eight copies of _Lighting_ _Materia_ to do what he did, she could do it with only 2. (One in her weapon and one in her armor, if she had enough _Blue Materia_ to make it worthwhile.)

 _All in all, a very long term project. I could probably make a sword with_ Creation _, with the slots put in as the book recommends. They're just holes in the design, basically, until the_ Fabrication _is done on them. Then a bunch of XP and time to make that happen. Then more XP and time making spheres that are_ Imbued _with anything useful. I think I'll just stick to premade stuff for now._

That completed, she turned on the news and was shocked to see a live report, covering one of those creatures lumbering towards a town. Shinra forces were in pursuit and seemed to be throwing everything they had at it. If this was making a difference or not, she couldn't tell.

 _Maybe they shouldn't go up against it, after all..._


	35. Chapter 35

35

Making Deals

Time: About ten minutes later

Place: Susan's room in Junon

There was an unexpected knock at the door, and Susan opened it to find President Rufus standing there.

"May I come in?" he asked, looking around the room.

"Of course!" she said, wishing now she had put _Augment Skill_ back on. Of course, she hadn't expected the president of the company to come to her.

"You've seen the news then," he said, referring to the ongoing coverage of the Weapon attacks.

"Oh, it's just terrible, all those people who must be so afraid. Do you think you can stop it? Please, have a seat!" They both sat at the small table that was set to one side.

"I do hope so, but I'm not here to talk about that."

"Really?" She put a hand on his arm. "Well it's just you and me, Mr. President. Whatever you want to talk about... or do you want to talk at all?"

He threw back his head and laughed, finally getting under control again. "No, you were much more convincing yesterday. Anyway, the report said you got more flustered around girls then guys, so personally I don't think you have any real interest in me... or Barret for that matter."

"Cait Sith."

"Yes. His report on you was quite through. Though I will admit he was reluctant to provide it. You must have made an impression on him. That, or he's scared stiff of you."

"And here you are. Pretty brave."

"I know you're not all that great a fighter. I'm pretty sure I could take you before you could kill me. After all, I fought Cloud and by all reports he does far more damage than you do. Besides, I saved before I came in here. Things go bad I just pop back, knowing whatever it was we discussed and I'll try a different , on the other hand, won't remember me coming in, so I'll have the advantage."

"How do I know this isn't your second time around?"

"I wonder..." He said no more, just looked at her with a slight smile.

"Really have to analyze what those things are and get me that spell," muttered Susan. "So, once a spy, always a spy told you all about me, huh? In that case, what do you want?"

"Why, your help, of course. That's why you came to this world, isn't it? He indicated that you knew more about what we're actually facing, and right now I need all the help I can get."

"I suppose I'm duty bound to assist you."

He sighed and looked away. "Look, I won't say the Shinra are angels. Far from it. But most of this mess was caused by my father. I've only taken the company over recently. Give me a chance to atone for our mistakes. Yes, before I thought to control the world though fear, and why not? I figured I could get away with it. But these Weapon things, and _Lifestream_ and Reunion- they're all bigger than me. And apparently you've dealt with similar things, so help us, now. Please."

Susan snorted. "Even that sounded more like a demand than an actual request. But fine, I'll help you, with some conditions. We're all on the same side now, so my friends walk."

"I don't know if I can do that. The political situation, which I admit, we created, doesn't lend itself to us backtracking on this. They, AVALANCH, are the enemy, that's what we've been telling people for years. To suddenly say 'whoops, they were right all along' would turn public opinion against us. We need to stay at the front of people's minds as defenders and saviors. Otherwise we won't get the support we need to protect people."

Susan could see his point. If confidence in Shinra fell, and Weapon started attacking someplace, Shinra would show up. If they were too busy doing crowd control because no one wanted to follow their orders, and not enough time shooting Weapon, it could lead to more deaths. "Well then, you're just going to have to stage an escape. Allow us an out we can exploit and I'll handle the rest. Once they're out of your custody you can get it touch with me about what you want done, and I'll tell you if it's possible or not."

"I'll think about how we can accomplish that. I know at least one thing we want to do is, the agent said you used it all the time. Those holes in the air to go from one place to another."

Susan shook her head. "I have to see a place at least once to set the other end. I haven't seen enough of this world to actually help you."

"But you have seen the place we need one. The crater." He slid a picture of the energy barrier over to Susan, and she looked it over. "We need to bring that down so we can take Sephiroth out. Can you do it?"

"Alone? Maybe, but it would leave me helpless afterwords. It seems this one may be slightly more impenetrable than the last one I saw. This one cut off access to the _Save Point_ that was inside, used before it came up. I'm not sure my magic could get under it, which is where the explosion that took it out was placed last time."

"What about shooting it with a giant gun, that was powered by Mako?"

"That's tough to say. It was recently explained to me that your guns just sort of cause damage, rather than needing to be reloaded. I guess if you could cause enough damage to it that way... but how are you going to get it near enough to- oh."

"Exactly. We would install the gun in Midgar, where we have the most reactors. You put your hole right at the end of the barrel. That way it loses no energy on the trip over there, for maximum impact."

"So basically the equivalent of smashing hundreds of Green _Materia_ into the barrier, all at once."

"You could think of it that way, yes."

"Fine. My friends get away, Aerith stops being hounded, and you have a deal."

"How can we contact you?"

"You must have some pretty powerful transmitters. That cat toy of yours picked up a signal from somewhere. Give me something similar and call me on it."

"Seems reasonable. Now, about our other little problem?"

"Your image? Can't do anything about that. Maybe a dash of color, have you considered a red handkerchief in one pocket?"

"I'm talking about _Meteor."_ He set another photo down on the table, this one a grainy image of a rock. "That's the one we think is heading towards the planet. The one that will destroy us."

"What, you want to _Teleportal_ over to it, fit some explosives on it and blow it away?"

"Wait, is that possible?"

"Ah, maybe? I've gone to places I've only seen in pictures, of course. But this is a little different. Wait a second." Susan lapsed into silence. "Sparkle, come look at this."

Rufus didn't seem surprised when Sparkle jumped up to look at the picture. "Seems pretty small from this distance."

"Do you think this is what the people that sent me here were talking about? Is this the problem I can easily solve?"

"Sure, if these people had energy you could drain, getting you a high enough rating to reach it with magic."

"He said a simple spell. Do you think he wanted me to go back to the previous world, gather energy there like I did, and then come back? That's not really that simple though. Give me a few minutes, let me review the spells I know," she said to Rufus.

"Please, take your time," he replied, putting his hands behind his head and tipping back in his chair.

Susan started paging through her book, looking for something specific. "Interesting," she said after a few moments. "Do you know how many _Sight_ based spells there are?"

"Not many."

"No, not many. Less the 25. Oddly, my _Legion_ is sight based, so I could pop them into a news broadcast somewhere. They would just stand there, because they would have no orders, but still. No, get this- _Thrust_ has a range of _Sight."_

"You're kidding!"

"No," said Susan, beginning to laugh. "Look for yourself. It's actually _Sight."_ She fell into waves of laughter, and Rufus looked on, confused."Oh, sorry," she said, wiping her eyes. "Look, I'll demonstrate." She turned on the TV. "Is this live? Yes, I see it says it is. Now, what to pick... ah!" Susan picked something in the background, and cast _Thrust_ on it before the camera panned away. She didn't put any extra energy in, the DIF was only 7, rather than being based on the distance. The trash can went flying, unnoticed by the news reporter but visible to anyone at home. She started laughing again. "Oh man, to see the looks on their faces!"

"What? What did you just do? What's so funny?"

Susan got control of herself back. "It's just so weird to have it be _Sight_ based. Like I said, most spells aren't. You have to be pretty close to them in order to have it work. Not so much this one. Look, _Thrust_ does one thing. You saw, it makes whatever I cast it on fly away from me violently. And I can do it on anything _I can see._ Now I could look through a telescope or something and cast the spell on this chunk of rock heading our way. The spell reads "The target is thrown away from you as many meters as your Mercury rating." And that's it. It doesn't specify what happens if the target is moving towards you, or away or anything. You cast, boom, it gets pushed away, seemingly without regards to the object's initial momentum or velocity or anything. Now, where is the object?"

"Space?"

"Space, exactly. So I cast it on the rock and the rock, having no other choice, is magically thrown from it's original position to X meters away, directly opposite where I am. Where X is the rating in my skill, which can be as high as about 80. So it goes 80 meters away from me in less then a second, making its speed pretty high. In space, there's nothing to stop it from going that way, and it continues away from the planet, forever."

"And that would work?"

"As long as Sephiroth isn't around anymore, sure. It would be his will against mine, and even if I won, he would just rope it in again and it would start getting closer. And by then I would be exhausted and unable to try again. So you get rid of Sephiroth, and I'll get rid of your Meteor problem. The thing that threatens your entire world. _With a grade 2 spell_." She started to giggle again.

"You'll have to forgive her," explained Sparkle." She's been worrying about that ever since we got here. It's sort a relief to know we figured it out."

"Yes, I can see that. Very well. It's going to take weeks to get the canon moved from Junon to Midgar. Especially with that Weapon thing roaming around making life difficult. We'll need to be sure it's somewhere far away when we begin the transport process. Don't want it destroying the thing, after all. Just the engineering work alone to figure out how to decouple the canon and transport it will take our experts days. We may have to do it in pieces... unless you can just snap your fingers and do it?"

Susan shook her head. "Anything on the scale you're talking about? Way too much for my magic to deal with. Sorry. Though _technically,_ I suppose if you could break it into pieces, I could _Shrink_ them down. If I had seen Midgar before I could walk them through a _Teleportal_ and then bring that back to full size."

"I'll keep that in mind. I think it's more detaching it and hooking it up to the reactors, rather than the transport process that is the issue. But I'll see what my engineers say." He stood up, and Susan got up as well. "I'll give you details about the breakout when I can. Naturally you shouldn't tell your friends, their reactions should be as genuine as possible."

"But once this is over, the truth gets out, right?"

He sighed. "One way or the other, we at Shinra have some atoning to do."

"Long as you realize it."

"You'll have to stay here, of course, much as I would like to involve you in this. Having you running around the town might raise some questions. At least among the staff here."

"Just tell them I'm your new mistress."

"Now I think it's my turn to laugh. Good day."

"One second."

"Yes?"

"I want any cameras in this room removed."

"Cameras, in these rooms?" He acted shocked. "I don't know what you mean."

"Trust has to come from somewhere, President. Let it begin with you."

"I suppose your magic can tell you if I've done so or not?"

"Believe that it can. Believe how angry I'll be if you say you will, and you don't. I could find them, but it would be tedious. I would rather just know they were off."

"As a matter of interest, what would you do if you decided you didn't want to be here anymore?"

Susan shrugged. "Leave, of course. Even without my _Teleportal,_ I could walk out that door at any time. Sparkle, a demonstration?"

" _Phase."_

Susan held her arms out. "Please, touch me in the morning, and then just walk away."

He seemed confused, but passed his hand through her arm, then body and head. "You really could have left at any time."

Susan nodded.

"Thank you... for the chance to prove myself to you." He left.

"And now," Susan announced once he was gone, "we're out of here."

"Are you not helping them?"

"Oh sure, I didn't say I wouldn't be back. I just want to see this town, and once the cameras are off, we can slip out for a bit. We'll wait until just after lunch, then go see the sights. We can just _Teleportal_ back here before dinner, and they won't be the wiser."

"I suppose. How will you know when and if he keeps his word?"

"Good _Question_ my faithful companion. Good _Question._ We'll check every hour."

It only took the first hour for the _Question_ spell to report a "yes" to the question of "have the cameras in this room been disabled" so Susan, _Invisible_ and _Phased,_ passed out of the room and into the hall a little after lunchtime. She debated checking on her friends, but gave the president the benefit of the doubt. _After all, it's the same for me either way. If he posts only a few guards and lets us go without too much of a fight, fine. If he doesn't, well, sucks to be him. I'm still Susan Extraordinaire._

But she did go check on Tifa, who was hooked to several monitors and fluids in a hospital bay on a different floor of the building they were in. She looked a bit gaunt, and Susan wondered about trying to get into her dreams with _Dream Link._

 _But she's obviously in some kind of coma. She's not really asleep, as far as the spell goes. I don't know. Maybe in a day or two, see what's bouncing around in there. At least she is being treated. Wake up soon, Tifa._

And so Susan went exploring. Having no real destination in mind, she couldn't get lost, so she just wandered the streets of Junon mostly at random. She found several shops, but the stuff they were selling didn't seem as good as the stuff she already had. She did by a few things she knew the party was low on, like _Potions_ and some _Antidote._ She debated buying another copy of _Sense_ to stick in her sub-space pocket, but thought maybe this one would reproduce itself by the time she was done, and decided against it.

One thing she got excited about was the small inn she found, as there was a save point next to the counter. She had no idea how to use the thing herself, the others just seemed to touch it, but nothing really happened when she did so. _So am I saved or not? How could I tell? In either case, I have something better anyway, a way to take it with me._

The bored looking man behind the counter looked at her like she had just landed in a spaceship when she asked about leaving her book there overnight. He guessed it was fine, though he couldn't imagine why she would want to do such a thing. She did another quick _Question_ to make sure the book would be undisturbed, and got back a "yes."

"There's a thousand _Gil_ in it for you if I come back and find this book undisturbed, got it?" asked Susan.

"Sure."

"Do you have a piece of paper?"

He got her one, and she chuckled as she put a _Spell Symbol_ on it. She further put her spell of _Somnolent Smog_ into it, and then set the paper at an angle atop the book. The gems on the book were already glowing, so the analyzing circuits were hard at work.

"See you tomorrow!" she said lightly, skipping out.

"How are you going to pick the book up?" Sparke asked.

" _Hygiene_ will erase the writing, right?"

"I guess it will."

That done, it reminded her that she had been slacking off on making _Spell Symbol_ papers, and went back to her room early to work on that. She had tons of paper in her _Pocket Dimension_ so she found some scissors, cut it into appropriately sized pieces, and started making some.

She worked about two hours on that, _Spell Symbol_ taking only a minute and a half (she took the extra time for all this) to cast and any other spell taking much less time. So she made 30 of them, and stuck them, in groups, into her _Dimension._

The next day, Susan was pleased to see a new spell in her book, the grade 10 spell of _Time Anchor._ Basically you cast it, maintained it (of course, hello new _Spell Symbol)_ and at any point before it went away you could return to the point in time you cast it from. Others could also recall what had happened, up to one per Saturn rating. Of course it took 10 minutes to cast, (20 from writings) but she didn't mind. She was just going to read the spell over, make a bunch into _Spell Symbols_ and then replace them as they were used.

"I could see that coming in very handy," remarked Sparkle, reading the spell symbology over. "You basically create a short lived, parallel universe, and if you don't like how it turns out, you get to go back and change it."

"Exactly. Something these people take for granted, now available for me, and portable. I do so love my magic, and thank you Silverstreak for the sensors that made it possible."

So Susan got an eighteen on her _Magical Scripture_ and an eleven on her _Magical Theory,_ so she read it but didn't quite get it yet. She had breakfast, watched some TV, and tried again with a seventeen, and she knew she had it. She had time aplenty, so she made five of them over the course of the day, taking a full half an hour for each. (As she could extend the casting time by 50%, and 50% of 20 minutes was an additional 10 minutes.) That gave her a guaranteed sixteen, beating the difficulty by one.

 _I do not want to know what would happen if I backfired_ this _spell!_

Then she got bored again, took a nap to get some energy back, and wondered what other trouble she could get into around here. It had only been three days, and she needed six to raise her newest skill group, so that was out. So basically she puttered around, made _Symbol_ papers, and watched some TV. The president didn't come see her again, and after a few more days she was starting to really worry about Tifa and wonder if she shouldn't go try waking her up.

 _I could do a 30 minute casting of_ Time Anchor _the normal way. If she seems wrong somehow, just rewind time again. But how can I know she won't have complications later?_

She shouldn't have worried. A full week after they had been pulled out of the crater, Tifa woke up to her new captivity.

And public execution.


	36. Chapter 36

36

Forecast: Cloudy days ahead?

Time: Seven days after the escape from the crater

Place: The march to the gas chamber for our heroes Tifa and Barret

The president had come one last time, after Tifa woke up, about their escape plan.

"Cait Sith will be going with you. He'll take you to the airfield where the Highwind has been prepped for your departure. Follow him out and you'll be fine."

"You're giving us that airship?"

"Like you said, trust has to come from somewhere. Cait Sith saw what you could do, and so did I. Plus I got reports of a girl that looked an awful lot like you wandering around town. Yet you always came back, so I think you really do what to do what's best for the planet, despite our bad reputation."

"Maybe the food's better here."

He smiled. "If what you say is true, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, you may be the only hope for our world. Plus, you said you needed to see a place to go back to it, right?"

"That's right."

"Best way to do that is aboard that ship. Now these two are going to be marching to what they think is their doom. The guard will be light, so I don't want a lot of soldiers getting killed here, okay?"

"As long as they aren't random encounters, I'll disable them before they can actually fight us. That spell should still work." _I hope._

"Fine."

"What about Aerith and the others?"

"They've already been snuck aboard."

"Excellent." Susan had the foresight, before this meeting, to put _Detect Lies_ on herself, so she knew Rufus was telling the truth. "Then let the show begin!"

Susan was walking, _Invisible_ to anyone, alongside the two that had been tied up. They believed that they were walking to a gas chamber, where they would be killed while the public watched.

 _Would so gruesome a display have actually been planned if they were really going to be killed? I wonder._ Susan was going to see what the situation was by the chamber, then possibly wait until one person had been led inside. She would then switch them with someone else, if the door had a window she could look through. If it didn't, she would simply take out any guards that were there with _Immobilize,_ before the door could be closed _._ She was _Accelerated_ for this very purpose, to get the bonus to her _Mercury_ check. Of course, if she could get them all with one casting of _Hypnotic Field,_ so much the better. _But the less showy here the better, Susan. Remember that._

Inside the gas chamber room there were only two guards, plus the woman in the red dress, who seemed to be wearing it again. _Odd, she has a good job, you would think she could afford at least one other dress. Or maybe she alternates? Did I catch her on 'red dress day' both times? Focus, Susan!_

Apart from that there was a man with a camera, a couple of people sitting on metal chairs, and that was it. Oh, and the very poorly disguised form of Cait Sith, holding a microphone and looking weird. _Kind of spread out._

She quickly ran to the other door in the room, and yes, it was the chamber and yes, it had a window set in it. _Though I guess it doesn't matter, the spell doesn't specify I have to be looking at either target. Just that I have to be within M range of it. Huh._ The woman in red decided that Tifa would go first, and shoved her into the chamber. They sat her down and tied her arms to the chair, while the lady in red called Tifa some... less than polite things.

With that done, she and the guard left the room, closing the door behind them. She announced the execution was about to begin when suddenly alarms rang out through the complex that _Weapon_ was attacking!

 _Hey, he doesn't mess around. I didn't think he was going to make it this easy for me._

She shrugged, and started casting. The woman was still very near the door as the people in the chairs jumped up, frightened by the sudden siren. Some soldiers all took off running, probably to their duty posts in a situation like this. The two holding Barret looked at each other, but didn't move.

"What's this?" asked the lady in red, looking at the swirling magic around her.

"Your death," Susan couldn't help but say, completing the spell. " _Transposition."_

Of course the universe chose that moment to make her check the worst possible, while Scarlet's check was almost the best possible. Susan couldn't have that, so she spent 1 XP to succeed, having gotten an _XP Bonus_ card before this began. Tifa and Scarlet switched places.

 _Honestly, it was my own fault. I should have put extra energy in. Two more would have done it. Oh well._

"What?" exclaimed Tifa. The guards raised their guns, as Susan suddenly became visible.

 _Let it not be said I don't learn from my mistakes. "Immobilize!"_ she cast on the two of them, using 6 energy this time. Both failed their checks to break free, and Susan realized these people couldn't actually spend energy on stats like she could. Because you can't spend what you don't have! (Credit cards not withstanding) _And that woman in red rolled that high regardless? Figures._

"What's going on?" asked Barret, as the two struggled to escape their bonds they suddenly found wrapped around them.

"We're getting out of here, is what's going on," she replied, running over to him. She drew her _Alleviation_ knife and cut his ropes, not having to worry about cutting him with it. Soon he was free and Cait Sith ran over to them.

"Come on, the Highwind is waiting!" he said, struggling out of his odd disguise.

"You all planned this?" asked Tifa, eyes wide.

"No time to talk, let's go!" Susan and the others made for the door, but Susan stopped as she got there. " _Somnolent Smog,"_ she cast on the middle of the room, causing the two soldiers to fall asleep. She released their bonds.

"Now they won't remember what you guys said, and I don't have to maintain the _Immobilize._ Come on!" _At least, I hope it works for them like it does for me._ Suddenly she had a thought. _I hope that wasn't real poison gas they were using. I would hate to have just killed that woman by accident._

Tifa saw her looking back at the room.

"The guard dropped the key, I was just reaching for it with my foot when I got switched for her. She'll get it and be fine."

"Oh, okay."

Even as they stepped out of the room, they all heard the sound of the cannon firing, and smaller guns opened up as well.

"Wait, _Weapon_ is actually attacking?" Susan shrieked. "I thought it was just a trick to lure the soldiers away!"

"I guess not. Come on," said Cait Sith, "airfield is this way." He took off as best he could with those huge feet of his, and the others followed. They ran outside Junon, where Susan could see _Weapon_ rising out of the sea. It smashed into the place, and Susan almost fell over, but was steadied by Barret.

"Are those guns even doing anything to it?" she asked, looking up at them. "Because they don't seem to be."

"Worry about that later," said Barret, pushing Susan forward. "Let's just go if we're going."

Suddenly a reporter ran up to them. "Can you comment on this whole situation happening right now?"

"Yeah, it's bad news. Out of the way!"

"Don't get so upset. It's me! Yuffie!"

"Where've you been all this time?" demanded Susan.

"Hiding out. Not going to see the number one ninja from Wutai get captured, no sir. Glad to see you escaped. I was beginning to get worried."

"Yeah, about time, huh Susan?" Barret growled. "So much for our magical girl."

"I'll explain later. Come on!"

They ran away from the scene of the battle, leaving _Weapon_ to be shot point blank by the main cannon, and got away clean.

"Someone want to explain to me what's going on?" Barret demanded, once in the air and away from Junon.

"Sure," said Susan, looking around the ship. "This place have somewhere we can sit down?"

"War room over there," replied Cid, pointing.

"Let's go there. By the way, who's flying this thing?"

"Some people loyal to me, don't you worry."

"Okay."

They all sat, with Susan at the head of the table. "Basically, the president offered me a deal. _Someone_ who shall remain nameless told them about me, so he knew what I can do. He wants to take the barrier down, and asked me to provide him a _Teleportal_ to get the cannon blast a bit closer to the barrier for maximum effect. I told him fine, but my friends walk. He held up his end of the bargain, and threw in the Highwind to boot. Clear?"

"You saying president Shinra himself let us go?"

"Why do you think there were so few guards? He didn't want his people being killed, and I agreed. Seems like enough are getting killed by _Weapon_ already, they don't need our help."

"But why?" asked Tifa. "We're terrorists!"

"You were. Now you're the only people with the strength and knowledge of what's really going on that might have a chance to actually do something about it. He's not stupid, he sees the signs. Maybe it's only self preservation, but you saw _Weapon_. You saw the news reports, right? Wherever that creature goes, Shinra is there to beat it back from populated areas. That's raising public opinion to an all time high. People are scared. I mean look at that hunk of rock in the sky!" She pointed, but they were all inside and couldn't see it. "Every day it gets a little closer. People need hope right now."

"And you guys are capable," agreed Cait Sith. "I've seen that again and again in my travels. I mean you have Yuffie."

"What? Me? I mean, yeah, that's right."

Everyone laughed a bit.

"Okay, I guess it makes sense. So, do we technically work for Shina now? Dang, that's not going down easy."

"Hey, technically we stole this airship. It's ours now. They won't be coming after it, at least until the planet is safe. We're still outlaws, just... outlaws they don't chase around any more. At least as long as you guys don't do anything dumb, like blow up more reactors."

"Nah, I can see that won't work, long term. Shinra has to change from the inside. Maybe this is the start. You believed the president?" he asked Susan.

She nodded. "Especially at the end, when I had anti-lying magic going. He told me the truth in what he was saying."

"Guess I'll put my trust in you."

"Thanks, Barret. The question now becomes, what's our next step?"

Everyone looked around.

"If Cloud were here, he would know."

"And there it is," said Susan, popping her book out. "Let's find out if Cloud is still alive, and if so, where he is."

"You can tell?"

"My magic might be able to. Only takes a few minutes, let's ask."

So Susan cast _Question_ from writing, and got back a "yes" answer to the question "Does Cloud still live." Everyone seemed glad of that. She then asked a second question, which was a little bit more unclear. "Where is Cloud currently?"

" _Lifestream_."

"Oh great, he's physically in the _Lifestream?_ What's that going to do to him?"

Everyone shook their heads. "I don't think tests have even been done, immersing someone in pure _Lifestream_ energy," said Cid. "It's too hard to capture and control. It goes into reactors, yes, but unless processed rapidly, it sort of evaporates when cut off from the main stream."

"Sorry I can't narrow it down a little more," apologized Susan. "But he's alive, and that's the important thing. Perhaps he'll wash up somewhere, and if we keep checking, we'll snag his location soon."

"I hope so. What do we do in the meantime?"

"Level up?" suggested Cid.

" _Materia_ hunt!"suggested Yuffie.

"Hunt for Huge _Materia_?" suggested Cait Sith.

"Okay, that's two votes for _Materia,"_ said Susan. "And I'll admit the stuff is useful, but can't you just buy the stuff in shops? And what's Huge _Materia?"_

"Ho, ho, ho!" said Yuffie. "You think the stuff in shops is the be all and end all of the _Materia_ line? No, sir. When you're a _Materia_ hunter like me, you hear rumors. Like people going to remote locations and finding some special stuff that never gets out of their hands. I'm talking premium stuff, here, like you've never seen. But this Huge _Materia_ interests me as well."

"It should. It's something Shinra has been working on making for some time. Given that you guys need all the help you can get, my boss has given me permission to let you know where they are. You'll have to steal it, I guess, but that's better than nothing?"

"We get made into the bad guys again? Why?" demanded Barret.

"Yeah, it doesn't do them any good to look foolish as we steal stuff out from under them."

"No, no, you don't get it. It's top secret stuff. Even those that transport it don't know what they're transporting. We would be stealing a black box, basically, and it wouldn't be publicized that it was missing. It's not supposed to exist, you see."

"He really is giving us all the tools he can, isn't he?" remarked Susan.

"Hey, it's our world too. Just let us know when you want to make a move against it, and we'll get it ready for transport. That'll be your cue to get in there and swipe it. There's four in total, so it'll take a while to get them all under our control."

"Okay. Any other suggestions?"

"When did this become a democracy? We need a leader!" said Barret.

"Whatever," replied Susan. "If there's something important someone needs to do, I'm giving them a chance to speak up. I want to explore this world more, so I can open _Teleportals_ to more locations. If that coincides with hunting _Materia,_ large or small, I'm up for it. Of course I want that training Yuffie promised me, and finding better weapons might not be amiss. Aerith, you're pretty quiet, what do you want to do?"

"Find Cloud, but we can't yet. Apart from that, _Materia_ is power for us. With how powerful Sephiroth is just by himself, I don't think we can ignore any avenue that helps us beat him. Getting stronger and finding _Materia,_ that's my vote."

"Woo hoo, you're the best, Aerith!" gushed Yuffie.

"Any other votes?"

"Weapons are good," said Vincent. "Killing monsters to raise our _Limit Break_ level. Getting stronger. I don't see anything wrong with that. According to what I was told, we're kind of on hold until that barrier is down, right? And the barrier won't come down until the cannon is moved. I heard weeks, at best."

"That's what I heard. I just hope that meteor isn't traveling very fast, and takes a few months to get here. Luckily space is pretty big, so that shouldn't be too much of a concern."

"From what I've observed," spoke up Sparkle, "great events in the world tend to happen when dramatically appropriate. Consider our recent escape. That _Weapon_ could have attacked that city at any time in the last week. But the day Tifa wakes up and the plan to get us out of there goes off, that's when it decides is the best time? Really? And us arriving just in the nick of time to save Aerith? Us running into Hiraga in the last world, just as we both transited? I don't think we have to worry. Meteor will fall, but only as fast as it needs to in order to give us time to prepare and take action against it. Mark my words. I even have a name for the phenomenon that I made up: _Narrative's Imperative._ "

The others looked at her, then back at Susan.

"Catchy. Technically, she's been traveling worlds longer than I have. If she's noticed something like that, it's probably true. I'll have to keep an eye out for that."

"Somehow that statement just seems so wrong on so many levels. Yet I find I can't think of a good counter example. Anyway, is it possible to do all this stuff at once? Is there a place we can go to get stronger and search for _Materia?"_

"Why would we have to do all this as a group? We can drop some people off in a good area to slaughter monsters, while us _Materia_ hunters scour the world."

"What? Break up the party? Madness!" said Vincent.

"It won't work?"

"No, it's so crazy it just might work. Only three can participate in combat, and we have just about enough members for three groups. There must be a map around here someplace, let's look for an area with some high XP creatures to kill, and anyone who wants to get stronger can come with me."

"I'm going with Vincent!" said Aerith immediately.

"Really?" he said, a bit shocked. "I mean, of course! You're welcome to. Who else?"

"I'll go with you," said Tifa. "I need to get stronger if I'm going to keep up with Cloud when we find him."

"Vincent, you lucky dog!" said Susan, bumping him with an elbow. "Having two beautiful girls at your side as you roam the land, destroying all creatures in sight. How did you manage it?"

"Clean living," he deadpanned.

"I'm with my living _Materia_ detector, I mean good buddy Susan!" said Yuffie, linking arms.

"And I'll need to stick around to help fly the Highwind," said Cid.

"I'm no help finding Materia," said Barret. "That leaves Cait Sith and Na with me. What to you guys want to do?"

"I suppose you're not one much for research, either?" asked Na.

"Not especially."

Na shook his head. "I guess Cosmo Canyon is out. There is a wealth of information there, but pouring through it to find what's relevant, that's the key."

"Do it yourself!"

He tried to stand on his hind paws, holding his front paws up for inspection. "No thumbs."

"Ah, always some excuse. Hey Cait Sith, where's these Huge _Materia_ you talked about?"

"Let's see, there's one in an underwater reactor off Junon. One in the Condor Fort reactor. The Corel Mountain reaction made one-"

"Corel? We're heading there! That's my hometown, I know it best."

"Okay, I'll give Shinra the word. It'll be ready to move within the hour."

"Drop us off a little ways away then, we'll take the rest of the journey on foot, rack up some XP in the bargain. Like Cloud said, we did miss some with Susan moving us about before."

"Sounds like we have our plan," said Vincent. "Keep in touch."

"Yeah, if you run into trouble, I can reach you guys pretty quickly, so keep that in mind."

Everyone nodded, and Cid told the pilot where they wanted to go. With the groups dropped off, Yuffie could barely contain herself, bouncing in place.

"Where shall we start looking first?"

"You're asking me? Most of this world I've never seen, you know."

"Come on, I'll get the maps," said Cid, turning to head back to the operation's room.

"Wait a second," said Susan, putting up a hand. "When you're looking for something, it's best to start with the easiest place first."

"What do you mean?" asked Yuffie.

"We're going shopping!"


	37. Chapter 37

37

It's a _Materia_ _ **l**_ world

Time: Ten minutes later

Place: Costa Del Sol

Susan stepped from the Highwind onto the sandy beach of Costa Del Sol and fell in love.

With all the scantly clad women splashing around in tiny bathing suits.

In reality, she did fall in love, with the place. They had chosen it because it was near to Corel, where they had dropped off Barret, and Yuffie said she knew the owner of the _Materia_ shop. She had worked there some time ago, the first time they had come to the town. Figuring they might get a better answer from an acquaintance, Susan agreed, and Cid had parked the Highwind and told them to go ahead. He was going to stay with the ship and look it over, make sure everything was in place. Arm in arm, the two girls nearly ran to the beach, taking in the sights.

It was sunny, warm, sandy, kids were playing, people were having fun... "This is more like it!" she exclaimed. "Forget ice and snow, why can't Sephiroth come here so we can beat him and work on our tans at the same time?"

"Yeah, he's so inconsiderate," agreed Yuffie. "Come on, _Materia_ shop is over there."

She pointed to a man standing behind a table, parked next to a yellow van. There was a blue and white striped awning keeping the sun off him, and he was totally not dressed for the weather. Of course, he was balding, pudgy, and sweating, and nobody wants to see any more of that than they have to.

"Good day, sir!" she said brightly, stepping up to the man.

"Hello, miss. How can I help you today?"

"I wish to purchase some _Materia,_ and I'm looking to spend a bit of money."

Even as she spoke, the amount of _Gil_ the party had available was going up. With two groups currently wandering the world in search of monsters to kill, and killing said monsters, their money and item totals were steadily being raised.

"Take a look at what I have," said the man, bringing out a long wooden case with a glass panel in the top. Inside she could see six Green _Materia_ and each was labeled. "Fire, Ice, Lighting, Earth, Gravity, Poison." "You don't even have to spend a lot, they're current industry pricing for this type."

"Ah, yes, so I see." Each little card had the price next to it, from 600 to 8000 _Gil_ for the Gravity one. "But I think you don't properly take my meaning. I'm looking to spend a bit more than even that." She pointed to the most expensive one and winked conspiratorially.

"Uh, I'm still not sure what you mean, I'm afraid."

"I mean I want your premium stuff. The stuff for the most discerning customers. The stuff in the back room. The hush-hush stuff. Stop me any time."

"This is my entire current stock, there is no more."

"That always bothered me," said Yuffie, stepping up. "Even when I was working here. He's telling the truth. He can sell you a hundred Fire _Materia_ but not a single _Steal Materia._ Why is that?"

"I sell what I sell, there's no conspiracy behind it," he said with a forced laugh.

"Come now, you buy _Materia_ as well, don't you?" asked Yuffie.

"You know we do."

"So where does it go? Are you telling me not a single person in the last month has sold you a _Materia_ that's had some growth? You pay enough for them, I figure you would want to resell them and double your money. That is how the industry works, right? You buy at half cost, sell at full cost? We want to see those, so get them out! You must have _one!_ Or other magic apart from this junk we already have tons of!" She waved a hand dismissively.

"I... only sell what you see before you! I guess it's just bad luck you've come when I don't have anything else." The man seemed clearly agitated now, eyes darting about and mopping his brow. "Yes, bad luck, nothing else."

"I don't buy it," said Yuffie, turning to Susan. "I've never thought about it before, but every store in every town we've ever visited only sells a couple of different _Materia._ And they always have exactly zero AP. You would think you would get them in all ranges, as people buy and sell them. I mean we're willing to pay more for one we don't have to raise as far, but apparently we can't buy anything like that? Even if we're willing to spend more. Because ones sold in shops always start at zero. Can you tell me why that is, Mr. Shopkeeper?"

The man gave a quick shake of his head and took a step backwards, almost seeming terrified now. "Please, I can't say more. If I don't have what you want I'm sorry, but that's the end of it. Now please go away!"

"Very well," said Susan, with a shake of her head. "We just want to give you money, but if you can't take it..."

Both girls turned and walked away, but Sparkle stayed a moment more, looking up at the man. When the two were a fair distance away he dashed into his van and started punching numbers into his phone, which he nearly dropped several times because his hands were shaking so badly.

 _Curious,_ thought Sparkle, turning and padding after Susan. _Very curious._

The pair checked out the other shops (including the rather depressed looking fellow selling armor inside the bar, of all places) and went down the steps to check out the beach.

"We really should get going," said Susan. "We can enjoy this place when the planet is safe."

"I know," sighed Yuffie. "I didn't get to be the number one ninja by slacking off." Susan didn't need _Detect Lies_ to tell that neither part of that statement might not exactly be the truth. "When do I get to slack off?"

"When you're eighty?"

"How will I enjoy it then, I'll be too old to enjoy it!"

"I wish I knew, Yuffie. Come on."

They boarded the Highwind again, to find Cid examining the control panel.

"You weren't gone long!"

"Not for lack of trying. Hey, have you ever seen a shop that sold anything but zero AP _Materia?"_ asked Susan.

Cid scratched his head. "Now that you mention it, probably not. Never thought about it before, really."

"No, and the man behind the counter seemed very upset that we did. Well, can we get in the air again?"

"Sure, we're already ready for takeoff. Where to now, ladies?"

"Yeah, we checked the easy one, now what about the less than easy one?" asked Yuffie.

Susan flashed a smile. "I can afford to be a bit wasteful with my energy, now that we're not getting into a million combats. I'm going up on deck, just fly to sites that are isolated and look like good spots for _Materia_ to have grown. Hardened? Coalesced? Whatever it is that _Lifestream_ does to make this stuff."

"That's easy enough, but what are you going to be doing?"

"Me?" Susan tried to look innocent. "Cheating, of course."

Susan had Sparkle put _Energetic Accumulation_ on her, then gathered 30 energy. This left her with little more than half, but like she said, it wasn't too much of a concern. That done, she used the entire shot on _Augment Skill: Spirit Sense,_ grating her a total rating of 38. This gave her a range on making _Spirit Sense_ checks from thirty nine to forty eight. As a check of 30 was considered "nearly impossible" she felt she was in good shape. She requested the magic until their hunt for _Materia_ was over for the day, and sat on the deck, feeling the energy of the world flow beneath her.

And so flew the Highwind. Cid checked his maps, hovering the ship over mountains, valleys, islands, and plains. With her energy senses far in access of any human before her, she could feel even the black energy of the Northern Crater, thousands of miles away from it. She found she could point to it with her eyes closed no matter where they were. She could feel lines of energy encircling the world, and in those remote places where there was no life- a tiny spark. For one she had to slip into the water and do a bit of swimming, as the Highwind couldn't land directly near the island where she felt the spark. She climbed up on the beach and headed inside, pulling a Blue _Materia_ out for her own.

For the second she had to fly, the cave where she felt the spark was inaccessible as it was surrounded by mountains and water. So as the Highwind hovered above, she dropped out of the sky and pulled a Yellow _Materia_ from the ground.

And for the third she swam a small river, to another cave surrounded by desert on one side, and high mountains on the other. From there she pulled a Pink _Materia,_ and fairly shoved it into the waiting hands of Yuffie to get rid of it.

"Careful, they can break you know!" she chided, looking it over.

"Sorry, but that one I must never, ever touch again."

"Why? Oh, it seems to switch your MP and your HP. That's... odd."

"You're telling me. I don't _have_ MP, so I have no clue what it would do. Maybe kill me?"

"Oh my gosh, you're right. It just might. Okay, into inventory it goes. How do we decide who gets the other two?" She pulled them out and seemed to balance them between her hands.

"Yellow is best for me, actually, and that one seems particularly suited for me," said Susan, taking it. "If I'm understanding this correctly, whatever someone last did near me, the user of this does that again? I could actually contribute a little more to combat, if I used it right after someone used your kind of magic."

"True." She sighed. "And I suppose Vincent will want this one. Imagine using his Lightning combo four times in row!"

"Imagine doing it eight times, if I _Mimic_ it!"

"Oh yeah, you're right. Nice."

"Of course I think he would have to give up his linked All, because it won't hit all enemies four times. I guess for bosses though, it can't be beat."

"You got that right."

"So are we done for today, ladies?" asked Cid. "It's been hours, the others will want to eat soon, and while we've been racing across the globe, we will need to rest soon. We can make the sun be in the sky wherever we want, but we still have to sleep."

"True. Very well. Captain, let us away to find our companions, and hear the valiant tales of their bravery this day!"

Yuffie laughed. "And don't forget, they will need to hear our story as well, faithful companion!"

"Indeed, faithful companion!"

"To wing!" she shouted, pointing.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

So the Highwind picked up both groups, Vincent's group first. He was indeed quite pleased with the new acquisition. "In fact, I may use it all the time," he said, seeming to weigh his options. "We don't run into very large groups very often, where All is best suited. If I can cast once, get MP, HP, and Attack four times per casting... no sorry, that would be one regular attack at the end. Still... having four chances to get MP/HP back? I'm sold. Thanks." He slipped in into his armor and went to settle in while the Highwind traveled to Corel.

"Glad it can help. And Aerith seems quite pleased with herself. Did this little kitty catch a canary?"

"Even better. Vincent loaned me his shotgun. I might give up attacking with the staff and switch to guns."

"Can't beat a shotgun!" Vincent called behind him.

"What's wrong with the staff?" asked Yuffie. "Bonk! I love that sound it makes when you hit something, Aerith. Bonk!"

"That's just it. Take a look at the staff I've been using."

"Okay?" She got it out and looked it over. "Good number of linked slots on this..."

"Sure, but the attack is hardly above fifty. Vincent's Lariat does twelve more, and I have a better chance of hitting with it!"

"That's true. Doesn't the staff raise your Spirit and Vitality?"

"Like that matters."

"Yeah, what do those stats even do, anyway?"

The others shrugged.

"In any case," she said, taking the staff back. "I can also attack from the back row, keeping me safer. It's just a smart move."

"I approve," said Susan. "If you can handle the shotgun, do it. Wait, different staves have different attack? Okay, Sparkle, explain that one. One staff can't be sharper then another, they're all blunt weapons!"

"Weights in the top? I don't know."

"Uh huh. Damage dealing is weird wherever you go, I guess. Shall we head to Corel?"

The group found a small celebration going, centered around Barret.

"Good day, Barret?" Susan asked, looking around the town. Booze seemed to feature predominately.

"Very good!" he exclaimed. "I got the you-know-what, and saved the whole dang town in the process. See that train over there?"

Susan looked, and there were the remains of a train, lying on its side, close to the tracks. "I see it."

"Didn't quite know how to slow it down, so I threw a bunch of grenades under it and blew it off the track. How about that?"

"Good thinking. Dangerous, but good thinking. Or do you people not take damage from falls? Anyway, we're here to pick you up, and we have news! Unless you want to stay the night?"

"Nah, too much celebrating isn't good for you. I'm leaving, everybody! Off to save some more towns, you know?" The people around cheered and toasted him, and the full group was back together.

Susan told them what she had been told by the shopkeeper, and everyone agreed it was probably worth looking into. Sometime, when things weren't so messed up with the world, of course.

With that done, they ate, and Susan finally got her lesson in beginners Ninjutsu from Yuffie. By having a teacher she could spend double on it, and as her REAson allowed her to spend a little more than one XP a day, double that was the two XP she needed to get a one rating in a martial art. She took the two from her _Disguise_ skill, as she wasn't really doing makeup that often now. (And if she did need to do it, that's what _Augment Skill_ was for, right?)

She also, that night, set the _Mimic Materia_ on her book and told it to figure how to replicate it, which it did. In the morning she had a brand new spell of _Emulation,_ from Saturn. It was grade 7, and had some limitations, but Susan hoped to raise this one and make it split, so she could have the "baby." _On second thought, I'll take the mastered one. If I leave them the baby, they can easily make another. If I take the one that's split, it won't split again and they'll be stuck._

The next day, Susan spent the morning with the "leveling" group, getting some "fake" XP and putting some AP into _Mimic._ She had a double AP armor equipped, which her book didn't actually detail. (As only this world had that specific method of doing things) She still felt it was going to take a depressingly long time to raise, but she did have fun doing whatever it was the others were doing, and with Vincent's nearly unlimited MP, they cut a swath across the landscape such as never had been seen before. (Not that it mattered, monsters seemed to exist in unlimited numbers in each area.)

In the afternoon they flew about to various towns, letting Susan see them in case she had to return to one in a hurry. They checked out the shops, bought some stuff with their new _Gil,_ and Susan ignored the dirty looks she got from _Materia_ shop owners and tried to see about getting more information. She tried both _Seduction_ and _Persuasion_ checks under _Augment Skill_ , both higher than normal (but not near the 30s like before). And she _still_ got nowhere. In fact she swore a shop owner she had never, never seen before actually told her he was completely out of stock when she asked.

She went back in, _Shape-shifted_ into someone completely different, and he had plenty of stock to show that girl. _But none for Susan, the Inquisitive Girl. Why is that, do we think?_

She continued that evening getting some lessons from Yuffie, who seemed rather pleased to have someone to teach. The night before she had been rather show-offy, (Susan didn't care, she was show-offy too. It was just having a teacher that mattered so she could "officially" put the skill down on her sheet and give it the one rating.) She couldn't raise it to two (which cost four) until the next night, but she appreciated Yuffie's commitment to the team. She even showed Tifa some things, as it seemed she had learned a different martial art growing up and was eager to compare them.

Why the men of the group suddenly seemed interested in also being on deck as the three girls jumped around, getting all sweaty and putting each other in throws and such was a mystery. (Okay, that's a lie, it's no mystery at all.) Susan even invited Aerith to change and join them, but she said she would be sticking to guns from now on, thank you very much.

"And quite sensibly, too," said Vincent. "All that rushing about seems rather exhausting. Magic and guns- that's really all you need."

"You don't know what you're missing!" said Yuffie, who was positively beaming. "Come on, Susan, you can get that leg up a little higher on the kick! Come on, stretch!"

The next day Susan dutifully asked her _Question_ of where Cloud was, and to her surprise, got a different answer than _Lifestream._

"Anyone know where the town of Mideel is?" she asked.

"Sort of on an island, pretty far south. Why?"

"Let's go there, I have a good feeling."

Tifa bowled her over, running from nowhere. "Did you find him? Did you find him?" she was saying, grabbing Susan's shoulders.

"And what shall we have for breakfast today, do you think? Or would you like to wait and have it with Cloud?"

Tifa gave a whoop of joy, hugged Susan tight, and ran to the cockpit to watch the approach.

"I guess that's a yes?"


	38. Chapter 38

38

Work / Time

Time: About a half hour later

Place: Mideel "hospital"

"Please tell me you can cure him!" Tifa pleaded, as Susan and Aerith crowded around the catatonic form of Cloud. As her magic had told her, he had washed up that morning on the shores of Mideel, and brought into the ramshackle village. Apparently it was a "hot springs town" and many people of advanced age stayed there. Hence the need for a lot of medical staff in a world of cure potions and recovery magic. The town itself was pretty tropical, and the local architecture reflected that. Plain, wooden buildings seemed the norm here, worked into the greenery as though they had all grown up together.

"I'm not sure there is a cure," said the doctor from the other room. "Except time."

"Wasn't talking to you," Tifa muttered.

"Shove over," said Susan, and Tifa made room for her. Susan took Cloud's hands in hers, and he responded by drooling a bit and looking around with unfocused eyes. She made several _Sense_ checks, from _Magic_ to _Spirit,_ and she didn't like what she discovered. She got an eleven on magic sense, but only a four on _Spirit,_ her current rating of two not very helpful. Her nine was a bit more useful when she tried again, enough to know something weird was now going on with his biology.

"I'm surprised he isn't glowing, all the life energy he absorbed," she began. "Even with a nine I can feel it. It's like a million different _Materia_ all tried to crowd inside his brain at once."

"Did someone mention _Materia?"_ shouted a voice from outside.

"Not now, Yuffie!"

"Sorry!"

"As I was saying. He actually fell into the _Lifestream._ Imagine what that must be like- it's not air, so you can't breathe. But it's not really liquid, though it has some liquid like properties if it can well up out of the ground. It gets in your lungs and you think you're going to die... but you can't. It's literally life energy. It will not allow you to die. Even a man like this, a soldier, floating there, lungs burning, well, it didn't help the situation any, let's put it that way."

"You can feel that?"

"I feel a combination of the weird sort of magical energy that happens when you use _Materia,_ and him being suffused with a weird sort of analog to what I call _Spirit Energy_ now. First step in any sort of recovery for him is somehow purging that energy from his system. The magical energy is actually really easy. I drop _Dead Magic_ on the whole place and it vanishes like it never was. The life energy, well, I don't want to kill him, so taking that out will be a little more tricky. Too much and I might grab his own soul. Too little and I might as well not bother at all."

"But possible?"

"I think so. I have a spell to transfer _Spirit Energy_ from those that have it to myself. So I know it can transfer various energies around. Now, I don't want to directly take this energy into myself because it's not exactly _Spirit Energy_ and it's not exactly whatever MP is. That's why it's hurting him. If I take it on, he might get a little better but I would get a lot worse. And there's no one that can do the same for me. So I'm going to leave my book with him, and tell it to come up with a spell that can transfer that energy into a suitable vessel. One which I think we already have taken possession of."

"Huge _Materia!"_

"Did someone-"

"Not now, Yuffie!" both shouted.

"Sorry!"

"You're right though. It's the closest thing to this energy you've got. And being Big McLarge Huge _Materia_ it should hold the energy just fine without blowing the crystal to bits."

"Maybe we should get the others, just in case," suggested Aerith. "I mean, is this why there's four of them? Are we going to need four? I mean why would there be four if we didn't need four, right? What did Sparkle call it?"

"Narrative Imperative. It is suspicious, us learning of the Big M word just before finding him. And needing a vessel to draw the energy away from him?"

"What if you weren't here, though?" asked Aerith. "How would he have cured him then?"

"Maybe you wouldn't have. After all, if I wasn't here, you wouldn't be here to ask the question of how they would have cured him if I wasn't here."

"Buh?" asked Cloud, staring past Susan at something only he could see.

"My thoughts exactly," agreed Aerith.

"This energy will probably drain away by itself, but I have no idea how long that could take. I mean maybe you could 'ground' him in some way, pull it off that way? You guys have more of an understanding of Mako than I do. At least, maybe Shnira scientists do. Maybe they could take that energy and turn it into electricity, with whatever process they have? Pulling it out of a living body must be different than sucking it directly out of the ground though."

"Months to years," said the doctor, poking his head through. "To drain off naturally, I mean. Mako poisoning is bad enough, this is an extreme case. Worst I've ever seen, or heard about."

Susan snorted. "If only it was poison. That we could deal with. It's this energy that's scrambling his brains, no doubt."

"Could you hit him with that knife of yours? Maybe it'll work!" suggested Tifa.

Susan shook her head. "I've always been cautious mixing different types of magic. I once prevented someone from talking about something, then someone else magically tried to force them to talk about that thing. She nearly died. That was a poison, to my magic, so the knife worked. Plus it's the magic component of this condition that's the easy part. Like I said, destroy all magic in this area for a few seconds and it's gone too."

"So why would using your magic to pull the energy out not have some complication?" asked Aerith.

"It could, but he really can't get worse. And once that energy is gone, I can heal him normally. The spell puts things back the way they were before being hurt or damaged. It wasn't meant to purge _Lifestream_ energy out of somebody. They don't have that where we come from. That's why I need a new spell, the sensors in my book can hopefully provide something that won't interact badly with the energy, and just draw it out."

"Do whatever you have to do," said Tifa. "Just get him back for me."

"You really like him, don't you?"

She nodded. "I always did, since we were little."

"Aw!" Susan and Aerith both clasped their hands and tilted their heads. She gave them a dark look. Susan and Aerith looked at each other and laughed.

"Wha?" put in Cloud.

"You got it, Cloud. You're one lucky fellow, you know that?" Susan stage whispered. "Her boobs are enormous!"

"Can we get on with this?" Tifa snapped.

"Sure thing!" said Susan, drawing her book out of the sub-space pocket. Naturally the _Pocket Dimension_ was just as easy to keep it in, there was no danger of it being locked out in this world. It just didn't cost her any energy, and looked cooler to pull it out of nowhere. She stuck the book by his leg, shoving it to one side. The gems lit up. "Now, bring me the crystal!" She pressed her fingertips together rapidly. "The _Materia_ crystal!"

She waited, her fingers stopped.

"The _Materia_ crystal!" she said louder, her fingers moving even faster.

She waited.

She went to the door, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"THE MATERAIA CRYSTAL!"

Several of the people nearby looked at her strangely.

 _"What?"_ shouted Yuffie, sticking her head out of a nearby building. "You have to see this baby Chocobo! He's sooooo cute!"

Susan heaved a great sigh. "I'll just get it myself, shall I?" She went to the Highwind and got the _Huge Materia_ out, then brought it back. She stuck it next to the book, so it was touching both him and the crystal. "Find a way to draw the _Lifestream_ energy out of this person and drain it into this or similar crystals," she told it.

"And now we wait," said Aerith.

"Wait, and go see a cute Chocobo chick apparently."

"I'll stay here," said Tifa. "I'll want to watch him."

Susan put a hand on her shoulder. "I know. He would surely do the same, if the situation was reversed. I'll come see if you need anything in a little while, okay?"

"Okay."

Susan and Aerith left, heading into town to see what it had to offer them. She was getting more used to the party just barging into places but it still seemed kind of weird to her.

 _Just don't get too used to it and start trying it on other worlds, I guess?_

She picked up a Crystal Sword, just because it looked so cool, like it had been cut from some kind of huge crystal. It had two less _Materia_ slots then the Enhance Sword the group had found at the Gaea area, and she wanted to keep raising stuff for them, so she wasn't using it. She stuck it into her own _Pocket Dimension,_ rather than the inventory.

She also picked up an "Amulet" which she considered a steal at 10,000 gill. It raised her LUCk by 10! That might be nothing to people who had maximum stats of 255 (Yuffie's luck was a 30 right now, while her strength was a 50) but for her, that was the maximum LUCk she could have, and then some. _Plus it's an Amulet, not a ring. I could wear it under my clothes and no one would even know._

She was going to buy a Wizard Bracelet, a low defense object that had eight linked slots, but she saw the group had one in inventory and figured she might just ask to have that one before she left. She didn't care about the "defense" value the thing had, but _Materia_ slots, that was something useful.

The _Materia_ shop owner eyed her suspiciously, but she let Aerith look the stock over and they only had five, nothing the group didn't already have in quantity.

They spent the night at the inn, and in the morning she went to see what the book had come up with.

"As expected," she told the others, having collected it and the _Huge Materia._ They were all sitting on the step outside the "hospital" building. "It's going to take all four to safely contain the energy currently in Cloud. The spell says each crystal can only hold a certain amount more, if the crystals are all similar. Given what I felt inside him, that's the safest route. I don't want to shove energy in there and then have it blow up in our faces.

"The grade 7 Pluto spell of _Lifestream Transfer_ can move the infecting energy between any two targets. Get this, it can actually drain energy out of a standard _Materia,_ in effect, transferring AP between two of them. It seems "AP" is actually a tiny amount of life force from the destroyed creature, captured upon killing them. Huh. That makes a tremendous amount of sense, actually. That's why it must be in your weapon or armor, to provide that channel. Just carrying it in your pocket isn't enough to level it." _Right, I should have guessed. Stuff like XP and MP are abstractions, even for me. I can't hold them, but something is behind it, it's not just a number. It's a way of representing something I've gained or lost. In this case,_ Materia _is crystalized_ Lifestream, _life energy, so it's probably attracted to itself. That "raises" the_ Materia _and when it can't hold any more, it either explodes or fissions. Luckily this world took the fission route, and a new_ Materia _is born. Neat. The "AP" is just a way of quantifying the level of energy inside the crystal, just like gas inside a gas tank. We could use numbers to represent it, but we usually use a gauge because that's easier to comprehend at a glance when driving._

"We'll try that first, I want to get a feel for the spell before we try it on a person."

"Good call," said Tifa. "Though I trust your magic."

"So do I, but casting a spell for the first time on a living person? Especially something untried like this? No thank you. So, if you have some _Materia_ you want brought back down to zero while another is raised, get it out. Maybe those _Earth_ ones you don't use anymore, shove their AP into the _Lighting_ ones you do?"

So Susan read the spell over, getting seventeen and fourteen on _Scripture_ and _Theory_ , respectively, both enough to understand the difficulty twelve spell. She then put the two in front of her (the range was (T)Special, meaning she had to be close enough to touch the subjects, but not actually touch them.) and spent a few minutes transferring "AP" out of the _Materia_ they no longer used.

As that worked perfectly, Susan was confident that with the four _Huge Materia,_ Cloud could be purged of the _Lifestream_ and his recovery could begin.

"The next one we should get is the Condor Reactor one," suggested Barret. "Shinra has been hitting that place off and on since we got out of Midgar. Once we take the _Materia_ out, there will be no more reason to attack it!"

"Not a problem," said Cait Sith, "I'll have the final attack force move in before noon. You can get there before then, right?"

"You better believe it, cat."

"Wait, attack force? I don't want to hurt any Shinra soldiers," protested Susan.

"Nah, nothing like that," said Cait Sith. "Shinra typically sends a bunch of monsters they've rounded up against the place."

"The first time we went there, we didn't have a lot of money," explained Aerith. "We did it the way the people holed up there suggested, getting different mercenaries to fight for us." She gave a great sigh. "They all got wiped out, and in the end, the boss monster rushed the place. We had to go ourselves and defeat it."

"Then the next time we went over there, we didn't bother with the mercenaries. Waste of money," further explained Barret. "We just rushed them ourselves. Why let them get all the money, XP and AP?"

Susan had to admit, that was a little silly. "So we'll just do the same now?"

"Darn right. Get them going, spy, we'll take off in a little while."

"If it's all the same to you, I'll stay here," said Tifa. "I want to make sure Cloud is all right."

"If you're staying, I'll stay," said Aerith.

Tifa didn't look overjoyed at this proclamation, but recognized her claim to be there.

 _And who will he be happier to see, when he finally is lucid again?_

The group ate a leisurely breakfast, and hopped in the Highwind to head to the reactor.

 _We just left the Highwind sitting there. Why don't monsters attack it? I mean they're roaming around, right? Even if we can't see them... and I still haven't figured out how that's supposed to make sense. What keeps them out of towns, for that matter?_

At the entrance to the resistance base carved into the rock, Susan looked at the thin rope the others wanted her to climb. _I don't actually have... wait a second._ She got out her character sheet, and yes, there was _Climbing_ in a skill group with _Catching_ and _Bicycle_ and _Gymnastics_. _Just found some more skills to cannibalize! I don't think I've ever used_ Catching _or_ Bicycle. _What was I thinking? Gymnastics might be useful, if I combined it with my martial arts._

She made her _Climbing_ check with a four, because she rolled absolute minimum, and got nowhere on her first attempt.

"Not a word," she said to her companions. She tried again, getting an eight but taking the -1 for retrying, but technically her difficulty was at a -1 for the rope, as she was technically climbing the rock face, not the rope itself. So it evened out in the end, and she scrambled up it.

Once inside, she looked around, even visiting the little rest area they had, with the save point near the beds she had been told about some time ago.

"You guys should save," she said, looking at it.

"You're right! Aerith isn't here, so I keep forgetting!" said Barret, going over to it. "Thanks!"

That done, the party was Barret, Na, and Vincent, as he still hadn't forgiven Yuffie. (And he wasn't going to use Cait Sith, are you crazy?) And Susan, of course.

She watched as the odd creatures walked or flew up the mountain, uncontested. Once they reached the shack they encircled it and the "boss," a Cmd. Grandhorn, came out, and the group rushed it. Na threw some _Meteors_ at it, with the Green _Materia_ of the same name, and Susan went back and forth Mimickingthat and Vincent's lighting blasts. In between, Barret shot it a bunch of times that was that, they got a new armor, the Imperial Guard, and 800 XP, 80 AP.

"Done!" said Barret, examining the armor. "Why did Shinra even bother?"

"Are you guys, and I hate to say this because coming from me you have no idea the irony value, but are you guys, I don't know, overleveled for all of this? To use your term, I mean."

"Maybe," said Barret, unconcerned. "Consider our opponent. We need to get stronger yet."

"Yeah, okay."

"It's a good cycle," explained Vincent. "Before we had the Highwind we walked everywhere. That gave us plenty of opportunity to fight things. That raised our level. It also gave us money, that we could use to buy better equipment. Also some monsters, like this one, drop or have better stuff we can _Steal._ That further increases our effectiveness. That lets us fight tougher stuff, getting us more money, letting us buy even better stuff."

"I see what you're saying. Man, the economy here must be really bizarre, if anyone can just walk around and make money beating up monsters that roam the countryside."

"Any case, let's grab the _Huge Materia_ and get on the next one. Cait Sith, what have we got left?"

"Junon and the one loaded onto the rocket."

"Rocket? What's this about a rocket?" demanded Cid.

"Yeah, to keep up appearances Shinra is going slam the rocket into Meteor. For good measure they've got a _Huge Materia,_ or to the press a "secret weapon" aboard. They calculated the mass of the thing, and there's not enough explosive power in the rocket fuel that will be left, but they have to be seen trying everything."

"We're going there next!" he decided.

Barret shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."

"I'll let them know you're coming."


	39. Chapter 39

39

Getting the last two

Time: About an hour later

Place: Heading into Rocket Town

"Still can't believe they had already taken the _Huge Materia_ out of the reactor. Half an hour scouring the place, and he had it all along!" Barret was fuming, stomping along with the others.

"At least we got a new Red _Materia,"_ said Yuffie, skipping along beside him. "And it seems super useful!"

"Yeah, yeah. I suppose if Shinra had taken it back, that would be the ultimate nose tweak. They get away with the prize and Shina gets nothing."

"What can we expect here?" Susan asked Cait Sith.

"Not much in the way of opposition, of course. I think one of the Turks is here overseeing things."

"Oh, them?" said Na. "They always seem to flee after we beat them up a little."

"Guess we don't have to hold back, then," said Barret, stroking his gun arm.

"That's why he was chosen for this mission," explained Cait Sith. "Don't want any pointless heroics now, do we?"

"We are letting them launch the rocket, though, right?" asked Cid, concerned.

"Sure, let Shinra put on their little play. Get rid of this rusty old tin can anyway."

"Hey, be careful how you talk about #26! It would have gone into space if it hadn't been for that idiot scientist Shera."

"Of all the words, of voice and pen, the saddest are 'it might have been,'" said Susan.

"Yeah, what do you know?"

She glared at him.

"Sorry, I'm just a little on edge right now. Ignore me."

"Done! Now come on, the rocket awaits."

Having climbed the rusting metal ladder to get into the rocket, the group had a fight with the Turk Rude, and Susan managed to steal a Ziedrich armor from him. He then got zapped a bunch of times and retreated.

"I don't think he's leveled up at all since we last fought," remarked Vincent. "Shame. The Turks had such promise in the beginning, too."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyone not going into space, better clear out of here. Go warn the townspeople this rocket's going to be taking off in a little while."

"Space is out of my radio range," said Cait Sith, "I'm staying."

"I'm keeping my paws on the ground," said Na.

"Space?" said Barret, backing away a step. "I'm not so sure about that."

"No _Materia_ in space, but once Susan leaves, I can claim to be the only woman ever who went. No one will be able to say different. I'm going."

"Are you sure this thing isn't just going to blow up on the ground?" asked Vincent.

"You think I would go inside if it was?"

"For the chance to get to space, maybe. I better come, just in case."

"That's settled then. Come on."

The group pilled in, and the others went to warn everyone away from the platform.

 _From what I know about rocket launches, which isn't much, don't you need like millions of gallons of water to keep the platform from just being vaporized? They dump it as the rockets fire, right? Of course they won't be using this one again, I guess..._

"Hey, captain!" said one of the men working in the control room. "About time you finally showed up."

"I wouldn't miss this, you know that. Gonna give that _Meteor_ what for, right?"

"That's right! Hey, do you know what they've loaded into the nose? That Turk guy wouldn't even tell us!"

"Ah, who knows what they've cooked up, right? Look, how's the rocket? Will it fly?"

"We've checked it over, and while it won't make two trips, it should make one. Don't worry, it'll make it."

"That's all I wanted to hear."

"Wait, you are going yourself, are you? That's suicide!"

"Not to worry, I'll bail before we get anywhere near that piece of rock. If there's a problem you'll need someone to correct it, and who better than me?"

The others agreed that was true enough.

"But what about them?"

"What about them? You let me worry about who I'm taking and get this rocket ready to lift off!"

"Yes sir!" They saluted and ran out of the place.

"Where are you all going?"

"It's done. If you're going to pilot it, we can launch any time," said one, turning back. "We'll get everything checked on the ground and make sure everyone is clear."

"Oh. Fine, get out of here. See you when we get back!"

With that, the rocket soon launched, but not before Susan put _Invulnerability_ on everyone so nobody blacked out during the assent. (Or if the thing blew up, they would all live through it.) There were no complications, and the group went up to see about getting the _Huge Materia_ before leaving.

"Looks like some kind of security system, but I don't know the code," said Cid. "Want to just try guessing it? There can't be more than thousands of combinations, given a four character PIN where each digit could be used independently of-"

While he had been talking, Susan cast _Retrieval_ and was looking the crystal over.

"Or, we could just do that. Come on, escape pod is this way."

"Wait, how long until we hit the _Meteor?"_

"Days, I suppose. Turns out space is really big!" He gave a hearty laugh.

"Great. Sparkle, I may need your energy."

"You've got it, but why?" she answered.

"We're going to leave _Meteor_ a little gift, since we're here. And make sure the impact is nice and spectacular for those on the ground."

Susan spent some time reading over _Solar Orb,_ getting a fifteen on _Scripture_ and eighteen on _Theory._ She then spent all the time she could casting _Spell Trigger_ and _Solar Orb_ into the room. She managed it about a dozen times, putting in a little extra energy each time and then taking some of Sparkle's to boot. Everywhere you looked the metal of the rocket's nose cone had brands on it, set to go off with the impact of the rocket against _Meteor._

"That should give everyone a light show they won't soon forget. Just one of those burns like the sun, and I've got this room laced with a dozen."

"You think it'll take out _Meteor_ by itself?" asked Cid.

"One can hope, but I guess we'll see."

While she had been working, a dull boom sounded beneath them, and the others ran down to see what it was. Apparently an oxygen tank had exploded, and it turned out Shera was aboard as well.

"You withstood those g-forces and didn't even have a padded chair or anything?" said Susan, when she was brought up. "You're one gutsy lady! Cid, marry her immediately."

"She's the only person who will be able to put with him," agreed Vincent.

"You are okay, right? I can heal you if you need it."

Shera shook her head. "I'm fine, but thanks for asking. Sorry I stowed away, but I had to make sure everything was perfect."

"Guess I owe you an apology," said Cid quietly. "That tank would have given us trouble all those years ago."

"Or not, it could have been the stress of age. We'll never know."

"Still... Aren't you done yet, Susan?"

"Just a couple more..."

And when it was done they all piled into the escape pod, Susan checked and yes, _Invulnerability_ was still there just in case, and Cid pressed the release button. The sphere was ejected and everyone in the pod enjoyed their first look at the stars without atmosphere in the way. The rocket was on course, and several days later impacted, blowing it half to bits with at least twelve OTR/HDL[10] _Solar Orbs._ It lit up the sky, temporality giving the planet two suns, but afterwords the _Meteor_ started piecing itself back together, as if by magic. Which it was. The Shinra corporation looked good, the group got the _Materia_ they wanted, everyone was happy.

Susan rested the rest of the day, having no source of energy to replenish her supply, and in the morning they went after the last _Huge Materia,_ kept in the underwater reactor off Junon.

Rather than fly back, Susan opened a _Teleportal_ back to the harbor town, and Cait Sith led them down to where the reactor was.

"Is it just me, or is there a lot less activity here?" asked Susan.

"Every pair of hands that's able is up working on getting the cannon ready for transport," he explained. "There's a lot to be done, and not a lot of time to do it in."

"Glad you can pal around with us then," said Barret sarcastically.

"You think I'm not doing my part? The Shinra are totally cooperating with you now, you know that, right? You won... without firing a shot. You want _Huge Materia,_ we're giving it to you. We're not trying to arrest you any more, despite knowing your every move. We gave you the Highwind. What more could you want?"

"Guess you're right. All it took was a crazy inter-dimensional threat and the looming extinction of the entire world."

"What's your point?"

"Never mind."

"Look, my job is to be the go between for you and the Shinra corporation. That's what I'm doing, and it's important work. The sooner we get Cloud fixed up the sooner you guys can move on. Susan will provide us the means to get the barrier down, and hopefully by that time you'll be ready to assault the crater with us. We all win, Barret. We know the cost of using Mako now, and we'll phase it out and come up with something else. Promise."

"And don't be too hard on Shinra," said Susan. "Most of this is the fault of The Darkness. We don't know how long it's been manipulating events here. If it hadn't done what it did, it would have done something else similar. Believe me."

"I guess we did win. All right, so where's this last _Materia?"_

"The reactor is this way."

The group went down an elevator that went underwater, and took a very beautiful tunnel to the reactor building itself. Susan and Yuffie both exclaimed over the dolphins that were swimming about, seemingly without a care.

"We aren't just fighting for us," she said, looking up at them. "We're fighting for all life on this planet. The Darkness will take their life energy just as readily as ours."

Throughout the tunnels down to this place there were still random encounters, just nothing alive. Weird, automated machines, mostly weak to lighting, tried to wear them down.

"I'm of two minds about this," said Vincent, blasting another group of automated Missile Launchers with Lit 2. "On the one hand, we can use the XP. On the other, they really made us slog through all this?"

"Probably no one thought to turn off the automatic defenses down here," apologized Cait Sith. "Sorry about that."

And there it was. Shafts of light piercing the murky water, looming in front of them like a castle was the Underwater Reactor. The group stepped up the door, and went inside.

Through the door two submarines sat in some kind of bay, a gaudy red one and a sleek gray one, both painted with the Shinra logo. A mechanical arm was heading across the bay, and Susan could see tiny people far below them, waiting for something.

The group ran past them, hardly bothering to look, but Cid seemed interested. "Marvelous engineering," he remarked. "Not as good as flying, moving about underwater, but I wouldn't mind seeing the inside of one."

"We'll get you the tour later," grumped Barret. "Come on."

"Better save," said Susan, pointing to the save point they came upon past the dock area. Everyone but Susan touched the glowing light, she had never gotten the hang of those things. _If they have to come back, they can just tell me what happened. It'll be fine._

Past some empty guard stations they came to the reactor itself, glowing with inner heat, as red energy and haze spewed out the top of it. The mechanical arm came into the room, and slowly went down into the top of the metal holding container.

"Nice of them to get it out for us," remarked Susan.

"Odd, no one said anything to me about it being removed," said Cait Sith. "Oh well."

They watched as the glow disappeared, and the _Huge Materia_ was lifted out, gears groaning. It started moving back off to the left.

"They'll probably give it to us at the docks," Cait Sith said, "let's head that way."

They did, and saw the arm being lowered into the red submarine.

"Are they giving us a sub too?" asked Vincent. "Hey, why is Reno here?"

Reno, one of the Turks, dressed rather sloppily with his shirt untucked, turned around.

"Thought you and the crew might show up. I don't know where you got the information on these, but I'm keeping this one from you."

"We need that!" protested Na. "Is Shinra betraying us now, at the very end?"

"What are you talking about, beast? I work for Shina, you do not. I don't know what your game is, but I'm ending it here."

"No, no, we're working together now!" protested Cait Sith, pushing to the front. "Didn't you get the memo?"

"What memo? Working with these guys? I don't buy it. What's your game, showing them top secret stuff like this?"

"It's all been cleared with Rufus, you have to believe me!"

"I don't have to do anything of the sort. I'm taking this _Materia_ with me, you people can play with our new toy instead." He snapped his fingers, and a lumbering, oddly shaped robot wobbled over them. It had three stubby legs, but shoulders that could raise to a great hight, and very long arms.

It advanced on the group, and the fighting team went into combat mode.

Susan won the _Initiative,_ despite not being _Accelerated,_ and having nothing to _Mimic_ yet, she went for _Sense._

"Twenty Four Thousand HP?" she shrieked, "how can that be fair?"

"We'll take it down," said Barret, "stay calm." He then put words to actions summoning Ramu, who called down lighting and blasted it.

Sparkle was up, and cast " _Elemental Line: Wind"_ in a straight line under the creature. As things they were battling didn't tend to go anywhere, even the minor damage it caused every round could add up. Normally she would have cast _Acceleration_ but she knew Cid had that covered, and he was up next.

Cid used the _Enemy Skill Materia_ to get them _Big Guard,_ which basically was their version of the spell, and it provided them a measure of protection for a little while.

Last to go was Vincent, who was now in his element. He blasted the thing with Lighting four times, then shot it once. One of the bolts hit an arm, which it seemed had HP apart from the main body. _Odd, that most things don't. How do they do that, anyway?_

Sadly it was now the armor's turn to go, and having nearly a half its HP blasted away put it in a sour mood. It plucked up Vincent from the field and started spinning with him, damaging him in the process. He was, for the moment, out of the fight.

" _Mimic_ it," said Cid, holding. "It's the only other time we'll have that to cast!"

"Right." Susan did, and another four bolts of electricity slammed into the creature. She also dashed forward to smack it with her sword, but the damage from that was not even worth calculating.

Cid then went, choosing _Trine_ from the _Enemy Skill,_ electrifying all three parts of the robot.

Barret took the simple expediency of shooting it again, as he knew it was now down to about 5000 HP.

Now Sparkle went again, and carefully considered. She tried _Destruction_ on the robot's hand, the one holding Vincent. She took the -3 for the "called shot" but the extra time knowing the robot wouldn't attack again until the finished her action. She got an eighteen, and in the _Combust_ rules it says "an object has an effective CON check of 5 + twice DTR" and as this robot's hand has a DTR of 5, she blew it into a fine powder, and Vincent was back on the field.

He shook his head. "Thanks!"

"No problem."

Cid hit it with _Trine_ again, then Barret delayed an action to allow Susan to _Mimic_ it, which finished it off.

"After that... oh." Susan pointed ahead as the world came back into focus, and the red sub was gone.

"Shoot! Now what?" asked Vincent, looking around.

"We go after them, of course. Sub can't be that hard to pilot, right? And there's one sitting right there. Let's go!"

The group ran for it, (stopping to pick up the Leviathan Scales they had laying around, and the Scimitar at the other end of the dock) where they boarded the sub. Cid jumped into the cockpit (or whatever it's called on a submarine like this) and started looking over the controls. The others took the Shinra soldiers inside hostage, and started tying them up.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," said Yuffie, already looking a little green. "Before we leave, can you put me back on the Highwind. At least it's grounded for the moment."

"Sure, I can't cure motion sickness," said Susan, opening up her _Teleportal._ "See you soon!"

"I better."

After a bit of a false start and some terrible scraping noises, Cid managed to get the sub underway. Susan slapped _Augment Skill (Pilot Sub?)_ on him but she wasn't sure if it worked out or not. He wasn't exactly trained for this, just using his domain knowledge of piloting "stuff" and figuring it out. But he chased the red sub down with the help of the others watching the sonar, and shot it down with torpedoes, which the sub seemed to have an unlimited amount of.

 _Why not, guns cause damage without bullets, why would a sub run out of the thing it can do damage with?_

Susan put on _Breathe Water_ and swam in through the hole in the side of the ship, then ran into a sealed door in the flooded compartment.

She shrugged, swam so her feet were touching the deck, and cast _Phase_ on herself. That done she walked through the door to where the unhappy looking crew of the sub were preparing to suffocate.

"Hello," she said cheerfully. "Would you like me to save your lives?"

"Uh, yes?" said a man in red. "But how? For that matter, how did you get in here?"

"Never mind that, my lad! You want out of here? I want you all blindfolded, now. Come on, there must be something around here we can use."

"No, captain, it must be some kind of trick!" said one of the soldiers. "She's going to blindfold us and then kill us somehow!"

"Sure, sure, that's a possibility. But riddle me this, batman..."

"How did you know my name was Batman?" asked one in a gravely voice.

"Shhh," said other.

"If I was confident enough to come in here, alone, do you think I would really need to rob you of sight for the one action it would take you to take it off if we went into combat?"

"I... guess not."

"Come on fellows, time is wasting and you're burning oxygen."

"All right, form up and everyone find something to tie around your eyes," shouted the captain. "I have no idea what's going on, maybe this is some kind of hallucination brought on by lack of air. But in case it's not, she's here so I'm inclined to believe her. We do what she says."

"Thank you, captain," said Susan sweetly.

"Look, you can do what you want to me. But spare my men."

"I intend to. Come on I don't have all day."

And so the crew put things over their eyes, which Susan inspected, then opened a _Teleportal_ in front of them. "Now walk and keep walking until I tell you to stop!" she commanded. The other end was back in the sub bay, maybe facing toward the wall, maybe facing towards the water? Yeah, it was the water. They shuffled forward, and when the last man was through she closed the portal before she could hear the yelp and splash as the first one fell into the water. (And her giggling, no longer kept in)

With that done, she opened the door, let the chamber flood, and swam through the wreck looking for the _Materia._ Once in hand she swam back out to the other sub, showed them she had it through the window (porthole?) and pointed up. They nodded, and Susan held on the sub bore her up and out of the water.

It was time to go cure Cloud!


	40. Chapter 40

40

Conspiracy to commit... keeping the world safe?

Time: About an hour later

Place: Mideel Hospital

The four _Huge Materia_ floated around Cloud as though attracted to the energy that was inside him, and Susan readied the new spell. She had already purged half of it, the magic half, using her gun's _Imbued_ spell of _Dead Magic._ Naturally the _Materia_ and anything else remotely magical was moved far away, but now everything was back to normal. Only Aerith and Tifa were in the room with her, quietly watching as she reviewed the spell in her mind.

"Okay," she announced, "let's do this."

She visualized the spell symbols and magic swirled around the four _Materia_ and Cloud. With a successful casting, energy shot out of him and into the crystals, each color going to the one it was most attracted to. He jerked upright as the energy burst forth from his chest, then sank back down and seemed to have gone to sleep.

"It's done," said Susan, getting absolute garbage on her _Spirit Sense_ check. (An eight) Still, enough to feel the energy around her, and by focusing her attention just on Cloud, ignoring the _Materia,_ she could tell he didn't have any trace of _Spirit Energy_ inside him. The doctor, not entirely approving this odd treatment, gave him a quick examination. Not any any gave her a bit of a panic for a moment, fearing he was dead, but she remembered these people didn't have energy, they had MP.

"Heart rate steady, it was quite erratic before. Good pulse. Blood pressure normal. I think he's just asleep. He hasn't been sleeping really, since he got here."

"Okay. I'll secure the _Huge Materia_ aboard the Highwind, and we can stay the night here. If he doesn't wake up normally tomorrow, I'll hit him with some healing magic and see what that does for him. If that doesn't work..."

"It will, I'm sure of it!" exclaimed Tifa.

Susan nodded, and started sticking the _Materia_ in her _Pocket Dimension_ to carry back to the ship. She didn't want them floating through town, after all. Sadly, she didn't notice the pair of eyes watching her as she did so, through a small gap in the wood that the house was made of.

Having nothing else to do, the group split up and wandered about outside, getting some XP. They had dinner, and again took rooms at the inn, as Cloud had yet to awaken. Susan had actually stepped through back to Aerith's house, and left the _Huge Materia_ in her basement for safekeeping. There was a safe down there she popped them into, having gotten the combination from _Question,_ one number at a time. That done, she came back and helped the others get XP.

That night, she awoke abruptly to find three men in the room with her, hard to see in the darkness because they were dressed head to toe in black. Their faces were obscured, and all held wicked looking weapons.

"Where is the _Materia?"_ demanded the closest one. "You said you were bringing it to your ship, and the ship did not leave. So they must be there!"

"Huh? What?" Susan wasn't quite awake yet, having to delay 2d10*3 segments (or 48 in this case, amounting to nearly 10 seconds) "What's this now?"

The men looked at each other, then back to her. "The _Materia._ Where?"

"I can tell you," said Sparkle, jumping up on the bed. "But first, who are you people?"

"What trick is this?" asked one, pointing at her. "That cat spoke!"

"Some kind of robot, pay it no mind. Where is the _Materia?"_

"Are you _sure_ you want to ignore me?" asked Sparkle. "Because if you do, you'll be sucking down _Somnolent Smog."_ She took the full time to cast, a whole 1.2 seconds, and put in the maximum energy she cloud with _Spirit Manipulation._ She got a sixteen, usually more than enough to put down an NPC, who can at best roll a fifteen because you can't put energy into CON. They had _Vitality_ and _Spirit,_ but not CONstitution.

After some thought, the Narrator decided they had a 6 CON, giving them a chance to overcome the spell. Look at that, two did, leaving one to thud to the floor, asleep. Of course Susan with her 4 CON also couldn't succeed, and fell back asleep.

 _Well, crap._

"It's actually alive," said the one man.

"Take it down, it must be using some strange _Materia_ to make this fog!"

 _Double crap._

Sparkle found herself in battle, facing the two warriors. She also lost the _Initiative_ somehow, the two men rolling higher than she did, leaving her third in the combat order. On the bright side, Susan was apparently there with her, weapon out. She still seemed to be asleep though.

 _Oh right, sleep is actually a status aliment in this world. And she is technically in my party..._

The other nice thing about this world was that Sparkle didn't take more damage from attacks here. Big or small, everything took damage based on the stats of the weapon and the person wielding it.

"Wind!" shouted the man, and she got knocked into by a wind attack, doing nine damage to her.

"Nine?" said the man next to him. "That can't be right."

"Who knows, just keep attacking!"

"Okay. Darkness!"

Again, she was slammed by an attack, this time for 6 damage.

 _Wait a second, what's this magic they're using? Our team doesn't have wind_ Materia, _or darkness. I suppose there's holy damage, so the opposite of that would be dark? This is messed up. In any case, I need to wake up Susan to have any chance at all against these guys. Unless I want to play my_ Sacrifice _card? No, I don't think so. Would my_ Awaken _spell work on this now? I suppose I could use an item, I'm part of the party so I get access to the inventory. How would I apply it without hands though?_

"Make your move, creature! Let us be done with this!" said the man.

"Give me a second. Sheesh. You going somewhere, buddy?"

 _Wait, I know what knocks people out of_ Sleep _in combat. Physical damage!_ She attacked Susan, doing one damage, enough to knock her out of her slumber.

"What, huh?" she said, the soul of wit.

"We're in combat now!"

"Uh, sure? What?"

"Explain later, attack now!"

"Right. Dang, this is going to take forever!"

"You're telling me. They've already done fifteen damage to me!"

"You okay?"

"For the moment. They're using weird magic though, be careful."

"All right you two, you can still walk away from all this! Escape from this combat, and I'll let you go."

"Never. We will have the location of the _Huge Materia._ If not that, we shall destroy an inquisitive girl and her strange talking cat. Either goal is worth our lives."

"Suit yourselves. _Avatar of War!"_ Susan cast on both of them, Sparkle becoming a slightly larger, armored version of herself, while Susan become the armored monster she was familiar with. Not that the flame and such would help, but it did double their HP, in effect. It also made them slightly faster.

However, as the battle wore on, each side discovered it couldn't really hurt the other. The pair even tried some spell they called "Ultima" which hit both of them, but which still did only twenty damage or so apiece. Both had healing magic, and while the goons didn't know Susan was reliant on Energy, they figured she was like them and had access to items.

"This is pointless, we should flee!" said the one man.

"Our mission is everything," said the other. "We must find a way to prevail."

"We can't. They're doing something, they have some kind of barrier up that prevents most of our attacks from getting through."

"But it must cripple them in turn, for they cannot hurt us either. Cast _Reflect_ upon them so they can't use curative magic on themselves and we shall see how tough they are."

"But they must have items! And how will we damage them?"

"So let them expend them. We do as well! We will damage them with our weapons, of course. I will not hear another word from you about running!"

"All right! But soon they'll be able to use a _Limit Break_ against us!"

 _I could, if you damaged me more than a little each time. But I think I still have a long way to go before that happens._

The one cast _Reflect,_ which covered Susan with a green barrier for a moment, and she knew any magic cast on herself would be bounced back to the others. The other one then attacked her physically with his weapon.

"This is getting us nowhere," said Susan, now furiously thinking when it was her turn.

"What do you suggest? We can't exactly call for help in this crazy place."

"I know. I'm just thinking we might have to resort to methods we don't usually like to."

"You mean actually kill them?"

"We might have to."

"Isn't there some other way?"

"I don't know, we can't leave this weird combat without one side winning. Let me look at my book, maybe I can come up with something."

She took her action getting her book out, which she was glad worked, and let the man hit her again. She didn't even look up, as she started paging through and thinking about what magic she could use. Finally she snapped her fingers, "Of course!" She read through the spell, taking all the time she needed as they weren't going anywhere. She got a twenty and a fourteen on her checks, which was more than enough, and finally ended up casting _Damage Absorption_ on the one guy, using maximum energy. She snapped the book closed.

"You can still run," she said, "because I don't advise hitting us anymore."

"I have no idea what you just did," said the one, "but our attack continues!" He swung at her, but his companion seemed to be wounded, not her. But even better, he seemed to take the full damage rather than the small amount she would have taken herself.

Undaunted, the man attacked as well, and wound up hurting himself.

"Now can we go?" he asked. "That obviously did something, and it seems we can't hurt her anymore."

"We shall continue to try!"

Susan just skipped her turns, as the one man took potions and such while beating himself to a pulp. She was still reading her book, not even looking at what the two were doing at this point.

"Okay, this isn't getting us anywhere either," said Sparkle, letting the guy hit her and get damaged instead. "Don't you have something else you could try?"

"Fine, we can keep doing this the hard way." She made more checks, and did more reading. That done, she cast another new spell from writing, dropping the _Damage Absorption_ for _Shattersteel,_ on both of them _._ The next time they were hit the weapon bounced off and took damage, and a few rounds later, both their swords had been totally destroyed.

"This is impossible!" wailed the one. "What is that book of hers? What is she doing to us?"

"I do not know. But I know this, we must retreat-"

"Oh, now we must retreat?"

"Yes, now. For now we have an even greater mission to accomplish. We must take news of this book back to our brethren!"

'Uh, I'm the only one that can-"

"Silence! We shall return!" With that, the man threw an item, some kind of _Smoke Bomb_ and when it cleared, the two were gone. The third man was still sleeping peacefully on the floor of the place.

"Why didn't he join the combat like I did?" asked Susan, looking down at him.

"Maybe because I was on top of you when that guy brought us into combat? I don't know about the rules here. Fighting without something to _Mimic_ is terrible!"

"Yeah, you're telling me. I really need a way to do more damage around here. Oh well, let's see what this guy has to say."

She left for a moment, waking up Yuffie who presumably had taken rope tying classes, and gently levitated the guy so he could be tied up.

"Now what?" she asked.

Susan sighed. "More magic." She sat and read over the _Dominate_ spell, making the usual checks to read and understand it. (Two 20s) She then cast it on the sleeping man, who couldn't make his RESolve check because he was asleep. She felt herself take control of him, and felt a bit dirty. _This is technically the_ Imperius Curse _which if I was home, would be illegal. Of course mine wears off..._

"Wake up," she said, and the man did with a start.

"What I am-"

"Be silent unless you are answering a question."

The man went silent, his eyes bulging out of his head.

"Yes, you are now under my control. Now, answer all of my questions truthfully. Who are you?"

"I am brother Thaddeus," said the man.

"Good. Why did you come here?"

"I traveled here to kill you, because you asked too many questions about _Materia_ that the brotherhood does not wish asked."

Yuffie gasped, putting her hands over her mouth.

Susan eyes hardened. "And the _Huge_ _Materia?"_

"We have theorized its existence, but never created any. That takes a reactor, and even the Brotherhood cannot build a reactor without notice."

"Why steal mine? What's special about it?"

"Theory states that if many master _Materia_ are brought near a _Materia_ such as that one, they will be condensed into one and have all the functionality of the sacrificed _Materia."_

"And you learned I had some, and wanted it for yourselves. You were here to kill me, that was just a bonus for you."

"Yes."

"Imagine having all spells, or all Summons in one Materia. That would be fantastic!"

"Fangirl later, Yuffie. Working now. So you learned of me from the shopkeepers, right? That I was asking uncomfortable questions, and you wanted it stopped. So you came to silence me?"

"Yes."

"What is the brotherhood?" asked Yuffie.

"The Brotherhood..." Susan could almost see him trying to make a RESolve check to throw off the spell, but she had gotten a seventeen on it, and he couldn't spend energy. _Of course, if he has a 6 or higher, it's still possible._ "The Brotherhood of _Materia_ controls all the _Materia_ of the world, regulating the sale, raising, and use of _Materia_ for all people."

"I knew it!" said Yuffie. "I knew it must be something. Here's the proof!"

"That's how your companions had things like _wind_ magic, and _darkness._ You have _Materia_ that aren't in general circulation."

"Yes."

"And why shopkeepers have only a few to choose from, but lots to sell. And where _Materia_ that has been partially or fully raised goes when it's purchased."

"Yes. The shopkeepers are kept in line, but are not part of the Brotherhood. Only through a rigorous testing process can one be considered for membership."

"Well! That does explain a few things. Where-" _This will probably allow him to try and break out again, but cross your fingers._ "Where is your headquarters?"

He hesitated, but answered. "Hidden beneath the desert near the Gold Saucer. Only a few can cross it and survive. None have ever found the location."

"I can believe it."

"Can you get him to take us there?"

"Yuffie, I'm exhausted and low on energy. When I go to sleep the spell will be broken. I can't hold him that long."

"Come on, do you know how important this-"

"Stay here. Remain silent," she told the man.

He nodded, and Susan dragged Yuffie by the hand down the hall.

"It's in the middle of the desert," she said, "there's not going to be any sort of life around there."

Yuffie's eyes lit up. "You can feel it out! There must be a ton of _Materia_ there!"

Susan nodded her head. "I'm sure I can find it without him, once we get a chance."

"Excellent. It'll be the raid of the century!"

"Something like that. Anything else we should ask him?"

"How it's guarded, maybe?"

"We would go in _Phased_ until we found the main vault anyway. There must be one. Traps or guards wouldn't concern us."

"Oh, great. Then I can't think of anything else."

They walked back into the room, and Susan looked the man over. She took off his mask, studying his face. "Closest to the desert I've seen is Corel town. If I left you there would you be able to get back to your Brotherhood?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Fine. Tell your Brotherhood it's the end of the world. If there was any time to allow access to powerful _Materia,_ it's now. If they wish to meet next time as civilized people, I will discuss terms for access to the _Huge Materia_ in exchange for _Materia_ we don't have. If they wish to attack me again, I will respond in kind. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Untie him," she said to Yuffie, who did so.

"When I tell you, walk forward twenty paces." She popped the mask on, but backwards, and also commanded him to keep his eyes closed for at least a count of 100. She opened a _Teleportal_ to Corel and commanded him to walk, closing it behind him. She collapsed onto the bed, and was suddenly being hugged by Yuffie.

"I can't believe this!" she exclaimed, completely excited. "You have no idea what this means to me."

"I have some idea. Look, I'm going back to sleep. Being attacked in the middle of the night and having to read a bunch of spells over to use them because I can't damage anything here makes me sleepy. I'll see you in the morning."

"I'm too keyed up to sleep. I'm staying here, if you get attacked again you'll need me, right?"

"Suit yourself."

"Great! Tomorrow we'll- oh, well, see how Cloud is I guess, then go hunting _Materia!"_

"Yuffie," she replied, yawning. "We have to wait until they get the message I gave that guy, then decide what to do. I won't steal from them if they're willing to help us. Maybe they shouldn't hide _Materia_ from the world, but maybe there are some that are really dangerous, like the _Black Materia._ We don't know, and the system has worked until now."

"You're no fun."

"I'm very fun. I'm also quite practical. And sleepy. Good night."

"Night. See you... later today!"

"Ugh."


	41. Chapter 41

41

Inside the dreams of a soldier

Time: The next day

Place: Mideel hospital

"All right, who had the party in the Highwind last night?" demanded Cid at breakfast the next day.

"Something wrong?" asked Barret.

"I'll say, the inside's trashed and my men got locked in a closet all night! That was closer together than any of them wanted to be to each other."

"Sorry," said Susan. "We had a slight altercation last night, some people were looking for the _Huge Materia._ I should have checked the Highwind, they did mention it, I think? I was sort of asleep at the time. Didn't even think about it afterwords."

"Where are they now, by the way?" asked Yuffie.

"I'll tell you where they really are once we're in the air again, too many ways someone could be watching us here."

"Who even knows we have them?" said Aerith, "And what did they want with them?"

Susan explained about the _Materia_ conspiracy and the Brotherhood, blowing all their minds. She went on about how they believed smaller _Materia_ could be united using the power of their larger brethren. Their minds stayed sufficiently blown.

"And all this has been going on for hundreds of years?" cried Barret. "We could have used that power in the beginning, going up against Shinra."

"Which is perhaps why they've kept it from the world," countered Aerith. "Because they're too dangerous."

"You taking their side?"

"It's not like they're killing the land, like the Shinra did. And _Materia_ are common enough, it's not like they're trying to horde them all. Just certain ones. And if people want to raise them, fine, but they can't buy raised ones. I don't like it, but I can see their point of view."

"Bah, you would. When are going to bust them up?"

"Cloud first!" protested Tifa. "You said if he hadn't woken up today you would try your healing magic on him!"

"And so I will," promised Susan. "Right after I finish these delicious pancakes."

And so she did.

And nothing changed.

She even had Sparkle try _Awaken,_ which seemed to do nothing.

"That's disappointing," she said, looking down at his still sleeping form. "I can't imagine what went wrong."

"Maybe it's mental," suggested Aerith. "I mean your magic would take care of anything physical, right?"

"Yes, it would. You think he doesn't want to wake up?"

"Keep in mind what he did just before he disappeared. In his mind, he may feel he betrayed us all by giving Sephiroth the _Black Materia._ He may not be ready to face us yet."

"Then we have to somehow convince him he didn't. He didn't, did he?"

She looked back at the others, who seemed to be mulling it over.

"Nah," said Barret. "Wasn't his fault he got Jenova cells put inside him, right? He wasn't acting under his own volition, so we can't fault him for it."

"I agree," said Vincent. "I've done some things in my past I'm not proud of, but they were my choice. He didn't have that luxury."

"So the only question is, how to get in there." Susan stood, tapping a finger aside her chin.

"Can you do it?" asked Tifa.

Susan shook her head. "Tricky. I have a spell, I developed it to put my soul in someone else's body so I could basically expel another soul that had taken up residence there. It worked okay."

"Then you can use it here!"

"Not so fast. I had a ghost friend who would ferry me around, as the soul just kind of floated there. I haven't seen many ghosts in your world."

"They do exist though," said Aerith. "And we know where to find them, too."

"What? They do? Where?"

"The train graveyard in the slums of Midgar. I wonder if one could be convinced to help..."

"You want to ask a monster to help us?" asked Barret. "That's crazy."

"What option do we have?" Tifa asked angrily. "If it means taking a risk or whatever, I'll do it."

"It's no risk, those things are pretty weak. It's getting one to talk and trust you that's the problem. Normally they just attack."

"I'm not worried about it trusting us, I'm worried about us trusting it. This is my soul we're talking about here, people."

"If you can cast the spell on two, I'll share the risk with you," said Tifa.

"You would have to come, I think. I wouldn't be able to access what I was seeing. You know Cloud a lot better than I do, so you could make sense of his inner landscape."

"Glad I volunteered then."

"So we're heading to Midgar?" asked Barret. "Great. Didn't really want to see that place again, let me tell you."

"You can stay and watch Cloud if you want, in fact as I can't maybe you better."

"Yeah, okay. I'll watch him. Won't nobody mess with him while I'm around!"

"Okay. Everyone else, back to the Highwind. Doctor, we'll return soon!"

"With a ghost?"

"That's the hope."

"I must say, I wouldn't have followed this treatment plan. I hope it works out for you."

"Me too, doctor, me too."

And so the group stood before the gates of Midgar, locked against reentry.

"You can just _Teleportal_ us through, because you can see it, right?"

"Why take all that time? _Unlock."_

The doors creaked open.

"You're just full of surprises," remarked Vincent.

"Got that right. Hardly get to use that spell, too. Nice to get some use out of it." _Probably because I'm not wandering uninvited into every house in sight_ _._ _Still don't know how they get away with that._

Aerith stopped by "her" church, and assured the kids that had taken over watching her flowers that she was okay, and would one day return. She thanked them for watching over the place, and gave them some _Gil,_ as she was quite wealthy now, even split as many ways as the party would split their money. The group visited some of their old haunts, even getting a weapon for Tifa and visiting the shops there. Susan stopped to pay her respects to those that died in the pillar incident, and of course some parts were full of monsters so they had some fights, too. _Can't go anywhere in this world without some fights!_

That done, Yuffie, Aerith, Tifa, and Susan made their way to the train station, where they entered the eerily lit "train graveyard." As usual, there were some weird looking things wandering around there, like a horse looking machine with wheels, "ridden" by a figure in a white hood.

But then three ghosts appeared. They were the classic model of a ghost, looking like a sheet draped over a balloon. They had eyes and a mouth, and a long sort of tail that was as long as they were tall. They even had spindly little arms, and red hands at the end.

 _Okay, Myrtle they are not._

Tifa stepped up but did not attack. "Ghosts, please do not attack! We only wish to speak to you!"

A look seemed to pass between the three, and they vanished.

"Please, don't go! I'm serious, we need your help."

They reappeared, still looking confused.

"It's true," put in Aerith. "We will not attack you, please hear us out. This concerns something you can do for us, and maybe we can do you a favor in return."

They vanished again.

"Aarg, what do we have to do to get you to listen? Please, it may be a matter of life and death. We can only turn to you in our hour of need."

The reappeared. The lead one looked back at the other two, who sort of shrugged. "Death?" it croaked.

"Yes. We need you to move a soul into another body, so we can talk to him and wake him up. It's complicated, I can show you much easier than tell you."

"Reward?"

"Yes, anything we can grant you. I don't know much about the wants of ghosts, but if we can help you with something..."

"Life!"

"You want to be alive again? Gee, I don't know..."

"I do know a spell to put a soul into an object or a body," said Susan, also taking a step forward. "I suppose we could find someone recently dead, heal the body, and put your soul in. You are souls, right? I mean I thought people were supposed to return to the _Lifestream_ around here."

The lead ghost gestured to the other two, and the three went into a sort of huddle. Finally the two drifted away from the battlefield, leaving only the one.

"This is all very irregular," it said.

"You can talk!" said Aerith, clapping her hands together.

"Of course. I'm a ghost, not a lamppost. It's just not done, you know? Never thought I would be talking to people like you, rather than fighting. So what's this about your needing my help?"

"Will you come with us? It really would be easier to show you."

"Wait, you want me to leave combat and show myself in the wider world? That's just not done, lady! Who are you to even suggest it?"

"I'm not your average girl. So you can do it? I always wondered where you guys all were until someone bumped into you."

"Yeah, well, same goes for us. Imagine, minding our own business and then someone smacks into you. Then the blades and the guns and the magic come out. I mean honestly, some of you people just run in a circle and take out dozens of poor, innocent creatures an hour. What's the point? Why do you bother us so? What did we ever do to you?"

"Wow, a ghost that wants to talk philosophy," said Aerith.

"We don't have much else to talk about. Not much interest in the stock market when you're _dead."_

"Anyway, can you help us or not?"

"Eh, beats hanging around here, I guess. Lead on."

The battle dissolved, and the ghost was standing with them in the train graveyard, looking expectant.

"So you could show yourself. If you monsters don't like being attacked, why not just reveal yourselves so people could walk around you?" asked Aerith.

"Because... um... Well I don't know. Ask the guy who made the rules!"

"Right. Susan?"

"Opening now."

Susan opened her _Teleportal_ back to Mideel, where the airship was headed right after they got dropped off. They stepped through, and the ghost floated through after them.

"Hey, you actually found one?" asked Barret, looking the ghost over.

"He's not agreed to help us. Finding one was the easy part, they're all over that place," replied Tifa. "You know that."

"Sure, but getting one to help. Huh. Well, sure, why not? Susan likes turning our world upside down, a few more turns won't hurt. Maybe it'll start spinning in place and throw _Meteor_ off on its own."

"We can only hope," said Aerith.

They took him to see Cloud, and explained what they wanted the ghost to do.

"Just stick your souls into this guy, and when they pop back out again, shove them back in the bodies? I guess I could do that."

"No tricks?" asked Barret.

"No tricks. But like I said, I want a body myself. I want to be alive again."

"Doctor, anyone died around here recently?"

The doctor was busy peering at the ghost, and it took a second before he realized he had been asked something. "What? Dead bodies? No, and you wouldn't want any around here, they would have died of old age. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Spend some time like this, and you'll see what you're willing to accept."

"What about a body like mine?" asked Cait Sith. "Does it have to be alive?"

Susan shook her head. "No, it can be an object. If that object happens to be a robot body, it would work."

"That seems even better," said the ghost, considering. "More sturdy. Very well."

"Then I'll get out the spell."

"I'll have a body put outside Midgar," said Cait Sith. "You can just grab it with the _Teleportal,_ right?"

"Sure."

"Won't even take that long, we've got a few sitting around. Just a second, I'll go put in the request." The doll went dead.

Sparkle stepped up. "Guess I'm going too, huh?"

"Actually, I'm leaving you the book, and would feel better if you stayed here. If this goes wrong, you're the only one that can fix it. You can have the book make a spell to put us back, or use that _Soul Transfer_ spell to get us out. I don't know what would happen if more than one soul was in a body, but maybe you could target a specific one?"

"That might be for the best. Okay, I'll keep an eye on you."

"Thanks. We don't even have to do _Freeze_ like we did before, as the book says taking the soul out doesn't kill the body. Hopefully this should be an in and out thing."

"I'll give you... two hours and then start looking into solutions."

"Fair enough. Wish us luck."

So Susan cast the spell, and the next thing she knew she was looking at a fragmented piece of pavement, rather than the blackness she was expecting. Three paths led off in different directions, each with a Cloud sitting at the end of it, while a large Cloud hovered overhead. Past that, planets, stars and even nebula were seen in the distance. Tifa stood next to her.

"Is this what you expected?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"Last time I had to think about various things, and they appeared. Everything stood for something else, like a chain meaning the bonds between friends. This is a bit different. Do you know these scenes?" She pointed.

Tifa nodded. "They're memories of his past. We went to Nibelheim, remember?" She pointed off to the right, and it was true, that was the entrance to the village. "I guess it's time to confront the truth. Seems the right venue for it. Come on."

She headed off to the right, and Susan followed.

Tifa took Susan through Cloud's memories, finally admitting all those years ago that it was the man with the black hair, a man she called Zack, that had come to Nibelheim that day. They explored his childhood, and a scene at a well where Tifa and Cloud made a promise to each other. Cloud then recalled how it was he knew of events there, it was because he was one of the two regular soldiers that had come that day. He found the strength to throw Sephiroth into the reactor pit, and with that his memories of the events ended. Susan could fill in the blanks from there.

 _He had been found by Hojo and revived, but changed. He had Jenova cells put inside him, and possibly Zack cells as well, to make him stronger. That's when he started hearing the voice of the Darkness, and how it came to control him._

Susan then showed him parts of her struggle. How she lost control for a time, becoming ever more arrogant and running over everyone with her magic. She showed him how Luna had come into her life, and shown her a better way. Then came the voice, and the uncertainty that her will would ever fully be her own again.

"I understand," said Cloud at least, having reintegrated himself. "Seems we both have a ways to go before we'll really know ourselves."

"But we will, won't we?" asked Susan with a grin.

"That's right," he replied, brushing his hair like he did. "Thanks, for helping me to understand. Now, exactly where are we?"

"The bigger question is, how do we leave?" asked Tifa, but that was soon answered as the space around them started shrinking and getting darker.

"I think you're waking up. See you on the other side!"

And Susan opened her eyes.

She saw herself.

Then she was being hugged by Cloud. "Uh," the her over there said. "What?"

"Is something wrong?" asked the ghost.

"Why am I over there?" Susan? asked.

"Ah, I did wonder about that," remarked the ghost. "But you all didn't seem that concerned, so..."

"What's happened?" asked Barret, as Cloud pulled away, looking at Tifa? with concern.

"We got put in the wrong body," said Susan, looking around. "Is that what I look like from the outside? Huh."

"My boobs _are_ enormous!" said Tifa. "No wonder people stare at them."

"Yeah, how do you cope?" Susan gave an experimental bounce.

"Uh, you can fix this, right?" asked Cloud, looking between the two girls.

Susan laughed. "Yea, just let me read over _Soul Swap_ and we'll be back in a jiffy. Then I have a promise to keep."

So, once back in her body she opened a _Teleportal_ to the gate of Midgar, and there was another stuffed toy body for the ghost. She used _Soul Transfer,_ (for 15 minutes, mind you) and the ghost vanished. The body started to move.

"Hey, it really worked!" it said. "I have a body again!"

"Then it seems our business is completed!" said Susan. "Hey, if you ever run into a snow creature that can't melt, tell her I said hi."

"Sure thing. Think I'll head that way for a bit, see what I can see. See you later!"

The toy/ghost left Mideel, and the doctor stood rubbing his eyes, probably not believing he just saw all that.

"So much for medical school," he said bitterly. "I should just suggest any old thing, hey, find a ghost! Why not? La la la!" He went skipping off somewhere.

"Think he'll be okay?" asked Aerith.

"Ah, he'll be fine. Hey, we're back together! Cloud, how do you feel right now?"

"Hungry. When do we eat?"

So the group had a small "welcome back Cloud" party... which was interrupted by the arrival of _Ultimate Weapon..._ who blew up the town.

"Dang it all!" Susan shouted at the wreckage of the town. The group had driven the creature away, but the town paid the price, and all the buildings were in pieces. "I was liking that place, you know."

"Hey, are you hurt? Legs broken? Walk on your hands!" said the doctor, running about checking everyone. "Are you hurt? Broken arm? Perhaps a dolphin could lend you a hand. Are you hurt? Oh, that's a nasty gash. Let me find A UNICORN to help you! Tra la la!"

"Are you _sure_ he's going to be okay?" asked Aerith.

"Reasonably?" answered Susan.

"Anyway, nothing more we can do here," said Yuffie quickly. "Let's get going before someone starts blaming us for all this."

"I've told Shinra, they'll dispatch a cleanup crew, start rebuilding the town," said Cait Sith.

"More good publicity for the Shinra Corporation," grumped Barret. "Just what the world needs."

Cloud shook his head. "Anyway, you guys can catch me up on the way... elsewhere? Where are we going? I'll probably have to fight some battles too, looks like you've all gone up a level or two."

"We have an airship now!" said Cid. "We stole it! Sorta?"

"And don't forget we got the Brotherhood mad at us," put in Susan.

"And we got some _Huge Materia,"_ said Yuffie.

"And a submarine. Do we have to give that back?" asked Barret.

"You guys have been busy..."


	42. Chapter 42

42

Let's Make a Deal

Time: A few minutes later

Place: Highwind

So Susan and the group told Cloud what he had been missing. Going into space, going underwater, getting _Huge Materia,_ all that sort of thing. Once in the air, Susan shooed the operations guy out and told Aerith the _Huge Materia_ was currently in the safe at her house, and gave her the combination.

"Memorize this, and destroy it," she said, handing her a piece of paper.

Aerith started staring at it, and Cloud, having gotten caught up, wondered what to do next.

"Still some time before the cannon is moved. Though I can see now on the map here that Junon isn't actually all that far away from Midgar. They can just float it over there. Lifting it into place is going to be the big challenge, I expect."

"Anyone have any ideas about what to do next?"

"Clean out the Highwind," said Cid, dumping a bunch of trash in a bin. "Those Brotherhood goons really searched the place high and low."

The group gave a collective shrug and with the exception of Yuffie, who was feeling nauseous again, they straightened the place up. Susan had to do some _Repair_ magic on panels and things that had been busted, but soon the place was nice and clean again.

That done, the group, rather predictably Susan thought, voted to keep raising their levels until the time came to assault the Northern Crater again. So they spent the afternoon traveling the world, looking for the place that had monsters which gave the most XP and AP. As they started to get warn down and hungry Yuffie insisted they head to the Gold Saucer to spend the night.

"You haven't seen the inside of that, have you?" she asked Susan.

"I suppose we might as well make use of that 30,000 _Gil_ lifetime pass," grumbled Barret.

"How much?" asked Susan.

"Yeah, don't get me started. We wandered around killing monsters a fair time when we first needed to get in there. We had most of the money, and a day pass was only 3,000 _Gil._ But some argued the lifetime pass was cheaper in the long run, so a slaughtering we went."

 _No wonder these guys seem so strong, they've probably seen more combat than anyone in the world! And for weird reasons, I think, too._

So they parked the Highwind near North Corel, left the crew to guard the ship, and rode the skyway up to the Saucer.

Susan had to admit, the approach was pretty impressive. There were Chocobo races going on, what looked like tiny toy birds running on a track far below them. Lights, fireworks, music, the outside of the place lit up as they glided into the landing bay, and the guy in the Chocobo costume greeted them happily as the stepped out.

"Come on," said Yuffie, pulling her arm. "Let me show you around!"

"Guess we'll meet you at the hotel," said Barret, obviously not liking this place at all. "Don't forget we're getting an early start tomorrow!" he yelled as the two jumped down a tube and slid to another area.

 _We are? News to me._

Susan and Yuffie checked out the whole place. They watched a short play, visited the arcade, and even took in a Chocobo race. Susan rolled minimum on her _perception_ check to notice the man watching her, and Sparkle had already retired, figuring she was pretty safe here. Both fell into bed far too late, exhausted and happy with all they had seen.

The next morning, Susan and Yuffie stumbled out of their room to find the others had left, leaving a note for them. Susan couldn't read it, but Yuffie said they were heading back to Mideel (what was left of it) because the creatures there seemed to give a bit better XP, and when they were awake to come join them.

"There's also a note from another man," said the weird doll thing at the counter. "Here you are."

Susan unsealed the envelope, and unfolded the paper inside.

 _Mysterious Girl,_

 _We wish to apologize for our earlier treatment of you. Come to the food court outside the Wonder Square. There you will be met by a woman with a gift and an offer._

 _T.B.O.M._

"Could be a trap!" Yuffie cautioned.

"In public? I highly doubt it. Even if it is, I have a number one ninja on my side, don't I?"

"That's right! Let's go!"

So the two ordered... well, lunch, and sat down. Within a few minutes they were joined by a woman wearing casual clothes, and bearing a small, thin, box. She had long, dark hair, and glowing eyes reminiscent of Cloud.

"Ah, the Mysterious Girl, thank you for coming," she said.

"Wait a minute," said Yuffie, "I thought it was a _Brother_ hood."

"It was, in the beginning. What a shock it was for them, to find that women were just as capable as men in using _Materia_. Perhaps more so? I'm sure I don't need to tell you. But the name has remained. Does that satisfy? I do come baring proof..." She shook the box a little.

"And you wish to apologize?" asked Susan.

"Yes. Some of our more reactionary members, reacted, when they heard someone was traveling the world asking about _Materia._ They did not consider who that person was or what their goals were. We have since learned differently."

"And you found out you couldn't easily beat me. Those three person fights are tough, you can't really gang up on someone."

"Usually our _Materia,_ plus high levels and stats see us through the majority of encounters. You have to go far to find the highest AP generating creatures, of course. Weaklings don't need to apply. But you sort of ignored all that, didn't you?"

"I work a little differently, it's true. I'm not exactly compatible with this world. Be thankful the other visitor you're hosting, a being locally called _Janova,_ is equally incompatible. Otherwise we might not be sitting here having this conversation."

"Yes, that is part of why I'm here. We intercepted some interesting orders from the Shinra company about you and your group. Apparently, you're to help put a plan into action to save our world from Sephiroth and Meteor?"

"That's the idea."

"Splendid! It would be hard to use _Materia_ if the planet has blown up. With that in mind, allow us to... assist each other, towards that goal."

"You want the _Huge Materia,"_ said Yuffie. "Too bad, it's ours!"

"Yuffie! Be nice."

The woman laughed. "You have good instincts, young lady. Perhaps I should recommend you in a few years, when your lust for _Materia_ for its own sake dies down a little. No matter." She waved a hand in the air. "We wish access to the _Huge_ variety, yes. I would not expect you to give them up without something equally valuable in return, and quite frankly I can't think of anything I would trade for even one! So no, I am not here to try and convince you, as some would, that they would be best kept in our possession."

"Good. Carry on."

"As my note said, first, I wish to apologize for the attack. To that end, and as words alone are rather empty, I have been authorized to give you this."

She slid the box over, and Susan opened the lid. If you thought anything but _Materia_ would be inside, you haven't really been paying attention. Susan briefly touched each one, getting a sense for them in that way people here seemed to have.

 _A Speed Plus. A Luck Plus. A Slash All, seemingly damaged? And a couple of generic ones, 2 Elemental, a Long Range, a Magic Counter, and an Added Effect._

"And all mastered, as far as I can tell. Except the Slash All, something seems off about that one."

"That one is rather curious. It seems to be unwilling to accept more AP. We've studied it for many years, and it is more a curiosity than anything at this point. A true Slash All would seem to evolve into _Flash Materia_ over time, allowing one to dash forward and lightly strike all foes. Any that were hit instantly die."

"That would be tremendously powerful!"

"Indeed. And you can see why we would be hesitant to allow you that one, despite our desire for the... forgive me, for access to the _Huge Materia."_

"I can also see why they're all mastered. They have already fissioned once, and won't again."

"Correct. We are, after all, offering this apology to you, not you and anyone who might raise them."

"Of course, most of these are pretty common," said Yuffie, running her hand along them.

"You could always sell them," she suggested, "if you did not wish to use them. Some will fetch a high price."

"True. No magic ones."

"We observed her not using Green _Materia_ in our earlier encounter. We thought perhaps she did not wish to, or was prevented from doing so because she used that other kind of magic, from her book."

"Close enough. I accept this as your apology." She stuck the box into her sub-space pocket, as it was only a couple of inches across. "Now I suspect you'll want to 'get down to business' as it were."

"Indeed. But first, the properties of the _Huge Materia_ are only theory. If I could test the theory with a selection of Green _Materia_ against the green _Huge Materia_ I will know if that theory is correct. Then we may begin to bargain from a position of knowledge."

"I bet it's a trick!" Yuffie hissed, pulling Susan to the side. "Don't let her near the _Huge Materia."_

"We have to know, Yuffie. This may all be for nothing if she tries it and nothing happens. Plus, do you have enough mastered _Materia_ to test it yourself? The end battle with Sephiroth is coming, if you can get some good _Materia_ out of this it'll be a big help, right?"

"I... guess."

"And aren't you curious? I mean I have to see if this works!"

"Yeah, and it would take me years to get enough _Materia_ to master level myself, you're right. I suppose if I switched over exclusively to double growth weapon and armor... Fine, but we better do it someplace else."

"I'm not just going to whip it out right here, you know." She turned back to the lady. "Sorry about that. We'll head to... Wutai. Would that satisfy you, Yuffie? She would be in your home turf."

"Oh yeah, forgot you could do that. Fine."

"Great. We'll finish eating and be on our way."

"I'm happy to wait," said the lady, and she did, quite patiently.

Susan found a quiet place and opened a _Teleportal._ The woman stared into it. "I would make a separate deal, and give much, to know how you did that!"

"And I could detail it to the smallest degree, wouldn't help you in the least. It's magic from another world. No one here but myself would be able to use it. Come on."

 _Another World?_ She mouthed, but stepped through after Susan.

"All right, that's your house there," she asked, pointing. "Right?"

"Yup."

"Okay, I'll grab the green one and meet you there in a minute."

"You got it."

The two started off, and Susan looked for a good place. She chose the bar across town, and slipped inside. Of course, she had gone _Invisible_ on the way over there, and the person behind the counter looked up as the door opened. She looked harder, but Susan closed it again and was still, so the minor distortion left by the magic wasn't too visible. The woman shrugged and bent back over whatever she was doing.

Susan headed to the bathroom, retrieved the _Huge Materia_ with _Retrieval,_ and walked back to Yuffie's house.

Set up on a table in the basement were a variety of _Materia,_ and Susan was pretty sure they were all master level by the way Yuffie's hands kept twitching towards them.

"It's like showing a man dying of thirst a pail of water, and then dumping it into a flower garden," she remarked. "Let's do this before Yuffie forgets herself."

"She's passed the first test, anyway," said the woman mysteriously, with a small grin.

Susan set the _Huge Materia_ in the middle of them all, and waited for something to happen. It started floating on its own, and the smaller ones rattled and shook, finally starting to orbit the large one. Everyone's gaze was transfixed on the sight as the marble like _Materia_ swirled faster and faster around the large one, and suddenly there was a bright flash, blinding them all.

When they could see again, a single _Materia_ floated there next to the _Huge_ one, and the woman took it cautiously, as though it might be hot. Her eyes widened. "It did work. All those minor ones have been compacted into this one. See for yourself!"

She handed it over to Yuffie, who seemed surprised to be trusted with it, and took it gently. She nodded. "Every Green I know of, and a few I don't. What's _Contain?"_

"Some very powerful attack magic," she answered, taking the sphere back. "Actually, no. This is part of my offer." She handed it back. "We have been raising _Materia_ a very long time. We have no shortage of master level orbs, generally going into making the 0 AP _Materia_ for sale. To condense a fraction of them down... Our offer is this- Every fifth condensing we do is yours to keep, in each color. In other words the fifth Green, the fifth Red, and so on. We wouldn't do four Red then give you a Yellow, for example. Consider this one a fifth, so we could do four more, then you keep the fifth again. Same for the Yellow and Red. We will give you the first of those, then every fifth as normal."

"Every third," countered Yuffie. The woman shook her head.

"On this I am compelled to be inflexible. These must stay rare in the world. But I know you cannot trust us, especially after what happened to you. Taking every fifth will keep a balance of power, of sorts. We will also pay 500,000 _Gil_ for each session, with no more than three, of each color, condensed each session."

"That seems reasonable, but I want something else as well. I want a _Materia_ shop here in Wutai, run by my family, that can exclusively sell _Materia_ that are above 0 AP. I mean it's bizarre that no shop can do that. Let people pay through the nose for something if they want to. We run the shop, we buy and sell whatever comes along. You don't get involved."

"I suppose, given the buying prices we offer for master level _Materia,_ most would be unable to purchase higher rated pieces in any case. Very well, as long as you do not undercut our prices, that is acceptable."

"I'm happy then."

"Do you want them placed here?" Susan asked. "Is there a secure enough location?"

"The Pagoda!" she answered immediately. "Someone coming in there would have to fight off all five masters, and that includes my father. If I can get an advance on that first 500,000 we can put in a good security system too."

"We can have the security system installed," said the woman. "Just show me where it is and I'll put in the call. Shouldn't we clear this with your father first, though?"

"Eh, I already beat the snot out of him, Pagoda is sort of mine now anyway. But sure, let's do that."

Yuffie's father seemed quite pleased with the idea of storing and controlling the _Huge Materia,_ and said the masters would fight with their lives to protect them. (They'd be paid well enough, he said part of each 500,000 _Gil_ would go to them as the "security force.") The woman seemed to believe him, and said she would have a company out in the next several days to install the system. Naturally, she would allow him to program any codes, so there was no trickery involved. He agreed.

"I'll go put the _Materia_ back then," said Susan, "and get them to you in a few days when the system is in place. Then you can start condensing."

The woman wrote up a contract, everyone signed it, and got copies. Susan put the woman back through to the Gold Saucer, and took Yuffie up on her invitation to check out the figures carved into the mountain.

They also saw the eternal fires in the cave, which got put out by the _Leviathan Scale_ they had in inventory, surprising them both. They picked up an Oritsuru for Yuffie and an Added Steal Materia, which she knew Vincent would be pleased with. With this he could lighting something four times, try and steal four times, and then attack once.

Yuffie climbed to the top of a statue and started jumping and shouting into the wind, which Susan thought might be a little dangerous. Finally she hopped off.

"This has been the best day ever. We've put Wutai on the map again, do you realize that? People will come from all over to buy and sell our _Materia,_ and we'll get condensed _Materia_ for nothing. I mean look at this orb! So shiny! And I can cast every spell from this sucker!"

"I know," Susan said laughing, "I was there."

"Come on, the others must be worried, let's head to Mideel. Wonder if I should tell them..."

But she couldn't contain herself, blabbing about the deal she had made, and getting rich in the process.

"Of course it's all thanks to Susan," said Vincent. "If she hadn't voiced her concern about were all the _Materia_ were, none of this would have happened. We would never even have known about the Brotherhood."

"True. And you've all been a big part of my life recently. Don't worry, I won't forget you when the condensing happens. You'll get rich too! In fact..." She popped the condensed _Materia_ off her weapon and quite reluctantly handed it over to Aerith. "Here. You use more magic than I do, you deserve this."

"What?" roared Barret. "Susan, did you put Yuffie under some kinda spell? Is this a Yuffie look alike? Did we come back from space with a shape-shifting alien that took her place? Or did she catch space madness? Did I catch space madness? Who are any of you people?"

Everyone laughed.

"I know, it's not like me, but I'll take the next one. I'm sure they'll be coming there regularly."

"Thank you, Yuffie," said Aerith seriously. "I know how hard that must have been for you."

"No you don't, flower lady. No you don't."

They smiled and hugged, causing everyone to go "aww" and break into smiles again.


	43. Chapter 43

43

Final Assault

Time: A week and a half later

Place: Midgar

In the days that followed Susan put another four points into _Ninjutsu_ and raised her new _Skill Group_ to a three, all using XP from various other skills she possessed. (And were now at a two rating instead) They had tangled with _Ultimate Weapon_ several times, searching him out with the Highwind to pay him back for smashing up Mideel. And of course to prevent him from smashing up anything else.

"For creatures created by the planet to help us, they don't seem to be really helping us all that much," remarked Susan as their weapons and spells cut into him for the forth time. But finally he fell, dropping an interesting sword for Cloud and teaching Yuffie the Shadow Flare enemy technique.

Susan and Cloud both looked over the sword he had dropped. Susan was pretty sure outside this world she would never be able to lift it, but it had a curious property she wasn't sure made any sense. According to what she felt when she held it, the attack power of the weapon rose with Cloud's current HP level.

"Which seems backwards," she said. "You would want the attack power of a sword to increase when you were _low_ on HP, if anything. I mean your sword gets weaker as you do? That doesn't make a lot of sense."

"I agree," said Cloud. "If I'm in danger of dying, I don't need my sword doing less damage to opponents, I need it to do more. And as I can't switch out during combat, I think I'll go with something else for bosses. Maybe I'll have some kind of really cool sword made, that like splits into eight different blades and I can pull them out of the main blade when I need more than one. Then I could technically switch in combat, because it was all the same sword!"

"Uh, yeah, you... just go and do that."

"Yeah, that would be great." Cloud was staring off into space, imagining the _Limit Break_ he could do with such a sword. He envisioned himself just floating in air, somehow dashing back and forth between blades. He wouldn't even use _Materia_ anymore, I mean that stuff was cheating, right? No, at the end of this battle with Sephiroth he would just take his _Materia,_ lock it in a case and leave it where it could be easily stolen by any bum that wondered in off the-

"Cloud? You okay, buddy?" Susan was waving her hand in front of his eyes.

"Huh? What? Sorry, got lost in thought there. What were we talking about?"

They also checked out the _Ancient Forest_ that got opened up when _Ultimate Weapon_ got blown up, Susan's magic of _Flight_ and _Retrieval_ serving them well, and negating the need to use frogs and such to progress and grab _Materia_ that happened to be sitting next to odd, carnivorous plants for some bizarre reason.

 _I thought these things crystalized after_ Lifestream _welled up out of the ground? I don't see any cracks here, though I suppose they could be covered by the plant life._

The group spent much of the time getting XP, and with the cannon hooked up and ready to fire, Susan got the call to fulfill her end of the bargain with Rufus. Naturally they saved before they headed over there, just in case something should go wrong.

They were met outside the gates of Midgar by Shinra soldiers, and escorted to the office building where Rufus was waiting.

"Now keep your temper in check," Tifa said to him. "He's proven that the new Shinra isn't the same as the old Shinra. We need him to bring that barrier down, so don't start anything."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Susan put on some of the _Materia_ she had been given by the Brotherhood, though at least the _Speed Plus_ worked differently for her. From what she understood, the speed attribute for these guys determined when they could act in combat, not their own physical speed. So her speed was now a 10, where naturally it was only a 7. So she walked a little more briskly, but that was it. Not that great a change on a world where combatants mainly just stood around waiting for their turn, but if she needed to run somewhere, it could help. Naturally the _Luck Plus_ worked the same way, their luck seemed to determine when they got a "critical hit" and did double damage. She used it for a lot of things, like noticing stuff and not getting hit by projectiles. _Still, we'll need all the LUCk we can get right about now._ To that end she still had on the _Amulet_ which was raising her LUCk by 10, so that was currently her best stat. (At a sixteen, the _Luck Plus_ worked on her normal LUCk of 4, raising it to a 6, then the _Amulet_ raised it by 10. The other way around would be too cheesy, even for this Narrator.)

She kept _Sense_ and _Mimic_ from before, but skipped _Slash All_ for the moment. _After all, I can't directly hurt anything anyway, so doing 1/3 of nothing... to more combatants, is still useless._ She had on the _Minerva Band_ they had picked up from the forest, protecting her from fire, ice, "gravity" and holy. _If I'm getting hit by a holy attack... from a monster... something is seriously wrong._ And of course she had the regular smattering of _HP Plus_ and such, so she felt ready for anything.

"Welcome," said Rufus, after a seventy floor elevator ride to the top of the Shinra building. "It seems today is the day!"

"So it seems," said Susan. "And you're sure this'll work? I don't want this thing blowing up the city below."

"The theory is sound. Of course I've locked my greatest scientist, Hojo, in the cells a few levels below us for his part in all this. We'll figure out his punishment later. But the others assure me the gun will fire and if Susan does her part of delivering the blast directly to the barrier, that should knock it down. If it fails we have no other options and our world is forfeit. By the way..." he paused. "Did you do something to that rocket? The explosion that resulted when it hit _Meteor_ was a bit more intense than we had predicted. We were watching it through telescopes and everyone who was looknig at it was nearly blinded in that eye! They just wanted to know the cause."

"Yeah, I gave it some Susan Special Sauce while I was up there. Hoped it would take the thing out, but Sephiroth just put it back together and kept moving it towards us."

"Ah, I see. Thank you for the attempt. That information will ease their hearts greatly, they thought maybe the rocket fuel had changed over time or something. I trust the _Huge Materia_ have been helpful to you in some way?"

"They're more a long term thing, but yes."

"Very good. Well, this is no social call, shall we go over the operation?"

"I see no reason why not."

The plan, as Rufus outlined it, was that the group would head in while Shinra soldiers secured the passageways behind them. This was in case Sephiroth tried to escape. He could at least be slowed down until the party caught up with him.

"And why can't you guys go in first?" complained Barret.

"My good man, reports place you doing nothing but raising your levels for at least an entire week. What level are you now, 60? 70? My soldiers are nowhere near that good, plus I'm sure in your travels you've found some special equipment we wouldn't have access to. That reminds me." He called down to someone, and they brought up some weapons, dumping them on the table.

"Does any of this interest you? My weapons people called this one Missing Score, and I believe it would fit your prosthesis well, Barret. And for Vincent, the Death Penalty. I think you will find it to your-" He stopped as Aerith reached for a gun as well.

"What's this one?" she asked.

"Uh, that is the Outsider. Aerith, are you sure you wouldn't be more comfortable with a staff? We might be able to find a good one around here somewhere. I assumed you would be more in a support role, not looking to directly attack."

"All things change," she said sadly, looking it over. "This one will be fine. The attack isn't quite as high as the Supershot ST, but it has two more slots and the magic raising is almost as good. I'll try it out and see which I like better."

"Oh, um, of course. You're welcome to it, of course."

Yuffie took a weird circular weapon called the Conformer, and Cait Sith got the HP Shout (another weapon that raised attack with current HP, so odd).

"Now, do you want to head there and then have us fire the cannon?"

"We think we'll just stick around here, just in case," said Barret, affixing his new gun and transferring the _Materia_ over to it. "Then we can all go over together."

"Very well, I know you don't trust me so that's fine. We have troop transports ready to go once the barrier is down. Actually it may be safer here, who knows what kind of energy discharge will occur when the barrier drops."

"What's to stop him putting it up again?" asked Cid.

"Ah, good point. We will have to hope he is too focused on _Meteor_ at the moment. If you like, consider this a test run. We can always fire again, and be closer to the target the second time. It would take him time to generate a new barrier. We can slip in before that."

"Fire again? Doesn't that thing use Mako? You're still killing the planet!"

"To save it!" counted Rufus. "Some sacrifice will have to be made, before we can start fixing things."

Barret started to retort, but Susan held up a hand.

"Why not just save before we fire?" asked Susan. "We'll have worked everything out before that and be in position. If it doesn't work we'll just try something else."

"An excellent idea. You're heading back outside Midgar anyway, before we begin the power up sequence, you can save one final time. If something happens, go back and we'll abort the shot until we know what went wrong."

"Sounds good to me," said Cid.

So the others went back to the Highwind to wait, and Sparkle put _Flight_ and _Acceleration_ on Susan. She headed out the window to the end of the gun barrel, listening to the small radio transmitter Rufus had given her.

"Output at 70%, rising steadily!" she heard.

 _Okay, showtime._

She made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check, getting a 13, which wasn't bad. She then channeled that energy into her _Mercury_ check along with her normal 10, so her rating in _Mercury_ was 28. That allowed her to open a pretty big _Teleportal,_ which she fitted over the end of the gun. The other side was open to the barrier, (not too close in case of backlash) which she had gone to see before they made their way to Midgar.

"80%"

Energy started to glow around the end of the barrel, and Susan, now safely flying out of range (straight up) couldn't resist making a power up noise in the back of her throat. "KAME!"

"90%"

"HAME!"

"100% Firing!"

"HA!"

The cannon blasted backwards with recoil, and a tremendous surge of energy shot from the barrel. She was in a position to see through the _Teleportal_ and it struck the barrier with an unheard of force.

The barrier went down.

She was dancing in mid-air when she noticed ( _thank you higher LUCk_ ) something coming out of the sea near Midgar.

 _Another Weapon! It must have sensed our use of Mako and come to put a stop to it. Crap!_

The monster unleashed a blast of energy towards Midgar and Susan helplessly watched as it slammed into the city, destroying a portion of it, and the tower she had just been in.

"Go back! Go back!" she shouted. "We'll need to evacuate the city before we fire! Go-"

Sparkle put _Flight_ and _Acceleration_ on Susan. She was about to head out the window when the radio Rufus gave her crackled to life.

"Abort the firing, I repeat abort the firing!"

"What?" exclaimed Rufus, going over to his radio. "What happened?"

" _Weapon_ is in the area," explained Barret. "When we turn that cannon on it'll come up out of the ocean and blast the city."

"Can you hold it off? Or even take it out?"

"Before it attacks? Maybe. We took out another one, but that was after chasing it down several times. I think you better just evacuate the city before we start this."

"I hate to lose the city, isn't there anything we can do?"

"Actually, maybe there is," said Susan, getting out her book of magic. "Give me a few minutes."

She read over the spell of _Bolstered Barricade,_ which made huge walls appear within range. These walls were not made of any one substance, like stone or metal, but had a DTR equal to Sun, which Susan would of course have above a ten for the casting. She could get a bunch of them, and if cast at the right time... it could work. She made her regular checks, DIF fifteen and got a seventeen and a twelve. She spent an XP to reroll, as that was pretty low, and got an eighteen that time. _Much better._

Given it was a grade ten spell she created a _Spell Paper_ with it, so she didn't have to waste time trying to cast it in the field with energy bolts sizzling towards her.

That done, the party saved again, and repeated the steps from before. As they knew the _Weapon_ was going to appear, they were standing right there and got it into a combat after the cannon fired. This only slowed it down, as after doing some damage to it the _Weapon_ left the combat and turned towards the city again. It fired, and Susan let the spell go, creating twelve walls. Two deep, two high, three across. The attack blew the first ones away but the second one stopped it. _Man, that attack was OTR 10. No other way to bring those walls down apart from that._

With the city safe, and _Weapon_ seeming to hesitate because it couldn't figure out where those huge walls had just come from, they reengaged it and took it out. _Well, Shinra will have a lot of work ahead of them, figuring out just what that creature was and how it did what it did. Or at least just to get rid of the body. That thing is huge!_

That done, Susan made her way back to the Highwind and the group flew towards the crater, ready to descend and save their world. Several Shinra troop transport planes followed.

The first part of the approach was an unstable area, with only a series of highly spaced apart rocks to stand on. Susan put _Flight_ on those, like herself, that couldn't make the jumps or didn't want to make the attempt. Having gotten past those, they came to a narrow series of broken down passageways where breaks in the floor were the only way down. The random encounters were thick here, somehow fitting dragons, gargoyles and weird flying things into the passageways. The group descended for some time, finally coming to a more open area that went left and right.

"Which way do we go?" asked Barret.

"You have to ask?" asked Cloud. "We take all roads here. Who knows what sort of creatures, treasure, and XP we can get down here? We'll need every scrap in our final battle."

"You want us to split up?"

"What? No. That would be the worst thing we could do. We stick together and see this through to the end."

"Should have known. Left or right first?"

"Right. Come on."

They followed a spiral path down a large column of rock, and then over top of what looked like the skeletal remains of some giant creature.

"Glad we didn't run into this guy when it was alive," remarked Yuffie, looking it over.

This path netted them nice armor and opened up to an area the group was sure the other paths also led to.

"Down or back up?" asked Barret.

"Like I said, we leave no stone unturned in this place."

The group went back up, finding that the path split again, but probably looped around so they took the left one at random. Here they found some weird plant life, and some actual water they had to wade through to get to the other side. It was quite pretty, Susan thought, and netted them a _Counter_ and _W-Magic Materia._ The W-Magic apparently allowed two spells to be cast at once, and giving that to Vincent meant he could cast Lighting eight times rather than just once every turn. _Counter_ was another one Susan was pretty sure would only work on this world- it allowed you to counter attack after being hit.

"Rather late to be useful," remarked Yuffie, handing it back to Cloud, who put it onto his armor. He was using double growth armor, but his zero growth sword to try it out.

And then they ran into the Magic Pots.

They didn't seem to fight back, but neither did they take any damage no matter what the group did to them. All they did was cry for _Elixir,_ a healing item the group didn't have many of.

"Oh, just give them one so they shut up about it!" said Vincent, currently in the lead team with Yuffie, Cloud, and Susan. Susan threw one and Yuffie threw one on her turn, then they waited.

Nothing seemed to happen.

"Great, now what?" asked Cloud.

"I'm going to try lighting again!" decided Vincent.

"You've already hit them like sixteen tim- you know what, go for it."

This time they took damage, and were destroyed. As the battle ended, Yuffie gave a yelp of surprise.

"Did you see how much AP they just gave us? A thousand! That's two thousand AP for my double growth armor! How many _Elixir_ do we have?"

"Only a few, and we can't stay here too long. Tell you what, I've got that triple growth sword, and Susan can transfer AP, everyone put on double growth stuff and we'll see if we can't raise the really important ones, maybe get a second _Counter_ or something."

They spent an hour, by Susan's watch, wandering around and looking for Movers. Magic pots were nice, but the Mover enemies, of which there were always three, gave far more AP than even the pots. They looked like rubber balls that kind of bounced around, and as long as you killed one, they couldn't do their triangle attack thing and were generally harmless. The best part- they didn't need _Elixir_ thrown at them to be damaged.

Susan had traded her mastered _Materia_ for others, and the group was in good shape when they ran out of _Elixir_.

"I won't do it now, unless you want another _Mimic_ ," she said, "but after this is over, I'll transfer AP to this _Mimic,_ get it to fission, so I can take the mastered one. I'll need my energy for further down, or more important ones to you if you think you can make them fission right now."

The three looked at each other. "I don't know, we're doing close to 9999 damage as it is. We're getting sixteen lightings every round with you _Mimicking_ Vincent, how much more damage do we need to do per round?"

"Well, whatever you want."

"No, we'll each stick to what we're doing. This is working well so far. I mean we have an extra party member, so we're already ahead of the game. And we could always come back here with more _Elixir,_ once we've defeated Sephiroth."

"I know I am," remarked Yuffie. "Okay, lead on."

They then went through a series of rocky ledges, beside a _Lifestream_ fall, which Susan found to be quite pretty. Especially because of the contrast it provided the dark stone in this area.

That finally led back to the area they had entered from, leading further down into the planet. Looking down it was just a weird, greenish glow and a bunch of rocks that seemed to be suspended on nothing. Cloud used the _Save Crystal_ they had picked up in the first treasure chest near the entrance, and the group saved.

"At least now we know how the things are made," said Cloud. "I always did wonder."

"Yeah, me too. I just hope that wasn't the last one in existence!" said Aerith.

The group chuckled, then got serious again.

"Everyone, last chance to check your equipment, _Materia_ and items," said Cloud. "It's been an honor to know you all, and I want to thank you for coming with me on this journey. I know I've done some dumb things, and even turned against you a time or two, thanks to the Jenova inside me. But now it ends. We'll battle Sephiroth and make sure our planet stays safe!"

They all nodded, equipped the best armor and weapons they could, distributed the _Materia_ they had so it was all used up and each group people wanted to be in had at least one _Summon,_ a cure, some kind of barrier magic, _Haste,_ the works.

With that, they jumped into the pit and the final battle began.


	44. Chapter 44

44

This Isn't Even my Final Form

Time: Several Minutes Later

Place: The Heart of the Lifestream

The journey down was short by tiring. With each suspended stone platform the group leapt upon, it seemed they had a chance to fight a really tough enemy. But even the piece of _Jenova_ they found at the bottom was hardly a challenge, and they slaughtered it without any trouble.

"Come on, Sephiroth, or the Darkness, or whatever it is you call yourself!" Cloud yelled, waving his sword about. "End this!"

"Very well," said a voice, and the form of Sephiroth appeared before the group. "If you wish to foolishly combat me, I will allow it. Hello again, Susan."

"Good afternoon, Darkness. I won't make the same mistake as before, by the way. I'll make sure I'm in combat with you before I do anything. And I have to wonder if my father's skills can protect you against _Materia?"_

"Oh, can you use _Materia_ now? How did you get MP? Never mind. My _Meteor_ approaches the planet, and soon I shall absorb all the energy of this world. I won't even have to lift a finger to rid myself of the other Paragon thorn in my side. What a delight."

"Enough talk," growled Cloud. "Attack!"

The world changed.

When the battle began, Sephiroth was changed. He was no longer even remotely human looking, standing at least four times as tall as they did, with his lower half hidden behind some kind of draping. His arms were massive and ended in a kind of reverse wing, with the "feathers" on the inside rather than the outside. He had horns, and a funny person on his head, which quite frankly looked a little ridiculous.

"What did you do to yourself?" Susan asked, waiting her turn. "Do you have person growing out of your head now? How does that work?"

"Being here has changed me, true. Don't despair, little ones, your pain will be over soon."

"Oh please," said Susan, "We've beaten bigger things than you. That doesn't even mean anything in this world. Slice him up, would you Cloud?"

"With pleasure!"

The combat was fierce, with each person standing motionless until it was their turn to attack. And attack they did, with blade or Lightning, in the case of Vincent. The first form fell, and Susan thought it was over.

But no!

Even as he vanished after being defeated, he morphed and changed, becoming a second form! His legs become six wings, and his right arm became a wing, and it seemed he had a sort of halo sticking out the back of him.

 _What, does he think he's some kind of one winged angel? Hey, that would make a great song title. Well, seven winged angel, I guess. But he's no holy creation, that much is clear._

"Oh, come on! Come down here and fight me like a man!" shouted Cloud, as the bizarre creature hovered over the battlefield.

"Perhaps one day, but not today," said Sephiroth, looking down upon the group with contempt.

He cast _Shadow Flare,_ doing 6280 HP damage to Cloud, who went down on one knee.

"That all you got?" he gasped, limit bar filling. He then counter attacked twice, and Vincent blasted him with Lighting again and again. Susan hastily _Mimicked_ it, hitting him with Bolt 3 sixteen times total.

"You shouldn't be able to do that," Sephiroth complained.

"Take it up with my union rep."

Yuffie summoned Neo Bahamut to smack him around, and Cloud healed himself.

"Easily enough countered," he said, putting up _Reflect._

"Crap, I'll get it down on my next turn!" said Yuffie.

Cloud slashed into him, doing his maximum damage, and rather than wait Vincent simply shot him.

"Take this!" he said, swinging down upon Susan with his weird right... wing. It did eleven damage to her.

"What?"

"Don't know everything, do you?"

"You're only half compatible with this dimension! I see how it is. That's why you aren't using your magic, you can't hurt me either!"

"Okay, maybe you do know everything. But they can! And they will."

"Clever girl. Very well, we'll see what happens on my next action."

Yuffie got the _Reflect_ down with _DeSpell,_ and Vincent got his Bolt 3 combo going again. Susan matched it.

"Now you'll see!" said Sephiroth, concentrating. Susan felt power coming from him, but nothing happened.

"Uh?"

"Wait for it!"

"Okay?" They waited. Seconds ticked by, then nearly a minute.

"So..."

"Wait for it!"

"Right."

They waited another thirty seconds. "Ah, there it is. _Super Nova!"_

Somehow the sun exploded, but they were still all fine in the end, but badly wounded. The group was down to less than a thousand HP apiece, while Susan took thirty four damage.

"That was a 4d10 attack at least!" complained Sephiroth. "How much HP do you actually have? Are you using _HP Plus_ or something?"

"Why not use _Sense_ and find out?"

"You think I'm carrying something that useless around?"

"Would answer your question."

"Uh, banter later?" asked Cloud, waiting for his turn.

"Oh, sorry. Go ahead."

"Thank you. Limit Break! Meteorain!"

"No!" shouted Sephiroth, light bursting through his body as the rocks cleared. He began to break up, pieces of himself falling away. "I'll return one day, just you wait!" he managed, as explosions of light around his body took him.

And then he was gone.

The group waited to see if they would have to fight another form, but nothing else happened.

"Let's get out of here and take care of _Meteor,"_ said Susan, casting _Teleportal_ back to the surface.

Once there, Sparkle put _Energetic Accumulation_ on her and she looked up. The pieces of _Meteor,_ now once again fused into a solid mass, were close enough to see now. She contemptuously cast the grade 2 spell of _Thrust_ with all the energy she could muster. Her magic swirled around the rock and she turned away from it. "That's it, folks. We won."

"Uh, it hasn't really moved?" asked Cid.

"Give it a few days. Remember, it took a week and a half to get this close. You expect it'll just zoom away? 60 meters per second is pretty fast, but it's peanuts to space. Don't worry, it's moving in the other direction now. I'll hang here a few days, take you back to that cavern with the Magic Pots if you want, just to be sure. But that's it. We won."

The group made their way to the Highwind, then radioed Rufus that the job was done.

"Glad to hear it," he said over the noise of crashing in the background. "This area just got pretty unstable so we're pulling out. Meet back up at Midgar later and we can talk about our next moves."

"So we really won?" asked Aerith, still looking up at the _Meteor_ as if she could see any change at this distance with the naked eye.

"We really did," replied Susan. "Your world is safe. As soon as I leave, the group that sent me here locks it off from The Darkness, and he can never return."

"So all we have to deal with is the Shinra corporation," said Barret. "Keeping them in line is going to be a pleasure."

"Unless you guys get turned into wanted criminals again," said Yuffie, kicking at the dirt.

"He wouldn't dare! Plus, you're a part of our little group, missy!"

"Eh, the Brotherhood would protect me. Without me, there's no access to the _Huge Materia._ So I'm untouchable."

"You hope."

"Come on," said Susan with a laugh. "Let's go to Costa Del Sol and celebrate!"

The people at the resort town didn't quite understand why these weirdoes were celebrating, but they didn't know what Susan and the rest did. They partied and lay out on the beach, and Aerith kept looking over at _Meteor._

"You think it's a little smaller?"

"Stop worrying! He's gone, forever. You guys beat him with your own strength. I didn't even do much to help, on this world. This crazy, mixed up world. I'll miss it, and all of you."

"We'll miss you too, and your crazy, mixed up magic!" said Yuffie.

"Oh, it's crazy and mixed up, huh? And here I was, going to leave you an item you could use to open _Teleportals_ like I do, so you could go anywhere. Like down to see the Magic Pots whenever you wanted to raise _Materia._ But if it's crazy I suppose you don't want-"

Yuffie jumped up and kissed her, cutting off her little speech.

"Don't get the wrong idea," she said. "I just couldn't think of another way to shut you up."

"I guess that's an acceptable way..."

So Susan hung out there for a little while. She transferred the _Huge Materia_ to the new vault at the top of the pagoda in Wutai, and made an _Imbued_ item for Yuffie to open _Teleportals._ It had to be permanent, due to them not having energy, but it worked just fine. She transferred AP between _Materia_ and made another _Mimic_ for them, and Yuffie said she would probably start making more of them to sell pretty soon. As there was only the one she would have to sell the mastered one, leaving the fissioned one to level and sell. But it was probably worth it, given the rarity and effort of making them.

Susan transferred all of the _Materia_ she was taking out of this world to her sub-space pocket so she could take it with her, but left the swords and armors in her _Pocket Dimension._ She was confident they would go though, as they were just regular stuff. She didn't know how _Magic Counter_ or _Added Effect_ would work, but the group had some of them so she kept them both.

Finally it came time for her to leave. Shina scientists had confirmed that _Meteor_ was moving off, not that any of them had an explanation for why. But news reports went out, and Shinra stock soared higher than ever, and Rufus promised them all a new beginning for the company.

"Perhaps even some electricity generating techniques I totally thought of myself, using fire or lighting _Materia?"_

"You rat!" she said to Cait Sith.

"Sorry, I'm a bureaucrat. Reports are what I do, and I'm very good at my job. So that got in there too! If you want to stay around and sue me, well, Shinra already patented the technique so good luck winning in court."

"Barret?"

"Yeah?"

"Kill."

"You got it."

"This body is just a toy!"

And so, Susan was standing before the group, in the place it all started. She didn't think she had to be here, but it felt right, leaving from the ancient city she had saved Aerith in.

"Thank you for healing me, and helping me find myself," said Cloud, shaking her hand.

"Of course. Now I just have to find myself and we'll be even."

"Keep working on that swordsmanship, and one day you might almost be somewhat near to half as good as I was a year ago." They both laughed. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

"Bye," said Aerith, hugging her. "I really hated you the first time we met. I didn't understand, and I'm still not sure I do. But I'm going to use the life you left me well. I may be the only Cetra but that doesn't mean I have to be the last. I'll have tons of kids, and maybe someday lots of people will be able to hear the planet!"

"I hope so, Aerith. I think if more people could, this never would have happened."

"I hope you find your friend, and your father."

"Thanks. Bye."

"Bye."

"I'm starting up the space program again!" said Cid, coming up next. "The Ancients came from space, so there must be a way to cross that distance. We know the rockets work, and soon we might even put things in orbit to watch the planet and bounce signals around. _Materia_ won't work away from the planet, so it'll just be pure science once we get out there. I'm sure we can make it work though. I'd like to see some of the other planets the Cetra have visited." He gave a laugh. "Maybe one day our race will be called Ancients, because we'll have visited other worlds and left seeds there."

"You have the drive, so you're halfway there, Cid. I wish you luck."

"Thanks," said Barret simply. "AVALANCH won't be the same without you."

Susan nodded. "I'm glad your daughter lived though it all. Your work is done, go be the best dad you can be."

"I will." He looked away. "If my daughter is half the woman you are, I think I'll have done well. See you."

"Here," said Cait Sith, handing Susan a stuffed toy. It was a tiny replica of his robot body. "Don't forget us, okay?"

"I won't. Hope you get promoted and keep Rufus in line."

"I will. He's already asking me various things, so I'm sure the future is a bright one."

"Good. Bye!"

"I think some of my sins have been lifted," said Vincent, also shaking her hand. "It was good, traveling with you. You see things differently, and you've been to other worlds. Like me, you have a monster inside you have to temper, and I think in the end, it'll make you stronger. Remember our fight, when you confront the Darkness once and for all. Even if you stand alone, you're in our thoughts."

"As you will be mine. Thanks for your lightning. I'm going to miss mimicking it."

"Here, I know you can't use it, but at least keep one as a memento. I've got plenty of them now." He handed her a lighting _Materia._

Susan grinned, shoving it into the pocket. "I will."

"Good journey."

"I've been inside you, but I really don't know you," said Tifa. "We found Cloud together, and for that I'll always be grateful. Without you he may yet have been trapped in his own mind to this day. I don't know what your magic is, but it works. I believe in it, and you. There is no doubt in my mind you will find your friend and rescue your father. I'm sure of it."

"Thanks, Tifa. When I do I'll tell them both all about my adventure here, and about all of you."

"It was an adventure, wasn't it. Stay well."

"You too."

"I feel there's much I could have learned from you," said Nanaki, padding over. "I know I mostly kept to myself, just watching the interactions of the group. I think I still have a lot to learn about people, and life. I'm only 48 you know. Maybe you can come back someday, see what this world has become? I'll be alive a long time, so I'll be keeping an eye out for you. You say time doesn't run the same between worlds, but don't hesitate to come back. Even if it's just me, this world will welcome you back."

"Thanks, Na."

And finally Yuffie stepped up. "I'm really going to miss you," she said, hugging Susan and crying.

"I'll miss you too, you crazy ninja. Thanks for the training, I'll keep my skills up."

"Traveling worlds like you do, I should think so! Here." She handed Susan her 4-Point Shuriken. "This is what my master gave me when I graduated. You haven't graduated, but maybe it'll come in handy sometime."

"Thanks. I'll keep it sharp. Maybe read over that spell to manipulate metal and add some more _Materia_ slots, and think of you."

"I'd like that. Now get out of here."

"Goodbye, everyone."

"Goodbye!"

Susan found it a little hard to focus on the watch, her eyes were wet, but she opened the gateway back to the Hub and stepped through, turning one last time before it closed. Her new friends were waving and smiling, even those with tears in their eyes, and with a pop, the wall was blank, and she knew she didn't have HP anymore, but her standard Health Level.

"You did good," said a voice behind her, and she whirled to see Silverstreak standing there.

"Is this how my father felt, leaving my mother and me?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I don't know your father's mind, Susan. But I'm sure he loved your world and you as much as you came to love that one. (I mean I take it you did, given your current emotional state) But come, chin up! You saved a world, and Darkvoid is forever denied it. I'll guarantee you that. Their lives will go on, and maybe even be a little better for knowing you. Don't you think?"

"It wasn't all one way," she said, gripping the weapon tightly.

"Nor should it be. If you learned a thing or two there, it was time well spent. Now, would you like to be alone awhile? I can offer you a room."

Susan looked at Sparkle, and considered.

"No, we have work to do. Best to get to it. Their adventure is over, but mine has yet to actually even begin."

And so Susan looked over her _Character Sheet_ and Silverstreak showed her to a lab where other magic users were working. She had 50 new XP to work with, and Sparkle had 30. They explained the procedure of _Imbuing_ that would be needed to make her _Materia_ work outside the world she had just left. She had spilled out of her sub-space pocket and _Pocket Dimension_ all the things she had brought from the previous world.

"Basically," explained one, "you have to do the full _Imbuing,_ but as if the item was a charged item that had run out of charges. Have you ever done a charged item?"

Susan shook her head. "No point. Given the cost, time, and money put into it, energy or permanent is the way to go. I mean try and keep track of the times you're going to use an item. I've used my _Legion_ a bunch, I don't even know how many times. Miscount and it'll let you down, just when you're expecting it to be there for you. And something like _Armor of Magic_ I would really want going all the time."

"Yes. I think that way of _Imbuing_ was just so shopkeepers could sell items with a limited number of charges."

 _Great, another shopkeeper conspiracy. Why not just sell_ Spell Papers, _with_ Spell Symbol _put on them. Faster, no XP or monetary cost..._

"Anyway, it boils down to this; if you want the effect permanently, like your _Speed Plus_ here, that'll be 12 XP. If you want to activate with energy, like _Sense,_ that would be 6 XP. Any new ones you want to make, say a fire one to use with that Elemental... it'll be the normal cost. Though, now that I think about it, you could create one with just one charge... and never use the charge. Think it over."

Susan opened her mouth to ask if they would link, but she was anticipated.

"Yes, they will link, so if you hit someone with an Elemental link weapon with a poison spell it'll poison them by touch. No wait, that's Added Effect, sorry. You get the idea."

"I get the idea. Wait a second, if I had _Sense_ on all the time, I could instantly know just by looking at someone how much health they had, and if they were weak to something?"

"Well, yes. For most things. _Sense_ didn't work on all creatures, did it?"

Susan sighed. "No, like the Weapons and bosses, and some regular enemies too. Okay. But what about the _Imbuing?_ I would need a similar spell to _Imbue_ into the object, right?"

The man nodded. "You may have to let your book analyze the _Materia,_ it will have enough of that world's energy about it to do that much. Some, like _Speed Plus_ is just like _Augment Speed."_

"I saw that one, it's one of the new spells you guys put in, right?"

"That's right. You're familiar with _Augment Stat,_ so that's no trouble. _Long Range_ would be a modified _Weapon Technique_ spell, probably grade 2 because _Technique_ is only grade four, and does more. _Magic Counter, Elemental,_ those you would have to also have the book look into."

"That's fine. What about Slash All? I don't relish doing 1/3 damage, even if now I'm back to normal amounts of health for people. But what's the range on it? In the last world they dealt with small groups of enemies. If I was facing an army could I slash them all from a mountaintop?"

"You would have to see what the spell was, and it would probably be pretty high grade. It would be a better _Weapon Technique_ spell, able to hit multiple targets. Can I see your book? Thank you. The range is M, and it says you can attack within M range. It would probably be the same for _Advanced Weapon Technique_ or whatever the spell was called."

"I guess. Do I take Long Range, so I can hit one person from far away, or Slash All so I can hit multiples?"

"If you were just facing one person, your magic could take them out more easily no?"

"Well, all of this is in preparation for worlds without magic, or without planets to draw from, like the first world I went to."

"Ah. Well, one-on-one, your opponent will close on you anyway, so you would probably only get one shot to use it."

"True, very true. I'll think about it."

"No rush!"

"Now, onto this other stuff. I notice my _Amulet_ isn't as nice now."

He chuckled. "Yes, you may have noticed the extreme stats those people had. It looks like this is the only thing you brought back with a stat change? Basically anything like this, divide by 5. So you get a plus two while wearing it, that's not so bad, right?"

"All things considered, no."

"Now, the Crystal Sword is quite interesting, it's actually OTR 8 having been brought here. The Enhance Sword is basically just a regular broadsword, so it's OTR 5. You'll have to decide which is better, given the _Materia_ situation you want to use."

"I think I'll be able to put them all in the Wizard Bracelet anyway, so it won't matter."

"True. Now, about that. In the other world they had a _Magic Defense_ stat. You'll find this actually works similarly. It will shave a few points off if you get hit with a spell. Or make it a little easier to shake off. So keep that in mind. You can't wear both the Minerva Band and the Bracelet, by the way. You might think you could, one on each arm, but only the last one you put on will work. Sorry about that, but they'll interfere with each other."

"Oh well, can't have everything right?"

"You can only try. So, give some thought to how you want to spend your XP, and feel free to use the lab as much as you want. There's a map app on your watch, details the whole place, you'll find it. You can also just ask it to take you to your room and it'll do that space bending thing where you walk through a door to another room entirely. When you're here it's connected to the local network, and the local computer power. So it can control a lot of stuff while it's here. Just let someone know when you're ready to start looking for Luna. We have several promising candidate worlds based on where you said you came from and where you were going, so maybe you'll get lucky and find her in the first ten or so."

Susan paled. _Ten... or so? And that would be "lucky?"_ "Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks for everything!"

"Of course. Thank you for beating back Darkvoid. We all appreciate it. Saves us some work." He winked.

"Eh, I just pointed the way, the others did most of the work."

"You did the most important thing, way I hear it. Sent a big chunk of rock away before it could impact the planet. That's pretty important."

"Yeah, I suppose it was."

"See you!"

So Susan got to work. She decided having the extra senses would be nice, so that was going to be made permanent. She had already asked the Mimic be analyzed, she knew that was a grade 7 spell. That could be really handy, and 7 energy every time? She would pay the extra 6 for that one. She didn't need extra speed or being able to attack from a distance until she was in combat, and it was only 4 energy for the pair. The extra LUCk she could use all the time.

She got to work on the Mimic one while the book worked on Sense, having put a massive amount of energy into _Augment Skill: Imbuing._ Even with that, it took her some time to get all her XP spent, which she did. In the end she popped

Sense (Permanent)

Mimic (Permanent)

Slash All (Energy)

Speed Plus (Energy)

Luck Plus (Permanent)

into her _Wizard Bracelet._

 _Man, 60 XP wiped out just like that. But I think it'll be worth it. With Mimic and my_ Adaptive _skill, if I ever get to use it, I should be ready for worlds without all the planets. Or at least combats I don't have to throw energy around left and right to get through. And my LUCk is now a 9, can you believe that? A plus two thanks to the amulet I got, and now another fifty percent raise from the_ Materia. _That'll be nice, not that I make that many LUCk checks, come to think of it…_

Sparkle put her points into the skills she wanted to raise, and learned a new spell or two on top of that.

Finally, Susan told someone at the Hub (and she had been getting to know the beings there, as she had been eating with them and such, they were all very nice) she was ready to go. They handed her a list of coordinates to punch into the machine and some notes on what to expect on each world. (They also showed her how to use the machine, duh)

The first one on the list had the following notes:

"Wait where you find yourself, someone will be along. Somewhat similar magic to your own, but with a twist. Not Paragons. Ask her middle name. Girl's mother may soon die of cancer, leave an _Alleviation_ spell with her."

 _Huh. Okay, so they do similar magic to me, but don't have character sheets? Guess that means it's more like my world, but without wanded magic. That will be very nice, meeting some other people without that weakness. May as well see rather than speculate._

"You ready, Sparkle?"

"Ready!"

"Cross your fingers, Luna please be here!"

The two stepped through the light.


	45. Chapter 45

45

Your Magic is What?

Time: About an hour later

Place: ?

Susan sighed again, looking around at the empty place she had found herself in after stepping through the portal. It was odd here, no real signs of civilization, at least in terms of roads or cities. Far down the hill there seemed to be a small church, white and wood and small. It had, for the past hour, been very slowly burning to the ground. The world here didn't feel right to Susan, to any of her senses. The _Spirit Energy_ of this place felt odd, and there was hardly any magic to speak of. At least she found nothing out of place with her _Dimensional Senses,_ but with only a three in that skill, she figured she would have to be pretty close to something in order to tell. She also heard the odd cackling laughter from somewhere she couldn't place, but she and Sparkle saw no one nearby.

While standing around she had a brainstorm, and got out her _Somatic Sword_ pistol. She forgot to ask someone at the Hub about getting more ammo, but looking at it now it really had the same problem as her magic. It was limited, in other words. Ten shots, and then a lengthy reloading time, even with more magazines close at hand. Her sword might do less damage, but it could now hit more people in one action, and didn't need to be reloaded. Her magic could do more, but still would run out eventually. She wasn't sure _why_ she was so worried about that, but it was a nagging in her mind, like she should try to become as un-vulnerable as possible.

Her decision made, she had gotten out her book to look up the spell for severing the bond, then recast _Somatic Sword_ on her Crystal Sword, instead. For fun, she also read over the new spell of _Material Link._ This was a Jupiter spell which would allow the sword to return to her hand should she lose track of it, or if it got knocked away. She could also feel the direction and distance to it, which was pretty neat. She then put it away, winced at the one damage to her hand, and stuck the gun in her _Pocket Dimension_ in place of the sword.

 _I'll have to ask Silverstreak if there's a way to transfer the_ Dead Magic Imbuing _on the gun into an orb, so I could fit it into a slot. Far more useful that way. Or maybe he could crush the thing down to that size and I'll just pick up another gun from somewhere. Ammo is a problem, but I would still rather have the ten shots than not, in a pinch. Of course that was a specialty item, made to combat Tom. I wouldn't mind having that XP back to put into some other item._

That done, she got bored again and gazed up at the oddly darkened sky.

"'Wait,' the man says," she said for the third time. "Wait for what?"

"And I thought I had _Short Attention Span,"_ remarked Sparkle, raising her head. "There must be some reason we're here."

"I know, I know. It's just the last world I swooped in, whoosh, saved someone right off the bat. This place... I hear shouting and see smoke but I'm supposed to wait here until someone comes?" She had, originally when she had arrived, decided to ignore those orders to wait and started down the hill. Her "watch" had buzzed and vibrated somewhat angrily, and a message popped up on the face. "Wait," it reminded her. So that plan was out. "What if people down that hill there need my help?"

"Oh, that's what this is about? You don't like doing things low key. Maybe the person we're waiting for will help you with the church thing? Remember Sephiroth, you couldn't have taken him alone, maybe it's like that here. The notes said their magic was similar, that means it's probably just as powerful as yours. Until you learn the rules here, you can't take anything for granted. You didn't even check to see if they had all the planets here!"

"I guess I should get in the habit of doing that. Low key. Loki. Odd language thing there, Loki is anything but low key. Or is he, didn't he usually do things by stealth?" Sparkle looked at her, tilting her head. "What? No, I don't, you know that. I mean I'm trying to not be too much of a show off but how can I help it? When I can do things others can't, it's hard. Maybe if magic here is similar mine won't be so out of place, and it won't matter."

"Maybe. But isn't it more your attitude towards things than what you can do that's the real problem?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I can open holes in the air, fly, turn myself into an armored warrior, ho hum." She faked a yawn. "No big deal. What attitude do you want me to have?"

"I don't know. Just remember, it seems these worlds have to be saved by the people that live there, you're just there to help out where you can."

"Which is right and logical. I see no reason to be upset about that. I just chafe at the thought that I could be helping someone right now rather than standing around."

"Silverstreak must know what he's doing."

"I expect- Hello?"

Without warning a confused looking girl had stepped out of nowhere in front of Susan. She looked a few years younger than her, with shoulder length brown hair and gray eyes. Their eyes met and Susan couldn't help but notice there was a pain in them, but a strength too. Like she had seen things that had scared her, but had come through them stronger. An understanding passed between them, _she's like me,_ but then the girl's eyes darted about and the moment was lost.

What wasn't lost was Susan's knowing, beyond doubt, this girl's health and energy level, just from looking at her. She also knew she wasn't weak to any one element. _Guess I know the_ Materia _work, and how that information is presented outside of Aerith's world. How about that? So cool!_

"It's about time you showed up," said Susan, taking a step forward with a grin and holding her hand out. "I was beginning to despair I would ever know why I was here. Name's Susan. Susan Felton. How are you?"

"I'm Nita, Nita Callahan. I'm on errantry, and I great you." They shook hands.

"You're on... what?" Susan asked. She did a quick _Magic Sense,_ and she wasn't sure if it was part now being a _Spirit Mage_ or what, but a sixteen told her that yes, she had the spark. This girl was a magic user, though not of the same type she was. As Susan pulled her hand back, she also did a _Dimension Sense,_ getting a twelve, and no, she didn't belong in this world.

"Oh, I thought you must be... well, never mind. Did you get stuck here?"

"In a manner of speaking. Oh, this is Sparkle, my companion."

"Hello!" said Sparkle brightly. "Can we leave here now, please? This place is really depressing."

"Another talking cat! So you're a wizard too?"

"Wizard?" Susan laughed. "Something like that, yes. Oh, hello there."

"What?"

Susan and Nita looked down to see a kitten had now come out of nowhere, and was looking up at them both. "The wind does blow, doesn't it?" it asked.

"You even have a talking cat companion! This is wonderful!" remarked Susan, feeling a strange kinship with this girl. She had clasped her hands and was looking up now. "I forgive you for making me wait!"

Her watch buzzed again, and there was a new message. "Accepted. Good luck." Susan fell to peals of laughter, and the kitten and Nita looked at each other like maybe her brain wasn't all there.

"Uh, this is Tualha, and we just met recently. Who are you?"

"Susan, didn't I say? Come on, let's get out of here and find someplace a little more cheerful to talk. This place is getting on my nerves. Unless you want to go down and see what that church-" With the crash, the tower that supported the bell collapsed, the fire finally weakening the structure enough to bring it down to earth again. "Or not. Guess that's not why we're here after all. Pity."

"But who are you? How did you get here?"

"How did you get here, Miss appears from thin air? I was sent here to help out, and told to wait for someone. And here you are, so it must be you I'm here to help. Stands to reason, right?"

"I must say I need it. Sorry, I'm a little out of sorts. I didn't expect to actually find anyone here."

"Why did you come, then?"

"I came by accident. I'm not even sure how, but I think I can guess. Come on, let's get back."

"Back? I'm not sure I follow."

"Back to the real world, not this weird reflection of things. Where did you come from?"

Susan shook her head. "A long way away, but really no distance at all. I'll explain what I can, later."

"You better," Nita muttered. "Okay, take my hand. Tualha, can you get back on your own?"

"Naturally," the kitten answered.

Sparkle jumped up on Susan's shoulders, and she looked around to make sure she hadn't left anything lying about. She hadn't, and found herself being pulled in an unexpected direction, finding herself in a much brighter, much more lived in area. The grass was greener, the air clearer. The church, which she could still see down the hill (which now had a road) was not on fire. There was a lake, and off in the distance, a town.

"Oh, this is much better," she remarked. "But what spell did you use? I didn't see you cast anything. Or did you just stop maintaining something, like Sparkle does with _Dimension Step?_ "

"This is going to take a while."

Susan looked at her watch again as Nita looked around, as if unsure she was back in the place she wanted to be.

"10:12, how about that? About an hour ahead of me, but is that right? 1993?"

"Yeah, it's 1993. Why?"

"Huh. Time must run just a bit slower here. Ninety Three, your computers must suck! Do you even have an Internet?"

"A what?"

Susan gave a laugh. "You don't! Wow, I can't even begin to imagine what that's like. No street view, so no bouncing around the globe for me. Anyway, were are we?"

"How specific do you want me to be? We're in Ireland at the moment, does that help?"

"Ireland? Neat. Oh, how open is magic around here, I guess should be my first question. Like should I be hiding it or will doing spells not cause any fuss?"

"You better not, wizardry isn't that widespread. How could you be where you were and not even know that? Are you a wizard or not?"

"Gotcha. It's home all over again, ah well. So, you must know the area, is there a place we can sit and talk? I'll answer all your questions then. And I think your kitten is wandering away."

"I'm not hers!" protested Tualha. "I'm my own cat, and a bard thank you very much! Not to worry, I'll be around when you need me."

"Bard? How does he hold the lute?" She mimed playing one.

Susan shook her head a little. "I don't know the area very well, I'm visiting relatives here, or more accurately the Powers That Be brought me here to help take care of whatever is causing me to go sideways like I did just. Wizardry to do that should be extremely complex, not just me looking around and suddenly I'm elsewhere."

"True, the _Dimension Gate_ spell is grade 10, not your everyday spell to use. To say nothing of the additions to go between worlds rather than just planes of the same world."

"Grade what?"

"You don't have a grading system? Odd, he said it was like... anyway, we'll have to compare styles of magic and I can get up to speed on your problem here. Technically I'm here looking for a friend, so I'll want to get that out of the way first. The fact that all worlds are under attack by the Darkness and I can help close them off is the icing on the cake, so to speak." She shook her head. "There will always be more worlds than people that can traverse and save them, according to him. But that doesn't mean we stop trying."

"Slow down, the Darkness? Worlds under attack? And who is him? My head is still spinning from seeing that weird version of Earth a second ago."

"Oh, sorry about that. One time the problem came later, the next time I was dropped right in the middle of it. So I guess it can go either way."

"What can? You aren't making much sense."

Susan sighed. "I should really start from the beginning. Is there a place we can go and talk?"

So Susan and Nita found a library, which took until about 11:00, and the two girls found a quiet place to sit. They had taken a bus (a real novelty for Susan) and now in a quiet corner, Susan got out _Question_ and asked the local world if Luna was in the world.

"No."

"That's out of the way," she remarked sadly. "Zero for one, but even my increased LUCk isn't going to help with that, I fear. Oh, is that your book of wizardry?"

Nita had gotten a book of her own out of somewhere, making Susan wonder if she had a _Personal Dimension_ of her own. She hadn't seen any lights or symbology floating around, so she still didn't exactly know how magic worked here.

"Want to trade?"

Susan shrugged and handed hers over, and got Nita's in return. The outside looked like a beat up "So You Want to Be a Wizard" book from a library, not at all like hers with the new sensors in the front. She opened it and started to skim the pages.

"What is all this?" Nita asked, paging through hers. "It's all these diagrams and stuff!"

"I was going to ask you the same question. Most of this is in some weird language, and the parts in... English oddly enough... are just theory about stuff."

"That 'weird language' as you put it is the _Speech._ You can't do magic without describing what you're doing in the _Speech."_

"I beg to differ. To do magic I envision the spell formula, which takes the form of those circular diagrams you see on the pages. I request the magic for the specific task I'm trying to accomplish, and speak the 'incantation,' usually just the name of the spell. Given how fast I have to cast it, there usually isn't time for too many words."

"This is all wrong," Nita protested. "You don't even have the Oath in the beginning. How can you be a wizard?"

"Who says I am? I'm a _Natural Magician,_ and a Paragon. Wizards are people that wear cloaks, and wave wands about, at least in my experience."

"Not here. Okay," she said, handing the book back. Susan shoved it back into the _pocket._ "You said you could start at the beginning."

"Gladly." She gave what was probably to become her standard "hi I'm a dimensional traveler' speech, about why she was moving across worlds. She also told about how her magic worked, and showed her a quick _Light_ spell, so Nita could see the spell symbology.

Nita duplicated the feat, making her own little ball of light in the air, and Susan grinned at it like meeting and old friend after far too long.

"You have no idea how nice it is to meet someone that doesn't have to wave a wand around to do stuff. I bet your magic is just as useful as mine is, too. I feel at home here already."

"Wish I did," muttered Nita. "Okay, well, here's the introduction to our type of magic. Which is odd to say, because I was under the impression it was the only type."

"Yeah, tell that to Cloud and his friends. Go on."

"Magic is speech. At the most basic, a spell is describing how you want the world to be, and it becomes that. Everything understands the _Speech_ because the Powers That Be, those that made the world, used the _Speech_ to speak everything into existence. We can use it to talk to animals, to cars, everything. Defining something changes it. So if we want our pencil to be sharper, we describe it as being sharper. That's a spell. This," she hefted her book, "is the wizard manual. Every wizard has something like it, though wizards of the ocean, like dolphins, get their knowledge directly from the sea."

 _You have dolphin wizards?_ But Susan didn't interrupt her.

"The information in it changes based on our needs at the moment. Like back home, in the US, that section is expanded and the Ireland section is tiny. Now that I'm here that's reversed. Plus it lists all the wizards nearby so if I need help I can go ask them. It can do maps, help me figure out spells, all kinds of things."

"Nice. That's more malleable than mine, and mine is only that way because my father did something to it, imparting it with a part of his soul. At least, so I was told. I wonder if he didn't visit a world like this and figure out a little how your book worked. Then he worked that magic into his own, and then gave it to me. I guess I'll ask him someday. The point is, The Darkness is here someplace, and he wants this realities' energy. He'll most likely work though someone to cover this world in darkness so he can take it. Let's beat the crap out of him so I can move on and keep looking for Luna."

"I wonder if it'll be that simple," said Nita, staring at her book but not really seeing it. "I'm basically alone here, without my partner Kit, and my support network, or anything. And I only just got here, and I really have no idea if my going sideways to find you was even a part of the problem! Or was it just because you were there and I needed to go get you? It's all quite confusing."

"Then I guess you better check the book," said Susan, tapping it. "And find some of that help you said would be listed."

"I guess you're right. Give me a little while to read up on some of this new information it has for me, then we'll go get some lunch, okay?"

"Sounds good to me! By the way, I'm being compelled to ask your middle name for some reason. This seems a good a time as any."

"Compelled?"

"Yeah. In the notes about this world. It said to ask your middle name."

"I hate my middle name!"

"Who doesn't? So what it is. Come on, you can tell me!"

"Oh fine, but you better not go spreading it around."

"I won't, I promise."

She hesitated as Susan made puppy eyes at her. "Okay, okay. It's Louise."

Susan and Sparkle both looked at each other, stunned.

"Is it... possible?" asked Susan.

"I suppose anything is," replied Sparkle. "I mean that's just too big a coincidence, isn't it?"

"What?" asked Nita, looking between them. "What do you mean? Is that important or something?"

"Ah, you hate it anyway," replied Susan. "Don't worry about it."

"Come on!"

"Nope! Ask me later, maybe if you're really nice I'll tell you before I leave."

"Come ON!"


	46. Chapter 46

46

Settling in

Time: An hour and a half later

Place: Library

Susan walked around the library, noting with some interest that many books here were in English, but just as many were in Irish. They had an "old" computer which Susan snickered at, and an actual _card catalog._ She flipped through some books, but as far as she could see, the normal parts of her world and the normal parts of this world meshed up pretty well. No weird companies taking control of everything, no monsters roaming the lands, no xp-that-wasn't-xp. She really wanted to see what Nita's magic could do, apart from creating a small light, but she figured if they were going to be fighting the Darkness, there would be plenty of time for that later.

 _I mean rewriting reality just by speaking what you want into existence? What stops them being all powerful? Energy requirements?_ _But again, magic is secret here. What is it about wizards that compels them to keep quiet about what they can do? Tom had one thing right, and that was that magic was a survival trait. Those with magic should live longer and pass on magic to their kids. Unless they're all too busy doing magic to have kids?_

Nita was quiet on the way to find a place to eat, and when she spotted the place that served "American Style Fried Chicken" she muttered "challenge accepted, restaurant!" and went inside. Sparkle slipped in with them, dashing under a booth before anyone saw and protested her presence. Susan ordered something Irish she hoped she wouldn't regret and a soda, wondering if it would taste the same as at home. It did. Nita tried the chicken.

"I'll pay you back once we're not out and about," said Susan. "I have a spell that can translate currency, and my _Resources Background_ gives me $1,000 a month to spend. Haven't spent any in a while, last place I was in the group I traveled with raked it in. Plus with traveling like this, who is to say when a month starts?"

"Convert... I guess you would have to, traveling like you do. But what's a background, and how does it give you money?"

"Oh, you want one?" Susan laughed. "Sorry, only people from my father's reality get those. And it gives me money by virtue of me paying background points for it. It just sort of happens. Though of course reality tries to get it to me in as mundane a way as possible."

"I see."

There was a moment of silence.

"So you've not been here long?"

"No, this is like my second full day here."

"And you're already on assignment? Huh, guess we both don't mess around."

"How do you figure?"

"Oh, I've always been a very 'here's the problem, what's the solution' sort of person."

"Then here's one for you. If the problem is a bunch of kids staring at you because you're a foreigner, what's the solution?"

"Don't look like a foreigner in the first place. Of course the language thing-" Susan paid more attention to where Nita was looking. "There's someone right behind me, isn't there?" _Really should pay more attention to my_ Spirit Sense _skill, an attack could come at any time after all._

 _Now that's the thinking of a real Wanderer, Susan,_ The Darkness praised her. _We'll have you a paranoid mess before you know it!_

 _Thanks?_

"Yes. Can we help you?"

Susan turned around to see an Irish boy and girl standing there, looking back with interest and sizing them up. She looked over, and it seemed they had broken off from a small gang of kids over at another table. While she hadn't noticed the pair's approach, she did notice it was boy-girl-boy-girl. _Crap, this is the 90's. It's bad enough, people knowing I like girls where I come from in 'the future.' Better keep a lid on it here. And what are they wearing? Oh man, 90's clothes!_

The kids were wearing a lot of black, and pretty much everything was tight. Tight pants, tight skirts. _But at least they're pulled up. It'll be twenty years before kids decide having your pants halfway around your ankles is the new in thing. Heck, some of these kids might have kids by then! Babies, anyway._

She snickered, but controlled herself. Actually, looking back at Nita she saw they were dressed similarly, in stout jeans and a t-shirt. _Maybe that's another reason I felt a kinship with this girl, she reminds me a little of home._

"Something funny?" asked the girl.

"Just an unrelated thought. You got picked to be the welcoming committee, huh? Drew the short straw?" _Nice hair, didn't think pink was worn in the 90s back home, but then, how would I know? Maybe it was in Ireland._

"Something like that," said the boy. "You are Yanks, aren't you?"

"You better field this one, Nita. I decline to answer on the grounds of making your heads explode." She snickered again.

"Ignore her," said Nita. "We're both American, yes."

"Cool. Vacationing or what?"

"Or what," said Susan as Nita said "Vacationing." They looked at each other.

"Vacationing," said Susan as Nita said "or what." They looked at each other again.

"Oh, you're a traveling comedy duo! I get it."

"I'm staying with relatives," clarified Nita. "I just met Susan here a little while ago. I'm not sure where she's staying at the moment."

"Probably a van down by the river," said Susan, feeling she was much too early for that reference. _I never did figure out how I can spout those little ditties. Huh._

"How can you not know where you're staying? Did you just get in today?" asked the girl. "Are you backpacking across the country or something?"

"Look, you two want to sit down? Looming over me like that is giving me a crick in the neck."

"If you're going to be in the area awhile, come meet everyone," said the boy. Susan and Nita traded a look, but Nita shrugged and Susan said "okay."

They moved over to where the others were, Sparkle doing a quick spell of _Invisibility_ so she could follow. The pair got introduced to Ronan and Majella, the boy and girl, respectively. Plus the others, and the pair introduced themselves. Ronan was tall, with dark hair that looked like it needed a good combing, and a strong nose. The others would probably never be seen again, so they didn't rate a description. Susan swept her gaze over all of them, silently noting their health level, and one weakness to cold, oddly. _Is there some kind of_ Susceptible _weakness? I know there's_ Resistant Cold _so I suppose there must be._

Susan was struck by a sudden inspiration. _If I know someone's health, and assume their DTR is 1, I can figure out their CON. If I know their CON I know their GONE. If I can get better at_ Spirit Sense _I might be able to estimate someone's energy total, and get a feel for their RES and END. With that I could figure out Wound penalty rates, lethal and non-lethal. I could actually know what minuses someone was under for being wounded! Neat._

Nita did most of the talking, Susan wasn't really dealing with the things they were (homework, school) and also didn't want to let anything slip about the "future." But they seemed nice enough kids, and she got to learn a little more about Nita without having to ask the questions herself. Finally they had to be on their way, and the pair said goodbye.

"So, boyfriend back home?" Susan asked, one of the topics of conversation. It seemed Nita had come here at her parent's insistence, so that her and a boy named Kit could 'cool off' for a little while.

"He's my partner, like I think Sparkle is yours. I told them about the you know what, but I don't really think they get it. Even took them to the moon once, but maybe that was too big to get their heads around. Maybe we should have gone smaller."

"The moon!" Susan nearly shouted, but caught herself. "The moon? How do you go to the moon? Don't tell me you have a more advanced space industry here than we did in the 90s?"

Nita looked confused. "No, wizardry of course. Can't your magic get you to the moon?"

Susan shook her head. "What, you just _describe_ yourself as being on the moon and Bob's your uncle? Crazy. And no, my teleport magic can only take me to where I've seen. I suppose with a high enough powered telescope I could see details there well enough to make it. Couldn't use _Teleportal,_ the vacuum would suck up the entire Earth's air if I let it. Would have to be _Teleport._ A bit of energy to cover the distance... but what about heat? And air? And radiation shielding? And air! I mean people can survive in a vacuum for a little while, as long as they're not trying to hold their breath so their lungs don't rupture. But I wouldn't want to stay too long and get distracted by, you know, not breathing, and then be unable to get the spell off to get home. Maybe I could do a timed _Spell Symbol_ or..." she snapped her fingers. "What's that other one? _Spell Timer_ or something, it activates automatically when something happens. Not breathing for twenty seconds could be it."

"You said air twice. It's all built into the spell. It works, believe me."

"Yes, I realize that, I thought it was such an important piece I would mention it again." Susan stared, a very bad feeling beginning to grow inside her. _Their magic can't actually be_ better _than mine, can it? No, that's crazy talk._

The two decided to walk back to where Nita was staying.

"They gave me a trailer out in back of the main house, you can probably hide there if you don't want my family to see you. Or the help, there's actually a lot of people through that house at any one time, I think. It's a farm so it's pretty busy."

"Thanks. I could just go hide out in my _Personal Dimension_ if it's a problem though. I don't want to inconvenience you after all."

"I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. Wait, you have your own dimension?"

"Yeah, it grew out of my _Pocket Dimension._ I wanted something I could actually enter myself and live in if I needed to. Plus we needed the space to train. Good times. Good times."

"Our magic certainly is different."

"I guess. It's only afternoon, what our next move?"

"I'm not really sure what the exact problem is, that's the problem," said Nita. "I know what I did, but not the cause. I'm not even sure it's a problem with the area. I would look pretty stupid if I went up to a Senior and it turned out to be some weird thing going on with me."

"You mean like a new power you're developing? To cross into other worlds without doing spells? Okay, I can buy that. So you need to do more reading in that manual of yours, see if something like this had happened before, maybe?"

"Exactly. To someone or this place. Or other places for that matter. Then we can worry about how to fix it. The manual lists the Senior's address, but that he's only to be consulted 'in case of an emergency.' So it's something to do with me, or that I can do, specifically."

"No pressure." Susan thought about it. _Moving between worlds, no easy fix for that. Unless there's some object that's causing it that we can break, how would we even go about repairing such a thing. After all, my wrist unit... no, that's just signaling the Hub to open a doorway for me, isn't it? Could someone else have built a device like that? I never asked Silverstreak exactly how complex it was for tech to do what my magic does in that regard. Wait, moving between worlds?_

"Uh, if it isn't you, meaning it's the world itself, what keeps things in other worlds from moving into this one and causing trouble? You would not want the monsters from my last world to start pouring through to this one, believe me. Their HP alone... or would they gain health levels because now they're in our reality?" _But then, that's just an abstraction I have. Most people don't think in those terms because they aren't Paragons. So what would their capacity for damage be, anyway?_

Nita had stopped dead in the street, obviously not having considered this possibility. Susan looked back at her, and she took a couple of quick steps to catch up. "I'll try to read fast."

So Susan was introduced to Nita's aunt, Annie, and told her a mostly truthful version of why Susan was now there.

"Turns out she's just arrived her herself, and we just got to talking. We found we had a lot of things in common, and we've been hanging out all morning. She's nice."

"Welcome to Ireland," said Annie, "don't mind the ghosts."

"Oh, one of my best friends is a ghost. Name of Myrtle. She haunts a toilet."

Annie laughed. "None of that sort around here. You two enjoy yourselves, okay?"

 _Poor fools, they don't even believe me._

And so Nita got to reading. Susan felt a little bad, making her do all the work while she just wandered around the farm (staying out of sight) and looking at the countryside. It was a pretty place, with a mountain in the distance that looked quite green from this distance.

"You could use the _Research_ spell," said Sparkle. "Maybe cut down on the reading she'll have to do."

"Or we could just get things she's already read an hour ago. It's like her book is a permanent _Research_ spell, from what I understand. She knows what to look for, I'm going to trust her to find it. Then we'll support her as best we can as she solves it, and be on our way."

"Oh, that simple, huh? I guess if we're maintaining the 'let the natives solve their own problems' gig, that's fine."

"That is exactly what we are doing. And we're looking for a place we can be undisturbed for a bit. I don't have any _Spell Papers_ with _Alleviation_ on them, and the note said her mother will develop cancer so I should leave her one. Odd, if she can go to the moon as casually as she suggests, that she can't cure that."

"Like she said, your magics maybe just do things differently. I mean can you describe someone with cancer well enough to change them into the same person but without it? I wouldn't want to attempt it, even with a language meant for doing just that."

"I guess. Still, I have _Regeneration_ ones, because that's much shorter to make than the other. But I've got the time and the energy, so let's make a few."

"I'm going to go look for that kitten, I think. He seemed to know what was going on."

"Suit yourself. Don't get stepped by a horse!"

"Please."

So Susan sat for three hours putting _Alleviation_ down in _Spell Symbol_ form _,_ each one taking seventeen minutes so she didn't blow it. _Pity it's two spells, if I could do the_ Symbol _for each, then put the spell into it, I could use my_ Mimic Materia _for the job. But no, I have to maintain the_ Symbol, _then put in the next spell, then start again. Ah well._

She also got the bright idea of putting _Avatar of War_ onto the sword itself, which took nicely. She put the _Symbol_ on the blade, near the guard, and it appeared without issue. The trigger event was her getting it out, something most assuredly "overtly observable." That way the next time she got it out, boom, she would be big, imposing, and attacking. She wouldn't have to waste an action getting the spell up, nor would she have to maintain it. _Win-win all around, if I say so myself. Love that spell. What am I saying? I love all my spells!_

Sparkle came back, saying she had found "the bard" but all she could get out of him was a bunch of poems and old stories that didn't make a lot of sense.

"Probably you don't have the background mythology of this place. The wizard mythology I mean."

"Yeah. But that's not even the worst part."

"What's the worst part?"

"First other talking cat I meet isn't even three months old!"

"There you are," said Nita, coming around the corner. Susan had been hiding out behind a barn at the far edge of the field. "You okay?"

"Sure, just been working on some stuff. Find anything in that manual of yours?"

"I'm pretty sure the problem isn't with me. Apparently the Powers that made Ireland decided they liked their handiwork a little too much. They wanted to stay, but those higher up told them to leave so humans and bunnies and cats and things could move in. So they decided to go a bit sideways to a place that looked kind of liked it. That opened a sort of channel and now it's easier to do that sort of thing around here."

"Oh, so that's normal? How about that."

"No, it's not normal. Even that shouldn't allow the ease with which we moved between worlds. Something has happened around here."

"In my terms the DIF might be one or two less, is what you're saying? I get it."

"I guess so. So what can we do about it?"

"More importantly, how does this fit with The Darkness? I suppose if it opens the floodgates here this world could be overrun in short order. That should probably be our goal for now, finding the local avatar."

"How can we do that?"

"It's never really tried to hide what it was, to a certain extent. In my world it took over the most evil person there and put his own plans into action. In the next it possessed some Ancient Dragon and just started tearing the place up. Turns out it had actually come to the reality I was last on thousands of years ago, their time. The people there were already trying to stop it, after digging it up and injecting it into people. Smart, huh? We just need to find a person like that, someone with odd behavior now, and enough power to do this."

"Haven't heard about anyone like that. And this person must be close, right? I mean it's happening here, not elsewhere."

"Exactly. Someone around here is not what they seem. Our job now is to find them!"

"And then what? We're talking about the being that made death! You can't just walk up and fight them."

"HA! We did the other times. And I'm not sure your death maker is the thing I'm talking about. Just because you have someone powerful in your reality, doesn't mean that being would stand a chance against something from another. Don't worry, an extra dimensional being could obviously crush us like bugs. It chooses not to because then it would lose the world's energy. So it has to obey the rules of the local world for the most part, because it can only fit a part of itself into our world. Of course it would know things we don't, and be able to use other types of power if the body is suited for it. But we can work around that, don't worry. I hope. Here, let me test it right now."

Susan got her pistol from her _Pocket Dimension_ and activated it with the word " _Nullification"_ and eight energy.

"Okay," she said, "try and do magic. Like that light spell, try that."

Nita did, and nothing happened.

"See? I've cut off all magic in a sphere around me. So I just do the same near the person we discover is causing this, I slice them up with my sword, problem solved. I couldn't do this with Sephiroth, that's who it was before, because his magic was more a _Spirit Energy_ effect than what we do. Plus it wouldn't have mattered much, he was bizarrely strong. He didn't use much magic, in combat. But it seems to work fine here! As you guys don't have a genetically engineered SOLDIER program, I think we'll be okay."

"And what if the person it's taken over is innocent?"

"Is what? Oh." Susan considered. "Hasn't happened yet, but I suppose it could. Harder to control someone that doesn't want to be controlled, right? I guess I didn't consider that."

"You better. Even if someone is being controlled, I can't let you just murder them. It goes against everything wizards on this world stand for! Which is life, in case I wasn't clear."

"I know, I know. Fine, I will _threaten_ the person I find and see what they have to say. If they try to escape or they can bypass my _Dead Magic_ zone, choppity chop. If they want to be free, maybe my _Exorcise_ spell will help. We can try various things once we find this person."

"That's at least somewhat more reasonable."

"I'll start looking tomorrow! I can ask the _Question_ spell how far away the nearest otherworldly being is. That should help. If it can't tell me I'll come up with some others questions I can ask. For now though, I'm low on energy and hungry."

"Want to come up to the house and eat?"

Susan shook her head. "Just show me to the trailer. Eating with you would raise some uncomfortable questions. I'm hoping you can sneak me in, or Sparkle can put _Invisibility_ on me. I've got energy for _Create Foodstuff_ so I'll just eat whatever that gives me. Then go to sleep and get started early tomorrow."

"Create what?"

" _Create Foodstuff._ It's a low grade spell that creates a variety of simple foods. Bread, cheese, meat, fruits, that sort of thing. Unless I'm casting it for Sparkle, then it makes mostly fish and chicken."

"Yeah, chicken. Just keep telling yourself that," said Sparkle. "It's not rat or mouse or squirrel or bird or rabbit or anything like that."

"I don't want to know."

"Wait, you can't create food with magic! The universe doesn't allow you to create food or money with magic!"

"Maybe _your_ magic doesn't, but mine can manage it just fine. Food, anyway. I can't create overly precious metals with _Creation_ but I bet I could manage a lump of pure iron that I could sell for money."

Nita was shaking her head. "No, it's impossible. You... you can't."

"I can. Believe me. I'll show you. It disappears after twenty four hours, but as long as you eat it before then, it's fine. I mean it's just matter. Why would creating a sword, for example, out of nowhere be different than creating cake out of nowhere? It's exactly the same thing. I mean I could create wood, and I can't eat wood. But I could burn it, releasing the energy in the wood. Ergo energy can be created with magic and thus food can be created with magic. I mean if you ate plastic, would your magic stop you making a milk jug but you could make a loaf of bread? It's insane."

"How could you eat plastic?"

"I don't know, maybe a spell could allow you to eat plastic. That would actually be interesting, a spell that will allow you to eat anything. And microbes eat plastic, the biodegradable kind, right? So that's food for them. How far do you take it?"

"Come on, this I have to see." Susan got pulled along by Nita in the direction of her little trailer.

"Don't feel bad, the wizards in my world couldn't create food out of nothing either, they could only change the properties of what they already had. Like refilling a glass or enlarging a cookie. Bizarre restriction, but there you are." Susan shook her head. _She can stand on the moon but not make a snack for herself? And she can't cure cancer? What exactly can her magic do?_


	47. Chapter 47

47

Trying to Prove It

Time: The next day

Place: Wandering the local area

Susan had spent the night on Nita's rather too-small couch but a bit of sleep fog had rendered her unconscious before she could grow too uncomfortable. After finishing off some of the food she had made with her magic the night before she was ready to start tracking down the host of Darkness in this world.

Nita, of course, still couldn't understand how such a thing was possible, and even showed her the sections in her book that detailed why. Susan was happy to show her the spell formula, even make her a copy so she could study it for herself.

"I do have to warn you, a very smart girl called Hermione from my world tried to convert my type of magic into hers. She didn't get very far, as I understand it."

But Nita took it, saying she would have some of her wizard friends back home look into it. With that, she and Susan took a bus into town and started walking about.

"And why are we just walking about?" asked Nita.

"You saw me use _Question_ magic before we left. I asked 'Is there a being, apart from myself and Sparkle, that does not belong in this world and is somewhere nearby?' and I got a yes. Then I asked "Where should I go today to have the best chance of seeing the being that does not belong on this world?" and got "town" as the answer."

"That's all true, yes. But it's not much to go on."

"It was enough. Trust me, I have about four extra senses that you don't. One of them is going to reveal the culprit today. I just have to keep my eyes, and senses, open."

"Four? How can you have that many extra senses?"

"Easy, one's a spell I picked up in the last world. One came along from my having the _Spark of Magic._ One came from picking up _Spirit Mage_ from the guy who brought me here. And one he told me about that I could learn because I had passed between dimensions. See, all explainable."

"Yeah, she just had to sacrifice her sense of moderation, irony, and propriety," said Sparkle.

"Uh, excuse me? I never had any sense of moderation."

"I stand corrected."

"But there is one thing I had to give up, and it was hard one."

"What's that?" asked Nita.

"Let's just say I'll never be able to do stand up comedy again."

"Why is-"

"Timing," Susan said over her.

Nita groaned.

"I don't know, you were doing pretty well yesterday at lunch with the whole 'vacation' thing," reminded Sparkle.

"Yeah, maybe we could get an act together. Comedy magicians!"

"No," both said.

"Aw!"

They poked around town all morning, but Susan hadn't come up with anything out of the ordinary.

"Want to get lunch at that same place again?" suggested Nita.

"What? You fly thousands of miles to visit another country, and already you're falling into a pattern? Come on, there must be twenty places to eat around here, why not sample them all? One per day, and then write a... oh, you don't have blogs yet do you?"

"I what? Anyway, the last place was fine, wasn't it?"

"Oh, I see."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's that _boy_ you met there yesterday. That's who you want to see, you don't care about the food, do you?"

"His name was Ronan! And... no comment."

"Well, someone remembered his name, and I don't need to learn a wizard language to know what 'no comment' means."

"So what? You didn't think he was cute?"

"Ah, no. I don't find many boys cute. Sorry."

"Oh." Nita didn't press the issue. They continued walking in silence for a moment. "So where are we going?" she asked at last.

"We're following that truck!" Susan shouted as a pickup truck with a metal cube in the back roared by them. " _Speed Plus_ , come on Sparkle!"

" _Acceleration!"_ cast Sparkle on them both, magic swirling. No one paid much attention but Susan and her cat had no problem trailing the truck until it got to where it was going. Luckily, it didn't have far to go, and Susan peeked out from behind a building as she watched the lady in the truck get out. She was older than Susan by about 45-50 years and her hair was white. She wore glasses, wasn't very tall, and wore stout boots.

Susan caught her breath, studying the truck now that the woman driving had gone into the hardware store that she had parked in front of.

 _Separate. There are two separate energy sources._ She could feel them, now that the box and the woman were not near each other anymore. _The box actually has a_ Spirit Energy _signature, and that woman had far more energy than a normal person, that's for sure. The question is, what do we do about it? Is that box the source of our troubles?_

Nita ran up, panting. "Why did you take off like that? And how did you run so fast?"

"Magic. Don't you have magic to accelerate yourself?"

"Oh, yeah. I didn't even think about it."

Susan groaned. _Oh great, another magic user that doesn't reach for magic first._

"Anyway, forget that. What did you see?"

"See? I felt it. That box has a _Spirit Energy._ And the lady that came out of that truck? She has a really weird energy herself, and way more than the average person around here."

Nita looked over at the truck, then where it was sitting. "I've seen that truck. That's the lady who was putting on horseshoes yesterday. The box in back is actually a small forge."

"She's a weird one then. What normal woman puts on horseshoes? No wonder she wears those heavy boots, probably to hide the horseshoes. Wait, did the actually have horse legs?"

"She was putting them on horses at the farm, you boob!" Nita laughed and punched Susan in the arm.

"Oh! You know her, then? You've been here, what, this is your third day? And you met a person that set my _Spirit Sense_ off just by driving by?"

"There are no accidents."

"All the people that injure themselves in the kitchen would beg to differ. Come on, I want to get a better look at her."

So the three walked into the hardware store, where Biddy was buying nails, and who spotted them right away.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully, "I'm sorry, I forgot your name!"

"I'm Nita, and this is Susan."

"I think you two have a cat following you. What an interesting thing!" The two turned, and Sparkle had been trying to hide but apparently Biddy saw her anyway. "You here to buy a hammer? I'm here for nails myself! And I don't mean a manicure." She held up a plastic bag with nails in it, laughing as though she just told a wonderful joke.

Susan laughed too. "No, we saw your truck and I wanted to introduce you to Susan. She's sort of visiting Ireland herself, but she hadn't seen anything like your forge."

"Indeed," said Susan dryly. "It seems almost alive."

Biddy looked at her curiously. "You don't know how many people say that to me. Just a standard portable forge though. Must be the care and attention I give it, giving it a life of its own."

 _That, or all the people she's fed into it, thought The Darkness. Way I see it, best way to take her down would be to get the gun out, negate magic in the area, and put a couple of shots in her. You'll be long gone before the cops get here. Or you could have Sparkle put up an_ Illusion _around the place, cover what you're doing until you walk out._

The trouble was, Darkness was right. She could wait until the woman turned to pay for her 'not manicured nails' and get the gun out. One action to negate magic in the area so even if this person was a wizard, they couldn't do anything. Another to pull the trigger. She had the skill, she couldn't miss at this range. Drop the _Dead Magic,_ open a _Teleportal_ and head back to the farm. Almost she started the magic to do it. _Almost._

 _Wait, you're advocating for shooting part of yourself in the back?_

 _Hey, you found me, fair and square. It's only a matter of time now, and honestly, you're going to win on worlds you visit, I see that now. Better to cut my losses, take what energy I have gained, and put this little sliver of my consciousness someplace you're not._

 _Right, you know where I am now, so can you be assured I'm not elsewhere, causing you more trouble._

 _Exactly. And really, this was the best I could come up with on this world. There are absolutely no huge dragons, feared wizards, nothing, on this world. I thought I could blend in and finally make some headway here but no, you had to show up. I mean why did you pick this world first anyway?_

 _It was first on the list._

 _She's turning. Do it!_

Susan was tempted. But she remembered the last time she had believed her "sure victory" using this method. It hadn't worked out then, why would it work out now?

 _This part of me won't have_ Free Magic _going, there's no reason for it. What am I going to do?_

 _No, you must recognize me. If you did, then you set something up to defend against that very strategy, because I've used it before. I mean you beat me the first time I used it, and you couldn't have seen it coming. No, you have something special in mind if I do that again._

 _You're so paranoid. But not really, most travelers like you get even worse, just like you will. Too bad, this would have been the perfect opportunity._

 _Don't worry, another will come._

So Susan exclaimed over the forge, which Biddy was all too happy to show her, and she wished them a good afternoon and drove away.

"Well? Still think she's the avatar of evil?" asked Nita.

"She's something. I couldn't see her health level, that's a sure tip off."

"Her what?"

"She's a boss type character?" asked Sparkle. "That explains the odd _Magic_ and _Spirit Sense,_ doesn't it?"

"A what?"

"I can see how healthy or damaged people are," explained Susan. "People. But I couldn't tell anything about her. That means she's something else."

"Then how come you felt that energy you said you felt?"

"Ha! Know what would happen if you boiled water and didn't let any steam escape?"

"Your pot would blow up."

"Exactly. I'm getting a sense of the energy that just naturally flows away from her. Nothing alive can help that, I think. Not if they don't like blowing themselves up, anyway. You know where she lives? I want answers, and I'm not going to get them in the middle of a hardware store."

Nita shook her head. "Like I said, I met her at my aunt's farm. Maybe we could look in the phone book though."

"Oh, right, those aren't useless at the moment because everyone uses a cell phone."

"A what?"

"You'll see."

"Fine. But can we get lunch now?"

"Sure! We can even go see if your new _crush_ is around."

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

But both were laughing.

So they asked the kids (hey how about that, they did come into play again) and one of them knew where she lived.

 _Thank you, LUCk of nine, for that sixteen LUCk check roll!_

This time Nita was more adventurous, ordering something Ronan suggested, and Susan ordered the same. They stayed and talked for about an hour, but Susan was antsy to get a look at "Biddy's" house before she went back there. So the two said their goodbyes and headed off.

They made their way to a house with a large barn in back, which Susan said was perfect. She used _Unlock_ to open the door, and shoved it aside.

"She's going to know we're here!" protested Nita.

"I know, that's the plan. We're going to be _invisible_. When she comes in here to see why the door is open, you slam it shut. She'll whirl around and I'll cut off magic in this area. Then we'll get some answers."

"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling about this."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. There is no way that person is human. Not when so many things I sensed about her were so off. We do an afternoon's waiting, confront her, and you get to enjoy the rest of your time here without going sideways."

"I hope you're right. There could be one other inhuman thing, and attacking it would be... bad form, at the very least."

"Yeah, well, we'll know if she attacks us, right? I won't attack if she doesn't!"

The area inside was an actual forge, and all three looked around without touching anything.

"I don't feel anything magical around here," cautioned Susan, "but that doesn't mean there aren't mechanical traps of some kind. Be careful."

"Odd that the supposed avatar of evil you're chasing would live in such a normal place."

"I guess. But maybe after being chased off three worlds it's becoming a little more subtle."

"I hope not," said Sparkle. "We don't do subtle."

Susan laughed. "That we do not!"

So the three waited. They discussed strategy, and what Nita's magic could do, as she didn't really have any weapons. Susan offered her a sword, but Nita said she'd probably just cut her own foot off, and would stick to magic. She reviewed some spells in her book as they waited, an activity Susan approved of. As night fell, Susan started to get worried someone at the farm would miss her, but suddenly a car drove up the driveway towards the house.

"Showtime," said Susan, nodding to Sparkle. They got _Invisibility_ put on them, and Nita got in position behind the door. Susan had her gun out, ready to activate.

"Hello?" called Biddy, walking into the room. She was looking around, and once past the midway point towards the forge, Nita slammed the door. She became visible again, and Biddy whirled. _Much faster than a woman her apparent age should be able to._ "Nita?"

" _Nullification!"_ Susan intoned, making her own _Invisibility_ drop, and bringing up the gun. Biddy whirled around again but froze as she looked at the gun.

"Darkness, how nice to see you again," said Susan sarcastically. "Saw your handiwork when I first arrived. I have to say, usually you're more... what's the word... blatant, than that. But I suppose dozens of world's worth of creatures coming through holes in the air and possibly tearing apart everything in sight, including each other, would be quite a spectacle, wouldn't it?"

"What are you talking about? How did you get a gun? Am I being robbed? But you could have taken anything and just left-"

"Oh, bravo. I'd clap, but," she gestured to the gun with her free hand. "The other two times you couldn't wait to show off that you knew me. Taking a different tack this time? That's fine."

"I think you have the wrong person-"

"Save it! I felt your energy, and I can't see your health level. Plus your magic is all screwed up, if what I compare to Nita is any indication. And even as you stand there my _Dimension Sense_ (which Susan rolled max on, a thirteen) is telling me you're not supposed to be here. So cut the crap, you're The Darkness, and all I need to know is, should I shoot you before or after you leave that poor woman's body? I'd like after, but whatever."

"I'm not who you think. Nita, tell her, I'm... one of the Powers That Be!"

"Oh no!" said Nita, hands flying over her mouth. "We got it wrong, Susan. It's okay, she's one of the good guys! I was afraid of... Susan?"

The gun hadn't wavered.

"Have any proof?" Susan asked. "Because that's a convenient little story, I'll admit. Fits the facts. Maybe a little too well, because my story fits the facts too. Don't suppose there's any way to prove it?"

"I'm... trying. What did you do?"

Susan barked a laugh. "Locked down magic in this room, as if you didn't know. I wasn't going to give you the chance to use my father's power against me again, that's for sure. So this time we decide this without magic. And I can't believe I just said that."

"Look, maybe I can bring someone back... my advisers," pleaded Nita. "I'll go and get them, and they'll tell you! I mean you'll believe me if I say they're okay, right?"

"Them? There's two of them?" Nita nodded. "Okay, I doubt that all three could be avatars at once, though I suppose there's no reason they couldn't. But even Darkness can't cover that many angles at one time, right?" She shook her head. "Whatever. Just go and get back here. I'll cover whatever this is."

"If you really are... who you say, I'm really sorry about all this."

"Wait, you can't go! The-"

Susan took a half step towards her. "Don't think of moving from that spot. Go, she might have another trick up her sleeve that isn't magical. I can feel any buildup of _Spirit Energy,_ if you're going to try something with that. I'll pull this trigger if I do. GO!"

Nita threw the door open again, speaking in that weird language of hers. Oddly enough, Susan's _Adaptive Skill_ kicked in, as if making a _Language_ check to understand a foreign language. As she got 10% per point on the check, and she got an eleven, she understood 110% (rounded down to 100%) and realized she was asking the universe to please take her to such and such a place. Once outside the field (Susan had marked it out earlier, where it would reach to) she spoke a final word but instead of disappearing, she was knocked off her feet and spent sprawling with a cry of anguish.

 _Did she just backfire?_

"I warned you!" said Biddy, taking a step. "We have to-"

"What did you do?" yelled Susan, squeezing the trigger three times and aiming center of mass. She spent energy on MANipulation, getting a 23 on her check, so even with a LUCk of ten, there was no way Biddy could get out of the way. She tried, spending 8 energy on REFlexes to try and dodge the bullets, and also trying something again with magic, which of course failed. The three bullets slammed into her chest, throwing her backwards.

"Crap! Nita!" She dismissed the _Dead Magic_ field and ran over to her, unstrapping the knife from her leg after transferring the gun to the other hand. "Hang on, I'll save you!" She raised the blade high, about to stab it into the unmoving form of her new friend, when she was blown off her feet and had to make a _Gymnastics_ check to roll out of it. She again spent energy, getting an eighteen and rolling to her feet as a reactive action.

"I don't know what you are," said Biddy, somehow holding her knife, "but you can be sure I won't let you try to murder her too."

"Lady," said Susan, fury in her eyes, "maybe you're Darkness and maybe you're not. Either way, you just stopped me saving a friend. That was a big mistake." She held out her hand, dropping the gun from the other as it seemed not to have done much good. There she was, not bleeding to death from bullet wounds at all. _Maybe a bit of magical fire and good old crystalline sword will do the trick._

" _Blade_."


	48. Chapter 48

48

Round 1- FIGHT!

Time: Just then

Place: Outside Biddy's barn

Susan had but one thought as the sword materialized from out of her hand and she grabbed it before it could fall.

 _Aerith, you didn't remind me to save before I started all this! Isn't that your job?_

Suddenly she was looking down on Biddy, who hadn't been that tall to begin with, and was somewhat surprised to see that she looked surprised.

 _Is Darkness really just getting into the character or am I making a horrible mistake?_

Biddy put out a hand and a hammer came crashing through the wall, which she caught with a practiced ease.

 _Like I'm going to get within striking distance. I hate to only do one third damage, and really do need to get_ Long Range _up and running when I can. Oh well._

Sparkle tried to cast _Acceleration_ instantly, but rolled two from minimum so it didn't go off. She considered spending the two XP but it wasn't like Susan could really be hurt in that armor of hers, so she figured she would just wait. There was only one opponent, after all.

 _How embarrassing, have I ever failed a spell?_ she thought.

Susan and Biddy went at the same time, so Biddy started towards her. Susan dropped back into the stance she always saw Cloud using when he had borrowed her _Slash All Materia_ and swung, making a called shot to Biddy's body. Biddy threw herself to the side as the blade seem to materialize from out of nowhere. It passed harmlessly through the space she had been occupying and stopped her forward momentum.

 _Stupid defense checks, Cloud never had to worry about the monsters he was facing making a dodge when this was coming at them. They just took it. Isn't only doing a third the damage enough? Why do they get to see it coming as well?_

"You are dangerous," said Biddy. "I've never seen any wizardry like you're using. Well then, try this!" She chucked the hammer, which sped towards Susan like a shot. Susan did a casting of _Defection_ figuring that would be better than her dodge, which was at this point not yet _Accelerated._ She rolled max, an eighteen, and smugly believed that would stop just about anything.

Naturally the hammer smashed straight through, and impacted her armor. Being a thrown weapon, she depended on her _Passive Dodge_ which was now an fourteen, for the calculation to see if it smashed through that as well. Her armor AR was currently ten, and ties go to the defender. Even as the hammer bounced away from her she failed her STRength check and flew backwards, teeth rattling from the force of the blow. Biddy put her hand out and the hammer came back.

 _Okay, who does this lady think she is, Thor? Also, better start using more energy because it seems she doesn't have average stats, or is spending lots of energy herself..._

Sparkle began casting _Destruction_ on the hammer, and magic glittered around it.

"You aren't doing that," remarked Biddy, looking over at her. Susan was waiting for a chance to do a reactive action and make her _Gymnastics_ check to stand up. "But who else has wizardry like-" She glanced around and saw Sparkle. "A cat? I don't want to hurt you, cat, but if you don't stop..."

She raised the hammer, then seemed to hesitate as if waiting to see what Sparkle would do.

Susan made her check to get up, managing it with a fourteen and rolling to her feet, sword out. She saw the magic take hold of the handle of the hammer, which disappeared in a puff of smoke. The head bounced down past her, and she stupidly looked down at it.

"Okay, this is all wrong," she remarked, "but if that's how you want it." She transferred the knife to her other hand with a flip and chucked it at Sparkle, who didn't bother dodging. It sliced into her, doing healing "damage" if that can even be a thing.

 _Wait a second, can I do a called shot to the back of someone? This_ Materia _allows me to attack from a distance, and it doesn't respect physical space..._ Rather than think about it, Susan swung again, and Biddy caught the motion out of the corner of her eye. Sadly she only got a ten on her check, so even with the penalty for being "flanked" Biddy just moved her head a little and the blade whistled by.

"You're next!" she promised, looking around for something else to use as a weapon.

"Take another look," said Susan.

"What?"

"Thanks for the knife back," said Sparkle, putting it into her own sub-space pocket. As it was currently shoved inside her, it counted as her touching it, and vanished. "Susan put a lot of work into it, she wouldn't want to lose it."

"Okay, what?"

Susan couldn't help laughing.

"Are you mocking me?"

"Nothing of the sort," said Susan, "It's just that look on your face that _Dazzle!"_

The magic hit but Biddy shook it off. "Don't you mean Glitterdust?" she asked scornfully. "Your spells don't seem to be working very well on me."

 _True, what are this person's stats? I've been holding back a little in case I'm wrong but she did just try and kill Sparkle. So I guess no more Mrs. Nice Girl._

"I didn't want to use this," she continued somewhat sadly, "but I guess I better stop playing around."

 _Oh great, she wasn't being totally serious either?_ Susan watched as Biddy pulled a sword from somewhere, and dropped back into a crouch. _And she has her own pocket dimension as well. This just gets better and better._

"You and me both lady," she replied.

" _Entangle!"_ cast Sparkle, getting a seventeen. The nearby plants grew and twisted, reaching out to grab Biddy and hold her fast. She struggled, but was unable to break free.

"Nice one!" said Susan, beginning to cast again. She took the full time, figuring Biddy wasn't going anywhere.

Biddy was helpless as Susan finished the five segments of _Elemental Burst: Knockout_ and dazzling energy erupted around her body. With nowhere to go, the energy tore into her and she passed out, the sword falling from her hands and she went limp. The plants around her were still holding her up, but Susan didn't think it was a trick.

"Quick, the knife," she shouted, running over to Nita. Sparkle was at her side a second later, and the knife clattered out, which Susan picked up and jabbed into her, making her gasp.

There was an explosion of wind nearby, and Susan's head jerked in that direction.

"Get away from her!" shouted a boy about Nita age. He looked hispanic, with a darkish complexion, black hair, and brown eyes. He was accompanied by two older men, both in their mid thirties, one with as fine a mustache as any man could ask for. Both had dark hair, and average looks, but both wore expressions of anger when they saw the blade sticking into Nita.

"Funny story-" Susan started to explain, hoping to defuse the tension with some humor. After all, hadn't this very thing happened back with Lockhart in the hospital? It had. And she was sure they would laugh about it sometime, maybe ten years or so from now.

"I said get away from her!" shouted the boy again. _Pretty brave, he just teleported in to find a huge girl in armor, apparently stabbing his friend. And he didn't back down._

"This just keeps getting better," remarked Sparkle. " _Entangle!"_ Susan noticed she dropped the initial one as she cast, any plants not real crumbling to dust, as the others relaxed their grip and Biddy fell over.

"Hey!" shouted the one older wizard, as plants again grabbed for everything in the area, holding it fast, or at least trying to. Susan saw that two of the three people in the area probably weren't going to be held.

 _Fine. "Hypnotic Field!"_ she cast, spending maximum energy on the spell. (This was now a thirteen for her) She got a twenty one, and those inside got eighteen or less.

"Now look," she said, finally grabbing the knife back out of Nita, who was stirring at last. She walked through the field towards them, but the plants were still in the way. "As you can see, you're helpless. Sparkle?" She waved a hand into the mass of plants.

"Right." They went away again.

"Thank you. I could easily chop you to bits while you're like this. But if you can let me explain, I'll let you go. Look, I'll even disarm myself, so you know I'm on the level." She decided she wasn't in danger anymore, ending the scene and making her armor go away. That done, she put the sword back inside her, stabbed her hand with the healing knife, and put that back in the holster tied to her leg. "See, no more weapons."

Nita groaned. "Oh, my head. What happened?"

"I'm not sure. But if you can tell the cavalry not to attack me, I'll let them go."

"Yeah, sure," she said, getting shakily to her feet. "What's that?"

"This? Just a bit of magic for keeping people from attacking me. I didn't want the situation to get any more out of hand than it already had."

"It's pretty." Nita walked towards it.

"No, wait, stay out of the-" She went into the circle of light and zoned out. "Oh, come on!" Susan went over to her and closed her eyes, breaking her out of it. "Back out, another step, okay you can open your eyes again."

"How come you can go in there?" she demanded.

"I cast the spell, of course! Now tell them!"

Nita shouted to the others. "It's okay, she's with me. This is the girl I was telling you about."

"Right," Susan said, glad that was taken care of. "I'm going to drop the spell. Someone needs to check on that woman there. She claims to be some "power that be" or whatever but I say she's a soul sucking monster I call The Darkness. If I could get someone's opinion on that before she wakes up, that would be great."

That said, she dropped the spell, and the others came back "awake" again.

"Nita," said the boy, edging away from Susan. "Are you okay?"

"I feel great, actually. Not sure what happened. I was trying to come get you, and then suddenly you were already here."

"I thought it was something she did," said Susan, walking back over to her gun. She picked it up and shoved it into her sub-space pocket rather than take the time to open her _Pocket Dimension_ at the moment. "You ran out, cast, and suddenly were thrown off your feet."

"It's the area," said one of the older wizards. "Didn't your manual warn you? There's a lot of overlay in Ireland. Doing any wizardry without compensating for it can be very dangerous."

"Is that so? No wonder she was sticking to physical attacks."

"Look, who are you?" asked the other older wizard. "And did you just fight with one of the Powers that Be and _win?"_

"Long story... Short version? Me Susan. Me travel worlds, kick evil butt. Me find woman me think is evil. Me kick butt. End of story. Good story."

"Can... can I get a slightly longer version of that story?"

"Sure, once that creature is secure to my satisfaction."

"I think she really is a Power," said Nita.

"A good Power, or a bad one? Because until I get some evidence one way or the other, there's no way I'm trusting that woman."

"But how do you know?" Susan protested, moments later. The woman had been tied up, using some chain the group had found in the barn. The two older wizards were now trying to convince her this was all just some misunderstanding and she was one of the good ones.

"We can just feel it," Tom said, (and yes, the irony was not lost on Susan at all.)

"They would know better about their own reality," said Sparkle hesitantly. "Right?"

"I guess we'll just have to trust them. Fine, I'll wake up 'Biddy' here and see what she has to say for herself." She got out the knife, which the others jumped up at. "It's fine, it's my healing knife, don't worry about it. You saw it sticking out of Nita when you arrived, remember?"

"Who puts a healing spell into a knife?" asked Carl.

 _Maybe I should change it, if that's possible. It's just that the way I made it, the activation is sticking into someone. I would have to rework it to allow it to be cast or used like my other_ Materia _now. Oh well, I can worry about that later._

"It was necessary at the time," she explained, sinking the blade into Biddy's chest. Her eyes fluttered and she woke up, as all she had was non-lethal damage, which instantly went away with _Alleviation._

"What's going on?" she asked, struggling against the chains.

"Just a precaution," answered Susan. "Now, if you can offer some proof as to your identity, we can clear this whole thing right up."

"You want me to prove I'm not the Lone Power?"

"Or The Darkness, yes. That would be ideal!"

"How do you expect me to do that? I can't just whip out my Bright Power Membership Card you know."

"I don't know, think of something. These people want to vouch for you, and if that's the best I'm going to get... fine. I'll accept their word for the moment. You can convince me with your actions later."

"If you don't mind me asking, who are you really?" asked Kit.

Biddy sighed. "I guess it's all out in the open now, huh? I would really like to know how you found me out, and what that power was you were using. I've had many names over the years, the Smith of Falias, and Govan, Smith of the Gods."

"This workshop... it fits," said Nita. "The Lone Power wouldn't strive to build, or create. That One only wants to tear down. Can we let her out please?"

Susan looked around at the others, who all nodded. "Very well, but if this comes back to bite us later, I reserve the right to hold it over your heads for at least twenty minutes. _Unlock."_ The lock that held the chain in place clicked open, and Biddy shrugged the chains off.

"Yes, that! What was that? You're no wizard, that's for sure."

"No, I'm a _Natural Magician."_ Susan went on to explain her method of using magic.

"And it really is magic," said Biddy when her story was done. "It's not wizardry, that's for sure."

"I suppose there is a difference. Whatever you call it, my power is effective enough. Now, what can you tell me about what's going on around here?"

"What do you mean, going on around here?"

"You haven't noticed?" asked Nita. "I guess maybe I did just stumble into something, and there's really no trouble here at all."

"I'm here for a reason," Susan reminded her. "If she isn't the reason, we have to keep looking. The Darkness should be around here someplace, and I want to move on to the next world I have to check."

"We need to get back," said Tom, "if things are handled here?"

Susan glared at Biddy, but nodded. "I beat her once, I could do it again."

"Thanks for coming to the rescue," Nita said to Kit. "How did you know I was in trouble, anyway?"

"Are you kidding?" Kit laughed. "I felt it from where I was. How could I miss it?"

"Oh."

"It was nice meeting you, Elder Sister," said Carl. "I'm sorry it wasn't under better circumstances."

"The world turns us all," she said with a sad smile.

The two figured out how to teleport back home without blowing themselves up, and Nita, Susan, Sparkle, and Biddy were left looking at each other.

"So," Biddy said, probably wondering how to proceed. "You're from another world, huh?"

"Which I don't get," protested Nita, "now that you mention it. I've been to other worlds. Wizardry was the same there as here."

"The way it was explained to me, it's like a tree. You live on one branch of the tree. Even if you go to another world, it's still just the same main branch. When you went sideways to that other place, you were traveling to a different leaf on a divergent branch. I go between branches."

"And that's where you're afraid this Darkness of yours is from?"

Susan shook her head. "No, he's from further _up_ the tree, and he wants to climb higher still. But to do that he needs energy. Energy he's going to get by sucking it out of the branches were we all live."

"You thought that's who you were fighting?" asked Biddy. "Just how much were you holding back, anyway?"

Susan looked at her out of the corner of her eyes. "Do you really want to know? Suffice to say, it could have been a lot messier if I had been more confident. Besides, just like you, the universe The Darkness finds itself in limits the available power it can use. It could energy blast me, but I would get my normal checks against it. Of course in some worlds it can bring more of itself, so it might have more abilities than it otherwise could. I don't really know how it all works myself, I just do what I can with the magic I have. Bottom line, I knew I wasn't fighting the real thing, just an avatar, which I've managed to beat before."

"I see. Well, if I can help, let me know. It sounds a lot worse than my brother, He just wanted recognition for His work, that none of us in the beginning had considered. He's proud, so He couldn't back down afterwards and admit maybe entropy wasn't such a great idea. At least this universe will get billions of years to run and grow before it dies. This Darkness creature, it seems it would just suck the universe dry in a matter of days."

"It would seem that way, as it would operate outside the branch. And thus, outside your time flow."

"Why can't it just do it then?" asked Nita.

"You mean like a vampire? Just hold someone down and start sucking away? Do you have those?"

"Not real ones, that I know of. Thank goodness!"

"Okay, but you get the idea. As I understand it, because you're all using the power now, yourselves. It's bound up inside life everywhere. There's only so much to go around, and it's in use. It has to kill you all off before that power will be free and he can take it for himself. Plus, it tried to multitask and take them all at once. That spilt it's attention, and power, so it kind of has to do things the hard way."

Biddy snorted. "So basically, we're the termites living inside the bark of the tree, and we're fighting off a lumberjack that wants to cut the branch off."

Susan seemed impressed with the analogy. "Exactly. We keep fouling up the blade on the chainsaw."

"And once you kick him out, another being like him puts a fence around the branch so it can't ever try again?"

"That's what he told me. I have no reason to doubt him."

"So... no hard feelings?" She held out a hand.

Susan took it. "If you really are who you say, I do apologize. You do understand, I was sent here for a reason and you looked a lot like the reason. I didn't consider other beings here might sort of fit the parameters I was searching for."

"Don't worry, I know all about need."

"You and me both," muttered Nita, causing them all to laugh.


	49. Chapter 49

49

What Hunts

Time: Early Afternoon

Place: The hills of Ireland

"It's there someplace," one of the Silverstreak agents said to Susan when she called in that morning to make sure. "I'm really sorry we can't be more specific than that."

"No, I get it, that's why we get sent. If you could pick The Darkness out from where you were, you could just laser him from there. **Pechu!** "

The agent laughed. "We might use something a little more effective than that, but yes, I recognize the sentiment. Sorry to make you do this, I know you just want to find your friend and your father."

"I can't walk away from an entire reality that could be in danger. And Luna can take care of herself, I wouldn't have considered bringing her if she couldn't. If you guys say part of The Darkness is here, I'll take your word for it. I just sort of screwed up and accused the wrong person, so I hoped there might be at least some clue to where it was hiding."

"The best intel we have generates the gates for you to go though. The rest is up to you."

"Okay, thanks." _For nothing._

"Later."

"Bye."

Susan watched the tiny face of the agent disappear, then sighed.

"No luck huh?" asked Sparkle.

"Not a bit. And no one else we've sensed seems to fit the profile."

"Our rating in the skill is pretty low though."

"True. But it isn't like _Spirit Sense,_ where you have _Ley Lines_ and people's own energy and plants and everything else around to muddy the waters. The Darkness should stick out."

"It's only been a couple of days."

"I guess. The Ancient Dragon showed up way later, I was with Louise for some time. I really hope I'm not going to have to wait every time. Of course The Darkness must guess I'm looking for my dad, so naturally it would want to delay me as much as possible."

"That reminds me. Tom is a common enough name, but Louise? And it's Nita middle name... do you think it means anything?"

Susan shrugged. "These worlds are removed in time, space, and dimension. Take this world for example- it seems close to ours. If I figured out where Nita lived in this world and took a trip there in mine, would I find her? Would she be a witch or not have magic? The smallest thing could make a person's life change drastically."

"And talent for this wizardry wouldn't necessarily translate to wanded wizardry back home."

She chuckled. "It's the cutie mark crusaders all over again- what do you do if your special talent is rocket design or some AI programming if the underlying technology isn't there?"

"You get a person like Leonardo, who put a lot of things down on paper but was hundreds of years ahead of a time his true genius could have actually have been most useful."

"That's for sure. But to answer your original question, I think it's just a coincidence at this point, but if more start to crop up I reserve the right to change my opinion. I mean we are all from the same trunk, right? So it's not unreasonable to assume some minor elements might be seen in more than one place. She's not a zero, that's for sure. I mean she was sent here by her Powers for some reason, right? They wouldn't send a zero, especially not after that Lone One she talks about. Wizards who are sloppy or lazy get killed around here! Not like back at home, where you just get poor grades."

"Right, after they take the Oath they get a sort of trail to see if they can handle the power. She said people here get the wizardry when there's a problem that crops up only they can handle, right?"

"Right. So?"

"So, what if The Darkness operates the same way? Presumably it was inside the Dragon for some time, or took it over just as it woke up. Why not wake it up earlier? It awoke in response to Void magic coming to the world. Or Void started because it was going to awaken, never did figure out which came first. The point is, maybe there's some kind of _Event_ that the Darkness has to use, just like wearing a body when it comes to our lower dimensions."

"Energy saving. Yeah, that makes sense. Why use a bunch of energy just slaughtering everybody if some other thing is scheduled to come along and take a shot at it? Then you just swoop in afterwards and bingo, all you can eat energy buffet. So what you're saying is, let's look around for any major events that might take place in this area in the near future, and let The Darkness come to us."

"That might be easier than checking a whole town's worth of people."

"Okay, but if that mountain over there explodes and some dragon slithers out, these people are on their own."

Sparkle laughed. "Oh really? You wouldn't pull your sword, scream a battle cry and go charging at the thing?"

"Maybe. If I thought it would look cool, and there was someone around I wanted to impress."

"Yeah, that's the criteria to use." Sparkle's eyes rolled.

"All that aside, what now? We'll head back to see Nita I guess, see if she's come up with anything in the meantime."

"Sounds good."

"Now, which way to go to get back?"

Some time later, Susan's shadow covered Nita, who was laying on a towel, in the sun, in a bathing suit. Her eyes popped open.

"Hard at work I see," she remarked sarcastically. _Though she does look good in that swim suit. Don't stare at her legs, don't stare at her... okay don't stare at those either._

"I'm taking a little break," Nita protested. "Don't you take breaks?"

Susan had to think for a moment. "Not usually. If I'm not _Fabricating_ or _Imbuing_ something for someone, I read my book of magic over to make sure I stay familiar with all the spells I have at my disposal. Or I'm picking up a new skill, or helping some old lady with who to give her inheritance to so I can get quest XP. Or scouring a town to see where The Darkness is hiding, which was totally worthless in this case by the way."

"Even you need to relax sometime!"

"Sure, when I have tens in every skill, every spell memorized, with immortality going and my enemies driven before me. I'll take a week off. Then I'll start researching even better spells."

"Good luck with that," Nita muttered, closing her eyes again.

"Seriously? You're just going to lay there?"

"Yes, seriously. I am on vacation at the moment, you know? And I only went sideways when I was wandering around looking at stuff. If I stay put, maybe it won't happen."

"You're not on vacation according to that book you showed me, which said you were on assignment or whatever."

"And I'm thinking very, very hard about what to do about that, too."

"As long as you're still on the job... any events coming up that you know about? Volcanoes overdue to erupt? Nearby rocks about to fall from space? Global disease outbreaks more widespread than they should be? Evil super villains about to break out of supposedly secure prisons? Anything like that, sort of global catastrophe stuff?"

Nita shook her head. "Most exciting thing happening around here is the fox hunt today. They should be by pretty soon actually."

"Fox hunt? Little barbaric, even for the 90s don't you think?"

"Oh sure, some company makes... what did you call them? iPads? And suddenly the world isn't barbaric anymore. Don't worry, I warned the foxes away days ago. They won't find one within five miles of this place."

Susan snorted. "You really did?"

"I really did," she agreed.

"Fine, I guess you can take the afternoon off."

"Thanks, _mom."_

"Say that again?"

"Thanks mom?"

Susan considered. "Mom. Does have a nice ring to it. Ah well, maybe someday. Now about this hunt..."

But the hunt, when it went by, seemed perfectly normal. (If you're into that sort of thing.) A lot of horses, and a guy trying to ride and blow some kind of brass instrument, and people going "hyaaa!" and such. Oh, and barking dogs. Lots of running, barking dogs.

"At least they seem to be enjoying themselves," Sparkle noted.

"I guess, as they don't have Playstations yet. Do they? What video game system do you guys have?"

"Personally? We don't even have a Nintendo," answered Nita. "Too busy with wizardry, really. But a lot of boys at school talk about the Super Nintendo."

"Wow, I never even had one of those. I hear it had some good games though."

"I wouldn't know."

After watching the people on horseback go thundering by, Nita went back to lay down in the sun. Susan glared at her, and wondered if she should say something about sunblock.

 _Ah well, they know about that sort of thing in this time, right?_

With only six XP (five gained from her last "adventure" the fight with Biddy) Susan was at a loose end. Especially because her one contact seemed totally indifferent to the problem. _Of course, I'm the one that has to find the thing, so really she's waiting on me!_ She paced back and forth around the farm, mostly in the barn as it was now empty of horses.

"You could go back and lay in the sun with Nita," suggested Sparkle. "I've always been of the mind a good nap can't be bad for you."

"No, there must be something I can do. It'll be another few days before I can put XP into anything, if I don't want to save it to convert more of my _Materia._ I just hate the thought of sitting around here doing nothing!"

"You had plenty of that with Louise though."

"Yeah, because I was stuck on that world. Now it seems I'm stuck waiting for The Darkness to show himself."

"The world usually does provide you some adventure to go on, during the lull periods. Maybe something will come up later. Or you could ask _Question_ what to do next."

"That works best with yes/no type questions though. Okay, here." Susan got out her book and looked _Question_ over. Finally she cast from writings and asked "Is something significant, that leads to my finding The Darkness, going to happen within the next week?"

 _Yes_

"Okay then! Guess I'll just wait."

And so she did. Though she did make some more _Spell Papers,_ as she figured she could never really have enough. And of course she put _Avatar of War_ back on her sword. That evening, it seemed this farm was the meeting point of the hunt, so riders, the farm hands, Nita, her aunt... everyone crowded into the place to talk and laugh about what had happened. Nita said Susan wouldn't be noticed so she might as well come in and "have tea" with the others, which she did. Her presence wasn't questioned, and Susan was able to feel out everybody in the room to make sure they were all on the up and up.

 _And apart from Nita's aunt being a wizard, they all are. Human level energy across the board, and no sign of any dimensional shenanigans. Funny, did Nita tell me her aunt was a wizard? I didn't think so, but I suppose it runs in families just like at home. Have to ask her about it later._

It was after midnight when the group finally broke up and went their separate ways. Nita and Susan hadn't stayed the whole time, but Susan was glad to help out cleaning the place up.

"Now, you don't have to do that!" Annie said to her. "You're as much a guest as anyone, and as you're still around you and Nita must really have become friends. Sit!"

Susan laughed. "Nope, I'm happy to help out. I've actually been going a bit stir crazy, waiting for whatever it is that's going to happen around here."

"Odd way of putting things."

"Oh, I'm where I need to be, that much is clear. Just a little ahead of schedule, that's all. I suppose that's for the best, letting me get a feel for how things are done around here." Susan meant this as 'the local physical laws as they relate to this reality' but she didn't elaborate.

"Ah." Annie seemed to understand, probably taking it to mean 'Ireland.' "I remember thinking something similar when I first came to Ireland. 'This is where I belong, but what do I do with myself here?' So I understand where you're coming from."

"You seem to have done all right."

"Oh, the farm? Yes, not bad, I suppose."

With the kitchen cleaned up, Susan and Nita said their goodnights and went back out to Nita's trailer. At least, they started to.

"Want to go look at the stars?" Nita suggested. "They're really nice around here."

Susan couldn't think of any reason not to, in particular, so she said sure and the two made their way out to a field where they could get a good view. She had to admit, even with the light cloud cover, there must not be much light pollution in this time and place, as the stars were pretty visible. They stood there, just taking in the night, when Susan heard a wolf howling in the distance.

 _Or not that distant, come to think of it. Wait, what has her so spooked?_

Nita was looking around, seeming somewhat surprised.

"What's up?"

"I'm not sure, but there's one thing I can tell you."

"Don't leave me in suspense!"

"There are no wolves in Ireland."

"How in the world do you-" She broke off as the howl sounded again, louder, and Sparkle's ears perked up.

"Hooves," she said. "There's a horse or something being chased around here."

 _What's this? Two days of combat in a row? Maybe this world won't short me on XP after all._

The three peered through the gloom, straining to see in the moonlight that had gone behind a cloud seconds earlier, and they all saw the dark form galloping as fast as it could past the field. The creature was tall, and had antlers, but it didn't look like anything Susan had ever seen. Not hanging around these parts, anyway. She turned to ask Nita if she knew what it was, but saw she was muttering to herself. _Probably casting a spell?_

When she looked back, Susan realized why. The elk or whatever it was wasn't just running along for the heck of it. There were creatures after it. As Susan made her blade appear and held it up for the light, she saw the gray fur of wolves, but not wolves of this world.

 _They seem more like those wolf creatures from Cloud's world, that they insisted weren't called wolves at all. Those aren't monsters, they're creatures... and they're coming this way._

"Don't _attract_ them! Put that fire out!"

"No can do," said Susan, shaking her head. "You might want to get out of here, with that overlay of your or whatever that prevents you from using your power." _Huh, maybe I should ask my book for a spell to stabilize an area so she can use here wizardry around here. The book should be able to analyze the area if I leave it out._

"I'm not leaving you alone!" she protested.

Susan jerked her head back, looking at Nita. She seemed scared, but defiant. "Wow, you have _Overconfident_ too? Okay, in that case, just stay inside the circle, okay?"

"What circle?"

"This one. _For Sacrifices Made."_ With those words, Susan's _Legion_ activated, and ringed the three of them. The area brightened considerably, and Nita shaded her eyes against the sudden light.

"What in the world-"

"Attack any wolf creature that gets close!" Susan commanded. The soldiers nodded, and went to work.

The ratio of wolf creatures to Susan's soldiers was slightly in favor of the soldiers, and the wolves circled the group to try and find any weak spots. The men of fire attacked bravely, if a magical construct can be said to act with any emotion at all, and with Susan hitting every wolf there for (1d10+1d12)/3 +(2d10 fire damage)/3 (which worked out to be between 1 and 13 damage every swing) they went down pretty fast. Especially when Sparkle got _Acceleration_ going. Nita basically just stood there as the wolves were torn apart, gaping at what was going on. Given how complex a combat with 48 or so individuals would be, we'll just assume they won rather than hashing it out in excruciating detail.

"I am loving _Slash All_ for groups!" said Susan, "which I guess is why it was invented in the first place." _If invented is the right word. It seems that world provided something useful to the people that lived there, because they had to fight off groups of "monsters" all the time while walking about. I mean such a thing would be quite useless here most of the time. Wonder if there's something to that..._ She lowered her blade, the wolf creatures burning away before her eyes. _I forgot that my STRength is raised by half my Mars rating when I do this spell. Going to have to put more energy into it next time, I only raised it to a ten, which is silly. With a sixteen rating I could have a STRength of 8, plus an effective 2 for being a +1 size modifier larger. And of course the sword gets bigger, and a higher rating makes the fire damage better too! Win-win._

"Come on," said Nita, "you destroyed the pack, and that'll make whatever is driving them rather angry."

"So let's face him here, rather than have him come looking for us at say... the house?"

"Oh."

The elk stepped out of the darkness, breathing heavily.

"Oh no, he's hurt. Can you use your knife?"

Susan looked down to see the armor had molded itself around the knife, allowing for ease of drawing. Now that she looked at it, the gauntlets she was wearing had five edges, at least on her right side, each with a symbol on them. _My charm bracelet. I bet all I need to do is touch one of those and say the trigger word. This spell rocks! Of course it better, being grade 10! Actually, I'm going to get rid of Invulnerability and Avatar from the bracelet, as my sword does that now for me automatically. Maybe_ Augment Skill: Sword _and... something else?_

"Sure," she replied, transferring the sword to her left hand and pulling the knife. The elk stepped back, warily.

Nita spoke to it, which Susan got 70% of through her _Adaptive_ skill. Something about the knife and healing, anyway. The creature didn't spook as Susan approached, which she took to mean "go ahead" and plunged the knife in its side. The wounds healed, and it bowed its head. Then it got the heck out of there.

"That's some healing spell," remarked Nita, looking around cautiously. "It would have taken me five minutes to work even a basic kitting of those wounds."

"Yeah, well, I can't go to the moon, so it's a tradeoff."

"Maybe I can take you when this is all over."

"Hey, I'd really like that!"

Hardly two minutes passed when the figure on horseback appeared out of the mists. Susan had arrayed her soldiers in front of her, five on the outside, then four, then two, and she was in the middle. In this configuration she could have them swarm whatever was coming.

"Get back, let me handle this," she said to Nita.

"Getting back!"

Susan was used to looking down at things with this spell going, but on the horse this thing was riding, she could look it in what would have been eyes if it took the helmet off. Unlike the wolves, she couldn't tell the health level of this thing. _Boss type. Bingo!_

"The Darkness, I presume?" she asked. "Showing yourself at last. It's about time, if I may say so."

"What did you call me?" asked the figure, voice slightly amused.

"The Dark- oh come on. Don't tell me you're some other creature of darkness and evil. How many boss types are around here, anyway? I already fought one wrong being, are you going to waste my time as well?"

"Evil is only seen by those too weak to take what they desire. But I see you're a winner, as my pack seems to have been destroyed."

"Yeah, can't say I'm sorry about that. I like wolves, but these were a little too much. I couldn't have them wandering the countryside, you understand."

"Perhaps. How shall I repay you for the loss, I wonder?"

"Somehow I don't think honorable combat is in the cards."

"Correct! I'll try not to _waste your time!_ "

He spurred his horse forward, charging the group and pulling a sword that radiated cold and darkness from somewhere. This was the perfect counterpoint to the sword of fire and light held by Susan. Her _Legion,_ commanded to protect her before he even arrived, jumped in the way. Susan slashed upwards with the sword, called shot body, on both the horse and the rider. The horse took two damage while the rider took three. He wasn't able to dodge as he was busy swinging his blade at the line of soldiers on the right side. His blade sheered though two of them, armor and all, in one stroke. This triggered what they were supposed to do in that sort of situation- explode. The man's armor seemed to take the blast, but the horse screamed, taking an additional three damage to the body and 5 damage to a leg.

 _Okay, don't let him hit you, their armor is almost as good as mine._

The horse reared back, and the man fought to get it under control again. "Did you just sacrifice your own troops to try and destroy me?" he asked, a touch of wonder in his voice. "How... me."

"Yeah, and I'm real upset about their loss, as you can see. We doing this thing or what?"

The _Legion_ waited, as the horse had danced back a bit, so they didn't see him as attacking now.

"As you can see," the figure continued, "I am quite unharmed by the blast, though I did feel a bit of a tingle as you swung that sword. What was that, exactly?"

"Come down here and you can get a more intimate look."

"No doubt I will, after plucking it from your corpse. However I fear for my horse, should I approach again. As I said, you cannot hurt me with those odd soldiers, so why not dismiss them and let us settle this matter one on one?"

"Don't do it!" hissed Nita. "You can't beat him!"

Susan shrugged. "How do you know what I can and can't do? Anyway, he has a point. You saw how easily he cut two down, and I don't want the horse to get killed. It's innocent, right?"

"I'll miss you."

The figure laughed. "For all your strange power, your friend Nita there seems to have a better grasp on the situation you're in than you do."

"Oh, don't be so sure," said Susan, dismissing the _Legion._ The night was now only illuminated by Susan's flaming blade, and the stars peaking through the thin clouds above. As man slid down off the horse, which backed away, Susan cast _Augment Skill: Sword,_ making a brief flash of magical light swirl around her. "What was that all about?" he asked as he raised his blade.

Susan mirrored the action, replying "You'll find out in a moment," and took a step forward.

"Very well, I'll show you just how small you are!" he cried, leaning forward to begin running.

"You have no idea what you're in for," said both, and charged.


	50. Chapter 50

50

Clash with Evil

Time: 1 Segment later

Place: Field near the farmhouse

Susan, having covered twice the distance as her opponent which seemed to startle him a bit, thrust her sword towards his chest. She knew slashing would be foolish as the armor would just take it, and it would have a better chance of bouncing off.

 _Or no, wait, it doesn't matter which kind of strike I use, does it? It's the attack roll that determines if I get through the armor or not. Silly of me, what was I thinking?_

The dark figure before her seemed ready for that, changing his strike into a block at the last second. Sparks flew from the clash, and Susan felt the STRength of his arms as her strike was deflected.

 _I'm holding this sword in two hands, he deflected it with only one. Yeah, this might not be easy._

 _"Successful Strike,"_ Sparkle cast on Susan, giving her an eleven bonus on her next swing.

 _Or maybe it will?_

Susan attacked again, forcing the figure back a step, surprised at how fast she was moving. Of course she rolled minimum, which was still a twenty one, and ties go to the defender. Again, a great clash and sparks as the swords of cold and fire smashed into each other.

Susan delayed a segment, waiting for Sparkle, as she knew they were both under _Acceleration._ She needn't have worried, another " _Successful Strike"_ came her way immediately. Getting a much better twenty seven, he still managed to block, again as ties go to the defender.

This time, however, Susan had put energy into STRength, and at this point nearly sheered through her opponent's blade. With the fire and physical damage it had sustained from the repeated hits it was now mangled almost beyond recognition. (Technically the DC was now 7, down from 100. Susan was just that strong now, and even with the icy nature of the blade negating ½ the fire damage, it was pretty beat up.)

Sparkle cast again, as why change a winning strategy, and Susan didn't even have to delay this time as she was now already one segment behind. She swung, intending to shear through the sword and actually hit this guy finally, but her blade whistled through empty air. Her opponent was no longer in front of her, rather several meters back and throwing his now useless sword down.

"Give up?" Susan sneered.

"I don't know how you managed to keep up with me, let alone actually damage my blade, but you'll pay for it. And for the loss of my wolves."

He raised both his hands, speaking gibberish, and a ball of darkness appeared between them.

Susan smiled. _This is The Darkness, I've seen him use that attack before. Pity I don't have another Tom to sacrifice to drive him away this time. Still, I have something better._

" _Mimic,"_ she cried, taking one hand off her blade and thrusting it out boldly before her. She felt something odd, and a sphere of darkness appeared before her.

"Impossible!" cried the figure, holding the orb in front of him, having completed his incantation. "You can't possibly channel the same energy I do!"

"Guess it's just me playing tricks on you then," Susan remarked. "and you have nothing to fear."

"Fear? Me!? I fear nothing!" From the ball a beam of dark energy shot out towards Susan, and her _Mimic Materia,_ doing the job it was created for, mirrored the attack. The two beams met closer to Susan than to her opponent, as she was necessarily behind the timing of the attack. Still, when the two met there was a tremendous explosion of energy, throwing everything back and creating a crater in the ground where the forces had clashed.

Susan blinked, her ears ringing, and tried to clear her head. She was flat on her back, but seemed unharmed, the armor surrounding her having taken the blast. Her spell was still going, and she was still _Accelerated,_ so she knew Sparkle was okay. _She was further from the blast and somewhat behind me anyway._

Something fell on her with the thump, and she squinted up at the dark form of her opponent, now atop her and trying to strangle her with his hands.

"Impossible! Impossible!" he kept shouting. "What are you? How did you work that wizardry? Only I should have access to that power!"

 _Okay, so this guy isn't The Darkness then? Because he's certainly acting like he isn't. Whatever._

"Oh, so the big bad doesn't know everything? I guess you're really not who I've been looking for. And that means my waiting for and fighting you has been a complete waste of my time after all. _Elemental Bolt: Fire!"_  
Susan stopped trying to pry his hands away from her armored neck and instead drove them both against his armored body. Spells can be cast on more than one target, and in this case, the spell caused a magical attack to issue from a hand. She just cast it concentrating on both hands, and got two magical fire attacks for the price of one. The only downside was the -2 to the attack. Of course, it didn't really matter, as she really couldn't miss, him being atop her and everything. She threw maximum energy into them, which for her was now twenty three, as she had made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check while she was talking. This slammed him with a total of over fifty damage, and he staggered back off of her.

He looked down, two holes in his armor and dripping blood.

"Imposs-" He vanished.

Susan made a check to stand up in a single action, then grabbed for her sword and looked around. Sparkle and Nita were just getting up, and both the figure and horse were gone.

"That seems to be that," Susan said, offering a hand to Nita. "You okay? Want the knife?"

"I'm fine, just winded. What happened?" She looked over at the hole in the ground, dimly lit from the fire along Susan's blade. "Is He gone?"

"Yeah, I won. We better go though, that noise was sure to attract attention. And I don't want to be the one explaining where it came from. You okay, Sparkle?"

"I'll be fine," came her voice as she padded up to the pair out of the darkness.

"Wait, you won? How is that... no, you're right. Come on."

Susan felt her spells end, the scene over, and reabsorbed her blade. The two made their way over to Nita's trailer, and she let them all inside.

She snapped on the light. "Okay, you're going to tell me who you are."

"What are you talking about?" Susan was genuinely confused. "I have told you."

"No way. You just drove off the Lone Power in physical combat! And I saw you use the same attack He did at the end. There's no way you could have done that, it was wizardry!"

"So? He wasn't even really that tough, if you want to put a fine point on it."

" _Not really-_ He's death! What did you do to him?"

"I beat him. Look, I'm not sure he's The Darkness or not, but he seems close enough. He has to obey the rules while he's here, just like The Darkness does. Oh sure, he might have a little extra knowledge, a little extra power, but he's limited by the body he finds himself in. That's why Darkness has always gone for, to be honest, people like me, or huge dragons or whatever. So he can be as powerful as a dimension allows."

Nita shook her head. "No, you don't get it. I've seen Him at work. When I rescued my sister from Him, He was throwing around forces you can't believe. And in the end He was dark and terrible and hardly physical at all."

"Really? I have to wonder. I mean if that's true, why not just kill you? We're really quite fragile when it comes down to it."

"Believe me, he was trying."

"Well, he was trying with me, and we both survived. So why the surprise?"

"But I didn't drive him off. My sister did something, I'm still not sure what. She doesn't like to talk about it."

"Ah, okay, if you say so. Your much younger sister, who had wizardry what, a day, you said? She beat your guy but it's all shock and awe when I do? If he's so terrible and powerful, why not just, I don't know, drop a big rock on you from space? Do it while you're asleep and his problem is solved. There must be a million ways to kill wizards without getting near them, for someone as determined as he no doubt is. I mean you have sniper rifles around here, right?"

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying maybe he's not all that. Maybe, like The Darkness, he's more limited than you want to believe, and he's used trickery to make you think he's not every time you've seen him."

"I can't see that being true."

"What's the alternative? That a couple of kids can really beat up the thing that invented death? Basically a god? I buy my explanation more than I buy yours. Sorry. I mean, hand me your manual."

Nita handed it over and Susan paged through it.

"Right here. Creation story- The main power of the universe wanted us all to exist, so that being created lesser beings and told them to get busy. They were each given a bit of power to do what they needed to do. Well, your guy took his power and created death. The others found out, but it was too late. That energy had been spent, so it was gone. What was left? A bunch of beings that had served their purpose, spent their energies, and now needed something else to do with their existence. Real great foresight there on the part of your big kahuna. Well, your guy now goes around making your life miserable, but what power does he have to back it up with? He spent his creation energy making death. Now all he has is what you've got. Wizardry. There's nothing he can do that you couldn't do with study and dedication. Right?"

"But He's a power!" Nita protested.

"He was. But he wants to come here and he has to take a physical body to do it. That's what I was fighting. He took the body of a swordsman, I met him as a swordsman. He didn't expect my speed or skill, because they were magically enhanced. Then he threw wizardry at me, and I used my _Mimic Materia_ to throw it back at him. At that point he lost it, got in close, and I threw fire at him point blank. I don't care who you are, that kind of damage is going to hurt."

"You're saying everything I've seen him do; dousing the sun, throwing around energy bolts, that was all a trick?"

"Possibly. He wants you to think he's all powerful so you don't seriously go after him. So you stay afraid to try and keep thinking you're nothing compared to him. And from what you just told me, that's exactly what's happened! So he's done his work well. This last time, according to this," she flipped the book to the back, where the record of her "adventures" was kept, "you put up a shield, let him bash at you a bit, then tried teleporting him home. It sort of worked, but he was back in seconds. Did you try any wizardry to cause him _actual harm_? Did your partner Kit? He's still only one being, three wizards working together could have slipped past his defenses, yes? While he's fending off a fireball from one quarter you smack him with a lightning bolt from another, while your sister throws saw blades at his legs. How could he counter all that? I mean the teleport thing worked, so wizardry can touch him. You should have been exploding his brains not just distracting him for a moment. But you didn't attack, none of you did. I mean your partner just stood there like a lump, why is he even a wizard in that case? You didn't even try from what I read here. What, exactly, did you think you were doing there? I mean you went there weaponless!"

"I thought I was there to rescue my sister."

"Yes, and a fat lot of good it did you. She saved you, with that thing she doesn't like to talk about. In fact even if you had never shown up, things would have worked out just fine. She didn't need you at all, so what was the point?"

"You weren't there, you don't know what it was like!"

"Yes, that's true. But I was here, and I fought, and I won. Because I tried. You didn't. So don't look so shocked and demand to know what I am when I do. I've told you. I'm Susan Felton, dimensional traveler and Natural Magician, and that's all there is to it."

"Uh, is this a bad time?" asked another voice from the door. Both girls froze and slowly turned their heads. They were standing close to each other, and Susan had been waving the "So You Want to Be a Wizard" book in the air while shouting at Nita. Nita's hands were clenched into fists, and it seemed she was trying to hold herself back from doing something she might come to regret. There in the doorway stood her aunt, eyes wide as she took in the scene. "I came to see if you girls were okay, and I heard shouting. Sorry for barging in like this." She started to close the door.

"Wait, we were just, uh, talking," said Nita, jumping away from Susan and yanking the door open again. "We're fine, why wouldn't we be?"

"Something exploded out in the field, and the place is all torn up. I just wanted to make sure you were both okay."

"Exploded? Any idea what?" asked Susan, tossing the book down. Annie's eyes flicked to it, then back to Susan. She looked around the room, where it was quite obvious two girls were living.

"No. Are you... staying here?"

"Ah, for the moment?" Susan hedged, "We didn't tell you because, uh, well there are... the thing is..."

Annie put her hands up. "It's none of my business. But Nita, your folks sent you here because they thought you needed to get away from Kit for a while. Did you immediately jump into bed with... her? Should I tell them not to worry, or to be more worried than ever?"

Nita blushed furiously. "No I did not!" she protested. "Why is everyone always thinking that about me? Honestly, there's just... stuff going on. It's complicated, and it's fine."

"If you ever want to talk, I'm here."

"Aarg, there's nothing to talk about!"

"There really isn't," put in Susan, perhaps a little more wistfully than one would expect.

"And your being a, what did you call yourself? A natural magician?"

"I am."

"Uh huh." She glanced at Nita as if to ask "is this girl insane?"

"It's fine, Aunt Annie. I know what she's talking about. Thank you for coming to check on us."

"Right. I'll be up the house if you need anything."

"Thanks. Good night."

"Night."

"Sorry if I got you in trouble," Susan said a moment after she left. Nita put her book away again and flopped down on the bed.

"It's fine," Nita said, waving it away. "Sorry for shouting at you. I was just a bit shocked at what happened, that's all."

"That's not an uncommon reaction when she's around," said Sparkle. "I think she delights in it." Susan nodded quickly, a strange smile on her face. "Yeah, figured. Should we be worried that thing will come back tonight? Should we keep a watch?"

"He's never attacked me in my bed before," Nita said with a shrug. "Which, now that you mention it, would be the preferred strategy to get rid of us wizards. The fact He doesn't must mean something, but I'm not sure what."

"It's something to think about, anyway," said Susan.

"The other thing to think about is what just happened," said Sparkle. "You say there aren't wolves around here, but those things weren't wolves. And what about that hoofed creature? You might have been busy so I did a reading on it. It wasn't from around here either. So did the big bad make all that happen for some reason or did the hunt begin and just spilled over into our world?"

"That's an excellent point," admitted Nita. "I didn't get a good look at the size of that hole, but it's bound to cause some questions. How did you do that, anyway?"

Susan pulled her sleeve up and showed Nita her _Wizard Bracelet._ "This. A little something I collected the last place I visited." _Wizard Bracelet... now that I think about it, is this thing I'm wearing the very definition of irony on this world?_

She looked the slightly glowing spheres over, found the one she wanted, and popped the _Mimic Materia_ off it so she should show Nita. "This. It'll let me do anything I see done, special power wise. Magic, spirit energy, any kind of supernatural power. I just threw an exact copy of his energy attack back at him. That's all."

"Far out." She handed it back.

"First time I was able to use it. I think it'll be worth the XP cost to convert over. So, what do we do?" She put the sphere back, winced as the sword went back into her hand, and healed the wound with the knife.

"Get some local help, I suppose. We'll need to thicken the walls around here somehow, keep things like that from happening again."

"Can you though? I mean this magic pollution you talked about..."

"If we get some wizards who focus on keeping things in check while the others work, it should be fine."

"Is that lone power to blame, then?" asked Sparkle. "I mean if he's causing this directly so he can have fun chasing stuff from other worlds into this one, he'll be resisting your efforts."

"Good thing we have someone here that can beat the snot out of him," she replied with a grin.

"Oh yeah, thanks for the assist by the way," said Susan. "You've never used _Successful Strike_ like that, have you?"

"Never needed to, that was your first real sword fight. Aerith's world doesn't count."

"True. Worked pretty well."

"Good to know, I'll keep it up. As long as it's just one opponent, anyway. _Elemental Line_ is better for groups."

"You hit those wolves with it a time or two, right?"

"I did."

"Thought they went down pretty fast. All right. I guess we'll get some sleep and in the morning, consult the wizard book about who to talk to that can help us out."

"You know," said Nita thoughtfully, "If it was Him directly maybe you driving him off like you did will have solved the problem already. I mean I doubt it, but we can hope, right?"

"Sure. It would solve your problem, anyway. I still have mine, where is The Darkness hiding? That battle didn't seem epic enough for my guy, based on past experience. He likes to put on a show, smash a mountain or two or grow a wing or six. You know, bad guy stuff. One deer or whatever that was? Nah, not his style. That attack was so similar though, I was sure it was him."

"You would know better than me," said Nita.

"He could still have been acting," said Sparkle. "Trying to throw us off, keep looking rather than focus on finding him now that we've seen him."

"Yeah. Well, he'll be back one way or the other I guess. I mean if I was him, I would want the body of the local embodiment of death, right? That's where the power would be."

"But maybe he's smart enough to know you would guess that, and so stayed away from that body figuring that's how you would think."

"So it's a game of cat and mouse, and I can't be sure who the mouse is?"

"But I'm the cat," said Sparkle, flexing her claws. "What does that make you?"

"The cat's very, very good friend."

Both laughed.


	51. Chapter 51

51

Oh the things she knows

Time: The next day

Place: Biddy's Farm

"So what are we doing out here again?" asked Nita, looking around. The two girls, having _Teleportaled_ to the farmhouse Susan had battled Biddy, were now standing on her front step about to ring her doorbell.

"Seeing what she knows. She did say that we should ask her if we needed help. You want to go visit wizards in the area. Not sure what good that will do us, they will no doubt be as clueless as we are right now. All of you having the same information from that... where did you put your book anyway?"

"Otherspace. Carefully, because of the magical radiation around here."

"Ah, right. Anyway, if the book could tell us the answer, it would have already. It obviously can't or won't, so we'll go ask the next best thing- one of the people that helped make the world around here."

"Usually we go up the chain of command, so to speak. I should be talking with other local wizards, then if they think it's appropriate, to the area senior."

Susan laughed. "Area senior? You have a girl (and cat) from another world wandering around who has told you about a creature of malevolence that wants to cut your "branch" off from the "tree" and take the power of your dimension for itself. What do you think another wizard at your level is going to do about that? I need to find the Darkness or the "event" that The Darkness is going to use to trigger the extinction event here. That should hopefully solve your problem of going sideways."

"Why do you figure that?"

"Easy. With The Darkness gone, whatever event is getting set up around here goes away, and things go back to normal."

"I guess you could be right. Do you hear a banging?"

They stood and listened. There was a rhythmic banging coming from the direction of the forge, at least Sparkle's ears swiveled in that direction.

"No," said Susan, her _Poor Sense_ weakness once again making a brief appearance.

"Come on, she's probably working at this hour."

Susan followed her into the back, where indeed, Biddy was working on something long, pointy, and probably sharp.

"Making something for our rematch?" asked Susan, looking it over. Biddy didn't turn, continuing her pounding on the glowing iron whatever it was she was making.

"Are we... having a... rematch?" she asked between swings.

"Only if you want to lose to me a second time."

"Please, we're here to ask for her help!" said Nita, glaring over at Susan. "Not bicker about past misunderstandings."

"Misunderstandings, right," said Biddy.

"The truth is, if you can tell us what's going on, maybe we can fix it and all get back to our normal lives. I can move on, everyone's happy."

"Little busy right now," she said, shoving the object back into the forge fire.

"I'll wait," said Susan, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. Biddy glanced over at her, sighed, and went back to work.

Some time later, Nita, who had been watching her quite closely, spoke up again. "What are you making, exactly? It looks like a weapon."

"I'm just getting back into practice," she explained. "I have a feeling I'm going to be making the real thing soon enough."

"What real thing? This one isn't real enough for you?" asked Susan.

"Not in the way you would understand it. Look, I can stop soon, just let me work here, okay?"

"Okay."

Finally she left the metal to cool and stripped off her heavy gloves. "All right, let's go up to the house for some tea and we can talk."

 _Ugh, more tea._

"So what do you want to know?" she asked, cup in hand. The girls were sitting at her kitchen table, which looked perfectly ordinary in every way. Susan looked around, considering.

"What?"

"You're some kind of other worldly being, right? One of the original creators of the world?"

"She doesn't mean any disrespect!" Nita hastened to put in.

"It's fine. Actually, meeting someone that doesn't go all weak at the knees on meeting me is kind of novel." Her eyes narrowed a bit over her cup. "Just don't take it too far."

"Right, wouldn't want to have to beat you up again," said Susan, taking a sip. "The point is, don't people notice?"

"Notice what? Is there something in here that shouldn't be?" She looked around.

"What, no, the place is incidental. I mean don't they notice you're not aging? I mean you've been around since the beginning, right? How do you do it? Shape-shifting? Magic to keep people from thinking about it too much? Illusion?"

"Is that really what you came here to talk about?"

"No, just a thought I had. Okay, to business then. What's going on around here that's allowing people to travel to other realities so easily?"

"And how do we put a stop to it?" continued Nita.

"More then likely it's about time for a reenactment around here. Probably the battle involving Balor that took place here some time ago."

"Another one?" groaned Nita. "The last one nearly got me killed, I only got off on a technicality." Susan looked at her questioningly. "'Read the fine print!' the bird tells me. HA! No more agreeing to stuff without knowing what I'm getting into for me, that's for sure."

"Okay, you two know what you're talking about, but I don't. Care to share?"

"Places that experience pivotal moments in history, and wizardry, tend to remember them," Biddy began. "This can cause them to repeat somewhat, and cause trouble for us now. Thus, the wizards of today have to go and fill the rolls that were played by wizards in the past. This puts the events to rest for a time and everything goes back to normal."

"And this Balor fellow?"

"Another name and form the Lone Power took."

"Oh, that guy I made retreat last night, right. But if he was defeated before, what's the danger of this 'recording' as you put it?"

"That's just the thing, he's a Power, like I am. He doesn't exist in the same time as you do. If that 'recording' of him should be unopposed, or if the wizards of today lose... well, he would be free to continue doing whatever it was he was trying to do the first time."

Susan looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. "That which holds the image of the Weeping Angel becomes an Angel." The others looked curiously at her. "Just something from my world. Maybe you'll get it in twenty years or so. The point is, to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, we need to enact a kind of play to keep the image of Balor in check. Except if you die in the play, you actually die. And if everybody dies, things here get much, much, worse."

"That's about the size of it."

"And that's why you're forging a weapon?" Nita asked.

"That's why I'm practicing forging a weapon. Like I said, the real one will have to be made of sterner stuff."

"Not sure what that means but given a little time, my magic can make anything you forge practically indestructible."

"I'll keep that in mind. Meanwhile, you'll need to find the other 'props' so that the play goes on smoothly."

"Ah, a fetch quest!" said Sparkle. "That's good for XP all right."

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem," said Susan excitedly. "What are they?"

"The physical embodiments of the four elements. The spear, that's what I'm working on, is fire. You need to find the others. At least, something that can serve to represent the elements. The old objects that held the power are still around here, I can get you the address of the museum you'll find two of them in. The rock is just sitting out in a field someplace north of here. If you can rekindle their power, they can serve again. If not, find another object that's similar and can hold the spirit of the element. Don't worry about moving the rock or anything, it can stay right where it is. Just wake it up."

"Hey, I'm not going to carry around... okay, I probably would show off by yanking it out and bringing it."

"Wow, she knows you that well already?" asked Sparkle.

Susan stuck her tongue out at her.

"Does this all solve your problem though?" asked Nita.

"It sounds like it. If I know The Darkness, and I like to think I do, that's where it'll be. This 'recording' of yours sounds like a good place to camp out and gather power from. It'll have taken the image over, augmented it with whatever skills or powers the body can support, and use it as a jumping off point. Plus the timing is right, this one event, just days before I arrived? That's our guy."

"Okay. Get us the address and we'll go take a look at these objects. Should we bring them back here, or what?"

"I'm really not supposed to be helping even this much, you know," Biddy protested. "This all is what we made wizards for. Give the objects to them."

"Oh, right. The bunch of you let one of your own invent death, and now it's up to us to clean it up- until the end of time. Even though you're supposed to be like gods around here, you spend your time repairing horseshoes. Right."

"Don't push it, little traveler," Biddy growled. "I could take my real form and crush you. It would mean the end of this persona, but that might be a small price to pay."

"Oh, so your buddy the Lone Power doesn't have a monopoly on destroying things, huh? I'm just calling them like I see them, okay?"

"Girls, please, we're all on the same side," said Nita, standing up and pulling Susan up with her. "Can we get that address, please?"

"Sure." Biddy dashed off an address on some paper and thrust it at Nita. "Hopefully you won't need any more of my help after this."

"You've been a big help, thank you. We'll do our best."

"If you change your mind though, decide you want to protect this land you seem to love, you know where to find us," Susan called as Nita pulled her out the door. Sparkle followed.

"What's your problem?" Nita asked as the three walked away from the house.

"My problem is with people that have power and don't use it. My father got his amazing magic and abilities for a reason- to save his world and others from The Darkness. I inherited it and have taken up his fight. I have the magic, and I've always used it to help whomever I could. But her? She's one of the original beings but she may as well be powerless for all the good any knowledge of wizardry does her. Even doing things on the sly- how many stupid, pointless deaths have happened while she was putzing around with her silly forge? And if she's any indication, her fellow creators are just as bad, sitting around letting you wizards take the risks to fix their mistakes!"

"Oh," said Nita after a moment. "I'm starting to understand you a little, I think. That's why you can't just sit in the sun on a lazy afternoon, isn't it? You have to be doing something, anything, because you feel your power demands it. You have spider-man syndrome."

Susan snorted. "Spider-man syndrome? That's a new one. But sure, that's one way of putting it. That, and wasting time here means another day my father and Luna are out there, somewhere, lost or captured or whatever. My father knew the risks, and Luna did too, but we were supposed to face them together. I let her down, and I have to fix that. I can't move forward until this world is safe, because even I can't weigh one life against an entire dimension."

"Let's get started then."

"Finally."

The pair rode the bus to the address given to them by Biddy, which was a museum.

"What exactly are we looking for?" asked Susan, looking around.

"I guess something that embodies an element?" hedged Nita. "We know fire and earth aren't here, so something that represents water and air. You can feel things out, right?"

"Guess we'll have to. Biddy could have mentioned exactly what we were looking for."

"Maybe she would have, if you had been nicer."

"I'll choose to believe I was as nice as I could be, and she was the jerk. It would seem to fit my worldview better that way."

Nita rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

The three poked around, looking at ancient art, artifacts, and stuff people of the time would have thrown out as trash. Nita was drawn back to a chalice; a two feet high metal cup, encrusted with jewels and seemingly made of gold. It wasn't just sitting out for any fool to grab, however, it was locked in a case made of thick glass. A spotlight from above shone down on it, and Susan wandered over to her.

"You think this?" she asked, pointing to the cup.

"See those designs? Those are old binding spells, engraved into the metal. And if you feel it out, it feels like it's sleeping."

"Sleeping, huh?" Susan tried _Magic Sense,_ (minimum, an 8) _Spirit Sense_ (even worse, a 7), _Dimension Sense_ (an 11) and felt nothing. She said as much.

"Can you even feel wizardry?"

"Not sure. I can tell if an active spell is on something, or if it has spiritual power, but if what Biddy said was true, this cup has neither. And it was made around here, so it wouldn't show up to _Dimension Sense._ You getting anything, Sparkle?"

"Not a thing."

"There you go. Still, a cup for water would fit. We just need to get it out of there and wake it up. I guess you'll have to handle the second part. I can handle the first."

"Are you crazy?" Nita hissed, eyes darting about. "You aren't just going to swipe it are you?"

Susan barked a laugh. "I'm not dumb, you know. I'll wait until we're outside at least. Gosh, you think I want security guards after me? I might hurt them accidentally, that would be no good."

"Thank goodness for- wait, how could you get it while you were outside?"

Susan touched her nose. "Magic."

"You're impossible!"

"Tell me something I don't know. Okay, so look for that funny writing, huh? Maybe we can find something for air too. She said both were here."

Susan didn't expect to find much, given her failure with the cup, but she could look for weird writing on stuff with the best of them. They both looked for about an hour, but apart from a really old sword Nita thought might have been suitable once, they didn't find anything promising.

"Wouldn't they decay at the same rate though?" asked Susan as they walked out of the building. "I mean they must have been used at the same time, whenever the last 'reenactment' was performed."

"I think it depends on a lot of things," explained Nita. "How skilled was the person that put the spirit of the element into the object? How much care was taken creating the vessel? How powerful is the spirit?"

"Wait, they must all be the same power level."

"Not necessarily. Which is there more of in Ireland? Air or fire? Water or earth?"

"Only the Avatar can master all four- never mind. So does a stronger spirit decay faster or slower? The vessel might not contain a stronger spirit as long as a weaker one. But a weaker one would have less far to go to become useless. So again, wouldn't that balance out?"

"You got me. So can you really steal the cup?"

"Sure. You want it now or what?"

"We'll have to study it, see if we can wake it up. We had better do it someplace out of the way, though. I don't want someone coming by and seeing us staring intently at a cup made of a million dollars' worth of solid gold."

"Wow, was gold that high in the 90s?"

"You know what I mean!"

"Okay. We could take it to my workshop, plenty of room there with all that potion making stuff gone."

"Workshop? What workshop?"

"The one I keep in my pocket. You'll see. For now let's head back to your place. We'll step in and out from there, save us time later."

"Okay. I hate to just steal it though."

"We can give it back later. Again, it's about using the power properly. What good is the cup doing the world just sitting in that case there? And we aren't melting it down or anything, the cup will still exist. It'll just be doing the job it was created to do, rather than gathering dust in that case."

"Can it gather dust in that case?" asked Sparkle. "It looked pretty solid to me."

"Dust finds a way."

"I thought that was life?"

"Works for a lot of things. Love, mustard stains, getting senpai to notice me..."

"Getting what?" asked Nita.

"Look it up in fifteen years or so."

"Yeah,I- I'll do that. That aside, shouldn't we, I don't know, hand it over to some better wizards?"

Susan gave her a "don't you trust me?" look. "Believe me, I can become better than any wizards you have around here. I can make you better, too. With the three of us working on it, I'm sure we'll have the cup cracked in no time. And by cracked, I mean fixed."

"The three of us? Who's the third?"

"Me," said Sparkle indigently. "I have the _Adaptive_ skill, same as she does. And I think I know what she has in mind, too."

"Do tell."

"Cheating."

"It's only cheating if you get caught. Come on."

So the three made their way back to the trailer, and slipped around behind it. Susan had gotten out her notes on _Personal Dimension,_ a spell she still needed to cast from writings. She did a quick _Retrieval_ and handed the cup over to Nita, who stared it at.

"I'm really holding it."

"Yeah, did you think we came all the way back here so I could say 'whoops, I can't magically magic it into my hand after all. How stupid am I?' and giggle? No, we came to study it, and that's what we're going to do. Besides, you could have done it with wizardry, right? I mean if you can go to the moon (as you claim) then you must be able to talk an object into your hand." _Though, as usual, I'm the only one doing any magic around here._

"I suppose normally, yes. I wouldn't want to try it around here without some precautions though."

 _And that's the other reason for suggesting my_ Personal Dimension. _This will require wizardry, and thus far apart from a small light spell and knocking herself out, I haven't seen my new friend here do much of that stuff. I'd like to see what she can do, before I go to do some kind of highly dangerous reenactment with her. I'd like to know what she's capable of._

"Fair enough," she said. "Now it'll take some time to open this, don't disturb me, please."

With that, Susan started casting the nine minute spell (double that because of doing it from writings) but cutting it down some with energy. _Higher grade spells are so weird. The higher grade spell of_ Dimension Gate _only takes two seconds, while_ Legion _would normally take twenty minutes. I guess magic really is unfathomable._

The spell completed, Susan beckoned Nita inside, and both stepped in. Nita took in the gently sloping hillside that ended in Susan's cottage by the lake.

"Are those solar panels on your little house down there?" she asked, squinting into the distance.

"Yeah, they keep my refrigerator running. Had to get rid of most of the food, I couldn't access this place for a bit. I should put a permanent spell of 'food not spoiling' on it somehow. Anyway, come see, and we can get work."

Susan started down the hill, Sparkle and a somewhat impressed Nita trailing along behind them.


	52. Chapter 52

52

Game Genie

Time: Moments later

Place: Susan's cabin

Nita continued to be impressed as she looked about the workshop and the surrounding area. The lake, pond, trees, grass, and clouds were all as Susan remembered them.

 _And if they weren't, what exactly would that mean?_

"Where are we, exactly?" asked Nita, having poked around the place.

"Good question," Susan answered. "I never stopped to consider the physical locality of my _Personal_ and _Pocket Dimensions._ They come along with me when I transit to other realities, so they aren't tied to that. But yet the objects inside exist, and if I died they would all come tumbling out on top of my corpse. And it was explained to me that any object unique to a world would get left there, even inside here, hence the need for the sub-space pocket."

"Even the house?" she asked, shocked.

"No, no, the house was part of the _Dimension._ I envisioned it the first time I cast the spell, along with the lake, the mountains, the caves under the mountains, the trees, all of it. Take any part of the original envisioning out of here, and it would just vanish. No, only the stuff I brought in here afterwords would appear. Humm, how does that work?" Susan made a _Topics: Dimension_ check, getting a twelve. "Maybe the objects are rooted to me, but out of phase with local reality? Then the magic is simply reorienting them when it's cast."

"I don't suppose it matters. I just wondered if I could come up with something similar."

"Why not? Your magic is about describing things, right? And you obviously have a similar 'spell' to my _Pocket Dimension_ that you keep stuff in. Just describe yourself a little hideaway."

"Just describe it, she says. Do you know how complex that would be? You would have to name each and every blade of grass, every rock, every piece of timber in a house-"

"So just make the ground and build everything else yourself."

Nita considered. "That would actually be easier. It's so weird, all this." She spread her hands to indicate everything she saw outside. "I'm usually pretty good with life, and this stuff _looks_ alive, like that's a tree over there. But it doesn't _feel_ alive. It's kind of freaky."

"Well, yeah, it's just magic in a certain shape. It wouldn't grow or change, or die. I mean I wouldn't want to have to come in here and cut the grass every week, now would I?" She laughed.

"I don't suppose you would. It's not fair, you getting to just cast one spell and get all this."

"Yeah, well, it's not fair that I had to leave home and track down my father, either. Or come here to save your reality from being gobbled up. But what can you do?"

"I see what you mean. Well," she hefted the cup, "shall we get to work?"

Susan smiled broadly. "Oh yeah, cheating time!"

"You said that before, what did you mean?"

"Set it down over here and I'll show you."

The two went into the workshop part of the cabin, and Nita put the cup down on the potion stained table.

"This area's seen a lot of activity," she remarked.

"Yup, good times, good times. Now, for a bit more magic!"

Susan grabbed some paper out of a nearby notebook, and for several minutes created three new _Spell Papers._ When she was done she handed one to Nita. "Now, to activate it, just put your hand over it, think about getting better at wizardry, and say 'activate.'"

"And it'll make me better at wizardry?" she asked, unconvinced.

"That's the hope. If not you, then at least Sparkle and myself. See, the description for _Augment Skill_ specifically says 'This does not provide a bonus to any Planet skills.' Like somehow the magic knows one skill is different than another. But whatever. This isn't a planet skill. Now as I see it, your skill at wizardry is broken up into at least two parts. Reading the language in your book and your pronunciation of the words. I remember a story from my world about these robots, right? Only one person in the world could control them perfectly because you had to tell them what you wanted them to do, and only she could get the pronunciation of the words right. Now maybe you have a third skill, some 'magic doing' skill? I don't know. Point is, my magic should figure out what you need to get better if you ask it. Now me, I'm not your type of magic user. But I have a single skill, granted to me by nature of me moving between realities. That of _Adaptive Skill._ This takes the place of whatever you do in order to do wizardry, that lets me do wizardry. On another world, it might let me use the Force or whatever."

"Wasn't that from a movie?"

"You get the idea. Upshot is, that isn't a Planet skill either. So I can _Augment_ it, far beyond the levels of whatever normal humans can do in this world."

"In other words, cheating."

"Isn't it great!?" Susan was excited.

"I guess if it gets the job done. But why this? You do magic without this, I've seen you." She held up the _Paper._

"It's about how I cast magic. I could cast it on all three of us at once, maintain it once, but take a -3 penalty. Or cast it three times, take no penalty to the casting, but have to maintain it three times! That would mean a -6 to everything I did, making me useless for this effort. These," she indicated the _Papers,_ "work around that."

"More cheating?"

"If you like. The symbol on the paper holds the spell rather than myself. It's like a one time use _Imbuing_ without all the time, effort, XP or monetary cost. This gives us the best of both worlds, I don't have to maintain it even once, and there's no penalty to me, despite my benefiting from the whole deal."

"Guess we'll see what happens." She put her hand on it and magic swirled around her as she spoke the trigger word. Susan and Sparkle followed suit, and checked their character sheets. Their ratings were now rather obscenely high in _Adaptive Skill_ , given the energy Susan had put into the spell, and the three got to work.

With a now greater understanding of Wizardry than ever before, the three worked off Nita's copy of 'So you Want to be a Wizard' and created a new spell to put the soul of water back into the cup. Susan found she could read and understand the language of the book perfectly now, and while her understanding of the forces needed to bring the 'spirit' of water back to the cup were incomplete, both her and Sparkle were able to make assist checks in writing the actual spell.

"I have to say, creating spells in Wizardry is much easier than creating them in magic," remarked Susan when they were done. "It takes me days, and I have to 'consume materials' which I still don't quite understand the purpose of. We just kind of dashed that off."

"It's usually not this easy though," countered Nita. "Your spell must really be working."

"Naturally, as Simon the Chipmunk would say at Christmas time."

"Don't let her fool you. She used more then half her considerable amount of energy to create those spell papers," said Sparkle. "You really do like throwing energy around, don't you?"

"It was important. And it's not like we can get attacked here. I've gotten 8 back already, sitting here is 'light activity' after all."

"Who cares how she did it, the important thing is I think we can wake this cup up, and we're a quarter of the way to what we need. I really thought we should be talking to other wizards, but you've come through, Susan. I'm... sorry I doubted you."

"Eh, everyone does. They come around in the end. Now, what's next? Just reading it aloud? I mean do I have to make checks to understand it or anything? Casting from writings for me is kind of involved."

"Nope, we just read it. Though I'm not really sure what 'make checks' means."

"And I doubt I could explain it to you. Okay, can you see all right, Sparkle?"

She put her front paws up on the table and stretched up. The other two tilted the paper and she nodded.

"Oh, just a second!" said Susan, and wrote "And now we begin the spell." in English at the top. (Luckily these people seemed to speak and read English just fine) "We'll read that first, as we'll all have to be in sync, right? That way if we're off right away we'll know it."

Nita seemed vaguely impressed, and the three began to read.

The _Dimension_ was quiet, as there was not any such thing as wind to rustle leaves, or scores of birds chirping. No cars, no sirens, just a faint babble of water as it flowed past the cottage. Nevertheless, something odd started happening as the three read the spell. Somehow it seemed to grow even quieter, the voices of the three blending together and calling forth power. Almost if the magic that made up the objects in this _Dimension_ were listening to the spell that was building up around them.

 _It feels different than magic,_ Susan thought, about halfway through the spell. _How about that._

As their voices died away, the three looked eagerly to the cup, which sat unchanged upon the table.

Susan tapped the side of it. "Uh, did it work?"

"I don't- I don't think so. That's odd. A spell always works."

"Wait, what? No it doesn't, you backfired your _Teleport_ spell when I was fighting Biddy!"

"Let me clarify- a spell always does something. Not always what you expect, but we used wizardry, I felt that much. But this cup doesn't seem any more awake than it was before."

"Should we try again?" asked Sparkle.

Nita shook her head. "We read the spell perfectly, with my abilities augmented I could tell that. Reading it again won't have any different outcome."

"Maybe it's too far gone," suggested Susan. "Maybe we'll have to start with a new cup, do the binding from scratch."

"That would be... less than ideal."

"I agree, but what other option do we have? It didn't work."

"I'm not sure. Let me think a minute."

"Sure."

Susan got out some drinks from her fridge and sat sipping hers as Nita paced around. She looked at the cup, silently read the spell over again, and scowled at nothing. "As much as it pains me, I think I'll try to reach my sister, Dairine. She might have some ideas." Nita closed her eyes, standing still a moment.

 _Is she doing a spell, or what? I thought they had to speak them?_

"That's odd," Nita said at last, opening her eyes. "It's always been easier with Kit, but I should at least be able to... I'll try it the other way." She went over to her book and tried sending a message through it, but was surprised when it threw some kind of error message back at her.

"It must be because we're in here," she said at last, closing the book. "I've never seen a message like that before."

"What do you want to do? The spell will expire if we leave here, it'll be the end of the 'scene.' I don't mind casting it again, but one more round of those at that level is all I have in me for today."

"No, it's all right. Scene..." she chuckled. "Your magic sure is weird. Now can we go to another wizard in the area? Get a second opinion?"

"Sure. I'm not against working with others or anything, but didn't you yourself say, when we met, that the wizardry put the wizard who could solve the problem on the case? It picked you, and you came to Ireland. Doesn't that mean you have to work it out yourself?"

"It's not a cut and dried thing. Yes, it can mean the wizard has to take care of it, but that's usually just when we're starting out. Otherwise it can mean I'm just the one to get the ball rolling."

"Oh, I get it. Come along then." She shoved the cup into her sub-space pocket and reached for the writings to open the door and get them back to the real world again.

The girls (and cat) got some lunch, and Nita honestly told her Aunt they had been poking around museums that morning, and were going to go look at some old castles in the area that afternoon.

"Heaven knows we have enough of them around here!" said Annie. "I'm glad to see you enjoying yourself."

"Did anything come up about that explosion?" asked Susan.

Annie shook her head. "No gas pipes or anything in that area. No charred remains from a conventional explosion either. I guess it's just one of those Irish mysteries."

"Oh, okay." _Good. Come to think of it, why doesn't Nita just ask her Aunt about the spell? Actually, has she ever said anything about knowing she's a wizard? But she must, they're family. But I suppose she would have to be sure a non-wizard wasn't around, and there's always people coming and going around here._

The girls took the bus to the address her book said the castle was to be found, and Susan asked about something she had been wondering about.

"You were quite truthful back there," she remarked. "You don't happen to have _Compulsive Honestly_ do you?"

"You mean could I lie if I needed to? Sure. Before I told my parents I was a wizard I had to sneak out and do things on the sly. Why?"

"Wait, your parents aren't wizards? Huh, another blow for the Slytherin 'pure blood' agenda."

"It just worked out that way. For whatever reason my father didn't have what the Powers needed, and so he wasn't offered wizardry."

"Weird. Anyway, I just wondered. It's the _Paragon_ in me, trying to work out people's _Backgrounds_ and _Weaknesses._ I just thought, if you did, and there came a time we needed to, say, stretch the truth, that I should do the talking."

"Are you sure it isn't just your _Curious,"_ asked Sparkle softly from the seat beside them. Of course, normally a cat wouldn't be allowed on a bus, but a cat with human level intelligence didn't let a little thing like that stop her. "Making you want to poke your nose into everything?"

"Could be, that one hasn't come up in a while..."

"That won't be necessary," continued Nita. "It's just not a good habit to get into, when you're a wizard. The easier time you have of lying, the more chance it might get into a spell. And in wizardry, what you put into the spell becomes real. So you have to watch it."

"Got it."

"That would be an interesting spell, actually. You cast it on a person and get a look at their character sheet."

"What Planet would that fall under?"

"Good question."

Having arrived, the girls walked up to the enormous castle, and Susan looked around interestedly. "Yup, it's a castle all right." Stone walls, somewhat overgrown with vines, towered over them. "Ah, there's a door!"

"Wait, are we just going to knock?" asked Nita nervously.

"Why not?" asked Susan.

"Hello," Sparkle said to a cat looking at them from underneath a nearby bush. It hissed and ran off. "How rude."

The three made their way to the door and Susan used the heavy iron knocker to announce her presence. They waited.

"Maybe no one's home?" suggested Nita.

Susan, having rolled only an eight on _Spirit Sense_ couldn't say one way or the other. There was a lot of life around there, and _Ley Lines_ aplenty to mess up her senses. "Then I guess we-" she started to say when the door opened a crack.

A man in a suit stared down at them.

"Yes?" he enquired.

"Is the master of the castle in?" asked Susan. "We must speak to him about a most urgent matter."

"Are you expected?" asked the man.

"Ah, probably not, but you never know, right?"

The man didn't so much as think about cracking a smile. "And who shall I say is calling, and what shall I say it's about?"

"Just give him this," said Nita, handing the rolled up pieces of paper that held the spell the three had made. "And tell him Nita Callahan needs his help with it."

"Very well," he said, taking it. However, he didn't disappear inside but rather stood looking it over. "Is this some sort of joke?"

The pages were written in the _Speech,_ the local equivalent to Susan's magical symbology that she envisioned when doing her magic. Not any kind of human language, the writing would have just resembled scribblings to anyone not also a wizard.

"He'll understand, believe me," she answered.

"Wait here," said the man, closing the door on them again.

"I guess everyone is a little rude around here," remarked Sparkle.

"They probably get people wanting tours of the castle or something all the time," suggested Nita. "But I didn't expect a butler."

"Hey, if you've got money enough to buy a whole castle in Ireland, you can afford a manservant or two. Wonder if there'll be maids?"

"Didn't you get enough of maids back with Louise?"

"Like one can ever get enough maids."

The three waited, Susan bouncing around on her heels or wondering if anyone would see her if she flew up to the top of the castle and had a look around.

"Give them a few minutes," said Nita when she raised her hand to grab the knocker again. "Look at the size of this place. It probably takes them two minutes just to go from one end to the other."

 _Wonder if she has_ Timekeeper?

Moments later, the door opened again and a rather short man was standing there, holding the papers with the spell on it. He had a somewhat fine mustache, but it might really be something when it grew up, and he had a serious look about him. He looked evenly at the two, then to the sides and behind them. "Where are the rest of you?" he asked, "and why did they send such young people to deliver this? What's going on, what's this all about?" He shook the paper at them.

"Perhaps if we could explain..." started Nita.

"Oh, of course, where are my manners? Shaun O'Driscoll, Senior for Europe." He threw the door open and stuck out his hand. "But I suppose you already knew that."

"Susan Felton, dimensional traveler," said Susan, shaking it.

"That's nice," said Shaun, reaching for Nita.

"I'm Nita Callahan, from New York."

"Nice to-" he looked back at Susan, freezing in mid-shake. "What did you say?"

"Dimensional traveler. Look, can we come inside? This is going to take a little while."

He looked down at the spell again. "I guess you better. I'll have Niall make some tea." He threw the door open and was only slightly surprised to see Sparkle following them in.

"She's with me," Susan explained.

"Ah, right. I guess some cream as well."

"Actually, as with most cats my age, I'm lactose intolerant," said Sparkle, looking up at him. "But if you happen to have some tuna water, that would be just lovely."

"I'll... see what I can do?"

"Appreciate it."

"I think they both enjoy it," Nita muttered to herself. "Shocking people, that is."


	53. Chapter 53

53

No Help There

Time: Half an hour later

Place: Sitting room inside Castle Matrix

"And that's the whole story!" concluded Susan, telling her story (again). "Which brings us to now. We tried to wake the cup up, but we must have done something wrong. But given the three of us were about as good in wizardry as any three people can be, I can't imagine what."

"So right now the museum no doubt believes the cup has been stolen somehow, out of a locked case?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Susan, not sounding very sorry at all. "I have a _Creation_ spell but it can't make gold for some bizarre reason. So I couldn't make a replacement. Plus I would have had to cast the spell multiple times, once for each gemstone... Then try to glue them in place, it would have been a huge hassle."

"We thought it better to start work right away," Nita put in. "As long as we return the cup back where it belongs when we're done, everything will be fine, right?"

"For certain values of fine," Shaun replied, rubbing his eyes. "So you found a Power, and she's making a spear. You found the cup, and tried to wake it up yourselves. You did this because she told you about a reenactment that's going to have to be performed soon, which will stop people going sideways like they've been doing."

"That's about right," agreed Susan.

"She said the sword was there too, but I think it's too far gone," said Nita.

"Pity, we'll need all four treasures if it's the event I'm thinking about. Still, I'm glad you brought it to my attention, even though I've been handling reports for a week now about this very thing and was going to call a meeting soon to get everyone's opinion on what we should be doing about it. If you can just hand the cup over, you can consider your part in this finished."

"Uh, did you not hear my story?" asked Susan, looking between him and Sparkle. "Whatever you think this event is, forget it. The Darkness is here someplace, I have that on good authority. If I don't help you stop it, the energy of your reality is going to become a meal for him."

"Yes, we'll keep that in mind when I meet with everyone. Now, the cup, please, I'm a busy man."

Susan wondered if this guy was a bit dense, or just plain evil, and did a _Dimension Sense_ on him, getting a 4, her minimum. _Great._ Sparkle also tried, getting a little better, a six. _Never thought I would need INSight for skill checks, otherwise I might have made that a little better. I have to get that skill raised! It is average though, and two above my STRength. Stupid poor rolls!_ She looked to Nita, who nodded, and Susan shrugged. _I guess she knows best._

She pulled the cup from her sub-space pocket and held it up for the man to see.

"Yes, that's the one. I'll just-"

As he reached for it, the cup suddenly blazed up, and Susan's _Spirit Sense_ went wild. Bright light lit the room, causing everyone to look away, and Susan felt the cup go red hot in her hands, burning them. She cried out.

"Put it back again! Put it back again!" Shaun was shouting at her.

She tried, but found her fingers wouldn't obey her commands for some reason and realized she was at a significant penalty to MANipulation at the moment. Making a tremendous effort (i.e. she put ten energy into it) she got a 17, enough to basically tear the pocket open and drop the cup inside.

Everyone in the room blinked afterimages away, Susan trying to get a good look at her hands in the process.

"Well, crap," she finally said, as she got a good look. Her hands were badly burned, the skin charred and even bone showing through.

"Oh my God, your hands!" said Nita.

"Yeah, no wonder I was at such a high penalty." She giggled.

"Are you okay?"

"Can't even feel it!" she chirped.

 _Huh, she should be at pain penalties regardless,_ thought Sparkle. _There's nothing in the rules about burn damage short circuiting the pain response, even though with burns that bad, it would happen to non-Paragons. Not even under the "Catching on Fire" section, where you think it would be. And she has_ Low Pain Tolerance _too._

"Shock," said Shaun, coming over to look at them. "And the damage probably burnt out her nerves. That's going to take some time to fix, even with wizardry, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, your use of them may never recover."

"Oh, never mind that." She held her leg out to Nita. "If you would be so kind?"

"Will that work?" Nita asked, trying not to look at those ruined hands as she slid Susan's pant leg up and grabbed the knife out.

"Of course, silly!"

"Wait, what are you-" Shaun didn't get much further as Nita drove the knife (with possibly a bit more force than was strictly required) through Susan's right hand. Both healed immediately and Susan flexed them.

"That's better, thanks," she said, as Nita drew the knife out.

"Do you need _Regeneration?"_ asked Sparkle.

"Nah, 2d10 healing? It did a twelve, I could tell that much. That would be enough to nearly blow off my whole arm. I couldn't exactly check to see what my _character sheet_ said about the damage, but it must have been less than that. It's fine. Thanks." She took the knife back from Nita and strapped it to her leg again. "Okay, heavy gloves when we take it out next time. Wonder if that will give me a penalty to MANipulation?"

"Your hands!" exclaimed Shaun, looking them over. "Not a mark on them. How?"

"Ain't magic grand? Now, where should we put that cup so it doesn't burn through whatever it's sitting on? I honestly didn't expect it to blaze up light that. For one thing it's the symbol of _water_ isn't it?"

"Yes, it's the spirit of water, I'm at somewhat of a loss myself." His eyes kept darting to her hands, as if he couldn't believe what he had been seeing.

"I'm not," grumped Nita. "In fact I know exactly what happened. I should have realized when I couldn't reach my sister. We were in your _Dimension,_ not here. There's no connection to the waters of Ireland in your _Personal Dimension."_

"Oh course!" exclaimed Susan, snapping her newly regenerated fingers. "You're right. So when we took it out, the soul suddenly came back to it, because the spell we wrote did actually work. That caused the physical changes we saw and made it get really hot. That would explain it."

"Wait, you girls actually succeeded and didn't realize it? Who are you two? Where exactly were you at the time?"

"Dude, I just spent the last half an hour explaining that. Do people say 'dude' here?"

"Not typically, I think," answered Susan.

"Look, I don't think that will happen again. But let me put some bindings somewhere and we can bring it out again. Oh, and the reaction was greater here because the water table under the castle is fairly high. Anywhere else and it probably would have been more gradual. Wait here."

He got up and left the room, leaving the three to sit down again.

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Nita with concern.

"Never better. That spell doesn't bring back energy, but I'm totally refreshed again, don't worry."

"If you say so. I guess this means we can go wake up the rock, huh?"

"Yeah, it should work. Though I would have to use _Augment Skill_ again, to read the spell. I only have a three otherwise, that's below average. I wouldn't want to mess it up."

"There should be plenty of wizards around here anyway, they can probably take care of it."

"True. We should be out looking for the vessel of air. I bet my _Question_ spell could help. We can't use _Descry Object_ because we don't know exactly what we're looking for. But I could ask the world 'where should we look for a vessel to house the spirit of air,' and I bet we would get a place name, at least. That's only one or two words."

"Whatever you think is best."

 _Now there's a phase that's music to my ears._

Moments later Shaun came back and led them through the house, to a "small" closet he had a table set up.

"Okay, I've put a spell on the room, it should hold. Plunk it down on the table there."

"Sure thing."

She did so, and this time the cup behaved, merrily throwing a light show like sunlight reflecting off water about the room.

"Pretty!" said Susan, looking around.

"Yeah, that's awake," he remarked. "Well done, girls. You don't mind if I keep this spell, look it over more carefully?"

"Not at all," said Nita. "I hope it can help with the spirit of earth."

"If it did this good a job on the cup, I'm sure it'll suffice. I'll show you back to the door, you two can head home now."

"Head home?" asked Susan. "I wish. I need to find The Darkness before I can move on."

"Right, right, we'll keep an eye out for that too."

"But we want to help!" protested Nita. "I mainly wrote that spell, Susan and Sparkle just helped. Okay, I was augmented with her magic at the time, but still. I think that shows what I'm capable of."

"Oh, no doubt. Magic, of course! Yes, when we need you, we'll be in touch. You're in the book, right? Yes, not to worry. Here's the door. Good bye now!"

The door slammed behind them.

"Now what was all that about?" asked Sparkle, smoothing her fur out and checking to make sure she still had a whole tail.

"I think I rather unnerved that gentleman," said Susan. "I can't imagine how."

"Maybe he just didn't know how to deal with a magic user?" wondered Nita, looking back up at the castle. "Because he must deal with all kinds of different wizards all the time."

"I don't know, I almost got the sense he didn't really believe me."

"Your story is kind of unbelievable. I mean, I had no choice because you were right there in the other world I went into by accident. And what you've said and done fits. But he can't see you're telling the truth."

"I suppose. But in that case, giving me the means to show I'm legit, or at least the benefit of the doubt would have been better than just tossing me out."

"You did say we would have to go this alone."

"True. And I know where the cup is, he won't dare move it until the time of the 'play' that Biddy was talking about. I can take it back easily enough if I need to."

"You don't think we should do the reenactment ourselves, do you?"

"Why not? It's not going to be a standard one anyway, remember? We can bring the so called treasures along, but I'll rely on my own power to put this to rights, thank you very much."

"Remember, you're supposed to be helping these people solve their own problems, not solving it for them," cautioned Sparkle. "You deal with the additional element, they deal with the original situation."

"Yeah, I hear you. Come on, I still have energy left, let's look for the air vessel."

So the trio went into the surrounding forest where they figured they wouldn't be disturbed, and Susan tried her _Question_ magic. She wasn't expecting the answer she got though.

 _Unknown_

"What does that mean?" asked Nita.

"Good question," replied Susan. "Could someone have moved the vessel to one of these side worlds?"

"Someone from the other side, you mean? The Lone Power?"

"Seems if he's here, now, like in that hunt, he would want to help see himself win. No better way to do that than to keep what we need from us. Hiding a vessel seems an easy thing to do."

"That's how you beat Him so easily!" Nita suddenly exclaimed, jumping up from the log she was sitting on. She laughed and stomped her feet, as if some tension was going out of her. "I should have guessed before."

"Now what are you going on about?"

"That thing you fought. It wasn't Him, that was a small reenactment! Must have been. That's why He faded out at the end, rather than just blowing you away. He didn't have the power He normally would, as that 'recording' of Him normally just rode around on that horse after that elk creature. When the recording couldn't beat you, it just sort of fizzled out. Like a... cassette tape being cut. That makes so much sense now."

 _Oh man, cassette tapes. If these people even knew what was coming to replace them!_ "I'm happy you think so. The vessel?"

"Oh, right. Gee, I don't know, is there another question we can ask your magic to find out?"

"Why not just ask that directly? It's a yes or no question."

So she did.

 _Yes_

"Ah hah! So it was here and it's been moved."

"We'll never find it!" despaired Nita.

"Maybe. Let me keep asking." She asked "What is the first step in retrieving the vessel of air back to our world?"

 _Defeat drow in two days_

"What is the second step in retrieving the vessel of air back to our world?"

 _Impress the Sidhe_

"What is the third step in retrieving the vessel of air back to our world?"

 _There is no step three_

"Nice," said Sparkle, nodding. "A good fight is always a quick way to get XP."

"And I still have a bunch of _Materia_ to convert, and spells to learn. Seems like the vessel is in the bag, if all we have to do is beat up some drow, whatever they are on this world. And hopefully that will impress these Sidhe, whatever they are. But what to do in the meantime?"

"Fire?"

"I don't know, burning the town down might be a little extreme just because I might get bored..."

"I mean the vessel!"

"Oh, why didn't you say? Yeah, let's ask about that!" So Susan asked "What is the first step in retrieving the vessel of fire back to our world?" figuring that worked the last time.

 _Reforge it_

"Ah. Time to talk to Biddy again!"

And so the group made their way back to the farmhouse, where Biddy was still pounding away, seeming to have made several practice spears in the meantime.

"You three again?" she said, tossing her hammer down in disgust. "I've already told you-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's old news!" Susan verbally ran over her, waving that away with a hand. "We woke up the cup, the spell is in the hands of those that can wake up the stone, and the vessel of air should be in hand within three days. All that's left is fire, and that's your department."

"Wait, you did all that just today?"

"I admit, technicality Nita is on vacation so I've been taking it easy for her sake. But yes, we have."

"Oh, you have not," said Nita, rolling her eyes.

"Shows what you know. Well?"

"Look, I can't just... deal with you," she said.

"Why not? We took care of our end, and it seems like you're about ready to take care of yours."

"What, these? These will never do. They would be ripped apart in an instant if the soul of fire were to be placed in them."

"So let me at one, and I'll make it unbreakable. I've done it before, and with _Energetic Accumulation_ and _Augment Skill: Fabrication_ I bet I could do it in an hour or so. I would be wiped out the rest of the day, but I could do it."

"I don't know what any of that means. The point is, there's just no way. You need to get me metal that doesn't exist anymore in this universe, and you need to raise an army for the reenactment."

"My magic makes me an army," Susan said coldly, staring Biddy in the face.

She shook her head. "Believe me, no matter how powerful you think you are, it won't be enough. You can't use the spear, only one person on Earth can do that now, and you still have to find him or her. I'll do what's required, you don't have to worry about that. But you need to bring me the answers, not the other way around."

Susan glared at her. "Even though, if we get it wrong, everything you built here turns to ashes."

She sighed sadly. "Even so."

"Great. What a fantastic system. Fine. If you change your mind, maybe want to help us instead of just standing around, you know where to find us. We are capable, you know, what we did today should prove that."

"That isn't the issue. I am surprised, and I certainly believe you are what you say you are. But even I have to follow the rules."

Susan snorted. "Rules are..." She froze. Was that the voice of The Darkness in the back of her mind, saying "Rules are for the weak" along with her, or just her own fears? "Never mind. Come on, Nita, it's a long ride back to the house."

"So now what?" Nita asked as the two sat side by side on the bus back to the farm.

Susan shook her head sadly. "I really don't know. Wait until the day after tomorrow, I guess. The one other wizard I've met here seemed to just want to get rid of me rather than allow me to help."

"See it from his point of view," pointed out Sparkle. "You show up at his door, telling some wild story, then pull the cup out of nowhere? A cup which then flares to life, showing him no matter what else you might be, that you're powerful. But it's a power he doesn't understand, it doesn't fit into his worldview. A couple of kids, in his mind, shouldn't have been able to pull off the theft of the cup and put the soul of water back into it. Not with the wizardry he knows, especially given how reluctant Nita here is to use it around here. He's confused, but he sees the knife, usually which causes wounds, heal your hands, now he's a little afraid. You don't make it any easier with your attitudes."

Susan thought a moment. "Maybe my _Poor Sense_ weakness shouldn't refer to my hearing." She grinned and winked.

"Har har."

"I get what you're saying though. Man, guess I'm my own worst enemy. Maybe it switched over since Severus isn't trying to kill me anymore. I figured it would be The Darkness, but..."

"How do you know it isn't? Has it spoken to you lately?"

"No, not much, now that I think about it."

"That's the way to tell, I think. When it's talking, it's not able to influence you. When it can, it doesn't need to taunt you, so why bother. You're already going along with what it wants."

Susan took a deep breath. "You could be right, and that does fit, I guess. I wonder if losing Luna was a worse blow than I thought? It's been proven I can't rely on my own judgment sometimes... Can I rely on you to take her place? You don't speak up about the stuff she did. And asking people I meet along the way? That just seems unfair because they aren't used to my wacky nature. Or what plans I might come up with, that seem insane on the surface but are actually reasonable for me. I can't have outsiders second guessing me every second. No offense, Nita."

"None taken."

"I'm just your _Companion_ , not my place to do that. But... I'll try."

"Thanks."

 _It seems I still have a long way to go._


	54. Chapter 54

54

Prepare for battle

Time- The next day, early morning

Place- Nita's trailer

"Nita," said Sparkle the next morning after breakfast, "I have a request." The two girls were leaning on a fence, watching the goings on around the farm, and Sparkle had looked around to make sure no one was nearby to hear her talking.

"What can I do for you?" she replied.

"Can your book tell us what we should expect from this 'reenactment' that's going to take place soon?"

"Hey, good call." Susan's eyes lit up. "We should probably put some spells together now, while we have the chance. No sense just standing around, we have a whole day until we get the vessel for the air spirit. Let's get to work."

"As it's happened many times, I'm sure there are some reports of what other wizards have gone though. Might as well take a look." Nita concentrated, glanced around, then said a word, making her book of wizardry drop into her hand. She sat down by the fence and started paging though it, and Susan got a curious look on her face.

"Actually, I might take a look myself. It's written down, obviously." Nita looked up at her, but she had already started casting _Research,_ and five minutes later, her conjured mystical book appeared.

Between the two of them, and Nita was quite impressed with her _Research_ spell, they learned the shape of Balor was one of a grotesque, misshapen human with an eye that could launch energy attacks (as Susan put it) against whatever got in front of him. He wasn't great on turning, apparently, his bulk was mostly fat, and it originally took several creatures with metal instruments to even raise his eyelid to begin the attack.

 _So as soon as you see him, open a_ Teleportal _and lead everyone behind him. That should neutralize his only weapon in that form. Odd that The Darkness would choose something like that to inhabit, but then again, it's probably the first thing it found available that suited his needs. It doesn't want to hang around these other realities any more than I do, probably. But before it's been something impressive, like that dragon. Guess it has to take what it can get._

As well as the main threat of Balor himself, he commanded an army of creatures that would be throwing themselves at the group when they arrived in the parallel world these troubles were coming from.

"So a couple of casting of _Magical Ally: Major_ to start, can't have too many of them running around when there's an army baring down on, right, Sparkle?"

She nodded. "True, with _Spell Symbol_ there's nothing that says you can't have a dozen of them active at a time. They're just a spell. I wonder though." She put a paw out and her character sheet appeared on the ground. "I have enough XP, barely, for an _Imbuing._ I wonder if making a permanent _Elemental Line_ would be worth it?"

"Nineteen XP," mused Susan. "That's a lot of spells, or... flip it over, will you? Yeah, threes, just like me. You could raise that skill group of the new skills, and have some left over for a new spell or two."

"But keep in mind, my energy isn't nearly as high as yours. I can't do more than thirty spells or so at once, and in a combat type situation like this one, it's a major concern."

"I agree, that's why I'm sticking with my sword lately. Plus my mass take down spells haven't been as useful lately. Like those wolves were right on us. Though I have to admit, I wanted to see how well _Slash All_ would work out."

"You used to use _Hypnotic Field_ all the time, too. It was your signature move, almost."

"Yeah, because I didn't want things dead at the time. I suppose I could still use it, but damaging someone knocks them out of it, and with my _Slash All_ going that would be pointless to zone them out only to wake them up again."

"We need a spell to store up energy over time. Like stuff some into a crystal or something, that we can pull out later."

Susan laughed. "That would be so cheesy! Man, a month or two and I would have hundreds of energy to play with. I don't need any help becoming more dangerous you know. Still, you do come up with nice ideas." Her eyes sparkled with possibility.

"So back to my quandary here."

She shook herself. "Right. Up to you, but there are some things to consider."

"What's that?"

"You're going to be in a war zone, and that means armoring you up as well as I'm armored."

"True." She shivered. "I'm a minus three, something hits me and it's goodbye companion."

"So let's keep that from happening. You'll be _Accelerated_ of course, but I'm going to make you your own _Symbol_ with _Avatar of War_ on it. And as a bonus you can be a minus two!"

Sparkle considered. "I can actually _Shape-shift_ up two sizes, so that would get me up to human size. Throw _Avatar_ on top of that, and my claws are considered weapons, that could actually work."

"Yeah. Plus with the STRength bonus from the spell you could do some decent damage just swatting things with your claws plus fire."

"I do have combat skills. Not at a very high rating of course, but enough to hunt with as a cat. No sense not having _Augment Skill_ going as well, I guess."

"Yeah! In fact..." She looked Sparkle's collar over, removing it from around her neck. It presently had only a small tag that held her _Ally Spell Symbol._ "We could get a few more of these tags, heck I could make some in a pinch. And I have another idea. Wait here." She ran over to the trailer and looked around, finding what she wanted and heading back. She had a piece of paper and some scissors in hand, and cut a small strip of paper. "Imagine the _Spell Symbol_ going in the center here, then we just fold it over like this, and wrap it around the collar like this. A dab of glue, and it'll stay, and you can fire off a bunch of symbols when you need to. Just make the trigger word end in a number, like 'line 1' and 'line 2' and remember which number you're on. You could have a dozen or more wrapped around here."

"That's almost as good as what I wanted, isn't it?"

"Sure thing. Now, it still isn't an unlimited number, but it only takes a couple of spells to pull off, rather than using up XP that's better spent elsewhere."

"If my _Photographic Memory_ serves, and it does, the spell description doesn't list any actual size the _Symbol_ has to be, right? So really it could be even smaller than this paper."

"I guess. What were you thinking of using?"

"Pins. Put the symbol on the head of a pin."

"Huh. Hard to tell which you used up in that case. I suppose if you always started using them from the center where the tag is-"

"No, no, I'm talking about you using something like that. Make a bunch of pins, then just stick them to your pant leg. You can make them all the same trigger, just grab one, expend it, toss it, grab the next one."

"I could probably do that in a single action. Maybe grab with the left, 'off hand' action with the right, if I made them _Elemental Blast._ Yeah, that could work. I'm glad I came with you!"

Sparkle snorted. "We have the day, I suggest we get started. Pull Nita's energy, and find some _Ley Lines_ to hook into, if there's some we can use and be undisturbed. Make all the stuff you can, wait while your energy comes back, and repeat. Your father's staff could actually drain energy out of _Ley Lines_ and recharge him. We don't have that luxury so we'll just have to make do."

"There's one thing we do have around here, though. Animals. I bet I could swipe ten or fifteen energy from each horse and such when no one is looking. And they can't tell on me."

Sparkle nodded. "Good idea. It's for a good cause, so I'll allow it. The better we prepare now, the less danger we'll be in later."

"Not to worry, I'll be sure and write myself a note to save before we leave." She chuckled. "We really will be pulling out all the stops huh?"

"Saving, yeah. That would really come in handy if things go badly. What else can we think of that might help?"

"I have a bunch of _Avatar Papers_ made, I can make some more. Others will be coming, after all, and the more armored we are, the better I'll- Wait, my pant leg becomes armor, that might not work for your pin idea."

"Your bracelet is incorporated, right? Why would the pins work any differently?"

"I guess you're right. Huh, I could stick them straight in, they might hold just enough when I'm armored that I can grab them, but not knock them out when I'm swinging my sword around. I'll see, but I do think something small, easily grabbed, would work best."

"Let's have the book, see there's something really useful I should learn in the meantime. And I can make you some _Elemental Line_ if you want them."

"Better to have it all. I'll want _Acceleration_ as well. Let's go in fully buffed, but not under any penalties."

"Sounds like a plan."

And so the group went to go find a good spot to work, and Susan made her _Spirit Sense_ checks to find some _Ley Lines._ She then got a twenty one on her LUCk check to see how far away the nearest ones were, and then a twelve to see how many there were. "Score!" she said, moving off. Sparkle did a _Spirit Sense,_ getting an eight, which was enough to tell there was a bunch of energy in the area, at least. Susan got an eleven.

"This is perfect!" chortled Susan, rubbing her hands together.

"Uh, what makes this spot any better than another?" asked Nita, looking around confused.

"Energy, by dear, energy. For one thing, this is a farm so there's lot of life around here. That means lots of _Ley Lines,_ in other words, spiritual conduits for the life energy of the planet. Right here there's a bunch of them, so we can sit here and get some nice benefits from hooking into them. For example, let's say I spend six energy on whatever it is I'm doing while connected to the _line_. I can then put six free energy into that, which comes from the _Line_ itself _._ Then I roll my _Energy Boost_ skill (best skill ever) and get back up to half, in other words three. So I've spent a total of three energy to make a _Spell Paper_ but I've gotten an effective eleven boost to my rating, making it at least a fifteen, if not more. The other energy one goes into casting the spell, in case you were keeping count? Anyway, that's why we were looking around, and what we've been talking about."

"Do you think you could teach me to sense and hook into this energy?" Nita asked, trying to hide her excitement.

"Don't know. I had to take a special background, _Spirit Mage,_ in order to do it. But non- _Paragon_ people don't even have _Backgrounds_ that I can tell. I mean you must, but you didn't spend points for them or anything. So I have no idea how you guys balance out. Even with these _Lines_ and taking your energy and the animal's, I'm going to be wiped out by lunch time. At that point I'll talk you through what I think someone who is not a _Paragon_ would do and see if you can feel anything. I mean I just make checks in the skill, but that still sort of means something outside being who I am. It's tough to explain."

 _To someone who isn't genre savvy..._ finished Sparkle silently.

"Thanks."

"Sure thing."

And so the two started work. Susan changed her charm bracelet to include these spells:

Acceleration

Flight

Magical Ally: Major

Augment Skill: Sword

Augment Stat: STR

She had Nita scrounge up some suitably flat pieces of metal which she attached to Sparkle's collar, giving her _Acceleration_ and _Avatar of War_ in addition to her normal _Ally: Major._ Also some glue, to stick the new _Spell Papers_ onto Sparkle's collar. She then worked with her to make some _Spell Papers_ with _Elemental Line_ for her and _Elemental Blast_ for herself. When Sparkle was out of energy she started looking through the book for something to learn as Susan continued working.

"Hey, remember that green haired lady in Louise's world?" she asked, looking up from the book when Susan was between castings.

"She worked for the principal but turned out to be a thief?"

"Right. Well, you remember her 'weapon' right? That huge construct made of stone?"

"Yeah, that thing was annoying."

"It's in here."

"What?" Susan scrambled over to look at the book. "That must be one of the ones... uh, that guy gave us." She looked over at Nita, not sure if Silverstreak wanted his identity branded about. " _Colossus_ , huh? Grade ten, hardly worth it for the use you would get out of it. Very specific circumstances it can be used under, I mean you would have to be outside, and have a lot of space for it to maneuver."

"Which is exactly what we'll have, right? And an opponent that's huge for it to fight, to boot. Perfect in this situation."

"True. We would lose our own actions to control it, you want it?"

"Probably best. You'll be swinging that blade around when we get close to him, keeping his forces off us. Yeah, see if you can-"

"Wait a second, I just had a thought!"

"What's that?"

"Why only use one? My _Materia_ is all in my armor slot, rather than my weapon slots, at the moment. That would make it apply to any weapon I held. I have two swords, and two hands. I'll have _Augment Skill_ going so the off hand penalty will be laughable. And I can make up an _Augment Skill_ of _Off Hand_ so my delay for that drops, so why not use both? Imagine two attacks, against all opponents in range, with my augmented STRength and fire damage factored in... for a total of three delay." She was almost drooling.

"You'd have to drop one to cast a spell."

"Eh, that's a free action. Don't plan on doing much of that anyway. Especially not with all the long range damage I'll be doing with two blades, both on fire. Plus if I do, my one sword will come back to me just by holding my hand out, I don't even have to bend over to pick it up."

"What about all those pins you're making?"

"I'll give them to Nita! Hey Nita, you want to shoot streams of fire out of your hands... with magic?"

"Do I?" she answered with a grin.

"Problem solved."

They all laughed. "As I was saying, see if you can understand this and make me one."

"You got it."

Susan looked the spell over, getting a nineteen on _Magic Theory_ and a twenty two on _Magic Scripture,_ both more than enough to understand the difficulty fifteen spell. Twenty minutes later Susan wrapped another paper around Sparkle's collar, this one with the spell of _Colossus_ in it.

A bit later, Susan relaxed, leaning back on her elbows in the grass. She kept giggling, imagining having all her spell bracelet spells going at once, with no penalty, and wading across the battlefield, swords slashing up everything.

"Did doing that much magic break her brain?" asked Nita to Sparkle, somewhat concerned.

"I suppose it's possible," she admitted.

"Oh, come on, you're just as excited as I am to see what our magic can _really_ do. Don't tell me the prospect of being a lion sized creature of fire and death isn't appealing. We can go all out- because whatever we're fighting doesn't actually exist! We won't be killing anything real, it's just a recording that we have to put down. We'll have several lions, dragons, my twenty five _Legion solders,_ and when it comes to the boss, a huge construct made of stone rips out of the earth and starts pounding it. Can't you just see it now?" She stared dreamily off into space. "The Darkness isn't going to know what hit it in this world."

"Just don't get too used to it. You start to like it too much, and maybe the next time we face something alive you might want to take this same approach."

"Oh, don't worry. It's just because we have this time to prepare we can do this at all. Normally it would be whatever spells we knew and being clever. This situation just requires us to smash through to the boss as quickly as possible, take him out, and keep everyone that comes with us safe in the process."

"And here I was thinking we were going with them, not the other way around."

"You know what I mean."

"Do I?"

"Fine, we keep everyone we go with safe. Happy?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Now, I haven't used all my _energy,_ I need some to cast my draining spell on the animals later. So let me put on _Augment Skill: Teaching_ and I can see what I can teach you. After all, Louise and her friends learned _Magic Sense,_ I can probably at least teach you that, and give you the basics for _Imbuing_ and _Fabrication,_ as they're also qusi-magic skills and you should be able to pick them up. Then we can try the more advanced stuff."

"Anything you can show me would be great. Imagine, skills from other realities! Now I'm getting excited!"

So Susan made some _Teaching_ checks and told Nita about other things she could do that weren't strictly her magic, then the girls went to get lunch. Afterwards Susan drained the farm animals she could, then headed back to the secluded spot and once again burned through her energy making _Spell Symbol_ stuff. She had several _Magical Ally: Major_ that Nita could activate, along with extra copies of _Avatar, Acceleration,_ and anything else Nita thought might be handy in their upcoming fight. They spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get Nita to sense energy, magic, and even gave her some instruction in _Ninjutsu_.

"Don't let my sister near _Ninjutsu_ though," she said, practicing a move. "We both took Ju-Jitsu lessons, and she really picked it up fast. A ninja wizard." She shuddered. "The world wouldn't survive."

Susan also explained what she thought _Energy Boost_ was about, so she could teach that skill, and Nita made sure to copy all this information down into her wizard manual for later review.

Susan went to bed that night feeling a real sense of accomplishment. She felt she couldn't be more ready to attack The Darkness this time, and even had a couple more days, in case she thought of something else she wanted to add.

 _And all thanks to_ Spell Symbol. _Best... Spell... Ever._


	55. Chapter 55

55

Revelations

Time: The next day

Place: The kitchen

The next day Susan, Nita, and Annie were sitting around the table, eating breakfast. The paper was open beside her, and while Susan didn't care much for local goings on, the headline caught her eye. She flipped it open, and skimmed the paper over, finding many stories with a similar theme inside. It seemed the problems in this area were getting worse, as everything from dinosaurs to ghosts, ancient heroes and villains, were being seen in the area. The paper dismissed them all, and Susan was out and out laughing by the time she got to the sixth story that the writers just reported on, and then called the person who got his sheep stolen by some figure from Irish folklore an attention seeker.

"Look at all this," she said, passing the paper to Nita. "Honestly, wizards around here take a very lax attitude to things, let me tell you. Where I'm from, those in charge of making sure knowledge of magic doesn't get out to the general populous would be running themselves ragged doing memory charms to people. What's wrong with you?"

Nita had been glancing at her aunt in terror and trying to get Susan to stop by making a slashing motion across her neck where she hoped her aunt couldn't see. "Wizards?" she asked, trying to fake a laugh. "What are you talking about?"

Susan looked between the two, and Annie had a weird expression on her face as well. "What is the matter with you two? No one else is around, it's fine."

"Did, uh, did you say something about Wizards?" Annie asked.

"Yeah, wizards. You know, that weird _speech_ stuff, describing things? Seems useless around here?" A mental light bulb went off above her head. "Oh, come on. Please tell me this situation isn't what I think it is."

The other two looked at each other for a moment, then blurted out "You're a wizard?"

Susan banged her head on the table several times, then stayed there with her arms over her head. "It is. It's exactly what I thought. Ow. What is wrong with you people?"

"You really are one?" asked Annie.

"You too?" replied Nita.

Both women seemed to be seeing the other for the first time, and actually got up to hug, like they had just reunited after many years.

"I can't believe this!" gushed Annie. "You got picked, that's great!"

"Dairine too, little snot read the oath out of my book and got a computer version of the manual the next day! I had no idea you were though!" She smacked her head. "And Tom even said something like that to my dad, that it was his side of the family. I completely forgot until just now!"

"Wow, it's great to know there are more wizards in the family. Wait, Tom? Isn't he an advisor from your area?"

"Yeah, oh, right, I told them. Had to, really. They took it... well, oddly, but at least they accept it."

"He better have. Man, am I going to have to have words with him next time I see him. Two wizard kids, how does he cope?"

"Hey, we aren't that bad. Even if the computer does follow my sister around while she does her chores."

"And you!" said Annie, finally looking at Susan again. "How did you know?"

"Uh, I could feel it with _Magic Sense?"_ she replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I knew right away, having checked everyone out when I first arrived here. I couldn't be sure The Darkness wasn't hiding out here, so I made sure everyone here was who they claimed to be. I guess you wizards really don't have a skill like that, huh?"

"Don't mind her, she talks like that most of the time," said Nita.

"So you're a wizard too?"

"Not exactly. I do magic, not wizardry. I _could_ do your kind, but I would need to take Nita's book to do it, and I'm not great at _Adaptive Skill_ yet. So it's better if I stick to what I know."

Anne's eyes narrowed. "You're the funny girl that brought Johnny the cup," she accused. "And I thought his description of the other girl sounded familiar. It was you!"

"Funny girl? I hardly did a single joke when I was there! Did you hear the one about the vampire that goes to the bar? It's a monster only bar but he's leading a human on a chain by the neck. The bartender says to him 'we don't serve his kind here' and the vampire says 'I know, that's why I brought my own.' and sinks his fangs into the guy." Both stared at her. "What? That is comedy gold right there, people."

There was silence for a moment.

"Maybe it's your timing," said Sparkle, licking a paw and beginning to wash her face.

This time both burst laughing.

"Hey!"

"Seriously, what's going on with you two?" asked Annie. "And how did you wake the cup up so easily?"

"Forget that," said Susan. "How come you two didn't know the other was a wizard? I mean you're family. Wizardry here isn't all as secretive as you made it out to be, Nita, because no one could read that paper and not think 'hey, magic would explain all those things. Maybe there is magic in the world.' I mean how much bizarre stuff can a town accept and not start asking for better answers?"

"You would be surprised," answered Annie, sitting down again. "Okay, so from the top, who are you, and why can that cat talk?"

"What's wrong with talking cats?" asked the kitten that walked in. "You have something against talking cats? We should be seen and not heard? I do poetry you know."

"I'm sure it's wonderful stuff too."

"Hi Tualha," said Nita to the cat. "Annie, have you met Tualha?"

"We've met, and I have nothing against talking cats, I just don't see that many. Tualha is a bard, that's why she can talk. I wondered if your cat was something similar?"

"How do you know?" asked Susan. "Maybe most just choose not to talk. You could see lots of them, it's hearing you need to be concerned with."

"Anyway, can I get an answer to my question? Johnny was very concerned last night with the story you told him, and none of the other wizards in the area recognized your description. One person even said maybe you were a Bright Power yourself!"

"Don't give her any ideas," said Sparkle sarcastically.

"Obviously you're not, and now that I know it's you, and you're hanging around with my niece, I would like a few assurances."

"What, that I'm not a danger to her? Why would have I handed over the cup, after working so hard to give it a spirit, if I meant you all harm? I'm here to save your world, not cause trouble."

"Yes," admitted Sparkle. "Any trouble she causes is totally inadvertent. Believe me."

Susan was going to tell her story again, but Nita beat her to the first word.

"It all started when I went sideways and found Susan waiting for me in the parallel world I found myself in," she began, going on to tell the rest of the story of what she had seen Susan doing while she was here.

Annie digested the story for a few moments after Nita finished telling it. "I guess it does explain a few things, like why she suddenly appeared right after you got here. And why you both disappear as you do. I figured it was just you hanging out in town, but that didn't feel right to me. And I could have sworn you had just fallen out of the world, that must have been when you were working with the cup. But you came back and seemed normal so I passed it off as just one of those weird feelings. Guess I should have paid more attention."

"I was perfectly safe," insisted Nita. "I wouldn't have hung out with her if I didn't."

"Someone who can beat up a Bright Power is _safe?_ And did you really defeat a reenactment of the Lone One who was hunting?"

"Easily," insisted Susan.

"I was hoping she was just exaggerating. No such luck. So, what do we do now?"

"We'll get the vessel of air today, if what my spell told me holds. After that, Biddy can forge the proper spear she's whining about needing and we can get this thing done."

"Oh, simple as that, is it?"

"I find most things are, if you apply yourself to them. Applying a bit of magic here and there doesn't hurt either."

"Wait, there was a wizard meeting last night? Great, what was it about?" asked Nita.

"Mainly the current situation and what we're going to do about it. Probably a quarter of the time spent discussing if we should use that spell I guess you two came up with."

"Three," corrected Sparkle.

"Yes, you three, sorry. In the end everyone looked it over and said there weren't any hidden meanings or traps in it, and they decided to. So they were going to wake the stone up with it early this morning. That meant we were only two treasures away from being ready. And you say the vessel for air will be in hand soon?"

"After we fight off some things called Drow, yes. Maybe one of them has it?"

"I hope not! No, it couldn't be used by something like that, unless it was really corrupted or something. And we would feel it in the very air of Ireland if something like that had happened."

"So there you are."

"I guess we owe you some thanks and an apology. You were doing all this work for us, and we distrusted you. I'll speak to Johnny about you, tell him you're on the level. Even if I can hardly believe it. Other realities, outside our own parallel worlds. Amazing."

"Don't worry, she brings it on herself. So she really has no cause to complain," explained Sparkle.

"Still, thank you. Both of you."

"Of course."

Annie went to make some phone calls, and the three slipped out the front door and sat down in a swing on the front porch.

"What now?" asked Sparkle. "We should probably head away from the farm for the moment."

"Just a second," said Nita, looking at Susan. "Why didn't you tell me my aunt was a wizard?"

"Uh, excuse me, but she's your aunt. I didn't think I would have to tell you something so obvious about your own family. Even you admitted you should have known."

"Maybe, but now I'm more determined than ever to learn this _Magic Sense_ of yours."

"Why _didn't_ you know, anyway? I mean you have that book that lists all wizards everywhere, right? You never thought to yourself 'hey, wonder if I have any relatives that are wizards, that would be great!' I mean there must be wizard stuff you might want to talk to a family member about, rather than a stranger. Maybe something they've been though you're having trouble with?"

"I don't know why she wasn't listed. She should have been. It seems rather stupid that she wasn't, isn't it?"

"I'm sure your book of wizardry had its reasons... even if we can't figure out what they might be."

"Sure, let's leave it at that. So why should we leave the farm?"

"If trouble is going to find us, and it will, best to be away from this place when it does. I would hate to turn this farm into a battleground."

"Why would it come here just because you're here?" asked Nita. "Conceited much?"

"It's just the reality of the situation," explained Sparkle. "Trouble is drawn to us so that we can solve it and get XP. Same with fights. Remember that little girl that hunted you down in the street? Or that lady with the three grandsons?"

Susan nodded. "I am a magnet for that sort of thing it seems."

"The point is, no matter where we go, something will happen because that's how a _Paragon's_ reality works. We bring a little of that reality wherever we go, so that same thing will happen here."

"We can hang out outside of town, I guess," said Nita. "There's a lot of empty land around here, that would be fine for a battle."

"Not too empty, they'll have to come from somewhere."

"We'll figure that out when we get there. Come on."

The three hung out within sight of the town, but far enough way that the townspeople wouldn't have to get involved. That was the plan, anyway. About one o'clock a group of police cars came screaming down the road, sirens blaring, and roared past them.

"They seemed in a pretty big hurry," observed Nita.

"You don't think..." trailed off Susan.

"Come on, we've got to get over there!" said Nita, about to take off running.

"Wait!" shouted Susan. "We'll fly there, it'll be faster."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Magic."

"You forgot. Honestly. _Flight."_

Susan and Nita stayed low to the ground, skimming the road on the way into the city. What met their eyes was a scene from a motion picture, but not a camera was in sight.

 _Right, no cell phones,_ thought Susan, as she calmly looked the scene over. _I guess there is some advantage to living in a less developed age._ Police officers were putting shot after shot into human sized creatures seemingly made of some kind of rock or stone. They had smooth heads, no features to speak off, and were basically rampaging about destroying everything in sight. Punching through walls of buildings, scattering bystanders, even flipping over a car or two.

"Great, no eyes, or nose apparently," remarked Susan. "This is The Darkness for sure. Wonder if it's here someplace?"

"Why would it be that?" asked Nita.

"It knows how I fight. Look at them. I could dazzle the whole lot of them if they had eyes. Or put them all to sleep if they breathed. It looks like they don't do either, at least not in the way we understand. Tricky, very tricky."

One thing that worked to their advantage was they didn't seem to move very quickly, as anyone running away seemed to completely outpace them. A steady stream of people was moving away from the area, as cops who were not shooting tried to maintain order. As far as the gunfire went, they didn't seem to notice, and were carrying on as though not under heavy fire from half a dozen uniformed men.

 _And where are the uniformed woman?_ Susan _tisked_ under her breath. _We can be cops too, you know._

"They're really here," breathed Nita. "And there's no way we can... no way I can fight them. Not with wizardry, at least not here anyway. And the guns aren't doing anything! What are we going to do?"

"No, probably too high a _DTR." Or maybe some kind of amazing LUCk, to just make the cops miss?_ "Leave them to me. You can use some of the pins if you want. Distract any that are going for a person until I can-"

"I... don't have them. You think I'm going to just carry something that dangerous around?"

"You- What? Aarg! They aren't dangerous. Just... just go hide or something then."

"Sorry." She moved off.

"Uh, wizards," said Susan, getting her _Enhance Sword_ from her _Pocket Dimension_ with the spell. While she did, Sparkle put _Acceleration_ on her, as normal. _Here I was, coming into this world, thinking that as they didn't have wands, they might be worth a bit more. But no... it's all 'overlay' this and 'we don't carry weapons' that. Aren't they supposed to be fighting this Lone Power guy? How do they expect to do that when they don't have anything to actually fight with but wizardry, which it seems can "saturate" an area and make itself useless? Wait, if no one can do wizardry because of this "overlay" then wouldn't that "overlay" go away in time? Why would it hang around? Does magic have some kind of half-life? And why couldn't wizardry be used outside it to sweep that "radiation" away and make the area safe-_

"Oh crap!" Susan's thoughts were broken as she looked back to the scene in front of her.

Several meters away one of the Drow had gotten tired of being shot at, and was currently ripping the door off the car that the cop was hiding behind. As the world was moving in slow motion she saw him lift the door to pound it into the guy, and as she had seen them flipping cars over, she knew how strong these suckers were.

 _Don't have time to get my armor on and get over there!_ she thought, panicked. _I hope I'm close enough!_

" _Transposition!"_ she cast, putting energy in to increase her range. She wanted to swap the position of the officer with one of the Drow that was further away, and with the energy she dropped, plus the bonus to _Mercury_ spells she got from having _Acceleration_ upit worked,even casting instantly. The Drow smashed the door through the head of what was now another Drow, confusing them both. The officer whirled around, wondering what the heck had just happened. Susan didn't have time to explain it, she just waited two segments and said her trigger word, "blade."

She became an _Avatar of War._

Both weapons burst into flames, and her armored form drew every eye nearby. About to now enter combat, her nature as a _Paragon_ allowed her to survey the battlefield instantly. As though someone, in a higher dimension, was looking down upon it like an RTS game. Just like that, she knew where everyone was and what the current combat situation was. There were seven cops in the area, apart from the one she had just _Transposed,_ hiding behind their cars. There were seven "civilians" milling about, having come out of shops to see what the confusion was or just being caught up in the action when the drow attacked. It looked like at least three were in close quarters "combat" with drow, a mother trying to defend her child, a woman alone, and a man, all about five meters away from each other about three shops down. That put them at the far edge of the battlefield, meaning Susan would have to get past the cop cars, and fight past at least four drow to get to them. Two drow were punching holes in a nearby shop, where terrified people were screaming inside, and two were beating up cars parked outside of the shops for some reason.

Susan gripped her swords tightly. _Slash All has a range of M, easily enough to hit all of them I can see, but the problem is those attacking people won't know it's me hitting them. They'll just go on attacking what's in front of them, and being pummeled by one of these things means death for a normal person. I need to get those people to safety!_

"Our priority is keeping those people safe," she shouted to Sparkle, pointing down the street to the terrified figures scrambling around trying to avoid blows by the nearby drow.

"You got it," Sparkle replied, mentally reviewing her known spells. _Good, she isn't just going to recklessly attack? She must be seeing their health levels and knows one or two blows won't cut it. Get those people out of here first, then concentrate on taking down the drow. That seems reasonable._

Both rolled _Initiative_ and shifted into combat time, it was time to take out some bad guys!


	56. Chapter 56

56

Drow Combat

Time: Just then

Place: Some random street in Ireland

Sparkle, by nature of being a cat and thus, having a superior REFlexes to her "owner" the "mere human," got the highest _Initiative_ and went first. She took her free 1/10 movement (that being a two meter sprint to under the nearest police car), and cast _Elemental Line: Wind_ with zero _deferred delay._ She was getting a plus ten to the casting check from _Acceleration,_ while she "lost" six because that's how long the spell normally took to cast _._ This gave her a net bonus of four, meaning she got a seventeen total on her check. She managed a line fourteen meters long, just enough to stretch across the battlefield and hit five of the drow, including the one harassing the mother and daughter. It also lit up the battlefield, as a huge magical circle spread out from underneath her, alerting everyone that something strange was going on. Technically something strange was already going on, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say "something even stranger." The drow thus got their chance to dodge, though only one managed to beat the seventeen that Sparkle had gotten.

Susan also instantly cast something, _Transposition,_ this time taking a further penalty for having a sword in her hand as she made the required gestures. She made up the difference with energy, getting a nineteen total on the check. The man she was trying to switch with, freaked out by being attacked by this creature and now seeing magic swirling around himself, actually spent some energy on RESolve to resist because he didn't know what the heck was going on. He got two less than he needed, and he and Susan swapped positions.

"Hey little one!" she called down to the drow, who now looked up in seeming surprise that the man it was trying to beat the crap out of suddenly turned into an armored figure with two flaming swords.

Sparkle, a police officer, and drow "four" now went, the one with a car door smashed over the top of it. It busted out of the door with a roar, intelligent enough to realize something magical had happened to it. The officer uselessly shot at the nearest drow, which of course pinged off his stony hide. Sparkle felt changing a winning strategy was a silly idea and moved up again, now underneath the lead police car. She again cast _Elemental Line: Wind_ at her four bonus, and got an eighteen this time. (She had spent an additional energy, remembering her _Energy Boost_ skill and thus, got that extra energy back) This gave her a line 1m longer than before, and she was able to hit six this time. The drow again tried to dodge, but even spending four energy, none managed it. Howls of anguish were heard, as most of the drow now took a second hit, but none dropped.

 _These things are pretty tough,_ Sparkle thought to herself. _I can see why Susan throws so much energy into stuff she does. When you want something to go down, you want it to go down NOW. Taking two_ Elemental Line _spells in a row is pretty harsh. Though my rating isn't so great, and I haven't put extra energy in to raise my_ _damage potential. Ah well, at least they're moving in slow motion compared to us. We'll make it through._

Susan looked to her left, where the woman was backing away from a drow about to swing at her. She made a free action _Magic Combat_ but as she only had a two rating, her result of seven was pretty low. Oddly, she realized the drow over there would strike at delay ten, where she was at delay four. She wasn't sure about the drow right in front of her. _Okay_ , _my original plan was to hold my action until this one here was about to hit me, then release_ Transposition _and make him hit his buddy. But couldn't I do it the other way around? It's not like this thing can get through my armor or anything._

Chuckling, she took her free movement to run around the drow she was facing so that she was in the same relative position to the drow attacking the woman was. She started casting, taking four segments and insuring her spell would go off so that the other drow wouldn't be able to react in time once it started swinging.

And yes, Susan's desire to show off trumped her desire to take these drow out as quickly as possible. To be fair, as long as no one died she could heal them with the _Alleviation_ knife when it was over, and six segments _was_ only 1.2 seconds. The only other _Paragon_ in the area able to appreciate a time interval that small was used to that sort of behavior from her by now. That didn't mean she approved or anything, but gave a slight shake of the head and waited for her turn again, realizing she was going to do most of the damage dealing for the next few segments.

At the same time, two officers got off another shot and one civilian that was in the clear turned and headed north, catching the attention of drow "ten" who decided running down this terrified person might be a whole lot of fun. As a point of interest, the one officer got a headshot, and rolled max damage, which at least gave the drow standing there beating the hood of the car a single penalty point. (The damage was non-lethal.)

Sparkle, wondering if Susan was for some bizarre reason ignoring the woman and child that were in peril or just trusting her to take care of it, fired off another _Elemental Line: Wind_ with extra energy. She put in four this time, getting back two from her _Energy Boost_ and stretching across the battlefield twice. This hit the three in front of her, the one harassing the woman, one standing out in the open, and the one about to take off after the fleeing person. She got a twenty six total, and there was no way anything within miles of here could dodge that. They tried, and failed. Amazingly, even given the higher damage potential, none dropped.

At the same time, four drow got an action. One swung against Susan, getting a twelve and clanging off her armor harmlessly. One smashed in a car window that was right next to it. One started moving towards Nita, who was still staring straight ahead as she hadn't moved in the last second. It went barreling towards her, having to cover about six meters before it could be within striking distance. Lucky for her, an officer was right there and grabbed her, pulling her to the left behind the car where he was crouched. The last one that could go this segment took a step forward, brandishing what was left of the car door and swinging against officer "two." The officer tried to dodge, missed it by one, and got smashed for twelve damage, going down with a broken left leg. He screamed.

Sparkle was up again, and looked over, over the cars, to where the scream was coming from. The officer was on the ground, clutching at his now shattered leg, and she had to decide between putting _Regeneration_ on him or just getting that drow with the piece of door in his hand away from the guy. She choose the later, as she was in a good spot for a _"Thrust",_ which she cast instantly. She got a twenty six to activate it, but underestimated the STRength of these things, as her target got a twenty eight to resist.

"I declare the use of card 22, _failure_ ," she said, and time jumped back a split second, making the resistance check fail. This slammed the drow into the one right behind him, flipped them both over the hood of the car behind them, and down the street. The TR wasn't enough to hurt them, but at least it bought the poor guy with the broken leg some time to crawl behind the cars.

Officer "one" ran to his friend, shaking off the sight of the drow somehow magically being blown off their feet. He started dragging the guy with the broken leg south, behind the cars and the other officers. Nita ran to help him, and together the two of them got him up on their shoulders so he could be dragged away.

Drow "fourteen" by this time had seen the commotion and magic being thrown against his comrades, and started making his way towards the position of the officers. Sparkle noticed, throwing up an _Elemental Line: Wind_ which shot around the cars, in front of the officer, and then back around, hitting the now battered but still up drow in front of her. The two running drow couldn't exactly stop and again, they couldn't beat a twenty seven result anyway. (Sparkle was now at nineteen energy) Finally, two of them dropped, having taken massive amounts of damage to the body. They were still alive, but at least there were two less to worry about now. Four officers shot, two missed because their targets were taken down, the other two did superficial damage.

It was finally segment ten, so Susan's spell went off, and she switched places with the drow about to attack the woman. It attacked the drow that had punched Susan instead, but the other drow got a lucky dodge roll in and avoided the blow.

 _Blast, all that and it missed? Forget this._

Susan used her _Off Hand_ action to slice the blade through the air, doing a called shot to the bodies of all the drow. With ten energy put into COOrdination she still managed an 18, hitting ten and only missing one in range. This dropped another one, luckily, the one trying to pummel the mother and daughter. One drow leapt over the police car and sprang upon an officer, who tried to get a shaky shot off at it at close range, rather than dodging. It didn't even slow the thing, and it smashed the officer to the ground, doing eleven damage to his chest. Nita, being right next to all this, screamed, which was probably not the best thing to do given that would probably attract attention.

With the drow down, the mother and daughter scrambled back towards the two shops behind them, intending to run around to the back and hide. Drow "nine," having dodged the blow from the teleporting drow looked left where Susan had gone. The woman now in front of Susan chose this moment to faint dead away, as the rock creature she had been trying to fend off now became an enormous armored thing, which was not very reassuring. More drow broke off their assault of various inanimate objects and ran towards the police officers. Luckily Sparkle was also going on this segment, but she wasn't sure of the best course of action to take. The drow that had landed on the officer couldn't be targeted, not without hitting the unfortunate guy beneath him. Her only other attack spells were touch based, and not lethal enough to take out creatures who could survive _Line_ after _Line._ She reluctantly targeted the other four that were nearby, hoping maybe to take them out and afterwards get off a _Destruction_ with the last of her energy. This took out three, leaving two standing near the officers.

The drow that had been thrown by _Thrust_ was now back and racing towards the officers again, but Sparkle went before him, spinning in a circle and sending an _Elemental Line: Wind_ all the way around the cars, hitting the two lone drow, but bringing down neither.

Nita said some words, concentrating on the man who was about to be pounded by a drow, but Susan was too far away to hear them and Sparkle wasn't paying enough attention to worry about it. The guy that was down acted, trying to roll the drow off himself, but could hardly do more than thrash weakly, given the chest wound he had received. Civilian "one" made it into the nearest store, and getting a fifteen on a PERsonality check, held the door open for the mother carrying her child and motioned them to get inside.

Sparkle was up again, and with only twelve energy left, again sent a _Line_ out, intercepting the two nearest drow. One kept coming, one actually died. With thirty six damage to the head, it was two over _gone_ and it dropped to the ground as its head exploded. Still, Sparkle sighed to see that drow "three" was still on the move. Drow "nine" crashed into Susan, trying to bring her down. She didn't dodge, as that would only increase her delay, but she did make an opposed STRength check with the creature to stay standing. It being somewhat wounded, Susan went nowhere, and the drow scrabbled at her armor trying to knock her over.

It was finally Susan's turn again, so she looked down at the drow. "Quit it," she said, swinging her primary blade, and again making a called shot to the body of all the drow she could see. That was a nineteen, while the highest dodge by a drow was a seventeen, so she hit all of them. One near her went down, so she swung with her left as well, doing further damage and increasing her delay again by eight. This dropped a pathetic two, leaving one chasing a civilian, the one nearest her, the one still raising a fist to pound into the police officer, and one that had been _Thrust_ and was nearing the battlefield again.

 _About time,_ Sparkle thought to herself, as she scampered under the cars to the final drow. She didn't have _Magic Combat_ so she just threw her remaining nine energy into _Destruction,_ casting instantly and targeting the drow's head. As expected, this only gave her a plus one bonus because the spell normally took seven segments to cast. With the insanely high DTR of these creatures she missed it by three, and declared the use of card seven, a _success_. The drow's head exploded into powder, and Sparkle got three energy back from her _Energy Boost,_ leaving her with three _._

 _Okay, maybe I should have made that activatable item after all. There's still time, I'll look through the book again, now that I know more what we're up against. There must be something that could have helped in this situation._

Drow "nine" got in another hit against Susan, but which bounced off her armor with a clang. She double swung, again going up by eight, and dropping all but one of the drow, the furthest one away from her.

 _Seriously? I mean I realize these guys have forty two health to lose before they die but this is getting ridiculous. I saw how many times Sparkle cast that_ Elemental _spell. I suppose I shouldn't complain, I am hitting all of them so in reality I'm doing a lot of damage per eight delay, it's just spread out over a bunch of targets. I wonder, if I put my_ Elemental Materia _on the blade, could I do three types of damage to them at once? The physical damage, the fire damage from_ Avatar, _and the_ Materia _damage. Ah, no, that would only make the sword cut_ count _as elemental damage, not actual_ do _elemental damage. I would need a different spell for that._

With only one left, Susan sprinted over to it and sliced it in half. She could see it only needed two more points of damage to drop, which she did.

"There's wounded people here!" shouted Nita, waving her over. Susan sighed, putting the _Enhance Sword_ back in her _Pocket Dimension_ with a spell and swapping her main sword over. She pulled the knife out and advanced on the officers. As she did she glanced at the knife, which had not burst into flames like the sword had. _Huh, the magic is smart enough to know this isn't a weapon. Neat!_

"Stay- stay back!" one of them shouted. "I'll shoot!"

"Yeah? And what good is that going to do you?" Susan retorted.

"It's okay, she's going to help," insisted Nita.

"How do you know? That thing is enormous! Where did all these monsters come from?"

"Just trust me."

"Trust you? Not another step, or I swear..."

"Oh, go ahead. Just try not to bounce it into someone else I'll have to heal."

He pulled the trigger.

Sadly, he was so shaky that even with her +1 size modifier, her passive dodge of fourteen beat his roll of nine easily, so the bullet went wide, shattering a window behind them.

"Are you crazy?" yelled an officer, grabbing the gun and pulling it down. "There's innocent people around here!"

"But... that thing..."

"If it attacks us, fine. Until then, I'll treat it as a friendly. Those creatures aren't dead, aren't they? And we weren't hurting them at all."

"Yeah, what was that light show?" asked another, gun down but still tense.

"Trust me," said Susan, getting close to the first injured man. "You don't want to know. Now this may seem a bit unorthodox, but it will heal you," she said to the guy.

"Keep that thing away from me!" he shouted, trying to inch his way away from the blade.

"Yeah, really need to change the shape of this thing. Oh, hold still, it won't even hurt. Well, not as much as a broken leg will, anyway." She plunged it in. The officer's guns came up again.

"No, please, it's okay!" insisted Nita. "Just watch."

"Hey, I do feel better," said the officer, as Susan pulled the knife out. "How about that?"

"How about that. Now for the other." She went over and healed him as well. "Anyone else?"

The officers shook their heads, so Susan put the knife away again.

"Now will someone explain to me what's going on?" asked the one who had shot at her. "What are those creatures? Who or what in the world are you?"

"Ah, yes, how to explain..." stalled Susan. "Would you believe me if I told you they were just a bad dream?"

"A what?"

Susan took a deep breath and cast _Somnolent Smog_ without words, taking the maximum time and throwing in some energy to compensate for the penalty. She got a sixteen, more than an average person could roll on a CON check, and they all slumped to the ground, asleep. She held it a second, making sure they wouldn't wake up when they hit the ground, and let it go.

Nita was also sleeping peacefully.

 _Whoops._

"Now what?" asked Sparkle, who had known what was coming and also not breathed the mist.

"Somehow destroy the evidence, I guess? How are you doing on energy? Can you use _Destruction_ on them?"

"I have three left. I'm thinking no."

"Ah. Wow, you really did go all out. Sorry I wasn't more help, seems you did most of the work there. That called shot and off hand action really killed me. I can see it'll work, but I'll need that _Augment Skill: Off Hand_ to really take advantage of it. It sucks _Acceleration_ can't make that faster too, but 'No other skills, Backgrounds or other abilities modify off-hand _Delay_.' as they say."

"Who says that? To be fair, the entire combat still only took about five seconds."

"True, very true. I'm going to drain energy from any that are alive, they should sleep for a little while."

"Drain energy? Are you out too?"

"No, but just in case more show up, I figure I better be prepared. It'll give me a minute to think of what to do with all these bodies too. If we have to do what I think we're going to have to do, I'll need all the energy I can get."

In the end, she found she could lift them physically, instead of relying on the _Telekinesis_ spell as she had feared. So she simply opened a _Teleportal_ out in the middle of a field she had seen while riding around the bus through Ireland. She then picked them up, one at a time, and tossed them through. By this time, people were getting curious again as to what was happening, but Susan staring them down seemed to cure that pretty quickly. When the bodies were gone she hefted Nita, stepped through the portal herself, let Sparkle jump through, and was about to close it when an elf on horseback rode up and held up a hand in greeting.

Susan stared. _A real elf! Now how about... oh right, is that the guy I had to impress to get the sword? Let's hope so._

"How's it going?" she asked, trying to be casual.

The elf stared at her. "Really?" it finally asked, quite sternly.

 _Oh crap, I just doomed us all?_


	57. Chapter 57

57

Talking to Elves

Place: The field side of the portal back to town

Time: Seconds after Susan greeted the elf

The figure on horseback and Susan stared at each other for long seconds. The elf had black hair, pointed ears, ( _So I suppose he could be Vulcan, rather than an elf?)_ regal clothes, and a slightly odd look about him in terms of how reality was perceived in these parts. His horse was similar, in that it looked more regal than "simple" Earth horses. It was pure white, stood stock still, and also seemed to look at her with some intelligence. Susan was sure most would call the elf handsome, if they were into that sort of thing, but she wasn't impressed or intimidated. It was a pretty nice horse, though.

Still under _Acceleration_ because technically as she was still on the battlefield it was the same _scene,_ shedid a couple of quick sensings of him. She got an eleven on _Magic Sense,_ ten on _Spirit,_ and eight on _Dimension._ Sparkle assisted her with a twelve on that one, giving her plus two, enough to succeed on all of them. He was magical, had a bunch of energy, and wasn't from around here.

 _As if I couldn't tell just by looking at him. But it is nice to have confirmation. Wait, if he's not from around here and has all that energy..._

"Declare yourself," she said, putting a hand out and willing her sword to come back into her hand from where she had stabbed it into the ground to pick up drow bodies. She could feel where it was, and didn't need to look as the _Material Link_ now worked into the sword guided it into her hand. It burst into flames again, and she held it up.

"Impressive," said the elf, "but then I've already seen your abilities in combat. That many opponents, in so short a time? Even our warriors would be hard pressed to match such a feat."

 _Okay, not exactly answering my question... The trouble with this world is, it seems like nobody actually lives here! Is this guy The Darkness, or will starting a fight with him be another Biddy situation? I need to ask Silverstreak if there's some way of detecting_ just _that presence, as_ Dimension Sense _isn't cutting it around here. Of course, hopefully most worlds don't have this much "pollution."_

"Thank you. To be fair, most of the work done that time was accomplished by my cat. I'm saving my good stuff for our assault on Balor or whatever his name his."

"That seems a wise choice. Wait, did you say cat?"

"Hello!" said Sparkle, looking up at the figure.

The elf shook his head. "It is no wonder the queen has sent her fool to pick up this lot. It seems fitting all around. Have you finished your work here, then?"

Susan looked past him, to where the battle had taken place. She had counted, and she had all the drow bits on this side of the _Teleportal._ Those not dead she had killed by draining their energy until they perished, so she was back to her maximum and then some. She had wanted to spend some of it on _Repair,_ like for the windows and such that had been broken.

 _Too many witnesses, though. Even if I repaired the damage, a lot of people saw that attack happen. Too many to just pass off as some kind of shared hallucination. And with the attack over, people will be gathering to see what happened, and Nita won't like me throwing magic around where people can see. Oh well._

"On that side, yes," she replied. "I still have to bury these guys on this side. You want to come through and wait?"

The elf seemed puzzled. "You would show such compassion, even to monsters like these?"

"What compassion?" she asked, annoyed. "Even out here in the country I can't just leave a bunch of drow bodies laying about. If someone stumbled into them, think of the repercussions. They would think them aliens or something, and call in the government, and seal off the area, and generally freak out. I'm hiding them, not performing last rites."

"Yes, I see the difference now. If you will allow me through your marvelous gateway here, I shall 'hold my horse' as you humans say, while you perform this task. I hope it will not take long, the queen should not be kept waiting."

"Then she should have come to see me," Susan muttered, stepping back. The horse carefully stepped through the _Teleportal,_ and after Sparkle hopped through (Nita had been carried through first thing) she closed it. With that, the _scene_ ended, and Susan's magic dropped away, leaving her struggling to heft the now too heavy blade. The world also sped up as _Acceleration_ dropped away too. "You can wait over there," she said, pointing. "That tree should be far enough away."

The elf looked over at it. "Do you fear the secret of your magics being given away if I watch? You need not, I have no interest in them." Susan glared at him. "Yes, I noticed they were not wizardry, but you used them against our enemies, and so I will not question them."

 _I'm glaring at you because that means were you standing around watching somewhere, and didn't bother to lift a finger to actually help me. Thanks a lot._ She did not say this out loud, rather; "No, you're not from this dimension. I can't tell you from another dimensional traveler I'm here to drive from this world. No offense, but I've already beaten up one wrong person in my time here, I would not want to beat up another. As you have yet to declare yourself or your intentions as I requested, I am forced to treat you as a potential enemy. Now please _go over there."_

The elf shook his head. "It seems arrogance is not limited to only the Sidhe. Very well, if it will reassure you." He wheeled his horse around and trotted over to the trees some distance away that Susan had pointed out.

 _No, what would reassure me is knowing who the freak you are. Had I not been expecting someone to bring me the vessel of air, I would have already torn you apart given how suspicious you're acting. As it is, you can go be butthurt over there where I can keep an eye on you. You don't seem the type The Darkness would possess either, you're not really impressive or evil looking enough. But that doesn't mean you aren't._

"So how exactly are we going to bury these guys?" asked Sparkle, as Susan reabsorbed her sword.

"I can think of a spell or two that might work. Worst case, we stick them in my _Personal Dimension_ for a bit, and Silverstreak can have them when we get back to the Hub. Let's see now..." She got her book out and started paging through it. "Uranus spells deal with the earth, there must be something. Shoot! _Passageway_ deals exclusively with stone, rather than just the ground. Same with _Sculpt..._ wait, here it is. _Excavate!_ That will dig up the earth around here. Now, can I pick it up in a couple of minutes..."

Sparkle indicated she wanted to look too, so Susan showed the book to her.

"It's going to deposit the dirt in a big pile," she read, "and look disturbed."

"Ah, true. I figure I can shove the dirt back with _Telekinesis,_ but you're right, it'll still look like a recently dug hole. Someone could get curious and start digging. Wait!" She paged through some more. "How about _Foliate?_ That'll make grass grow if I only maintain it for a turn. That should cover up any sign of work here."

Sparkle looked it over as well. "Sounds good to me."

So the two got to work understanding the spells enough to cast them from writings. Susan got a twelve and a seventeen while reading _Foliage,_ which was enough. She then went back to _Excavate_ and read it over.

"Wait a second. _Foliate,_ which can basically restore an entire forest to life in under five minutes, is grade five, right?"

"Yeah."

"But a spell to simply dig a hole in the ground is grade seven? And it's _I_ duration, meaning you can't concentrate on making the hole bigger, one shot is all I get. I don't get it."

"Maybe because targeting a creature made of earth destroys it? I mean you could have used this on that golem that gave us some trouble back with Louise, right?"

She tilted the book this way and that, thinking it over. "I guess. Still, maybe I should ask the book for a lesser grade version of the spell that just digs up a bit of ground while I concentrate. I wonder." She flipped through to the Mercury section. "Do you think _Telekinesis_ would work on the ground before we dug it up? I mean, once it's a pile of dirt, it's a single object- one, one pile of dirt, ah ha ha. Could we basically yank a portion of ground up here with that spell?"

Sparkle considered. "Probably not. You would have to target each grain of dirt with the spell, as however heavy a chunk you could lift with your check result would still count as the _entire_ Earth at that point. And if you started shoving the entire planet around, well, let me off first."

"I'll give you plenty of warning." Susan grinned. _Huh, so I could lift a whole car, even if it's made of pieces because all the pieces make up a single object, a car. But targeting the ground to make a hole doesn't work even if they weigh the same. Magic is so weird._ "Okay, let's hope I get enough on my checks." She went back to _Excavate_ and started reading it over. This time her checks were a twenty three and a fifteen, enough to understand the spell well enough to cast it. "Great!" she said, magic swirling around the area as she envisioned the symbols on the ground nearby. "And away we go."

Fourteen segments later, the ground vanished from under the drow and they fell into a good sized hole. Susan then shoved the dirt as she had planned, and created a _Temporary Tool,_ a hoe, to smooth the dirt out. One final casting, _Foliate,_ and the area was so passably green again that unless someone was specially looking for this spot, no one would ever know what had happened there.

"Time itself will make the area look more natural," she mused, looking around. "I think we're done here."

"Our elven friend seems anxious to be on his way," remarked Sparkle. "And remember, they really have no incentive to help up, so do try to be polite."

"Oh, I always try," allowed Susan. "It just hardly ever comes out that way. Let's go wake up Nita before he bursts a blood vessel or something."

She gently shook the wizard, who fluttered her eyelids and then sat bolt upright. "What's... where? Susan? What's going on?"

"Sorry about that," Susan apologized. "You got caught in my sleep spell from before. The police were asking some uncomfortable questions, so I did the expedient thing of making them take a little nap."

"You put them to sleep? What about the drow?"

"All taken care of." She stomped her foot. "Maybe not six feet under, but good enough for government work."

"But all that damage! You should have woken me up, now it's too late."

"Too late? For what? I thought about repairing the windows and stuff but that would have just meant more magic, and I figured you wouldn't approve. By that point the area was starting to get crowded with people."

"No, no, we could have... I don't know, patched it or something."

"Patched... it?"

"Yeah. Just copied a part of reality from a parallel dimension where that attack didn't happen there. It would have set everything to rights."

"Uh, Nita, don't know if you remember this, but you couldn't do a simple _Teleport_ spell without backfiring it. Now you want to copy space from another dimension? Something tells me that's a little more complex, and that overlay is still there, right? You can't just ignore it for the little stuff, then hope you can pull off some crap I couldn't even do."

"Yeah, even I think your sense of scale is a bit skewed," admitted Sparkle. "Plus, what if you missed? Got the reality where the attack was still going on, or in fact was worse than it was here? You wouldn't want to bring something like that over to this world, right? Is your wizardry that selective? No, I think we really did all we could do, given the constraints of the area."

"Who is that?" Nita had just caught sight of the figure coming towards them.

"Oh, him? Good question, he won't tell me. Hopefully he's here to deliver the vessel of air, but he hasn't said one way or the other. All he's done is mention a queen."

"The queen," said the elf, riding over to them. "Are you well, wizard?"

"Yes, thank you," said Nita, staring up at him.

"Then perhaps we can finally be about this."

"Not until I get a little bit more explanation." Susan crossed her arms over her chest. "You've told me nothing. For all I know, you are The Darkness about to lead us into a trap. We expect someone to come deliver the vessel, and so it shows up after taking you over. Pretty convenient."

The elf sighed. "The queen holds summer court. I do not know how you knew it was her intention to hand over Fragarach, the sword of air, but that is her desire." He looked a bit troubled.

"Fraggle Rock?"

"Fragarach."

"Eh, close enough. Very well, lead on, good sir!" Susan gave a start and almost pulled her blade out again as two horses appeared out of nowhere. "Nice trick," she admitted. _Okay, where they invisible, or just summoned here? And I thought magic around here took words? He didn't seem to do anything, but he could have some kind of_ Spell Symbol _same as me. That would impress the uninitiated, just like I use it._

"You can ride, I hope?" the elf asked.

"I'm a bit rusty, but I have the skill," answered Susan. "Nita?"

"Not so much," she admitted.

"No problem, I've got energy to burn before it naturally dissipates. _Augment Skill: Riding."_

With that, the two managed to get onto their horses with ease (Susan had cast the spell both on herself and Nita) and they followed the elf into a parallel world where a very beautiful elf with really, really long hair lounged in a simple seat under a pavilion. She was dressed in white, surrounded by attendants, and had a sword shaped bundle on her lap that was also covered in white silk.

"The greetings of gods and man to you, wizards," she said, and her voice was pure and strong.

"And to you, majesty," said Susan, trying for an untrained _Etiquette_ check and getting a seven. Her curtsy was not very well accomplished. "So you have summoned us, so have we come before you."

"If not without some prodding," grumped the elf who had brought them.

"Now, now," chided the queen, "They know little of queens or of us, any longer. And you did interrupt their battle, after all."

"We did not mean any disrespect with our tardiness," said Nita.

"I know," she answered, with a hint of a smile. "But now let us attend to the business that has brought you here."

"I take it the vessel of air is in that bundle there?" asked Susan, stepping forward with an outstretched hand. "Great, with this there's only the vessel of fire left to-" She stopped as the queen's eyes widened and her attendants gasped. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the elf partially draw his blade. "What?" she snapped at him, glaring. "Oh, you saw the sword being drawn into my hand. Don't worry, I'll be good."

"Please forgive her!" spoke up a panicked Nita, grabbing Susan and trying to pull her back. "She doesn't- She's not from- Just, please, we're honored to be chosen, I mean if it's your intention..."

"What's wrong with you?" Susan asked her, batting her hands away.

"What's wrong with you?" Nita hissed back. "Do you have any idea how offensive you're being towards them?"

Susan shook her head. "No, should I? I don't have the _Etiquette_ skill, so I figured being direct was best. We're all here for the same reason. Why waste time?"

"You can't be serious!"

"I'm always serious. She may be a queen here but that means nothing to me." She turned back to the queen. "Give it to me and we'll be on our way. I'm sure you have better things to be doing anyway."

Some of the attendants looked ready to faint at such behavior.

"Such boldness," said the queen. "Or is it arrogance? I thought our kind was arrogant compared to yours, but perhaps I have been away too long."

"Yeah, I'm not really from around here, so please don't take my behavior as typical. I have a war to prepare for, and the sooner I can acquire what I need to win that war, the sooner I can beat Balor, save your entire reality, and be on my way. So you'll have to forgive me if I skip a few of the pleasantries."

"Who's talking right now?" asked Sparkle suddenly from behind Susan. All eyes snapped to her, and even the queen seemed interested in the talking cat. Susan also spun around, meeting her eyes. A look of understanding passed between them, and Susan took a deep breath. "It is, no doubt." She closed her eyes and tried to relax. She hadn't noticed, but there had been a tension building up inside her as she had gotten closer to this place. For some reason she wanted to lash out at these people, and she couldn't imagine why.

 _Oh, and you were doing so well for a while there,_ chortled The Darkness inside her. _Pity, that cat seems to be on the ball this time. Much like that accursed Luna. Oh well._

The tension drained out of her, leaving Susan facing the assembled elves. "Your majesty, I must offer an apology for my recent behavior. It's not an excuse, but there is a dark presence inside me that can sometimes influence me. It also seems able to make me forget about it, so I'm not on guard against that influence as I should be. Thank you, Sparkle, for reminding me. Perhaps you would be better to just deal with Nita before I make things worse."

The queen sat back in her chair. "I do feel a conflict of some kind within you. Perhaps you are simply the living proof that we all carry our demons with us. But what you said was true. You are here for the sword, and I am here to bestow it upon you. Approach then, Nita, and receive it."

Nita came forward as the queen unwrapped a sword and presented it to her. Susan didn't need _Magic Sense_ to feel the power coming off it, and even visually the air around the blade seemed to tremble. Nita reached out a hand, but drew it back as if shocked.

"It pushed me away!"

The queen nodded. "The reason it was taken out of the world was because there was no hand strong enough to wield it. Also I think the nature of the person is taken into account, and there is more of the water than of the air about you, wizard. Perhaps your confused companion would like to take a turn?"

Susan looked over at their original guide, who still hadn't taken his hand off his sword hilt. He seemed to struggle with himself, then shoved it back and gestured for her to go ahead. She too reached for the blade, and felt herself being shoved back, the air growing uncomfortably hot around the sword. She bet she could force the issue, make some STRength or RESolve checks to touch the blade, but she backed off for the moment. "I'll have to force it," she remarked.

"As I thought," said the queen. "There is too much of the fire nature in you, and I worry, for what does air do to fire?"

"Spread it," she answered simply.

"Correct. Your power is strange to me, but I can feel it within you. To add the power of this sword to your already considerable power... I must admit the idea worries me."

"Perhaps I could try it," said Sparkle, stepping up.

"Ah, forgive me, friend feline, but how would you carry such a blade?" asked the queen.

"Not physically, I admit. I'll put it in my sub-space pocket. I have the same rating as you, Susan, and I don't have anything in mine at the moment. It should be big enough."

The queen laughed. "An unconventional approach, for an unconventional day. Not that I'm even sure what you mean, exactly, but I know enough of magic to reason your meaning. Very well." She held the blade out to Sparkle, who put a paw on it and made a _Pocket_ check, putting in her last three energy as her MANipulation was so low. She got a seven, not enough, but quickly declared the use of card 5, _Bonus,_ for a nine that was. The sword disappeared.

"Guess I'm air enough," she said.

"Extraordinary," said the queen. "If we had more time, I'm sure your stories would be quite astonishing."

"Perhaps," admitted Sparkle. "But not yet done. Not by a long way, I think."

"Indeed. The Amadaun will see you back to your home. Good luck in your coming battle."

"Thank you, majesty," all three said.

And so the elf brought them back to the farm, and wheeled and rode away without so much as a parting word.

 _Maybe I should tattoo 'The Darkness' on my hand, so I can see it all the time and get reminded of it. That way maybe things like that wouldn't happen._

"So now what?" asked Nita.

"Now we see about fire," Susan answered, heading to the door. "And our real battle begins."


	58. Chapter 58

58

Trust Issues

Place: Farmhouse

Time: Sunset that evening/Just then

Susan put her hand on the doorknob to go back into the house and tell Nita's aunt that they had the sword, and where would she like it? However, she paused and looked around, certain that something was wrong.

"What time is it?" asked Nita, looking up at the sun. It was low in the sky, and shadows stretched across the nearby fields.

"Ah, four thirty," said Susan, looking at the watch Silverstreak had given her. The watch that automatically synchronized to whatever the local time was. "Wait, that can't be right."

"We just had lunch, how can it be almost dinnertime?" asked Nita. "Wait, I've got one thirty... what is that?"

"What is what?"

"That watch! I've never seen anything like it. Is that... some kind of shrunken down computer monitor or something? It's lit up like it is!"

Susan chuckled. "Oh, this old thing? Don't worry about this, it was given to me by the being that sent me here. I'm sure you won't have technology like this for a long time."

"I should think not. Anyway, that's really weird. I guess time ran differently between where we talked to the queen and here."

"Must be. Weird, we hadn't stayed all that long. Well, we'll just have to have a late dinner then, huh?"

"Yeah."

The three went inside, and found Annie in the kitchen looking somewhat worried.

"What's up, Aunt Annie?" asked Nita. "We got the sword, no worries. Sorry we were gone so long, we didn't realize time was different when we went to see the queen."

"Queen?"

"Of the Sidhe."

"Sidhe? I thought they were elves!" broke in Susan. "But no, wait, that is what my magic called them before, isn't it?"

"Thank goodness you didn't actually call them that. We really wouldn't have walked out of there alive!"

Susan shrugged. "Oh, we would have." She looked around. "A lot of people in this house," she remarked, her _Spirit Sense_ telling her there were a lot more energy signatures in nearby rooms than was normal. She didn't have to make checks in that, it was like telling a room was hot or cold when you walked in. She could feel the energy around her, and making checks was just to tell where exactly _ley lines_ were or the approximate energy of someone she was near to. "Are they wizards, come to figure out a plan for the spirit of fire?"

Annie seemed to get a little paler. "You can tell that... yes, of course you would. Nita, dear, can you just come over here?" She edged around the table and pulled Nita with her, placing the table between them and her.

"So much for the element of surprise," said a voice, and Johnny aka Shaun O'Driscoll, the highest ranking wizard in these parts walked in, followed by several other people. Each group came into the room from separate doors, so Susan couldn't help but think they were somehow trying to box her in. _But that would be a dumb thing to do_. "Fairest and fallen, greetings and defiance."

"The... what now?" asked Susan, confused.

"She can't be!" protested Nita. "There's no-"

"Are you sure?" he barked, cutting her off. "Because there's no way a couple of kids could write the spell that woke up the cup, and then the stone, on the first try. We got the reports of the drow attack in town, and cleaning up that mess was a real pain, let me tell you. I spoke to several people who said a girl matching your description turned into a giant, armor wearing, flaming sword wielding, combat machine. A dozen drow, taken down in seconds! The police officers I spoke to said they had never seen anything like it. And then you all vanished!"

"Funny way of saying thank you for saving hundreds of lives today. You're welcome, by the way. Anyway, you know how I can do all that stuff, I told you earlier. I can do _magic._ Don't complain to me that you all got stuck with mere _wizardry."_

Johnny shook his head. "I don't buy it. The simplest solution is usually the right one. Ergo, you're the Lone One, trying to disrupt our plans somehow."

"Right, by waking up the treasures for you, and then handing them over. Wait, are you calling me, is he calling me the thing that invented death in this universe?"

Nita tightly nodded her head, eyes huge.

"Oh, come on. Most of that fight wasn't even me, it was Sparkle! Tell them!"

"It was me, actually," admitted Sparkle. "I spent all my energy to do it, as those things were pretty tough to take down, let me tell you."

"Oh sure, your _cat_ can do magic. Sure. Tell us another one!"

"She can, believe me if you don't believe her. What you're saying doesn't make sense," protested Nita. "Yeah, she's got some weird magic, but she's been helping us. I mean she's a little rude-"

Sparkle snorted. "You can be honest."

"Okay, she's really brusque, and uncaring of our situation, and the hardest worker I've ever seen, and terrifying in battle. But that doesn't mean... and she's possessed by some evil force, she admitted that to me." She took a step back, fearful.

"I'm not _possessed,_ " countered Susan. "The Darkness put some of himself into my soul before I was born, yes. If I was possessed his will would totally dominate mine, rather than just getting me to be 'brusque' as you call it. Plus I could pull him out with _Exorcise_ like I did with Tom and Professor Quirrell that one time. But that's a totally different guy than your guy. I've been living with him for years, way before I set foot on this world. Man, you guys don't have truth telling spells, do you? Running right now, I mean?"

"We can't do anything like that," said Johnny.

"Typical," she snorted in reply. "I could put one up, but getting you to believe it, that's the trouble. Fine. So say I am this one or whatever you call him. If you try something, I'll just wipe you out, right? I mean the one is basically a god compared to you all, right? Though he somehow doesn't just crush you in your sleep and be done with it for some bizarre reason. That aside, if you're right I could just gesture and kill you all. So coming here like this was a stupid idea, if you're right. Now say you're wrong- and you are, F.Y.I. You attack and kill me. Now you just murdered an innocent girl and doomed your world to extinction at the hands of The Darkness. He sucks your entire reality dry of energy and moves on the next. Stupid idea. Plus you have this overlay garbage that Nita keeps saying prevents her from using wizardry around here. You attack me and get it wrong, we all go up together. Stupid idea. You don't have any real argument for this 'confrontation' because it goes badly for you no matter what you do. If you really were worried you should have just watched me and let me prove myself."

Johnny shook his head. "This was our only chance. If you carried out your plans to help your image win this time it would be too late. We can hardly fight one of you, much less two. And we knew you would be here, so this is where it had to happen."

"I won't fight you, but you won't win. I hope you realize that."

"Fight you? No, if we're right, and I think we are, there's not much we can do. Annie?"

"I don't know. I spoke to the Lone Power on my ordeal, we all did in one form or another. And I trust my niece. She doesn't feel the same."

"It's your house, so it's your call. But wizardry can't explain what she's done, and her wild story about being from another world doesn't sit right with me. Can we really risk it? If her story is true, she'll probably break out sooner or later. I just hope it gives us enough time to take care of Balor."

Annie took a deep breath, pulling Nita with her, towards the door behind them.

"Wait, what are you doing?" she said, struggling to get free. "You don't understand, what do you plan to do?"

"What we must," said Johnny sadly. As he did, everyone backed out of the room carefully.

 _Great, I would have gone and replaced my spell symbols with physical combat ones rather than magical, like at home. I need a second charm bracelet. Oh well, I can cast what I want quickly enough, I've still got plenty of energy._

" _Magic Immunity,"_ she cast, taking the full 1.8 seconds to cast it. She figured they couldn't possibly speak a spell against her in that time.

She was right.

Once out of the room, the assembled wizards started speaking in the wizard language they used, and Susan made her _Adaptive Skill_ check to see what they were doing. She got a fourteen, modified by minus three for the grade nine spell she was now maintaining. Still more than a ten, meaning she understood what they were saying. She didn't exactly know what it all meant, as it was a pretty complex spell. Her _Adaptive Skill_ allowed her to read the _Speech,_ and even use wizardry if she was fed it. But actually understanding the workings of the spell, so different from her own, was something else entirely. _I really didn't want to hurt these people, so let them bounce a spell or two_ _off me and then perhaps we can talk._

She figured it was going to be something pretty spectacular, given the number of people arrayed against her. She crossed her arms over her chest and put on a bored look, wondering how long this was going to take. _Something about space, and folding? Whatever, it'll just bounce off and perhaps they'll see how futile-_

"You can't use that HERE!" screamed Nita, figuring out what they were doing. "Susan, get out-"

With a **snap** the spell went off, and Susan and Sparkle found themselves seemingly cut off from light and sound.

"Huh. That's different," Susan remarked, squinting to try and pierce the darkness.

"I'll say. What did they do?"

"Not sure. Hey, can you see?"

"Not a thing. You?"

"No. It can't be magical, I was immune to magic." She put her hand out, and as expected, there was the table. "Table is still there. They couldn't have needed all those wizards to cast a simple darkness spell, and we're not being leapt upon and beaten to the ground, so I'll assume something else is going on. Just a second, I'll drop _Immunity_ and get a _Light_ going."

She did.

The two looked around. The room was intact, but out the doors and windows there seemed to be a dark nothingness, like the room had been torn out of reality and shoved into a _Pocket Dimension._

"Did they shunt space?" she asked, walking over to the door and doing a _Dimension Sense_ outside. She rolled maximum, a thirteen, but didn't get any information from the check. "We're not in another dimension, that's for sure." She made a _Topic: Dimensions_ check but got minimum (as there must always be balance in the universe) a four, so it wasn't anything she had read about in the past.

"You're pretty calm about the whole situation," remarked Sparkle.

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Plus, you just reminded me of my passenger, so I'm trying to play it cool for the moment." She tapped her head.

"Ah. Well, that aside, how are we getting out of here? The air in here won't last forever, though I suppose we could use _Pure Air._ "

"I got a twenty on _Magical Theory,_ but only a nine (minus one) on _Magic Sense._ See what you come up with for that, because I have an idea."

"Lower, an eight."

"Okay, assist me then."

"You got it."

Both made a second check, this time at a minus one penalty. Susan again got minimum, (minus one for retrying, minus one for the _Light_ spell) and Sparkle got a ten (minus one).

"Even worse now?" she shrieked. "Fine, you know what, I'm just going with my gut."

"I hope you know what you're doing."

Susan got her pistol out of the _Pocket Dimension_ and activated the _Imbuing_ on it, _Dead Magic._ As the space she was in was being magically twisted to basically cut it off from the rest of the universe, _Dead Magic_ stopped that twisting.

The room reappeared back where it was, sound and light returning to the area.

"-had the sword of Air with them, that's why!" Nita was shouting, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I didn't see it," said Annie.

"Sparkle had it, she put it into-" She gasped and pointed, and everyone spun.

"Now then," said Susan, leveling the pistol at Johnny, "if you're all through being hysterical, and can show a little trust for _one darn minute,_ maybe we can sort this all out."

"Oh crap! How in the-" Annie started to say. Johnny interrupted her, trying more wizardry, but Susan just stood there, finger off the trigger but considering it. Whatever he was trying to do fizzled totally, and he blinked in surprise.

"I've seen that gun before," volunteered Nita. "She's telling the truth."

"Yeah, as long as this gun is out, nobody does any magic. Handy, huh? Now, you want the sword? How about you stop treating me like an enemy? Send away your little posse and we'll talk."

"What do we do?" whispered one of the men that was standing behind Johnny. "She got out, and she's right, I can't do any wizardry."

"What's that?" asked Susan. "Speak up, I'm a little hard of hearing actually, so I missed that." Rather than answer they turned away and started urgently whispering amongst themselves. "Okay, fine, sure, take your time. I'm just standing here with a _loaded gun."_ She shook it at them. _"_ Hakuna matata, I guess."

"What?" asked Nita.

"It means no worries, for the rest of your days," she singsonged, getting a three on her untrained _Singing_ check. Nita looked confused. "What, don't wizards go to movies?"

"I go to movies all the time. What's that from?"

"Uh, The Lion King?" Nita looked at Annie, who shook her head. "You guys don't have The Lion King yet either?" She shook her head sadly. "I pity you. I really do."

"Doesn't that come out next year?" asked one of the wizards from the other door.

There was a general acknowledgement from the others nearby.

"Next year? Really? Huh, how about that. You should really go see it. Simba's dad dies. I still cry every time I see that stampede into the-"

"Susan! Spoilers!" chided Sparkle.

"Hey, I'm going to start spoiling every movie, book, and TV show I can think of that comes out in the next twenty years unless you people come to your senses. Then we'll start in on Game of Thrones- who lives and who dies."

Sparkle gasped. "You wouldn't!"

"Oh, you have no idea. Let's start with The Mask, that was around this time, right? Now the basic plot goes like this-"

"Okay, okay!" said Johnny, raising his hands in surrender. "What do you want?"

"I want you to stop attacking me so I can give you this freaking sword and then go down to see Biddy and get the vessel for the spirit of fire so we can beat up The Face of Balor and I can move on to the next reality before my father or girlfriend bite the dust on some random world because you were too slow to trust!" She sucked in a huge breath. "And a pony."

"Girlfriend?"

"Biddy? The farrier?"

"She really has the sword?"

"Did she really write the spell to wake up the cup?"

"Girlfriend?"

"It's really Balor? We have to do the reenactment?"

"ONE AT A TIME!" shouted Susan over the sudden din. "You!" she said, pointing. "And anyone that says'girlfriend' gets shot in the leg. I'm from the future, it works out." She hesitated. "Sorta. Maybe? Kinda? In another generation? Anyway, speak!"

"Uh... pass?"

Susan mulled that over. "Acceptable. Next!" She pointed again.

"You really got the sword?"

"Ah, a useful question. Thank you. Yes, we have retrieved the sword from a bunch of elves, or whatever Nita called them earlier. They were holding it because there wasn't anyone around here strong enough or whatever. Sparkle has it." She indicated her _companion_ who gave a little wave with her paw. "Next!"

"Where is it?"

"Safe, and out of reach for the moment. You'll get it when I'm satisfied you won't attack me again. You."

"Uh, me? Oh, you're not the Lone Power? You really are helping us?"

"I really am helping you. Maybe I should have gotten you all together to start with, that was my bad. It might have helped, but I wasn't sure how much you could, given how you can't actually use wizardry very easily around here. Plus..." _I think The Darkness wanted me to try and go it alone, and made me think I could. I would be easier to take out in that case._ "Anyway, I'll do that next world, promise. Sparkle, take a memo, make sure I do that."

"Got it, boss."

"Next question. You."

"You can really do magic? Real, honest to goodness magic? Not wizardry?"

"Also correct. I'd demonstrate but, gun. Well, actually I guess I _am_ doing magic, technically. You can see that because you can't do any wizardry. Proof by... absence? Anyway, I broke out of your little... whatever that was, so that should be proof enough of my power. What exactly was that, anyway?"

"A space twist," answered Nita. "We used it on a dragon once, that's what led me to almost be eaten by a shark later." Susan tried to figure out how those things were related. "It was the energy cost for sealing off his treasure hoard. I did it alone, rather than a group like they did. So it probably won't hit them as hard."

"You killed a dragon? Thought wizardry was all about protecting life, you said that to me once."

Nita looked shocked. "No, no, we just sealed him up. He was senile, couldn't remember how much treasure he had. In exchange for the "Naming of Lights" we traded "The Book Which is Not Named" and sealing the area off."

"Uh huh." _Wait, 'book' which is not named? Another parallel to my world?_ "Is the book actually named Tom... or Voldemort?"

"What?" Nita looked totally thrown by the randomness of that question.

"Never mind. So, where would the dragon get air from? You sealed him off, that means nothing could get inside right? But dragons still have to breathe and the only air he would have had was in the space with him. That would have lasted, what, a few minutes? I don't know how much oxygen a dragon uses." Nita looked horrified, putting her hands over her month. "Okay, you obviously never thought of that. Great. Moving right along, you."

That woman sputtered, obviously failing to keep up with the conversation. "Johnny mentioned you saying something about a worse threat than the Lone One?"

Susan explained about The Darkness, or Darkvoid as he was called by others. This is not recorded here because you, reading this, already know all about it.

"I think she's telling the truth," said one wizard. "She's not the Lone Power, not by a long way. I have to get back, my kids will be home from school in a few minutes. Let me know when the next meeting is."

Many others agreed they had places to be, and that Susan was fine in their book if Nita vouched for her. They had seemed impressed when they heard her mention that book, and many had sort of stared off into the distance as if reading something only they could see. After that they had nodded and relaxed.

"All right," Johnny sighed, "put it away. You have my word as a wizard that we will not attack you further."

"And?" prompted Susan.

"And?"

"And you're..."

"And we're... sorry?"

"There it is. Fine." She cut the spell, bringing magic back to the area, and popped the gun into her _Pocket Dimension_ again. Those that were left watched interestedly, so she took the full time so they could see the magical circle her powers produced. They seemed impressed.

"Hey, the overlay is gone," remarked one woman, looking around. "Feel that?"

The others looked about, casting wizardries of their own, and found that to be the case.

"Like I said," explained Susan, " _Dead Magic_ will suppress all magic in an area. That includes decades old magic too. Now, will this 'overlay' of yours seep back into this space? I have no clue. But for the moment, this room, and anything about ten meters from where I was standing should be clean."

"Could the area be widened?" asked a man.

"Sure. It's dependent on the energy I throw into the spell. How wide is Ireland?" There was some discussion, leading to a figure of about 85,000km. "Okay, divide that by 25..." she grabbed a nearby calculator. "That's 3,400 people I would have to drain of energy to get the whole country. All magic everywhere would fail for a minute, and then your overlay problem will be gone."

"We'll think about it," said Johnny, in a tone that covered shock, revulsion, and "we won't be thinking about it." "As for now, you said the person to see is Biddy, right?"

"She's one of your 'bright powers' I think you call them. She's also been practicing making spears. I think she knows what's coming and what we need to do to get an envelope for the spirit of fire."

"Let's go talk to her then."


	59. Chapter 59

59

Detailing Insanity

Place: Biddy's house

Time: Half an hour later

Susan, for once thinking ahead, decided not to antagonize the wizards that remained further and did not offer _Teleportal_ to get to Biddy's house more quickly. Instead she meekly followed them to a bus stop and rode like everybody else. Halfway there she regretted her decision, as the bus slowly made its way though the town. Susan looked out the window, as the wizards didn't seem to want to talk on the way, and noticed people seemed more jumpy than usual. They walked a bit quicker, eyes darting about, not greeting others they saw on the streets as they usually did.

 _No, these people have noticed, and they think nothing can be done. They are fearful because they don't know what's happening or that we are trying to protect them. Is keeping them ignorant of wizardry really serving in their best interest? I have to wonder._

Having finally arrived, the group made their way to the back, where Biddy was found still making spears in her forging area.

"Oh, you girls again," she muttered, turning from her work and spying them. "Wait, what's all this?"

"Elder sister," said Johnny, "in the One's name, honor and greeting."

"You had to go and tell them, didn't you?" she snapped at Susan and Nita. She glared at them, taking in the group with a somewhat resolved expression on her face.

"Yes, we did," replied Susan. "We have all the treasures but fire, so it's time for you to take the stage. I mean, I'm perfectly happy to go beat up this Balor fellow with my strength and power alone, but these people might not trust that. So let's reassure them as we're able, huh?"

"You have no idea what you're asking."

"What is she asking?" asked Johnny, stepping up. "Obviously I'm a little behind the times here, you three have obviously spoken before this."

Biddy barked a laugh. "Spoken? Yes, I suppose what happened between us could be considered a kind of dialog." Johnny looked confused, but Biddy waved it away. "Never mind. What you're all asking for is impossible anyway. The original spear of fire is gone, and matter now is too fragile to use to make another."

"And I'm telling you, I can make the matter as indestructible as you need," countered Susan. "I wish I had an example, but- wait a second, I did _Fabricate_ something of my own. The dagger!" She pulled the dagger from her leg sheath and handed it over. "I made this knife one TR sharper than a normal knife because I had no idea how tough Dementors were. It can't be dulled past that point, and even snapping the blade will make it regrow to this configuration. Go ahead, try it!"

Biddy looked skeptical, but brought the knife over to her belt sander, where normally an edge would be put on something. This time though she held it wrong, trying to blunt the edge. A few moments later, she pulled it away and was surprised to see the edge was just as sharp as it had been. She peered at it, as if doing some kind of _Magic Sense_ or whatever she could do with her own powers. "I see."

"This was made sharper, but it could easily have been made tougher, instead. Combine them, and I can make you the sharpest thing in existence, that also happens to be indestructible."

"I appreciate the offer," she said, handing the knife back, "but you don't understand. Look, you said you got the sword of air, right? Can you bring it here?"

"Sparkle? Bring out the Fraggle Rock!"

"You got it boss." Sparkle made her check, not needing to worry about the energy cost at the moment, and got out the sword.

"The cat really was carrying it!" exclaimed one of the wizards.

"Look at it," said Biddy, picking it up.

Susan had to admit, the sword seemed to glow with an inner light, and even the sword she had left with the school, or the weapons she had heard Aerith's friends calling "ultimate" didn't look as solidly "there" as this sword did. She got out her secondary blade, the _Enhance Sword_ and put them side by side. It hadn't been _fabricated_ but Susan felt it hadn't been necessary. The thing had a wicked edge, just like her _Crystal Sword_ and both felt sturdy as anything. Still, even the metal from another world seemed pale and weak next to the sword of air.

"All right, I admit there is some difference between the two materials," Susan grudgingly allowed.

"Thank you," Biddy replied smugly. "So get me some metal like that, and we can talk about forging."

 _Gee, can_ Creation _make something like that? That metal seems almost supernatural, and any iron I make with the spell will just be normal, everyday, iron._

Johnny was looking over her shoulder, comparing the two blades. "It could be done, but finding someone powerful enough to make the spell work... that's the tricky part."

"What are you thinking?" asked another wizard.

"Timeslide. Pull some matter from a protostar, a couple of billion years ago. That's probably closest to what the original spear would have been made from."

"Could be dangerous, it gets out of control and you can kiss the Earth goodbye."

"I'm aware of the risks. Who do we know that's powerful enough?"

"My-" Nita started.

"Hold it!" Susan said at the same time. "What's this plan? You're seriously standing there, and with a straight face discussing opening a hole in time and space to billions of years ago, and then casually grabbing up some plasma from the interior of a freaking star? Just for a bit of metal that will be hammered into a spear shape?"

"Yes, exactly!" said Johnny brightly. "You can clear the overlay wherever we do it, right? That would be a big help."

"The overlay isn't the point. There's got to be a simpler solution, one that doesn't risk the entire planet being blown to smithereens. I mean, what is with wizardry around here? You can go to the moon, but in that battle with the wolf creatures, I had to do all the work. Nita just stood there like a lump. No offense, Nita."

"None taken?"

"You can't strengthen metal, but you can time travel back to just after the big bang? Your sense of scale is all wrong!"

Johnny looked thoughtful for a moment. "Okay, I think I can explain this. You're used to doing magic, just waving your hands around and something happens, right? You learn 'spells' to produce a result."

"That's correct."

"We come up with what we need, basically on the fly. We don't learn spells, we learn the _Speech,_ through which we can ask reality to be a certain way. If we've asked in the right way, it happens. Even a wizard at my level probably only has memorized a dozen or so 'spells' that we use all the time. Anything else we need, we just ask for. But the asking has a cost. We can't make something from nothing, that energy has to come from somewhere. You looked at the oath?" Susan shook her head. "Then you know. Wizards are here to preserve and safeguard, at the core, energy. That means not squandering it in any form. Even if it's as simple as turning lights off when we leave the room, every bit of energy saved means the universe's death is put off that much more." _Boy, are you guys going to love compact florescent and LED lighting._ "So no, we don't do wizardry except for the big stuff that comes along, because solving problems the other way is more energy efficient. We basically are saying 'I'll solve this problem without wizardry and bank that energy I would have used otherwise against a future need.' And here we are, one of those times we need a lot of power to do what's needed, so let's make that 'withdrawal' now. You see where I'm coming from?"

"I guess I do. That's why you guys can't make food with wizardry, the energy cost would be greater than the energy gained from eating the food."

"Among other reasons, sure, that's part of it."

Susan took a deep breath, defeated. "Apart from clearing the overlay, let me know what else I can do to help."

"Well said," spoke up Sparkle. "I think you're finally getting the hang of it."

Susan chuckled. "Quiet, you. Sorry I've been a little... more like myself than usual. I'm not sure what's gotten into me."

"Never mind," said Johnny. "Nita, you were about to say something?"

"I was about to say my sister could probably do it. She can shove planets around, so a simple timeslide should be within her reach."

Susan's head whipped around to look at Nita, who for some reason looked back at her rather smugly. _Man, and I was joking about shoving the planet. What kind of rating would a person need to do something like that?_

"Let's get her here, then."

So Nita sent a message through her book of wizardry, and moments later a young slip of a girl, no more than thirteen by Susan's eyes, appeared with a bang outside the building. Her health level wasn't great, and neither was her _Spirit Energy,_ both about normal for a girl her age, from what Susan could sense with _Spirit Sense_. She had a shock of red hair and was skinny, with tons of freckles, and carrying what Susan would consider an antique of a laptop. She set it down, and it unfolded legs and scurried after her. "Hey, everyone," she called, coming inside. "What's shaking?" Susan stared. "Watch out, you'll catch fish like that," the girl said to her. Susan realized she was a bit slack jawed, she expected an _older_ sister, not a _younger_ one.

"Susan, everyone, may I introduce my sister, Dairine?"

"Wait, what?" asked Susan. "This is who we're entrusting the fate of the planet to? How can she have the ratings needed to even consider what you guys are planning? I thought maybe a team of all the wizards in the area working together, not one young girl!"

"I'm right here, you know."

"Younger wizards are always more powerful," explained Johnny.

"More powerful than a whole group of you?"

Johnny moved his head back and forth. "Trouble is, the more people reading a spell, the more chance there is someone flubs it up. Misspeaks a word, or skips a line, or sneezes or something."

"Yeah, but with one person, there's no one to take up the slack if someone reading the spell starts having a heart attack or something. She screws it up, and it's all over!"

"Still right here."

"She can do it," Nita said, as though the words had to fight their way out of her. "If anyone can, my sister can."

"Wow, sis, that was a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one. You should write advertising jingles for Pepsi."

"And you're back to your old self," put in Sparkle. Dairine went over to pet her, saying what a pretty kitty she was. "Umm, thank you?"

"Fine," relented Susan. "I guess if you blow the place up, The Darkness can't take its energy, right? If you say she can do it, I'll believe you."

"Course I can do it," Dairine said confidently. She paused. "What exactly am I doing?"

The group explained what they wanted of her, and she nodded seriously. "Shouldn't be a problem. Could be a bit of a strain, but I'll try my best not to blow the planet up." She winked at Susan. "When do you want to make this all go down?"

"May as well get started," said Johnny. "Honored Power, can you bring what you'll need up to Castle Matrix? I have the cup there, we'll need water if things get out of hand."

"Call me Biddy, please, none of this power stuff. And yes, I guess I'll have to, won't I? Let me get my things together."

"You don't seem very enthusiastic," remarked Dairine. "Don't like making weapons or something?"

"It's not that," she explained. "As I've told Susan here, when I came to live here I had to give up most of my power. To forge something like this, well, I'll have to take that power back. That will, sadly, destroy me."

"Wait, destroy-destroy or just destroy-release?" asked Susan. "I mean it'll just be your body that goes, not your consciousness, right? You can just take a new body."

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I've never done something like this in this form before. It's all right, whatever happens. I've lived here a long time. If the One now requires me back, at least it'll be for the right reasons."

"Your sacrifice, if that's what it becomes, will not be unremembered by us," said Johnny seriously.

Susan shook her head, not really understanding but unwilling to press the issue any further. _What is wrong with these people? How can banging a bit of metal into shape destroy this being? Why does a little kid have the power to open a gateway in time and space greater than anything I can do?_ Time Door _only allows one week per Saturn rating. I don't even want to calculate the energy I would have to throw into my rating to get even a hundred years back in time, to say nothing of billions. And she struts around like... well, me, I guess if you want to put a fine point on it. Is that how others see me? No wonder Johnny didn't trust me at first, if I was acting like that. I'll have to be more careful. If these treasures are so important, why were they allowed to decay like this, or be lost like the spear was lost? I mean obviously this reenactment of theirs has been done many times since the first time, right? Or do these treasures lose their spirits just that quickly? If that's the case, what are they going to use the next time, if this 'power' dies because she forges a simple spear? Too many questions._

"It'll take a day to move everything to the castle, and get the place prepared for the whole thing," Johnny was saying to the others. "We'll need to put bindings on the place, so the treasures can all be there at once. Meet there in twenty four hours?"

Nods went around the group, and it started breaking up.

"Guess I'll head home then," said Dairine. "Make sure I have the spell I'm going to use right in my head. See you all tomorrow. Oh, you want me to bring Kit along when I come?" she asked Nita.

"Sure, he wouldn't want to miss it. I'll send him a message tonight, too. Thanks."

"No problem. See everybody then!" She concentrated and vanished.

 _She doesn't seem concerned about 'overlay,' didn't blow herself up, either. Maybe Nita is just a really bad wizard?_

Annie came over to where they were standing.

"Look, Johnny probably won't apologize, but I want to. Sorry for trying to seal you up before. I just got scared because I didn't know what you were." _Huh, the very thing I was thinking about on the way here._ "And thanks... for my kitchen back. Trying to replace that would have raised some questions. I'm glad we didn't have to, in the end."

"No harm done," she replied. "It seems to have worked out here." She gestured to Biddy, looking over to tools and starting to make a pile of things. "And I'm serious about helping." She called over to Biddy. "If you want to take that stuff directly to the castle, I can open a _Teleportal_ and you can just step it through."

"That won't be necessary," Biddy replied. "Getting it there is the easy part."

"Okay. If you change your mind, let me know."

"Will do."

"In any case, if you think of anything I can do," she said to Nita and Annie, "you know I can do a lot, so don't hesitate to ask. Otherwise, since we have another day, I'll just continue my own preparations."

"That might be best. I think people are a little nervous about the whole thing. Best not to introduce otherworldly magic into the mix as well. Let them rely on what they know."

"I guess you're right. Want to head back? We don't have to take the bus."

When they were ready, Susan stepped them over to the farm again, behind the trailer she and Nita were staying in, because there probably wouldn't be anyone around there.

"Do you want to stay up at the house?" asked Annie. "That trailer was only meant for one."

"I don't mind. What do you say, want to get rid of me?" Susan asked Nita.

She shrugged. "It's fine."

"Thanks, but I'll stay out here."

"Okay. Come in for dinner in about an hour."

"I'll help!" insisted Susan, but Annie pushed her away. "Relax. You're my guest, especially now that I know exactly who you are. Save your strength for the reenactment."

"Thanks."

She departed with a nod.

"Now what?" asked Nita.

"We have some time, I'm going to look into further increasing my damage. If we're going up against those drow things again, I'm going to have to hit way, way harder if I want to take them down. How many times did you hit them with _Line,_ Sparkle?"

"I wasn't exactly counting."

"But a lot, right?"

"Yeah."

"And I only do a third of damage with _Slash All._ She was doing full damage, and to multiple locations to each of them. And they _still_ took a pounding. I need to figure out the best way to clear them out."

"If you're going to be looking through your own book of magic, I'd love to watch. Maybe it'll give me some ideas for things I can do with wizardry."

"You're welcome to. Come on, we'll see what I can come up with."

The three went inside, and Susan started paging through and making some notes.

Susan paused, looking at the "B" section of her spells, on _Blind._ "Hey Sparkle, you think if I converted my _Added Effect Materia_ and paired it with _Blind,_ anything I hit with the sword would get the 'status effect' of being blind?"

"Seems reasonable to me. When the gang used it with _Chocobo Summon Materia_ it sometimes gave them the _Stop_ condition. And _Poison_ would poison them. Why not _Blind?"_

"Why not blind, indeed."

"I did have a concern though."

"Oh?"

"You once said you might be able to make a charged object, with only one charge, and have it hooked to a _Materia_ to do something, right?"

"No, I think our… benefactor said that."

"Oh, maybe he doesn't know our type of magic as well as he claims, then."

"What do you mean?"

"Wouldn't that just expend that one change when it went off?"

"Oh." Susan's face fell. "That's a fair point, actually. I guess it would have to be permanent, then, wouldn't it?"

"That's my thinking. Still, not that much difference, right?"

"No, you're right. Let's keep looking, I don't think these drow things even have eyes to blind. I didn't see any."

She stopped again in the "E" section, looking at _Elemental Enchantment._ "That's pretty nice. I could do wind, fire, and physical damage at once. Even taking a third of each, having three would mean it would average out to be about the same, right?"

"Seems reasonable."

"Yes, note that as a possible." She made a note on some paper and kept looking.

She landed in the "G" spells, and looked at one of the ones Silverstreak had provided for her recently. She looked it over this way and that. She made some notes. She started to chuckle. Her eyes got wide, and she made more notes. Then she burst into laughter and started pounding the table, tears in her eyes.

"Uh, is she broken?" asked Nita, concerned. "Again."

"Yeah, what's going on with you now?" asked Sparkle.

Susan took a moment to compose herself, wiping her eyes. "It's this _Giant's Soul_ spell. Take a look, make sure I've done this all right."

"Giant's _Soul?"_ asked Nita.

"Basically, magically increases your effective size, making you like a giant. But the best part is, it doesn't actually make you bigger."

"What's so great about that?"

"Oh, for me, everything! Let me show you these calculations I've made here. Now, as I've said before, a spell is powered by my own internal energy, right?"

"You probably said something like that along the way."

"Okay. But Sparkle here knows a spell to allow me to 'charge' energy and throw more than I usually can into a spell. With me so far?" Nita nodded. "Okay, let's say I throw, oh, 33 energy into this one spell as I cast it as part of the _Imbuing_ process. That makes my total rating a 39."

"Rating?"

"How good I am at the skill. It's numeric for me, don't worry about it. Anyway, this spell gives me a size increase of one third my rating, meaning I would be target size thirteen, effectively. As a note, dragons are size three. Each plus one doubles your size, so that puts me at an effective..." She turned her watch on, and as she thought, there was a small calculator function built into it. She multiplied 1.2 by 2 thirteen times. "9,830 meters tall. So, basically I would divide damage by fourteen, meaning a bomb dropped directly atop me might take me out, but not much else could. Oh, I can take fourteen damage before dying, normally, by the way. I would get a twenty six bonus to my STRength, which is a three right now by the way. A plus thirteen to my CONstitution checks, a four right now by the way. I could lift more than 600 Kg just from that alone, to say nothing of the bonus you get per size to your _lift._ With _Avatar of War_ going, again providing bonuses to size and STRength, I would be doing between seven and _seventy four_ damage. Twice, if I swing two swords. Dividing that by three- who even cares at that point?" She started to laugh again.

Nita and Sparkle looked at each other.

"Is she serious?"

Sparkle nodded gravely. "I'm afraid she is."


	60. Chapter 60

60

Ghost of a Chance

Place: Nita's Trailer

Time: Seconds later

"But how can that be possible?" asked Nita, looking over Susan's calculations. "To increase your strength by that much..."

"I admit, it depends on how strict a reading of the _Imbuing_ skill you want to take. Here, take a look." She turned to the chapter on how to actually perform _Imbuing._ "See, right here. In terms of how strong an item you can make, the: 'effective Planet rating can be any value up to your present skill rating in the given Planet.' Now, some might argue that means I can't go above a six, because that's my Venus rating. But others, such as myself, would argue that as my skill rating in the planet is the energy I put into it, why shouldn't I be able to artificially raise it in this manner? After all, I'm casting the spell to do the _Imbuing,_ so logically it follows that my rating would be the same if I am _Imbuing_ or making a _Spell Paper_ or just casting the spell as normal. I paid the extra _Background Points_ to become a _Natural Magician_ rather than a _Scholar of Magic,_ after all, in order to do things like this. Plus it takes more XP the higher the rating, and I have to use several another spells, _Energetic Accumulation_ and _Augment Skill_ to do it. I learned the spells, came up with this method, why shouldn't I be able to take advantage of my naturally high energy total this way? I'm paying the XP cost for the item just like anyone else would. Make a lesser item, spend less XP. It's a trade off, and I have no problem with that. Plus the fact of the matter is it works, so the universe must agree with me, right?" She smiled widely.

Nita looked back at Sparkle. "Yes," the cat admitted. "She's broken. One might even say she was cheat character, if this were some kind of game." _I can't tell them what Silverstreak told me, privately, while she was working on stuff at the Hub. There are two things she doesn't consider in this sort of situation: The first being that the rules are slightly relaxed in her case, because she's traveling without the aid of a party. Her father, as cheaty as he was, had companions to rely on and so the rules were more closely enforced for him. "Whatever or whoever is enforcing the rules across realities will be a bit more relaxed in her case," he said. He didn't know exactly "who" was doing this enforcing, only that he could tell, somehow, being a higher order being than her. I guess maybe that's who The Darkness is trying to reach? Have to think about that some more. So if she wants to spend the XP and do the work to get an item like this, her efforts will be rewarded. I didn't think even she would think to take things this far- I should have known better._

 _The second thing is that The Darkness is within her. It knows what she's done. When she shows up on other worlds, it's going to have already thought of a plan to neutralize her as best it can. It'll take things like this item into consideration, just like it studied her father to find out how to shut down her magic as she's casting it. I have to wonder what it has in store for us here..._

 _That's why I don't think those drow from before were sent by The Darkness at all. It would have known about her_ Slash All _because it would have seen her working on it. Why send a group of enemies, even ones as sturdy as they proved to be, against someone that could hit all of them at once? No, I think we have yet to see The Darkness' working on this world. And that worries me most of all._

Susan got out her calculations to see just how much XP and time she would need for all this. Nita watched as she plugged in variables and hit keys on the calculator. "Okay, I'll need 25 XP, which I exactly have, how about that? And if I want to do it tonight, I'll need a sixty five rating in _Imbuing_ to not flub it. Ugh. Let's see, I have eighty energy, I can go negative my eight endurance, that's eighty eight. I have a seven rating in _Imbuing,_ so I'll need a fifty eight total. That will leave me with 30 energy to work with. My rating in Venus is a six... hey Sparkle, can I borrow three energy? Wait, maybe a little more, I'll have to cast _Augment Skill_ and _Giant's Soul_ so that's another two."

"I'm not worried about one or two. You can have my energy," Sparkle sighed.

"What's all this?" Nita asked, not following it at all.

"She's cheating again," said Sparkle. "Normally creating an item with magic bound up into it takes weeks. You've felt her _Augment_ magic, you used it to make the spell to wake up the vessels. She's just using it to an extreme, making sure that no matter how she rushes making this thing, she can't fail. It's one of the perks of being a _Paragon._ We get to know exactly how good we are at something, and sometimes how difficult things are to do. So we can plan out how to achieve them with a bit more precision than others can."

"Oh. But what are all these calculations she's doing?"

"Oh, this?" Susan said with scorn. "Yeah, tell me about it. Because the XP cost depends on so many variables, you almost need a spreadsheet just to figure out how much it'll cost you. Don't worry about it, this part makes sense, though if you can learn to do this, I have no idea how to explain what your rating are or whatnot. As you don't have ratings or XP or any of that sort of thing, maybe you can't learn to do this? I don't know, you can't spend XP, but items I made for my friends worked, so they were losing something. Didn't seem to hold them back, so I don't know. Anyway come on, I need to find some stuff if I'm going to do this tonight!"

And so, Susan collected various things from Annie before dinner, adding up to seventy dollars worth of stuff that she didn't mind losing. After they ate, Susan threw around vast quantities of energy and magic to shove _Giant's Soul,_ (which she got a fifteen on _Scripture_ and nineteen on _Theory_ to read and understand so she could cast it from writings) into one of the "empty" steel balls Silverstreak had given her if she wanted to make custom _"Materia."_ As the lights died away in the kitchen where she was working (Annie had wanted to observe the process, so she was working there) she had a new _Imbued_ item. It was now ten PM, and Susan was grinning like an idiot. She had zero XP, close to zero energy, but still felt on top of the world.

"What a fascinating procedure," remarked Annie, who had been taking notes. Susan had said she would be glad to make a copy of her book explanation of the process, and Annie said she would want that too. But that she wanted notes on actual _Imbuing_ as an example.

"Just don't rush it like she did," cautioned Sparkle. "You don't have her magic to cheat the system." She shook her head. "Bad things can happen if you mess it up. From just explosions to making a cursed item that you can't get rid of, and has the opposite working to the one you wanted."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Let's go test it!" Susan was bouncing a little in her chair as she popped the ball into her _Wizard Bracelet,_ feeling a new lightness coming to her body.

"How?" asked Nita.

"Have any old stumps you want ripped up?" asked Susan. "Heavy plants moved? Old cars dragged away? Pranks pulled by putting old tractors up in the loft of your barn? Carrying heavy stuff down from the loft? Stop me at any time here…"

"There is actually an old stump I've never gotten around to winching out of the ground," Annie admitted thoughtfully. "And it's dark enough, no one would see you tearing it up."

"Let's go!" Susan popped up out of her chair.

Out in the field, Susan took a look at the tree stump, deciding where she would grip it. _Eh, even if I'm at a penalty for not having the best grip, I think my new STRength will compensate for it. Let's just see what I can do._

She planted her feet and grabbed the stump. Not even straining, she got a thirty three on her STRength check to rip it out of the ground, and barely felt any resistance as she lifted it over her head. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff!" she cried, pumping it up and down like it was a twig rather than a stump.

"Uh, you can just put it over there," Annie said, pointing.

"You got it!" Susan went whistling over to the side of the barn, stump held high. She flipped it down, then turned back to the others. "Oh, wait!" She backed off a few steps, then shot forward, jumping straight up against the wall of the barn. She flew up four meters, with the help of her _Jumping_ check of 23. "Shoryuken!" she yelled, punching the air above her. This wasn't quite enough to get to the roof, but still was quite respectable. She landed with a thud. "I love spells that do more than one thing at a time!" she exclaimed. "And hey, this isn't even as good as I'll be when we fight Balor. I've got _Augment STRength_ in one of my charms. Oh man, I can't wait now."

"Glad to hear it?" Annie didn't sound convinced. "I'm going to bed, see you girls in the morning."

"Good night!"

"I'm turning in too, you coming?" asked Nita.

"Yeah, just one or two more things. I'll be right behind you."

"Okay."

Susan looked the stump over, deciding if she wanted to spend a little more energy and get one of her swords out. _Wait, even if I punch the thing, the worst it can do is one damage to me. I divide all damage by fourteen now, remember?_ She got into a martial arts stance and punched the wood, putting one energy into STRength to get an even 30 so her _OTR_ was high enough. (Plus taking a couple of segments to aim as her skill at hitting was only a two at the moment.) She did thirty nine damage to the stump, an object with a _DC (damage capacity)_ of 6*3, 18. (Not accounting for thickness. But even doubling that it would still have been more than enough.)

It exploded into kindling.

She shook her hand out a little. "Huh. Stung a bit." She threatened to laugh again. _Oh man, I'm going to totally ROCK Mars spells now, aren't I? And_ Fabrication? _Forget about it!_

"Are you quite finished?" asked Sparkle.

"Quite," admitted Susan. "Though I may have to put some points into _Wrestling_ now. I don't have many other STRength based skills apart from jumping."

"I suppose one wouldn't hurt, what with your insane stat now. I just hope it was worth twenty five XP. That's all you've gotten here, and we're coming up to the boss battle."

"Oh, I think it was. I'm just about at the level of a whole party. I mean I'm a total tank now, and a magic user, and a healer, and with _Ally_ and my _Legion,_ a summoner as well. And let's not forget my companion, who has spells of her own!"

"I'm glad I factored in there somewhere."

"I do appreciate you, you know." Susan dropped to one knee and scratched behind Sparkle's ears. "We're partners, and you know this wouldn't have been possible tonight without you."

"Just so long as you remember. Now come on, we both have energy to get back."

"Yup, let's go."

The next morning, Susan woke up to find nine hours had passed, and with energy 98% returned. _An hour or so of light activity, and I'll be full again. Of course, if I'm throwing around spells to make more_ Papers _that won't happen._

"What's up?" she asked, looking at Nita, who was staring intently out the window.

"Oh, good morning," she replied. "There's some guy out there I've never seen before. He's just been standing there, staring at the trailer, since I got up."

"Odd. What's he-" She sprang up, not yet used to her new STRength, and stood beside Nita to take a look. He was dressed in extremely outdated clothing, and looked rather out of sorts standing there. He had on a dark green jacket with wide lapels, with two rows of three buttons going up the front. It was cut just above the belt, which was a wide leather. White pants rounded out the outfit, but they had a funny cuff at the bottom, like the man had grown overnight, and sewn a different fabric onto the ends of his pant legs rather than buy a new pair. "I see. Seems a bit old for cosplay. Some kind of historical reenactment? But that means something different around here... Want me to go chase him off?"

"Maybe you had better let me handle this," she replied. "You get dressed and we'll go up to the house for breakfast."

"Sounds good! Sparkle?"

"Here, oh master."

As Susan got dressed and had Sparkle cast _Hygiene_ on her, Nita went out to see what the guy wanted. She stepped back up to the window and saw her beckoning to come out, so she locked the door and went over to him.

"Help," he muttered, almost too softly for Susan to hear him.

"What can I do for you?" she replied cheerfully. "Not to worry, my rates are low, and satisfaction is guaranteed."

"Help," he repeated again after a moment of the girls staring at him expectantly.

"Right-o. Mental then?"

"Be nice," said Nita. "That's all I could get out of him too. I don't get it."

"Morning girls!" said one of the farmhands, walking by. "Nice day, isn't it? Though I felt a bit of a chill just now. Must be a ghost around! Be careful!" He kept walking, laughing. The two stared after him, then looked back at the man.

"Help," continued to plead the man.

"It is colder here," noticed Susan, taking some steps away from the figure and then moving closer again. "You don't really think..."

"One way to find out." She passed a hand through the figure, and nodded. "Yup, he's a ghost all right. But what's he doing standing here? I thought ghosts were just recordings of things, this guy seems to have a purpose in coming here."

"Probably all the weirdness with Balor, who knows? As for why he's here now? That one I can answer for sure," said Susan with confidence. "The universe has decided to allow me one more chance at XP before the big battle. Nice of it, really, given that having none is pretty dangerous, even for me."

"Say that again?"

"I used up my XP to make this last night, you saw that," she explained, showing the _Wizard Bracelet_ with the new _Imbuing._ "If I were to take a fatal blow somehow, I couldn't spend an XP to stabilize and remain alive. Or get a bonus if I need it, or retry something in combat."

"Help."

"Yes, yes, one minute there Mr. Ghost."

"O'Neill."

"Mr. O'Neill, then. So now, it has given me this ghost to help so I can get some more- Wait, is that your name?" Both girls were now focused on the ghost again.

"Help."

Susan sighed. "This is going to take forever!"

"Come on, let's go up to the house. Maybe my aunt will know something."

"Suits me. Come on Mr. Gh- Mr. O'Neill. Come on." She tried to get him to follow, but he just kind of stood there. "Oh for gosh sakes, you got here somehow, didn't you? Come on." She put _Phase_ on herself and was able to pull the ghost along by the arm. "My goodness, it's a good thing the ghosts back home aren't like you. Come on, up the steps now, that's a good ghost."

They finally made it inside and Nita went looking for her aunt, who was on the phone and talking wizardry with someone. Susan poured some cereal for them both while they waited, and a little while later she came back into the room. It was now much colder, and the battery operated clocks had stopped working. The clock on the stove was barely readable, but oddly, the ghost seemed a bit more perky. He was now looking around, and Susan made a REAson check, getting a twenty two in order to figure out what was going on. That was pretty high, so she decided to try something. She turned on the lights in the room, and the toaster, and everything else electrical she could find, all which sluggishly performed if it went on at all.

The ghost, however, perked up considerably.

"Better, thank you," it said, seeming even more aware now. "Hard to think out there. Better here. Please, help me."

"Must be the energy he can draw from his environment," suggested Susan. "Anyway, how can we help you, Mr. O'Neill?"

"You must stop her. She'll kill again. All my fault. Please, find them and stop her. I think you're the only one who can."

"I'm going to need a little bit more than that."

He shook his head. "No more. Dead so long. Wandering. Have to stop her killing. They were found, I felt it. Managed to come through. Please stop her. All my fault."

"You can't give us a little more?"

The ghost pondered a moment. "Horses?"

"You want to see the horses?" asked Annie.

"No. Horses. Races. She'll kill them. Please, help."

"Horses... O'Neill... a ghost... this all sounds somehow familiar. Susan, can you get me to the library? I'd like to look something up."

"Sure..." _Hermione. But I guess they don't have the Internet._ "I've been there. Let's just hope someone isn't in the rest room this early."

"Stay here, Mr. O'Neill. We'll help you."

"Help me!"

"Yes, she just said we would," said Susan.

"I just have to see if you are who I think you are. I'll be back, okay?"

The ghost seemed to consider this, as if the concept of going away and coming back here was a bit tricky to grasp. "I understand. I'll wait here."

"Good. Susan?"

She opened a _Teleportal,_ making a LUCk check (a twenty) to see if there was anyone around. There wasn't, so they stepped through and went looking in books about Ireland. Susan didn't have _Research_ so she rolled it untrained, getting a nine. This at least helped Annie a little, and with Nita (who seemed better at at) also helping, they came across a local legend of an unfortunate man named Charles O'Neill, from the 18th century.

The story fit; horses, tragedy, and a woman giving a gift that turned out later to be not exactly what it seemed.

"He's right," Annie said after reading the tale over. "If it's the same man, there is a danger, so we better hurry."

"So what are we waiting for?" asked Susan. "Let's go!"


	61. Chapter 61

61

To Save a Horse and Possibly a Man's Soul

Place: Annie's Kitchen

Time: About 10:00 in the morning

"If you girls want to help this... ghost, or whatever he is, that's fine with me," said Annie when they got back to the house. "But I have things to prepare for this evening when we get the metal here. So you're on your own."

"That's fine," replied Susan. "Just don't go without me, I would hate to miss the world blowing up, and all."

She chuckled. "It's a deal."

"So, what did you find out?" asked Sparkle.

"Turns out there is a legend of a Charles O'Neill locally. Mr O'Neill, I'll tell you what we found out at the library, maybe it'll jog your memory, okay?" The ghost nodded. "So apparently, he was a wealthy guy a couple hundred years ago. He acquired a horse that he named Broughshane Swallow, because he owned the Broughshane Estate. Now this was as fine as horse as had ever been seen in the area, so there was a lot of excitement surrounding local races that were coming up. Now Charles here, may I call you Charles? Charles here wanted his horse to win, duh, and before the first race an old woman handed him a rosary and told him that as long as the horse wore it, boom, guaranteed win! Who would say no to that?"

"Certainly not unbelieving horse owners in the 1760s," remarked Nita.

"Precisely. Also note the false sense of security offered by a supposed holy object, a rosary. Very tricky, this odd woman, who drops out of the story immediately after. Who was she, and what was her game? Anyway, horse carried it in the race, won, Charles is overjoyed. He then repeats this success in other races. What he didn't realize was that all this winning was killing his horse! At then end of one race, having been compelled by the beads to win, poor Swallow fell over dead. The rosary disappears at the end of the story, but that's probably what Charles was talking about finding again."

The ghost nodded. "I died soon after the horse. Just couldn't live, knowing I had killed that magnificent animal."

"So you've been wondering the Earth for over two hundred years after that?" asked Nita.

Charles shook his head. "Don't know. Don't remember. Just know the beads are being used again. Have to get them, keep any more horses from dying. Seems my... duty."

"That's something I can get behind!" exclaimed Susan. She looked over to Nita.

"Eh," she grunted with a shrug. "Not a huge horse fan. But I agree, we should look into it. I'm more interested about this woman, your questions are only the tip of the iceburg. Where did she get the beads? How did she know they would cause the horse to win? What _did_ cause the horse to win? Are they wizardry? Because wizardry wouldn't do something like that, normally."

"Do you have cursed objects in this world? That's what it sounds like to me. Charles, is that story right? Did you make a deal with someone for the rosary?"

"Don't remember. I do remember the woman, that much is true."

"It's not much to go on. I guess I can do some _Question_ magic, maybe narrow it down a bit."

Nita laughed. "You need practice in not using magic. We don't need spells, just the newspaper from the past few days. Come on."

Susan, somewhat miffed, (and disbelieving that magic wasn't the answer to everything) followed Nita out to where they put the old newspaper. Nita pawed through it, looking for the sports section, and dragged out as many as she could find. They went back to the kitchen and smoothed them out, looking for anything relevant.

"Here you go," said Nita, reading one from the day before. "See, I figured one horse winning a lot of races would make the paper, at least a minor article. And I was right, the horse Clara McCloud, owned by Mr. Brogan, has won his last four races."

"And that's newsworthy around here, is it? Must have been a slow news day." _Wait, Mc_ _ **Cloud**_ _? Another coincidence?_

Nita glared at her levelly. "It is when the horse is coming in first by thirty seconds or more. Most races the first and second place winner are within seconds of each other. According to this, anyway. I don't know anything about horse races. Plus, they're apparently going to be testing the animal for steroids or other means of winning races. Including bribes to the other jockeys to throw the race."

"So the horse won't be racing for a while, that's good. Maybe we can still save her."

"If he doesn't just choose another horse to put the rosary on."

"Good point. If the owner was smart he would have verified the rosary worked, then switched it between horses so no one horse stood out. He would have made just as much money, betting on the horse he knew would win."

"Maybe he only has the one horse?"

"Possible. Okay, we need to find this fellow, that's where the rosary will be."

"Can your magic do that?"

"Pfff, can my magic do that? It's simply a question of which method will produce the best result. I can't use _Descry,_ either on the horse, the man, or the object, because I've never seen their likeness. A weakness in the series, to be sure. I guess I'll just ask _Question_ what the address is, maybe we can go from there?"

"An address shouldn't be too many words," agreed Sparkle. "Just don't go overboard. We'll need power later if you want to do any more prep work for after the spear is forged."

"I can steal some from the horses, but I get what you're saying. I'll take the extra time." Susan put the question to her magic, and got back an address. She had to ask again, for the town, which Annie said was two thousand kilometers away.

"What? We'll never make it there! How did the ghost find us, anyway?" Susan asked herself. "I mean apart from needing to be here to let me do this mission or whatever. Still..."

"I can get us there," said Nita, now a bit smug herself. "The overlay hasn't come back to the kitchen, so I can just teleport us there!"

"Woah, isn't that dangerous? What if you teleport us into a wall or something? Or right in front of someone?"

Nita shook her head with a smile. "See, that's where our methods differ. I can ask the wizardry itself to make sure it's an open space, where no one is nearby."

"Interesting. Must be nice. Okay, go to it."

Nita consulted her book, then asked Susan all kinds of weird questions about herself and Sparkle so their names could be written in the _Speech._ "I have to put you into the spell, so your name has to be right. If it's not, the spell might change you, because it thinks you're asking to be that thing rather than telling it you are already this thing."

 _Great! And this fiddly kind of power is being used by a twelve year old sometime tonight to drag star matter here from the distant past?_ "So I guess there's advantages and disadvantages to our individual way of doing things."

"Seems that way. You ready?"

"Would you mind writing that name down for me in my book of magic? It sort of looks cool, all curves and things. I wouldn't mind having it to look at later."

"Sure." She did. "Ready?"

"Wait, what about our friend? Can you follow us?" she asked the ghost.

He shook his head. "Unless I could possess you?"

"Ah, no, don't think I'll be letting you do that. Sparkle? Nita?" Both quickly indicated that would not be their first choice of things. "Sorry. We'll be back to report on how we did."

"I'll know," said the ghost.

So the wizardry took them where Nita had asked for, and they set out to the stable they saw in the distance. "That must be the place," said Nita. "How do you want to do this? You're the expert in 'adventures' after all, right?"

Susan rubbed her hands together in glee, eyes shining. _Nice to see wizardry doing something around here. But now it's the Susan show again! Just you wait-_

"How about I just go check things out first, before you go down there and smash the place up," suggested Sparkle. "They won't pay attention to another cat wandering around."

Susan's face went through a range of emotions. Finally she put a finger up. "Good plan. We'll just wait here, okay?"

"Super. Be back in a bit." She took off down the hill, leaving the two girls to look the whole place over. It was a fairly standard stable, with a long driveway coming off the road, and houses could be seen on either side. There was the main building where the horses were probably kept, and a fenced in area with beaten down grass, where it looked like a class was going on. A bunch of young kids were all crowded around a horse being held by an older man, who seemed to be pointing things out to them. Moments passed.

"Would the rosary be here, though?" mused Nita, looking the place over.

"This is where my magic said we would find Brogan."

"That's the trouble. Would he carry it around with him? I mean, why? He's just the owner of the horse, right? This is where he stables the horse, but that doesn't mean his office or whatever is here. Or perhaps the horse thing is just a hobby of his, and he's off somewhere else. He would keep it somewhere secure so someone didn't find out about it and steal it, only bringing it out when it was time for a race."

"I see what you're saying. You think I should have asked where we would find the rosary directly? I figured just jump the guy and grab it, but maybe that's not the best tactic."

Nita looked a bit shocked, but only for a moment. She knew Susan well enough by now, after all. "I should say not! We don't even know what he looks like. You asked your magic where we could find him, meaning right that second, right? He might have been leaving just then for all we know."

"Yeah. I guess you're right. Maybe we... _I_ should have thought things through a little more before leaving. You might not have noticed this about me, but I tend to just try and power through things..."

"I didn't notice that at all!" Nita exclaimed, pretending to be shocked.

About twenty minutes passed when Sparkle came back up the hill to where the girls were waiting.

"So what's the news?" Susan inquired.

"I saw our target," she reported. "He was there shouting at the help. Apparently McCould isn't doing so well, and he thinks it's their fault. They kept trying to tell him she should be allowed to rest at least a week before her next race, he insists she race as soon as the tests are done. He left in a huff."

"Ah, so he'll be driving for at least a little while?"

"Unless he lives just up the street. I had an idea. Since I've seen him, I can use _Descry Creature_ to get his location. Nita can bring us there when he stops moving around."

Susan shook her head. "Nita was asking about that while you were gone. She said we should target the rosary, not the man. He won't be carrying the thing around, right?"

"That depends on his personality, and how paranoid he is, I guess. That's a good thought though."

"I guess I'll just ask again, and I if I get 'it's in a car' or something, we'll know he has it with him. If it's another address, boom, we'll go there!"

Susan got out her book of magic from the sub-space pocket (to save energy, she had been keeping it in there) and recast the _Question_ spell. She also performed a quick _Dead Magic_ on the area, to keep Nita from having to worry about overlay. They vanished from the hilltop and reappeared in a much busier part of the country. Both peeked around the back of the building they had appeared behind, and Susan was struck by how much this place looked like the wizard village, Hogsmeade. The buildings were close together, the streets were narrow, and there was just a sense of "old world charm" that permeated the place.

"Oh, for a really good GPS," muttered Susan, already realizing she would never be able to navigate these streets alone.

"Come on, it can't be too far away. And what's a GPS?"

The girls walked back and forth, looking at side streets and hoping to come across the road they wanted, but it wasn't until a man washing windows in front of a store called out to them that they actually got directions.

"You lost, lass?" he asked.

"I'm looking for Clontarf Rd, I think it's around here?" ventured Nita.

"Ach, you've passed it! Back the way you came, cross the intersection of Convent Rd, and it'll be on your left."

"Thank you."

"Not at all, lass. Slán!"

 _What the? I heard that as Irish, but understood it to mean "safety." I guess that's their goodbye? How does my weird communication ability account for cultural stuff like that? Louise didn't say anything I took as weird, and her friends never questioned what I was saying. But their phrases would have had cultural meaning to them, like what he just said. Weird._

"Slán!" she tried to say back.

Now standing before the address they discovered it was just a normal house, squeezed in between two others.

"I repeat my earlier question," said Nita. "Now what?"

"There's the home invasion way, where we sneak around and see if we can't find the thing while _Invisible_ or on the astral plane. Some might prefer the ring the doorbell way and see if we can't talk our way through it."

"And which is your preferred method?" She left the _as if I didn't know_ unspoken.

"Magic, of course!" she replied brightly.

"Then the best way is probably the doorbell," she said, leaning over to ring the bell. "And I'll take point on this one, if you don't mind?"

"Hey!"

 _Ugh, this one is starting to get on the ball too. What a bother,_ said The Darkness. _Between Luna, that stupid cat that follows you around, and now her, I'm not going to have any more fun in your head._

"It seems I must reluctantly agree with you. And Sparkle, it's praising you for what that's-"

"Hello?" said a woman as the door opened. She peeked out, almost as if she was expecting trouble, and opened the door more fully when she was it was just the two girls. "Can I help you?"

Nita seemed to get an odd look on her face, then concentrated and said, "Actually, we were hoping we could help you. Did your husband recently come into possession of a rosary? And then started winning horse races?"

 _Oh right, she's probably speaking Irish. But Nita mentioned she can understand and "speak" all languages somehow_ through _the wizard language. Neat to 'see' it in action so to speak._

"Horse- That bastard!" She slammed a fist into the door. "He told me he wasn't going to gamble anymore, and that he was looking for a buyer for that horse!"

"You mean McCloud? No, he still owns her."

"I knew he was lying! But how do you two know all this?"

"That's a bit of a long story. Do you mind if we come in?"

The woman looked both ways down the street, thinking about it. "Oh, very well. Come in." She threw the door open and both went inside. Susan looked back at Sparkle, who made a circle motion with a paw, which she took to mean "I'll be around" and nodded. They went into the living room and sat down.

"I'm Andraste."

"I'm Nita, this is Susan."

"Hello," said Susan.

"Ah, you aren't from around here either, are you?"

"No, we're both just visiting," admitted Susan.

"So what's this about a rosary?"

"You probably won't believe us, but this morning, a ghost came to us and said the rosary he used to win some horse races in the past had resurfaced. He asked for our help in making sure it wasn't used as he used it, resulting in the death of his prized horse. We tracked it here."

"A ghost?"

"Right."

"Asked you two, specifically?"

"Yes."

"Well, you knew about McCloud. I can't see how you would be trying to scam me, but why in the world would a ghost come to you?"

"Would you believe we both have some experience in this sort of thing?" ventured Susan.

"No, I wouldn't."

She shrugged. "It's true, though."

"The point is, your husband has been winning races with McCloud, right?"

"He's been getting money from somewhere, yes. But if you're trying to get some of it, get in line. It's already spoken for."

"We don't want your money," insisted Nita. "We just want to make sure he doesn't kill horses with that cursed rosary."

"Is it cursed then?"

"What else would you call something that brings about someone's desire, at the cost of the life of the thing bringing that desire about? When a horse carries that rosary they win a few races, sure, but then die from the exertion. The stable already knows McCloud isn't doing too well, not half an hour ago they were insisting she not be placed in any more races until she's recovered from the ones she's already won."

"Ah, now there's something I can actually verify!" Andraste grabbed the phone and a book that was next to it, looked up a number and dialed it. She then got into a spirited "discussion" with someone on the other end, who finally admitted that yes, the horse was racing and yes, she wasn't doing so hot right now.

"It seems you're telling the truth, at least about that," she snarled, slamming the phone down. "But how did you get here so fast? They said my husband just left there a few minutes ago!"

"We move fast," said Susan. "You have to, in our line of work. We knew he wouldn't give it up, so we decided to talk to you about it, instead."

"What exactly is 'your line of work?'"

"Exactly what we're doing," cut in Nita. "Making sure things that should stay out of people's hands do. Making sure the world keeps going around. Protecting people who might come up against something they wouldn't know what to do with."

Andraste regarded them. "You're just kids."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"I guess I'll believe you. He bought the safe specifically to hold the thing, if it was directly valuable he would have just sold it. And he did get the money right after he found it. But two kids worrying about this sort of thing?"

"Oh, there's people like us all over," Nita assured her. "We just take things as we find them. I mean not much danger in retrieving an item like this, is there?"

"What will happen to it?"

"We'll destroy it, probably?" Nita looked at Susan, who nodded.

"As quickly as we can. Some cursed objects are hard to destroy, but we'll find a way." _Hey, I do still have that cask of basilisk venom in my_ Dimension. _I bet that would do the job._ "Don't worry, it won't be used again, if that's what you're worried about."

"Wish my son was a little more proactive, like you. All right. He'll be livid, but he did lie to me about racing the horse. Even if he has only paid some of the money back, I don't want McCloud to die. You can have the rosary, but you'll have to get it out of the safe. He didn't give me the combination."

Susan smiled. "Not to worry Mrs. Brogan. As if a simple thing like a _safe_ could keep us out. Like I said, we're professionals."

"If you say so. Come on, it's up in the bedroom."

"Why was it so urgent he win races, if you don't mind my asking?" asked Nita on the way up to the second floor.

"Ugh, my stupid husband and his stupid schemes. His family owned several horses while he was growing up, so he grew up watching them race. When he was old enough he started betting on races, but never any serious amounts. Not until recently, anyway. Convinced he could make a fortune, he started betting all our savings... and lost it all.

"Just recently his mother died and left him their last horse. She had sold the others when she started going downhill, but couldn't bear to part with McCloud. That's about all she left him, most of her money went to her other kids. I thought he was going to sell her, we didn't have the money to take care of a horse, but I guess he thought she could race. But I guess he didn't make much that way, either. Not until this cursed thing showed up. Figures, he would find something like that." _Must be a low LUCk._ "Now we're broke, owe back taxes, and I find out he's still gambling even though he said he had stopped. He's going to get it when he gets home. Anyway, here's the safe."

The safe was a pretty sturdy thing, and looked like it had taken a couple of people to get up the stairs. It stood upright, about as tall as Susan herself, and had a standard combination and lever on the front.

"How did they get that thing up here?" Nita exclaimed. "It must weigh tons."

"It wasn't easy," she admitted, turning away from Susan. "I thought he must have bought some gold or something, but I caught of glimpse of a rosary one time. He wouldn't even tell me what it was for, and it's smack in the middle of our bedroom!"

 _Clever girl._ With Andraste's attention focused on Nita as her ranting continued, Susan quickly cast _Unlock_ on the safe, then twisted the handle.

"What was that flash?" asked Andraste, turning back around.

"Flash? What flash?" asked Susan.

"You've already got it open? How in the world-"

The three stared.

"Yeah, that's about right," grumped Susan.


	62. Chapter 62

62

Ghostbusters

Time: Just then

Place: The Brogan Bedroom

The interior of the safe was perfectly normal. The walls were rather thick, and looking at the thickness of the door Susan thought it was truly a wonder that people without a STRength near 30 could even get something like this up a flight of stairs. She had resisted the urge to pick it up while Andraste was distracted, just to see if she could. As she peered into the darkness inside, the two woman looking over her shoulders, she knew her troubles were just beginning.

"There must be fifty rosaries in there!" exclaimed Nita, grabbing some and holding them up to the light. "How in the world are we going to tell which is the right one?"

"Just have to destroy them all, I guess," grumped Susan, pulling more out. They were of all different materials, ages, and colors, though mostly wood. _The thing is supposed to be hundreds of years old. A plastic one wouldn't even be a consideration._

"He spent money on these?" Andraste nearly shrieked. "What's the point?"

"That's easy," answered Susan. "Keep people from finding the real one. Camouflage, as it were. If someone were to find out about the thing making his horse win the races, they might come after him for it. This makes their job harder."

"And ours," agreed Nita. "Just how far do these things need to be destroyed, anyway?"

"I guess we could just light them all on fire?" ventured Susan. "That would- is it getting colder in here?"

The three looked around, and the two girls caught sight of the ghost that was materializing near them.

"That isn't O'Neill," said Nita, taking a step back. "What's going on?"

"Burn my rosary will you?" snarled the ghost, now fully visible to the girls. "I don't think so."

"What isn't?" asked Andraste, looking wildly around, trying to see what the girls were seeing.

 _Oh great, can only people with magic see it?_

The ghost was female, dressed in earlier period clothing as O'Neill but wearing a thick veil that obscured the face completely. She looked trampled, her chest caved in by hoof prints, and deep tears and damage to her clothes and "flesh." As she stared, Susan could swear she caught a glimpse of a rearing horse and perhaps a horse's scream. It was obvious how this woman had died- trampled by a horse. The ghost's hair was dark and long, and it was waving about like a thing alive, or as if blown by a strong wind from below. All in all, the figure before them radiated cold, malice, and hatred, and after appearing it turned to Andraste.

"So, you can't see me, can you darling? Guess that makes you a decent candidate."

"For what?" demanded Susan, wondering if she should just rush this thing and see if she could slam it through the wall. But it seemed insubstantial, so she wasn't sure if she could put _Phase_ on or not.

The ghost cackled. "You'll see girls, you'll see." Her hair suddenly shot out, elongating like rubber, and wrapped around Andraste's arms, pinning them.

"What's going on?" she yelled, shocked to feel something happening to her but unable to tell exactly what.

"It's a ghost, we'll deal with it," Nita assured her.

"Oh, you will, will you?" The ghost laughed some more. "Good luck with that."

She vanished.

Andraste winced as if something had struck her, but then blinked and looked around. "Is she still there?"

"No, she's gone!" exclaimed Susan, looking around the room. "I don't know what just happened. Stay on your guard- hey, I didn't say the ghost was a woman." She glanced over at Nita.

"Neither did I."

Both looked back at Andraste.

"Sloppy," she remarked, shaking her head. "My being near people has made me sloppy. But there's really not much you can do, anyway."

"Possession!" remarked Susan, eyes narrowing.

"Oh, know about that, do you?"

"And I can drive you out!" Susan proclaimed confidently. She raised her hands, about to do an unarmed attack (with _Martial Arts)_ and then cast _Exorcise._

"Not another step, girl," said the ghost, putting her hands on Andraste's head and chin. "Or I'll snap her neck, see that I don't."

"You wouldn't!" said Nita, shocked.

"Oh, but I would! Now, let's see what we can do, shall we?"

The ghost then did something rather odd. She placed a hand on her own chest, and seemed to concentrate. As Nita and Susan watched, she seemed to pull something out of Andraste's body- a glowing, swirling ball of light.

"Is that- did you just-"

"Pulled out her soul, I did!" cackled the ghost. "Now you two are really in trouble, aren't you? Let's see what I get, shall we?"

"Do something!" shouted Nita.

"I have to touch her," Susan said back. "And with my STRength, if she fights back I might hurt her body accidentally!" _I'm not used to holding back my three STRength, but if I turn my_ Giant's Soul _off, I'll have no chance of holding her long enough to do the spell!_

"Yes, try explaining that one to the cops!" The ghost looked like she was enjoying this, and squeezed the soul that was in her hand.

"No!" shouted Nita, but rather than explode or fade, the soul _changed,_ becoming a large shield, that the ghost put into her left hand.

"Typical," she remarked, looking it over. "A mother would be a protector, wouldn't she? Ah well."

"What did she do?" screamed Nita, looking panicked.

"How should I know, this is your world!" Susan shot back.

"I've never seen anything like that."

"Not surprised," put in the ghost, hefting the shield. "I've had hundreds of years of hanging about, waiting for that rosary to be found. You think I spent it idle? No, I pushed my limits. Saw what was possible, and learned about the very nature of the soul. Now, are you going to back off and let me keep killing horses, or do we do this the hard way?"

"Of course!" The puzzle pieces clicked for Susan. "You posses the horses, make them win by exhausting themselves."

"What of it? Filthy creatures. I used to love them, of course, until that one spooked and killed me. Now I've sworn to kill them all!"

"And you're doing that one horse at a time, through races?"

"What's time to me? You think I have anything better to do? Plus I get to make people believe in the power of the rosary, causing even more chaos in the world!" She laughed.

"Uh..."

"That's what I thought. Now..." She raised her right hand, pointing it a Nita. "What's your answer? Are you leaving or what?"

"Sorry, but we can't just leave things like this, especially with you possessing that woman."

"Thought so. Have it your way, then."

And a beam of energy shot out of her hand, about to strike Nita.

"No!" cried Susan, jumping in front of it to shield Nita with her body. She felt something odd as the beam passed through her, and realized while it didn't exactly damage her body, it had done six damage to her energy.

 _She didn't just absorb that, did she?_

The beam also hit Nita, as Susan hadn't been fast enough, and cried out as beam hit her in the side and caused a large red spot to appear. She had started bleeding immediately.

Even as she felt herself rolling _Initiative,_ she made a _Magic Theory_ check as well, getting a fifteen. _Wait, Pluto damage would do the same thing, I bet it's like that. Crap, my armor is going to be ignored, even if I got out_ Avatar.

Nita put her hands over her wound, a natural reaction for someone not used to physical combat.

"What do I do?" she pleaded, face going pale.

"Something to do with wizardry, maybe? I don't know. Get out of here if you don't think you can do anything."

Susan sprang at the ghost, hoping she could pin her down without hurting her too much, before a lucky shot killed Nita. She got a fifteen on her _Martial Arts_ check, having spent four energy on COOrdination to touch the ghost. Rather than getting out of the way, the ghost raised the shield and Susan felt a pulse of power directed at her. Instead of touching the ghost as she expected, she went flying backwards, crashing into the safe that was behind her. She fell to the floor, more confused than stunned.

"Oh, what a nice power!" exclaimed the ghost. "I'll call it Bounceback."

Before Susan could rise, the ghost again shot weird energy at Nita, and so she threw up a hand and cast _Deflection,_ as there was no way should could stand and move to block the attack before it hit. She spent eight energy, trying to counteract the five penalty she was at for being prone. Didn't help, she only got an eleven. Silently cursing, she spent her _Retry_ card, number 55, and this time put max energy in. She got a twenty two, which beat the twenty the ghost had gotten.

What she had failed to realize, in her haste, was that _Deflection_ "works on any attack that would allow a parry or block with a shield." As she had just reminded herself, _Spirit_ attacks "ignore armor and shields." So the attack passed straight through, hitting Nita again in the chest, and her eyes widened in shock as she was blasted backwards. Her shirt blossomed with blood, and she fell to the ground, dying.

"NO!" shouted Susan, reaching for her. _She can't spend XP to stabilize!_

The ghost was laughing in triumph. "Now for you!"

Susan made her _Gymnastics_ check to stand in a single action, getting a sixteen. She spent another four energy to reduce her _Reactive Delay_ by two, as she didn't have XP to spend for an extra action.

 _Have to get the knife into her!_ she thought quickly. _Then think of some way to take this ghost out without hurting the woman!_

 _Or,_ put in The Darkness, _you could spend your_ Mutiny _card to not do that. I mean if she's not dead, she'll be fine for the few seconds it'll take you to finish off this woman, right? That's four XP, nearly a whole adventure's worth. I mean think it through._

Susan was tempted.

For a split second, not even measurable with the precision of a _Paragon_ counting time in segments, she thought The Darkness might be right. _I mean, with more XP I get better, right? Isn't it almost my duty to get as strong as I can to fight The Darkness off of other worlds? What's one life compared to-_

 _What am I thinking? No!_

Susan made a RESolve check, getting a twenty two to fight off the temptation to give in to what The Darkness had suggested. She drew her knife.

 _Pity._

"Going to fight me with that tiny knife?" the ghost said, laughing. "Bring it on!" She raised the shield again, but blasted Susan for good measure in the meantime. Susan took the hit, wincing more at the loss of nine energy than the minor damage she had taken. She didn't want to delay knifing Nita even a single segment if she could help it.

 _At least the house isn't getting torn up from those energy blasts. It's pure spiritual energy._

She and the ghost went at the same time, but again Susan ignored the damage and lunged for Nita, thinking she was about to get blasted again. But before she could move, the door opened and a young boy was standing there, looking confused. He started to say "Mom, what's going on?" but didn't get past "Mom" as he saw Nita lying there in a pool of her own blood.

He screamed.

"Ah, another soul!" chortled the ghost, making a grab for him instead of energy blasting Susan again. "Wonderful!"

The boy didn't even dodge as his mother, even holding a weird shield, stuck her hand out and made a grabbing motion. Perhaps he thought she was trying to grab him up to protect him from the young woman holding the knife? Who had just stabbed the other girl in the room? After all, that was the only weapon he saw, energy blasts being in the realm of stories and movies for the unlucky child. He might have even rushed to his "mothers" defense, and thought it "so cool" that she could throw energy blasts of her own. What son wouldn't?

But we can't know his mind, which went blank as his soul was ripped out of his body and he collapsed in a heap onto the floor.

Susan missed all of this, she was busy stabbing her friend in the leg. This was partially because of the twenty one she rolled on LUCk to not kill her friend, who was two away from _Gone_ in the body. As Susan hadn't bothered to "hold back," her entire STRength of 29 was going to be used to calculate damage, as it was a knife first and foremost. It had to do some damage to enter the body and only _then_ did the healing effect trigger. If Susan had accidentally killed her friend before that healing took place, well, her face would have been red, let me tell you. Usually this isn't a concern, because Susan's STRength was so low in the past, all she could do is one or two damage with the thing.

Not so much anymore.

As it was, she did thirty seven damage to the leg, which seems a bit absurd for such a tiny blade to do, and basically tore through it. _Whoops._ However, the healing properties of the knife immediately kicked in, and Susan left the knife in her leg so it could heal her continuously.

"Okay, didn't expect that," remarked the ghost. "You secretly wanted her dead or something and saw your chance?"

"Shut. Up." Susan angrily growled. "I will take you down."

"Not doing so great so far." The ghost concentrated, and the boy's soul turned into a sai in her hand, which she glanced disdainfully at. "Guess I shouldn't have expected very much."

 _All right, I didn't want Nita to get hit with this, but as she's already down I guess I'll just use it. Should have done it from the beginning and just apologized after. But I wanted to give her the chance to contribute something rather than just doing what I always do and just taking care of stuff. Learned my lesson there._

Susan cast _Hypnotic Field_ using her maximum energy, taking the minus seven for casting it instantly. She got a twenty three, and delayed seven segments after the spell went off. She figured it was over, as the ghost was looking around at the lights now darting about the room, and went to go touch her and do an _Exorcise._

"Pretty," said the ghost, swinging the Sai and forcing her to jump back out of the way.

"What? How?" Susan managed, dropping the spell which wasn't doing her any good at the moment.

"Did you think they would distract me, or something?"

"Fine, you may have a decent RESolve but I bet you don't have a decent STRength. _Immobilize!"_

However, even throwing eight energy into it, the ghost busted out quite easily.

"Don't be so sure."

"Oh come on!"

The ghost laughed again, and tried to trigger the special power within the knife. That failed with a very low result, and she "tisked."

She tried again as Susan decided to just take whatever the ghost threw at her, and put the full time into casting this time. _She isn't going after Nita, anyway, or the kid, so they should be safe._

This time the sai's blade shot forward, as the ghost activated the power associated with it. This poked Susan in the leg, as the ghost wasn't exactly aiming the thing, not knowing what it was going to do.

"I guess that could be useful."

It retracted as Susan finished casting, getting a twenty this time on _Immobilize._ The ghost struggled to get free, but this time couldn't manage it.

"Ah ha! Got you!" said Susan, though the ghost didn't seem concerned.

"Oh really?" It went _Insubstantial._ The spell, having nothing to hold onto, dropped automatically.

"Oh, you're really starting to get on my nerves," muttered Susan.

"But you can't do anything to me because you'll hurt my host," taunted the ghost. "Ha ha!"

"Oh, it may come to that." _Didn't realize how much I depended on Sparkle's_ Acceleration _during my fights. Or just having her around, I know it's only been fifteen seconds but where are you Sparkle? Come and help your master! All right, I'll try_ Field _again, but this time, a little differently._

Susan made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check, getting a 12. That meant on her next action she could spend 22, which she planned on doing. _That'll leave me with 24 energy, enough to try something else if even that doesn't work._

At the same time, the ghost became solid again, knowing it couldn't hurt Susan as it was. Susan started casting.

"Again?" the ghost whined. "Can't you do anything else but that? How boring." The ghost made a called shot to her body, trying to run her through with the extending sai, but of course her _Gaint's Soul_ took that without a scratch.

"Something funny here," she remarked. "You seemed a lot more afraid of my _Spirit Attack._ I wonder." She looked down at the sai.

" _Hypnotic Field,"_ cast Susan, getting a thirty nine this time on the check.

The ghost finally got caught in it, going slack.

"Man," breathed Susan, relieved. "That was some bullcrap. What the heck let her pull _souls_ out like that?" She went over to examine the knife and shield, now held slack on the ghost's hands. "I wonder if that shiny ball of light is what my soul looked like, when I used that spell to go into Tom. Imagine, turning them into weapons! Wild!"

Nita started stirring, but as soon as she opened her eyes she got caught by the _Field_ and went comatose again. Susan pulled the knife out and put it back in the sheath. She felt around Nita's chest to make sure all her wounds were gone, and they seemed to be.

 _And is that the only reason?_ asked The Darkness.

 _Yes._

 _Ah, just checking. Interesting, you had a bit of trouble with that person that was possessed, didn't you? Guess you didn't want to hurt the host, huh?_

 _No, I didn't. Wonder if the ghosts back home could learn to possess and work with the soul and shoot energy blasts like that? I suppose none have ever tried._

 _I don't know, that ghost seemed different somehow, don't you think? Like it was turning into a demon, or something?_

 _Maybe, I don't have much experience with demons._

 _Still, think I'll keep this in mind._

 _What do you mean, keep it in mind?_

 _Hello?_

 _Hey, I'm talking to- oh forget it, I have a job to do._

Susan went down to their garage and found some gas, then looked around for a metal bucket or basket. She found one, tossed the rosaries inside, and doused them from the can. She also found Sparkle, and told her she missed a great combat.

"Combat? With who?"

"A ghost. Go see for yourself, but don't go in the room, it's locked down. She had some energy to spend, too, I had to try several times to get something to stick. Usually I have your buffs going, seems I've relied on them maybe a bit too much."

"Oh, so you won't want them anymore, so you can start relying on your own strength?"

"Don't be hasty, I didn't say that!"

 _Now, to burn first or to_ Exorcise _first, that is the question. I don't know what the spirit vanishing from her will do, if this object is really what ties her to this plane. I guess_ Exorcise _it is._

Susan easily got the ghost out of Andraste, as neither could make resistance checks at the moment, and the instant she was out Susan did a _Combust_ on the whole pile of rosaries. It went up quickly. The two souls zipped back inside the bodies the instant the ghost was forced out, and Susan watched as it burned away along with the wooden beads.

"Now what do I do with you two?" she asked herself, staring at the two family members. "Really don't want to answer any... uncomfortable questions. Guess I'll just let the spell drop after I leave." Susan considered the safe a moment, then made a decision. She found the guy's checkbook in a drawer in the room and looked it over. "Ugh, six hundred bucks? Oh well, I haven't spent any of my thousand this 'month' anyway. She reached into her _Pocket Dimension_ for some cash, cast a quick _Precious Conversion_ on it from writings to make sure it was the same kind of money as was used around here, and hefted the safe easily onto one shoulder.

"Look, tell your husband what you learned, not that he'll believe you," she said to the zoned out Andraste. "I wish I could leave you some proof, but honestly the less physical evidence about this kind of thing, the better, I think. His safe will be gone, that should be proof enough. Good luck, I hope you get out of debt. Maybe you could write a story about, I don't know, two brothers or something. They ride around the country, hunting ghosts and stuff, and everybody wants to ship them. Oh, you don't know what that means... never mind. Call it... Supernatural, or something. Whatever. Don't make it two girls, too close to reality. See you!"

She then waved a hand, picked up Nita with _Telekinesis,_ marched the safe downstairs, opened a _Teleportal_ back to the farm, and gratefully stepped through. _So much for having energy to spend on getting more stuff ready today!_

With no one around and Nita still somewhat out of it, Susan put the safe down and tapped the watch to call Silverstreak. She was connected to the Hub.

"What can I do for you, Susan?" asked the agent.

"Just a quick question. Can this watch be set to give me reminders?"

"Why sure! Just go into the calendar function, there's all sorts of triggers. You can set one there and it'll vibrate and tell you any message you want when the trigger goes off."

"That's fantastic! Thanks a lot!"

"Sure thing! If you'd like a manual, we can give you one when you come back next."

"That would help. Thanks."

"What do you want to remember? I do have a photographic memory," said Sparkle.

"Saving," Susan said with disgust, fiddling with the watch. "A friend almost died, and I _once again_ forgot to save! What am I making all these _Spell Papers_ for anyway? I suppose once it's a habit I can turn the reminder off. But for now, once an hour, maybe? Or maybe there's a trigger for 'heading into danger' or something. I mean yes, I didn't expect ghosts to pop up and attack, but really I should have, given who I am and what it means to be me."

"Ah. I see why the group had a designated saver. Of course, their save points were physical things, you could see them."

"E-yup."

That done, Susan had one more thing to take care of. "Hey, you want a safe?" she asked Annie, coming back into the kitchen and plopping it down. "I have my _Dimension_ so..."

"Where did you get that?"

"Funny story!"


	63. Chapter 63

63

Time is All in the Past

Place: Anne's kitchen

Time: Just after lunch

So Susan told the story of how the ghost had been defeated, and why Annie now had a safe in her entryway, awaiting a decision as to what to do with it.

"And what extreme feat will you be performing this afternoon, then?" Annie asked, when the dishes were cleared away.

"Hopefully resting," pleaded Susan. "I used nearly all of my energy trying various things to take that ghost down. I've got my XP, I'm satisfied to let you guys forge the spear so I can take the stage again tomorrow against Balor, i.e. The Darkness."

"Yes," agreed Nita. "Nearly getting killed once today is one more time then I wanted to be nearly killed today. Or any day, to be quite honest about the whole almost dying situation."

"I still don't understand what that ghost was," said Annie, shaking her head. "No ghost I've ever heard of does anything remotely like that."

"What you have to understand," said Sparkle, "is the _Paragon_ nature. We rise to a certain challenge, so our next challenge must be that much greater. So it goes, even here. If he hadn't been here, I doubt any of that would have happened."

"But then that haunted rosary would have continued circulating!"

"Maybe, maybe not. We needed some McGuffin for our quest, after all. Seems doubly appropriate, being in Ireland now."

"Okay, am I understanding this?" put in Nita. "You're saying that the world just sort of came up with something for you to do out of the blue? If you hadn't been here, the rosary might not even have existed?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Nita looked between the two travelers. "And you accept this?"

"Do you 'accept' gravity?" asked Susan. "It's how I work, I can't help but to accept it. Unless I want to give up developing in any meaningful way."

"Huh. What a way to live."

"I'll take it. Anyway, you want this safe or not?"

"You really didn't steal it?"

"No! I'm not going to steal something from people that badly off. They needed the money more than they needed this safe. With the rosary gone, I mean."

"I'll ask the help, see if any of them need a safe." She went to open the door to the outside.

"Okay. I suppose if they wanted to leave a truck somewhere I could pop it in when they weren't looking."

"I'll get whoever wants it to move it. Please don't go lifting that thing where someone can see you."

"Spoilsport," she muttered.

"We've got about five hours until we leave for castle matrix," said Nita. "Do you think we could go over those skills, like _Magic Sense_ again? And with my partner as well? I think Kit would love to hear about them."

"I think that would count as light activity!" Susan replied brightly. "But I have to ask- are you sure there isn't some weapon you should be working on? Or reviewing spells or something? I know that Johnny guy said you didn't really work from spells, but tomorrow we go into battle. Or are you not coming?"

"I have wizardry, it'll be fine. Won't be overlay where we're going."

Susan shrugged. "Whatever you want, then."

So the two _Paragon_ people went over the skills Susan had picked up, from _Magic Sense_ to _Spirit Sense._ That took the bulk of the afternoon, with Kit nodding a lot and referring to his wizard manual during the whole thing.

"What you've been learning has made the book update itself," he explained to Nita. "These techniques are under the 'provisional tasks' section. Other wizards have already been trying them out and making more notes. Getting as much information as we can about these techniques from other worlds, while you're here, is going to be a big help. Maybe someday all wizards will be able to make use of them."

"Glad to do it." _And if my skills can help wizards here be safe, that's like me standing by their side, even after I'm gone. Neat._

Finally the time was right, and Annie drove them over to the castle.

"Thanks for the lift," said Susan gratefully. "I only recovered half my energy this afternoon, so while I could have opened a _Teleportal,_ I'd rather save it for later."

"You could have taken some from the horses again," said Nita.

"True, but it should be fine." She held up her watch. "This time I'll remember to save, so anything goes wrong, I can just come back to before we went inside and do things differently."

"Ah."

The castle was as the girls remembered it, and Johnny led them inside and into the main hall, which had been cleared for the occasion. In the center of the floor was something that looked suspiciously like the sort of circle that showed up when Susan did magic. She stared at it.

"What do you think?" asked Johnny, picking up a brush and going back to work.

"I think your wizardry doesn't make any sense," Susan said after a moment. "You're speaking the spell, right? All your magic is talking reality into being a certain way. Not writing it."

Johnny smiled up at her. "What, you never played on the beach, made a channel for water for fill up and flow around?"

 _Oh._

 _"_ Anyway, this is what I'll be reading. Don't want to fumble with any paper or anything in the middle of all this."

 _Okay, that much at least makes sense._

He turned back to work, seeming to energize parts of the circle he was creating with a wand, that glowed and flashed when he pressed it down into the wet paint.

 _Or maybe he's just flash drying the paint?_

Nita's sister came in, and looked the diagram over.

"Look, would you like to be made better at wizardry for the duration?" Susan asked her. "I can spare some energy for that, if it means this all works out."

Her eyes widened, and she scoffed. "Me? _Better_ at wizardry? You don't even know who you're talking to. Come on, Spot." Her computer followed after her as she went over to talk to someone.

 _The nerve of that girl!_

"Reminds me of someone," said Sparkle, looking over at her.

"Don't you dare say me. I'm nothing like that girl!"

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much. She's about to do something no other wizard, or even us, would be able to do. She knows it, just like most of the time you can do stuff no one else can do. How is she not like you?"

"I- She- There's- I'm much taller, for a start!" Susan sputtered.

"Yes. Taller." _But I think, back to back, your egos might be not an inch different._

"We'll need the sword," said Johnny, coming over to her after Biddy came in with the block of metal she was going to have the molten matter poured into. He looked down at Sparkle. "And, uh, your name, if you're going to be part of the spell working."

"Not so sure that's a good idea," said Sparkle. "I can do wizardry of your type, yes, even be temporarily better at it than even you. But if something gets out of hand, I wouldn't know enough to do something on the fly." She got the sword out of her sub-space pocket. "If someone else wants to try picking it up, they're welcome to it."

Kit seemed entranced by it, and as he was nearest he bent down to pick it up. Unlike with Susan or Nita he managed it easily, and volunteered to look after it for the duration.

"Fine with me," said Johnny. "Come put your name down. And if you can wipe out the overlay in this area?" he asked Susan.

"Sure thing."

After that, there was some last minute shuffling, checking of work, and getting into position. The three treasures were there, ready to lend power to the effort. There were some wizards Susan had seen before, at the "lynching," and it seemed even the boy they had seen at the chicken place was there, too. He had been quite surprised to see them as well, and Nita had blushed quite furiously when he stopped over to talk. When Susan asked her what was up though, she found she couldn't explain why.

"I just got the image in my head of kissing him, that's all."

"Oh, is that all?" Susan asked.

"I haven't though," she continued, a challenge in her voice. "We've not talked since we saw him that second time."

"I know, you've been running around with me this whole time. Guess I have to apologize, if I took you away from _that_."

"I don't even know why I thought- can we just drop it?"

"Sure, sure. Consider your kissing dark and mysterious local boys dropped."

 _Wait a second. I'm changing these people's history by being here, aren't I? So that would mean they got "echoes" too, right? Dang, I hope hanging out with me hasn't cost her a future husband or something. Back home we only noticed after years, but that doesn't mean my actions here haven't changed the events here majorly enough to be noticed. I mean them kissing might be huge, if I really did mess that up..._

Susan watched, conscious of her _Time Anchor_ outside and thinking about the balance between not changing people's destinies but still getting the job done on each world. _But would I even be able to trigger it? If this goes wrong, I doubt even_ Acceleration _would let me act quickly enough. I suppose if I hold my action, technically I could act at any time. Or spend an XP for an extra action, that technically goes a spilt second before the mess up, retroactively. But if I get blown up by a sun from a billion years ago... oh well, they seem confident. Dairine does anyway._

Those inside the circle began their work. First Johnny spoke a bunch of protections into existence, making sure the energies they were about to call didn't get out of hand. Susan's senses were buzzing as he spoke walls of force into being. She watched Nita place a hand out and go no further, and she nodded satisfied.

Then Dairine started to speak. She spoke for some time, and Susan gave a start as the inside of the spell circle suddenly lit from within, and seemed to be a proto-universe inside. While most looked stressed, tense, or just plain terrified, Dairine went swiftly to work, seemingly unconcerned. She went about the task of zooming into and rejecting many of the stars that were nearby. When she found one she wanted, though they all looked the same to her so she didn't know how Dairine could tell, the entire thing blazed as they seemed to move inside it. Nita and the others flinched as the flames erupted around them, but seemed to realize their foolishness. Then they seemed to jump again, though it was hard for Susan to follow the action with all the light being thrown around in there.

 _In fact, forget about "don't look directly at the sun," they're actually inside one right now. Or some kind of simulation, at least. They must have somehow damped the light_ waaaay _down or something. Otherwise they couldn't see anything at all, ever again. In fact even me seeing them clearly is a wonder._

Whatever was happening inside seemed to be resolved, and Dairine sort of pointed at the mold Biddy had brought in, and seemed satisfied with what was happening. She held it a few seconds more, then seemed to make no movement at all, despite the light of the star going away and staggering to the side.

 _Did she do it? Should I trigger the-_

But even as she looked, the mold was full of _something_ molten, throwing a greater light, if that was even possible, across the tired faces of the people around the circle. Susan shook her head. _All that effort for a bit of metal, even if it was from billions of years ago. They really need to take better care of these so called 'treasures' if that's what is required to make new ones. I mean these reenactment things, this is the second one Nita's been in, right? And she's not even eighteen. They must happen all the freaking time. So how do wizards here let the things they need to do reenactments with get lost or busted?_

Susan let the _Time Anchor_ go as Nita rushed to her sister's side. She mumbled something, then passed out in her arms.

"Is she okay?" she asked, tapping her pant leg where the knife was strapped.

Nita nodded. "Just wiped out. Good thing it wasn't a month from now, she might not have been able to do it."

 _Okay, then who would have? Would the world have burned for lack of one little girl's strength?_

 _Now, now,_ chided The Darkness. _Aren't you one little girl? Aren't you trying to save this world from burning?_

 _What's that? Sentimentality?_

 _Humph. If you watched an ant wrestle a bit of food across a driveway alone, wouldn't you acknowledge the ant's determination and success? Even I can recognize an outstanding achievement from one of you little beings. Despite the relative ease I could have done the same._

 _I see._

"I see," she echoed to Nita. "Then I guess she did her part well."

"That she did," said Biddy sadly, looking at the metal. Susan had to admit, it did seem different than what she would have expected a puddle of hot metal to look like. Almost as if the mold it was resting in was insufficient to the task of containing such a prize. The metal inside nearly shined right through it, if such a thing were possible.

 _Probably just a trick of the light._

Biddy went on. "Now it seems my part in all this begins..."

Johnny offered rooms to anyone that wanted to stay the night, and several of the wizards there accepted. Most that were in the circle could hardly stay on their feet, and went to find places to sleep before they too fell over. Dairine was gently laid somewhere, but Susan wanted to see how Biddy went about forging this spear and offered her services.

"You could wash off the spell diagram for me," Johnny said to her, pointing to a nearby sponge and bucket.

"You got it," she said with a wink, snapping her fingers at Sparkle.

"Right boss," said Sparkle, casting _Hygiene_ on the floor and cleaning it instantly.

"Oh. Huh. Okay... Uh, what else could you do..." He looked around.

"The forge area is actually a little ways away from here," said Biddy. "If you go down there, can you open one of those holes in the air so we could just pass it through? I would hate to spill any of this, or get anyone burned."

"Sure thing!"

So she did. Taking extra time and opening a _Teleportal,_ then using _Telekinesis_ to lift the mold and gently float it over to the other side.

"Safer this way," she explained. "Where do you want it?"

Biddy told her were to set it down, and Susan closed both spells down. She thought for a moment, then slid her _Wizard Bracelet_ down her arm and held it up. Biddy blinked at it.

"You're really some bright power?" Susan asked, eyes narrowed. "I can trust you with this, that I'll get it back?"

"Yeah?"

"She really is?" she asked Johnny.

"She could be nothing else," he agreed.

Susan sighed with resignation. "Fine. Here, put it on."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

"Okay, but seriously, why?" She reached for it, but Susan didn't let it go.

"If you make off with this, it doesn't matter where on this planet or any other you go. I will hunt you down and I will end you. Are we clear? I've beaten you once, you know I can do it. I will be far, far scarier if this is not returned to my hand at the end of your work."

"What is this?"

"Just take it before I change my mind."

Biddy slipped it on. "Okay, I feel a little different I guess."

"Pick up something heavy. That anvil there. No, use one hand. Wait, you're right handed? Use your left."

"I can't pick up this heavy thing with just my-" Biddy easily hefted the anvil that was sitting there. "Oh kay."

"Forging requires great STRength, right? Well, maybe that will help."

"Thanks," she said, waving the anvil about as if it was paper instead of iron. "I can see why you want it back."

 _Not just that, you could_ Mimic, _hit us all, you're luckier-_

Biddy was looking at her cross eyed. "What does your having ten _Lethal_ and four _Gone_ mean?"

"Just get to work! I'm renting you that by the hour!"

"Okay, just asking."

 _Wow, this world really is turning you soft!_

 _Quiet, you. If you saw an ant about to struggle with some heavy thing across an entire driveway, wouldn't you want to help by putting the thing it was about to carry nearer the anthill?_

 _Touché. You can't do this for them, so you're offering the next best thing?_

 _Yup. In any case,_ Susan eyes gleamed. _Wouldn't you say giving up my bracelet, full of so much XP-y goodness, especially when we could be attacked any time, was somewhat of a_ Sacrifice? _I mean she could run off with it, despite my warnings._

 _Oh, you beast! Are you going to-_

 _I declare the use of card 26,_ Sacrifice.

The card disappeared from Susan's character sheet, and five XP were added to her total. She got the sheet out. "Tada!"

 _That actually worked? Honestly, you're such a cheat._

 _Somebody liked it, for it to work even that much._

Susan got the distinct impression that if The Darkness had a head, it would be shaking in disgust as his presence faded from her awareness. It also seemed... amused? _Weird._

Biddy worked as well as if she had _Augment Skill_ on herself, which Susan silently congratulated herself on not offering. _Yes, fillies and gentle-colts. She can be taught! I can see where being offered magic to make you better at something might be construed as me having no confidence in the skills of the person I'm making the offer to. I just see my magic as a natural extension of my will, something there to be used. If you can make yourself better, why not do it? If you can use magic to clean a floor, why not do it? Same thing, right? Perhaps a symptom of living in that castle for all those years, where everything was done by magic. But just as likely it's my personality, and being insensitive._

 _I think, just maybe, I have to start putting my faith in others a little bit, and let them do what they can. It's a lesson I learned years ago with my friends, but all that seems so long ago now, I could use the reminder._

But still, Susan was worried. She could feel the _Spirit Energy_ being given off by everyone in that room, thanks to _Spirit Sense._ And Biddy's was steadily being drained.

 _No, not drained. If it was gone, I could give it back with_ Energy Gift _or having her eat some cake and take a nap. No, it's more like her maximum energy is being lowered... and if it's seeping into the spear to give it power, there's nothing I can do to stop it, or help her afterwards._

"Nothing more I can do around here, I guess." Susan proclaimed. "I have my own energy to get back, I'm going up to find somewhere to sleep. Don't let her run off or anything!"

Johnny nodded, and both travelers went to find a bed.

The forging continued.


	64. Chapter 64

64

Battle in Another World

Time: The next morning

Place: Castle Matrix

Susan came awake, the familiar shimmer of Sparkle's _Awaken_ spell lingering around her, then vanishing.

"There's a lot of activity," she said, concerned. "And something's wrong, I feel it."

"Better have a look, then," Susan remarked as she climbed out of bed and threw her clothes on. A quick _Hygene_ spell later and she went to look for something to eat, and to see what the commotion was about.

It was late morning, and it seemed the troops were being gathered for battle, as wizards of every description were lounging around in various rooms of the castle. She nodded politely to them, in search of Johnny or Biddy, who she hoped was still alive. She found Johnny.

He was carrying the completed spear, which like the sword seemed more solidly "real" then the surroundings. She had to admit, it looked like a formidable weapon, and she asked to hold it. Johnny looked at her for a second, seeming to weigh the request, but handed it over. Susan made a few untrained swings, feeling the balance of it in her hands, then stared at the blade which seemed to be looking at her.

 _I could make use of you, there is much fire within,_ she heard, not unlike hearing the voice of The Darkness inside her. _I could even burn out that evil within you, though it would change you to do it._

 _Don't let it,_ cautioned The Darkness.

 _Oh, scared?_

 _No, get the full story first. She's not from around here, and she's leaving._ That last was not addressed to her, but the spear. It responded.

 _That is regrettable. I suppose the boy will have to do. Hand me back._

Susan obeyed, not putting up a fuss for once.

 _What was that all about?_

 _Once you accepted it, you and the spear would be bonded forever. You would have been stuck here, as taking all the fire of Ireland away... might have been a bad idea._

 _Are you looking out for my best interests?_ Susan was shocked.

 _No, I'm looking out for mine. I want to corrupt you, remember? Can't do that if you're not on the move, making choices and screwing up everything, everywhere you go._

 _Hey, I've done pretty good so far I think._

 _Oh really? Where's your bracelet?_

"Where _is_ my bracelet?" she asked Johnny.

"Right. Here you go." He dug it out of a pocket and handed it over. "I hope you don't mind, I tried it out. Didn't seem to work for me."

"What do you-" Susan's blood ran cold. Looking the _Wizard Bracelet_ over, two of the _Materia_ were missing. "Why are there _Materia_ missing?" she nearly screamed, just barely holding back her temper.

The Darkness was too busy laughing hysterically to make any sense or taunt her, which was just infuriating her more.

And a small voice in her head started kicking the rest of her, if this was because of that cleverness with the _Sacrifice_ card, she was really going to be pissed.

"What's missing?" he looked at it.

"These! The tiny bits of power I worked hard at making and poured my XP into. The bracelet is worthless, it's just to carry these around. Two are gone! Where are they?!"

Johnny shook his head. "I don't know, after the ensoulment Biddy collapsed. I took it off her after she was carried inside. No one would have known to steal them, they wouldn't have known it was the beads, not the bracelet, that was valuable."

"Where is she? I'll kill her!"

Johnny sighed. "No need. She's already dead."

"I- what? She really died?"

"She really did. Come on, maybe they just fell out, we'll go look."

"Show me the body first," Susan demanded.

"This way."

The two walked through the castle to a small room, where he got out a key and unlocked the door. "We were going to have a ceremony and bury her ourselves before we left," he explained. "Didn't want any kids wandering in here by accident."

He pushed the door open and flipped a light on as they came into the room.

The bed was empty.

"That's funny," he remarked. "I have the only key, and it was still locked."

"Are you _sure_ she was dead?" Susan asked, ice in her voice.

"We had a doctor check her over. She was dead, I swear!"

"Do dead bodies get up out of bed around here?" Susan indicated the covers, which had been thrown back. They made a triangle as if someone had tossed just enough of them off to swing their legs to the floor, something most people wouldn't even be conscious of. _If she had just vanished, the covers would be undisturbed. If she was taken, the covers would be totally messed up. This looks like someone got up from here, meaning she's still alive._

"I really don't understand," Johnny insisted, checking the closet that was in the room uselessly. He looked under the bed as well, looking helpless.

"Oh, she's a bright power, you said. Oh, she's a good guy, you said. Now she's stolen my two most valuable _Materia_ and cut my fighting power back down to near zero!" She got her book out, slamming it down on the bed and turning to the _Question_ spell. "I'll just track her down myself. You go see if she's around here someplace. Maybe this is all just a big misunderstanding."

But even she didn't believe it.

Susan asked her magic "Where is my _Giant's Soul Imbued_ object?" and screamed in frustration when the answer came back.

 _Unknown._

Nita ran into the room. "What's going on? Are you hurt? What?"

"She took it somewhere," growled Susan. "She stole my _Giant's Soul_ and _Slash-All,_ though for the life of me I can't imagine why the latter, and left. She _faked her own death_ and then stole my stuff, to be completely accurate."

"No need to yell about it."

"No need to yell? That's our whole strategy! Mine, at least. I made that item specifically to protect you all in the upcoming battle. And your supposed 'bright power' went and stole it! That doesn't seem a bit fishy to you?"

"There must be some explanation..."

"Yeah, she decided the opportunity was too good to pass up, and made her move. See if I ever trust again."

"But she made the spear, she couldn't be bad! She wanted us to fight Balor. I don't get it. One of the Powers wouldn't act like this, they wouldn't!"

"So you say. So where's the body, huh? Two of my _Materia_ just happened to fall off, and for some bizarre reason someone stole her dead body? Forget it for now, I need to go back to the farm, get more energy. I can make a temporary replacement for both, I know the spells after all, but I'll want extra energy for it. I'll deal with this so called 'power' after the battle."

So Susan _Teleportaled_ back to the farm, and gathered energy from the animals that would let her touch them. She then got out two "empty" _Materia_ and used _Spell Symbol_ to burn the replacement spells into them. No substitute for having the real thing, but good enough for a single use. She then stepped back through, having not closed the _Teleportal_ behind her.

"I don't suppose she's been found in the meantime?" she asked, when she found the others again.

They all shook their heads.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful."

There were five hundred wizards, give or take, in the main hall by eight o'clock that night. Susan hadn't been idle. To those carrying actual weapons, swords and the like, she gave a _Spell Paper_ of _Avatar_. The woman with the enormous ax seemed especially pleased when she heard what it would do. She also remarked her Russian was excellent. Susan let that go, she didn't have a half hour. _Seems they're coming from all over, guess that's good, right?_

To those with no weapons she handed _Alleviation._ "But save them, if I'm nearby. Just grab the knife and plunge it in, that'll do the same job." Most were skeptical at the beginning, but after several demonstrations and word getting around, they accepted it. She also handed out _Regeneration, Invulnerability, Invisibility,_ basically all she had that might come in handy in the coming combat. She was feeling better by that time, but her rage still simmered in the back of her mind. _I'll burn it off cutting down imaginary enemies once the combat starts._

Finally it was time to go.

Johnny stood before the mass of people, giving a not very heartening speech which amounted to 'don't die, I need your business' and turned the floor over to Susan.

"You've all seen me wandering about, and I know some of you were there when I reversed that little trap you tried on me a few day ago. I'm now going to tell you the real reason you're all here. You're defending not just your homes, or this planet, or even this reality. You're defending all realities even remotely like this one, because if the creature that's come to this plane, Darkvoid, has his way, it's all over for everyone. So expect Balor to have a few tricks up his sleeves, because he's not the same guy. He'll be possessed by something far more powerful than even he is alone. But don't worry, you have me, and here's how it's going to go down.

"Those of us with _Avatar,_ we're the front line. You're going to see some lions, some dragons, and some soldiers made of fire once we go through. They're mine, and friendly. One warning; the soldiers explode when killed. Don't get too near them or you might get caught up in it if one goes. Leave the bulk of the physical fighting to me, I can hit every enemy in sight, so even you front line people, don't go too far. Let them come to us. Everyone without a physical weapon, sling whatever you can from the back, keep barriers up if you can. That'll be a big help. If you need healing, come see me. I'll be swinging my blade around, don't let that bother you. Just grab the knife you'll see sticking out of my armor, stab anyone wounded with it, and put it back. They'll be fine, trust me.

"Let's do this."

With that, the assembled wizards went out the field behind the castle, and holding the sword of air in her hands, Annie commanded the group be transported to the battlefield.

They were swept up in the magic, as it seemed reality morphed about them as though a line was being drawn. This line swept over the local area and passed them, leaving them in a world slightly changed, and more heavily wooded.

Susan started activating her stored _Symbols,_ feeling strength and speed come back to her. Then she activated her _Legion_ and _Magical Allies,_ while Sparkle did the same. She issued them orders, and they formed up in front of the wizards. She had only one last thing to do, bringing out a _Spell Paper_ and activating it. A glowing circle appeared under her, and she felt a new _Time Anchor_ in the back of her mind. _Now we're ready for anything._

With her two blazing swords in hand, standing next to a number of wizards who also had flaming weapons, she looked back to see if everyone was ready. They seemed expectant, and she turned to give the order to move out.

A great shadow passed overhead, and Susan brought up her blades.

"Wait," said the person next to her. "That might be a friendly, or at least someone who doesn't mean us any direct harm."

It was a crow, but twice the size of a man if not bigger. Johnny went over to speak to it, Susan watched for possible ambush. It wasn't long after the bird left that the first wave of enemies burst from the forest, shouting, and Susan grimly smiled.

 _Finally._

She noted with interest that there were many types, not just the rock type they had such trouble with before. _Good, the fleshy ones will go down easily._ As the _Sense Materia_ hadn't been taken, she had matched the radius of that spell with her newly cast _Slash-All,_ so she knew when the enemies were in range. When the bulk of them where, she swung both her swords, doing a called shot the body. With _Augment Skill: Sword_ going, and the charging creatures basically packed in too tightly to dodge she couldn't possibly miss.

The entire line of forty, horse like beasts included, went down instantly. (Susan's average roll per swing being (([random # between 7 and 82] + [fire damage] )/3) * 2) See kids, maths are important! The average damage, just looking over the numbers was about a 100 all told, or 33 damage on each creature. That'll even take one of those rock guys down, maybe not dead, but into incap.)

 _Come on, that's hardly enough to make me feel even a little better. You can do better than that!_

Spells in the beginning stages of being cast went uncast. Those raising weapons blinked and brought them down again. "Well, come on," she said to those nearest her, and started moving again.

Twice more they were attacked, by larger and larger groups. Both times Susan hardly had to swing her blades for more than two actions before getting them all and bringing them down. Something was nagging her. Sparkle felt it too.

"It doesn't make sense," Sparkle said, concerned, as the latest wave was slaughtered and fell, still meters from their position.

"I know. The Darkness should have made plans taking my _Slash-All_ into account. Even if it sent some agent to steal Biddy's body and some of my _Materia,_ I know those spells, and it would know that. It would also know I love _Spell Symbol_ and would have temporary replacements for them within the hour. WHY is it sending waves of expendable troops at us?"

"Maybe this reenactment can't do anything else?" she ventured. "The Darkness can only control the body it's taken, not the troops it commands?"

"It's making me nervous," she admitted. "We've taken no damage, heck they've not even gotten close! But it doesn't sit right with me."

They went on. Again and again the Fomori came, and died. Susan's face, unseen under her helmet, was grim. She _had_ to get that _Materia_ back, this battle was proving how useful it could be in combat. Yes, her STRength was being augmented still further by _Augment STR,_ but the usefulness of it and _Slash-All_ couldn't be denied. But the actions of her enemies, and they must be able to see they couldn't get close without dying, troubled her.

They made good time. With only seconds passing between Susan seeing a group about to charge, and that group being obliterated, they passed over the land quickly. Susan could, with _Acceleration_ and _Augment Skill: Off Hand,_ get six separate attacks in while they chewed through the ten _Deferred Delay_ that would have put any of them close enough to strike. They had no wounded to treat, no dead to morn. After Susan broke another line of them, Nita came over to her.

"I guess you weren't kidding," she said, looking over the mangled corpses of the Fomori.

"Hm?"

"You told Biddy once that your magic made you an army. I guess you were right."

Susan gave a grim laugh. "And I didn't even have _Giant's Soul_ at the time I said that. Think about that for a second. Anyway, you need something? I don't like you being up front here..."

"Just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine. I'm not using any energy, with all the spells I have going there's no need for that." _And if another_ Paragon _should use_ Magic Sense _on me right now, they would be justified for turning tail and running as far away as they could. To magical senses, I'm lit up like a Christmas tree._ "I'm not even getting any _Fatigue_ because of my high ENDurance and the fact they go down so easily. Each combat doesn't last long enough."

"Oh, okay. Carry on I guess."

"Not to worry, I intend to."

As the party went on, a darkness seemed to descend upon them, and Susan was shocked to lose an energy just walking along, eyes straining for a hint of movement that signaled another attack.

She felt around with _Magic Sense,_ but she was so hyped up on magic at the moment, all she felt was herself, even with a fifteen result in the check. A moment later it happened again.

"Pass the word back," she yelled behind her. "This area is draining our energy, so let's pick up the pace a little before even I'm too tired to fight!" She started walking a little more briskly, conscious of _Acceleration_ making her faster than normal, and made sure the others could keep pace.

 _Not that I've really needed them, thus far._

The last line of Fomori stretched and stretched, but Susan cut them down as well. By the time those behind the first ones to get hit got in range, the first ones had all but gone down, so Susan could just lazily swing her swords. The group was so small and so tightly together, and the Fomori all attacked from one direction, that Susan was almost bored by the time the last one fell.

 _Come on, where are you?_ She thought angrily. _It's not working, so get out here and face me!_

And suddenly, there he was. Down in the darkness, with the flaming solders and weapons and the odd wizard light, Balor himself squatted before them. Flabby and putrid, the figure had its eyes closed, but seemed to know the group was there.

"It's about freaking time!" said Susan, stepping up before the ugly form. She wanted to vent, and here was a convenient target for it! "And what is that body you've chosen? Is that seriously the best you could get around here, Darkness? Or Darkvoid, more properly. Wouldn't want my pet name for you to confuse you, oh mountain of flab. Honestly, what do you expect to do, looking like that? Oh, your size is impressive, a plus five, right? Without _Giant's Soul_ going it might have even given me pause, you dividing damage by six. Honestly, the dragon form a couple of worlds ago was far scarier, and seemingly more impenetrable. I mean the group of us could easily outrun you, if nothing else. Being _Obese_ reduces your speed, after all. And hiding here, what's that all about? Usually you throw yourself at me, almost eager for the chance to do me in. But this time, no, I had to come to you. Plus slaughtering waves of troops? Little reminder, unlike on Aerith's world, I don't get XP and Gil for each one here. Did you really think that would work? You must have known it wouldn't, given my magic." She paused. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Susan waited.

The figure cracked the smaller of its two eyes open, the one that didn't have an energy attack built into it, and looked around. It peered down at her, taking in her flaming swords, gleaming armor, and aura of magic almost tangible around her.

"I'm sorry," it said, voice like thunder. "Do I know you?"

"OH GIVE ME A BREAK!"


	65. Chapter 65

65

Balor Beaten and What Comes After

Time: About 9:00 PM

Place: The battlefield

 _Yeah, that's not me,_ said The Darkness, after his howl of laughter died away. _You really think I would climb inside that sluggy thing? Yuck, no thank you._

"You're not The Darkness?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"I am Balor!" roared the figure. "But The Darkness does have a nice ring to it," he admitted. "Can we get on with it?"

"Oh, what, you have a hot date? Fine. Sparkle?"

"You got it boss. _Colossus."_

From the ground under Balor a glowing shape started to form, knocking him off balance. He gave a surprised yelp and toppled over as a stone golem, easily as big as he was, ripped free from the earth and threw him to one side as it emerged. "Destroy them!" he shouted, and more Fomori poured out from all sides from the trees.

"I'll need to get closer," shouted Susan to those nearest to her. "It's up to you now, defend everyone not wearing armor. I'll take out Balor."

They started to shout something, about the spear or that she was crazy or both, but she took off running. She had a speed of thirty now, and shot forward in a _charge_ against the massive form before her. As she ran, she took the reactive action of ending _Slash-All_. _He'll divide damage enough, I don't need a further reduction._

Sparkle and Balor went at the same time, so Balor tried to get up, but Sparkle wasn't having any of that. She made a _Mars_ check, (as that is how the _Colossus_ is controlled _)_ a thirteen, enough to hit him and drive him down to the ground again. (It also did four damage) Susan felt the tremor and tried to imagine a regular person being hit by that amount of stone.

"What is this?" Balor roared, turning his head to look at the thing.

It punched him again, with a sixteen, this time doing three to the body. Sparkle's delay again went up by two, but allowing her to go yet again before Balor could do more than stare at the thing.

 _Wouldn't think a creature that big could move that fast,_ she thought. _But it's using my delay, which is augmented by_ Acceleration. _Guess I'm a little bit of a cheat too._

Again the stony fist of the _Colossus_ slammed into Balor, but he shifted position a little and it only caught his arm that time.

"Fine," he said, "I will destroy you first then, whatever you are!" His larger eye began to open, and sickly red light shot out, striking the stone creature and driving it back a little. It took six damage to the body, as it also divided everything by six.

 _Can't let him destroy this, he'll turn that attack of his on us. I wonder..._ The _Colossus_ did whatever Sparkle wanted, and Balor was still technically prone. This time, Sparkle made a called shot to the eye, difficulty plus five, so it evened out. She got a fourteen, he got a nineteen on a dodge, but his size subtracted five and his wound subtracted one so she hit! That did another three damage to him, but right in the eye. It snapped closed again and he howled in pain.

This time, Sparkle had to delay by seven segments, because of the called shot, but Balor delayed because he had tried to get away from the stony fist that was flying towards him. This put the delay at 12, and Susan slammed into him from the side.

She got a plus six to her already massive STRength for the _charge_ , and slashed upwards, cutting as deep as she could with both swords. This did eight damage, ten damage, and another five fire damage, putting him just over his lethal capacity.

As before, he didn't really have a _Gone_ because this was supposed to be a reenactment of events. He wasn't really there, he had been defeated ages ago. In other words, he was supposed to open his eye and the spear was supposed to crash through it, as had happened countless times before. With Susan around, though, nothing goes the way it's supposed to, and the image of Balor burned away before her very eyes. To the wizard's surprise, so did the Fomori.

"Show yourself, Darkness!" cried Susan, smashing the sword into the ground and causing it to crack. "I've had just about enough of your slinking around in the shadows. You want this world? Fine, come and take it from me, right here and now!"

"If you insist," said Biddy, stepping out of nowhere from behind her. Susan whirled. Behind Biddy, a line of elves also appeared to step from nothingness, and all were riding those magnificent horses. They were armed for battle, and their weapons and armor gleamed as the darkness of the area started to lift.

"What are you talking about?" asked Susan, looking them all over. "Give me my _Materia_ back! If you insist, what does that even-" She froze.

"Figuring it out, are we? I must say, it's been fun watching you squirm, never knowing who I was in this world."

"No way. You helped us!" insisted Susan.

"Not exactly. Biddy helped you, yes. But she's gone now, so I get to fully take over. She couldn't have beaten me in a contest of wills, but I've been riding around in her head for some time now. Why waste the effort, I asked myself. I knew what was coming, I knew I could get her body without a fight. So only the barest sliver of myself was needed for this world, and now, with her consciousness gone, that sliver has grown enough to take you on. She didn't even know I was there."

"So you're telling me," Susan growled, "that when I first accused you of being The Darkness, I was actually _right?"_

Biddy laughed. "Yes, isn't it fantastic? Oh, I was howling inside after you left, just howling you were so funny. Thanks for taking out the big guy, that's a significant chunk of power freed up for me to use." She did something, reached into the air where Balor had been, and seemed to pull. She smiled as energy poured into her, Balor's body seeming to return, ghostlike, and get sucked into her. "Very nice," she purred. With that, she gestured, and the spear was in her hand. "Now, shall we have that fight you so desperately wanted?"

Susan raised her blades. "With pleasure."

"Wait," commanded the queen. "Will our assistance be needed?"

"If she starts to win, shoot her," suggested Biddy.

"We do have archers," the queen said hesitantly.

"Wait a second, you guys are on her side? Since when?" demanded Susan, looking over at the queen.

"Oh, yeah, I may have gone this morning and convinced them you were evil. Whoops!"

"And then stood there and proved yourself wrong," Susan countered.

"You think they're hearing our actual conversation? No, no, silly girl. They're hearing you go on and on about taking this world over, and reducing everything to ashes. See, they just saw _you_ take Balor's power for yourself."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Illusion magic, even this wizardry kind, can be handy sometimes. What can I say?"

"Fine, I'll deal with them later."

"Suit yourself." She lunged.

Susan got a 24 to deflect the attack, which proved inadequate despite it being her maximum roll at the moment. Her armor took it, and she used her off hand action to swing at Biddy, hoping she wouldn't be quick enough to parry. She underestimated the speed of a spear, and the attack was batted away in a blur. Biddy kept the spear spinning, handling it like a pro.

Susan darted in, trying to get inside that spinning blade, but not making a called shot given how she was handling it. She failed to knock it away, and took a minor scratch to the head, specifically the ear. She followed up with her off hand attack, and again beat her by one to scratch her right leg for two damage.

"I really must thank for you for this _Soul_ ," said Biddy. "That attack might have taken my head off, otherwise!" She came in close with the spear again, which Susan knocked away and again brought her other blade up to try and get a shot in. This too was knocked away.

 _Okay, not sure if this is going to get us anywhere. "Dazzle!"_

But even as she cast, Biddy sneered at her and the magic fizzled.

"Did you forget I could shut down your magic?"

"No, I just wanted to test if you could do that here."

"Like the world makes any difference. I know how your father does it, that will never change."

"Worth a try." She swung again, trying desperately to think of something else she could do to take Biddy down. Her first attacked nicked her body, the second was deflected. Susan couldn't help but notice that even with _Acceleration_ going, Biddy was nearly as fast as she was. _Come on, think. There must be something else I can do._

Suddenly, one of Sparkle's _Magical Ally_ lions barreled past and leapt into Biddy, taking both of them by surprise.

Biddy managed to bring the spear up and shoved the lion past her, making it go wide and have to spin to face her again.

 _Thank you, Sparkle._

Out of the corner of her eye, Susan saw another lion a step away, and swung low as the lion jumped, forcing Biddy to decide what attack she wanted to try defending against. It didn't seem to work out that way, as Biddy went back to swinging the spear in a tight arc around her body, and managed to knock both attacks away with ease. Then a third lion joined them, the last one Sparkle had created, and two went to try wrestling her to the ground. Even coming from different directions, the blows were knocked away, the spear hardly seeming to skip a beat.

Susan now saw her chance.

 _"Dazzle!"_ she cast again, as the second lion now was up again, and making a grab for her. Biddy couldn't defend against both, but seemed to shake off the spell without effort. Her concentration slipped just enough to let the lion get through that whirling defense, and the other lions moved in from either side, trying a slash this time with their claws rather than a _wrestling_ action. Both were knocked away.

Now the lion that had touched her made a _Wrestling_ check, but with Biddy's immense STRength, she didn't go anywhere. She did have to stop swinging the spear around, however, and that was Susan's opening to make a called shot to the body with both blades, driving them in as hard as she could.

Biddy cried out, but stayed up. "Cheater!" she cried. "Couldn't take me yourself?"

"I'm the cheater?" Susan protested. "You stole the only thing keeping you alive from me!"

Biddy started to retort, but now all three lions went, "three" and "one" now leaping up to try and help their companion drive Biddy to the ground. Both made _Unarmed_ checks, and Biddy now tried dodging them, but with her wounds and the other lion still holding onto her, she couldn't. Now all three were atop her, trying to drag her down.

"Fine!" she said, closing her eyes and then opening them again. A wave of energy engulfed them all, forcing them back. Susan couldn't even make a STRength check to not be blown back, and Biddy was now standing alone, leaning on the spear.

"Oh, now who's the cheater?" taunted Susan. "Couldn't win without bringing Balor's powers into it, huh? Fight with your own STRength, I allowed you the weapon you forged, didn't I?"

"Ah, curse this world for not having a decent fighter to take over. Or dragons."

"Your loss," said Susan, as she and all three lions now went at the same time. Susan again drove the blades into Biddy as the lions jumped towards her. They all bounced off with a **clang,** as an energy shield Susan had seen before came into being.

 _Crap, that's the same technique the dragon used! She'll start healing in there, I know it. Does The Darkness have a healing technique or did the dragon just have some kind of regeneration thing going? If she has to heal herself with wizardry, we have a little time._

"What are you going to do?" asked Sparkle, who had now come over because the danger had, for the moment, passed.

"We know an explosion directed inside the shield can break it, want to try your _Elemental Line?"_

"No, look there at the ground." Susan did, and it seemed the barrier extended there as well. Neither one of them knew a similar spell to the _Explosion_ magic that Louise could do, so that was out. "Couldn't you hit her with _Slash-All?"_

"Maybe. Have to cast it again, though, I took it off to hit Balor earlier."

"Not much for it then, I guess."

"I wonder... how tough do you think those _Materia_ are, anyway?"

"Don't know, never needed to worry about it before. The real one was like a sap that had hardened, right? The other was plain metal, so probably not all that great. Why?"

Susan shook her head. "Any area effect attack would have a chance of damaging them, and with the _Giant's Soul_ going she wouldn't take much damage except from something with a lot of energy thrown in."

"Ah, true. Hey, think you could get the two away from her?"

"You mean- worth a shot. I don't know _exactly_ where they are, like in which pocket. But I do know they must be with her, that should be good enough."

And it was.

Susan walked away from the domed figure, who was concentrating on healing anyway, and probably wasn't going to notice. With two quick _Retrieval_ spells in a row, Susan gratefully popped the two real _Materia_ back in place, and now knew it didn't matter if Biddy healed herself. Her next attack would finish the job. But she had something to do first.

"You all have been very quiet," she said the elves, still just sitting there on the horses.

"We were told not to attack you," said the queen. "But what is that darkness? I have never seen such a thing, and it is not wizardry."

"That's the power of The Darkness. It's an energy from higher dimensions, so it's tough to get through. I'm going to try in a moment, and I wanted to know if I would have you as enemies when she was defeated."

The queen looked troubled. "I know she convinced me you were evil, but now I am having trouble recalling exactly what she said to make me believe that."

 _Good, her hold must be slipping as she's concentrating on other stuff at the moment._

"You just keep thinking about," suggested Susan. "I'll take care of- woah!"

Inside the shield, something new was happening. Biddy had given up trying to heal herself, probably feeling the loss of the _Materia_ she had been carrying. She was now powering up that ball of darkness Susan had seen inside Tom's soul. However, she figured this version might be a little bit more destructive, as it was out here in the real world.

"She's going to blow herself up!" she shouted, pointing to the ball. "Get everyone out of here. Run, take them back to the main world."

The queen considered, then gave a single nod. "Very well, but what of you?"

"I'll think of something, go!"

The elves spurred their horses and raced towards the wizards who still weren't exactly sure what was going on. The battle with Balor hadn't taken more than a few seconds, and had not gone how any of them envisioned. Then Ronan started yelling about the spear being gone, Biddy seemed to be alive, they were fighting... who could blame them? Now they had beings they thought would be allies charging down upon them. It didn't take much to get them moving away from the area and back to a place they could cross over from.

"Any ideas, boss?" asked Sparkle.

She shook her head. "Not many. It's not magic, I checked, it's more like a dimensional energy, so _Dead Magic_ won't work." She glanced upwards. "You still have the golem, we could hide behind that."

"I could collapse it, that might shield us."

"Maybe. But she could gather enough energy to blow away this whole world for all we know!"

"So get her out of there early. Try _Telesummon."_

"And get that ball in the face? You crazy? I don't know how much damage it'll do, it could kill me."

"Better figure out something fast."

"I know that. What spells do you know that could help?"

"Let me think."

Both mentally reviewed the spells they knew.

"I could blow off her head."

"We need to do something that gives us a chance to get away. Something that forces her to not charge it as much as she could, but also delays her from triggering it immediately. She has to think she can hold out at least a few seconds while we get- Wait, I think I have it. Get ready to put every defensive spell we have on, and have the _Colossus_ pick us up and run away. For now give me _Energetic Accumulation._ "

"Okay."

That done, Susan sprinted over to the barrier, that she could vaguely see inside of, where the ball of darkness was growing. She quickly put her one sword in the _Pocket Dimension,_ the other she absorbed back into herself, praying that as the scene wasn't over, the spell would keep going. It did.

 _Hope this works._

Susan gathered energy, putting most of what she had left into this effort. With her one hand she cast a quick _Thrust,_ making Biddy rattle around in her little prison but not seriously hurting her. That wasn't the point. The point was to knock the breath out of her lungs as she used her off hand action to cast _Elemental Conjure: Water_ with all the energy she could put into it. As it was the same "action" she could do the _Thrust_ without losing the gathered energy, and sixty liters of water suddenly appeared inside the barrier. That amounted to 3661 cubic inches, or eight cubic meters. The barrier was not eight meter across, and the surprised Biddy suddenly found herself without air to breathe.

 _Take that,_ thought Susan. _The Darkness might not have to breathe, but that body I think does. You just hold out while I get away now..._

Susan took off running, scooping up Sparkle who started casting _Armor of Magic_ on them both. That done, they were near the _Colossus_ who she then had scoop them up. Susan then was able to cast _Invulnerability_ on them both, then followed it up with _Regeneration._ She threw maximum energy and spent a minimum of time on both, figuring it was better to be out of energy and alive then have some left and be dead.

The explosion tore through the _Colossus,_ sending huge chunks of rock, and the two small _Paragons,_ soaring through the air...

"...like a child's imagination." -Deadlift


	66. Chapter 66

66

Off to the Next World

Time: Thirty seconds later

Place: Balor's dimension

After about thirty seconds the rumbling and shaking stopped, and Susan found she was still alive, just pinned by some rubble from the exploding _Colossus._ She had been protected by all the defensive magic she had put on earlier, and breathed a sigh of relief. _Now to get out of here and see what sort of damage that explosion did._

The trouble was she couldn't do any physical magic, because of being pinned under tons of rock. That didn't mean she was helpless, as Pluto spells were INSight based, meaning they didn't need physical movement. One quick _Phase_ later, and she was walking through the stone and out to a scene of devastation that gave her an appreciation for just how thankful she was not to have been hit by that energy ball point blank.

 _Now, where has my companion gone?_

She didn't see Sparkle anywhere, so figured she was also buried in the rubble somewhere. That was good enough for the _Telesummon_ spell, and a few seconds later Sparkle was in her arms again.

"Thank you," she breathed, blinking against the light. "Don't know how much longer I could have lasted."

"Couldn't you have used _Dimension Step?"_

"Tried. Didn't work here, probably because this is some weird sub-dimension already."

"Ah, I guess so." _Wait a second, light?_

Susan and Sparkle looked around. Apart from the chunks of rock that had made up the _Colossus,_ there was a huge crater in the ground centered on Biddy's last location. But the light- that was new. The oppressive darkness that had been draining Susan's energy was gone, and the world seemed to be on the way towards becoming more like the sword and spear. More real, in other words.

"What happened to the spear?" Susan asked, glancing around. Both made _perception_ checks, Susan getting an eleven and Sparkle getting an eighteen. "There," she said, pointing with a paw. It was stuck, point first, into the side of the crater wall, and Susan did one last spell, _Retrieval,_ getting it back in hand.

With that, the _scene_ ended, and Susan's magic splintered away from her. She was normal sized, unarmored, and low on energy. _But I think it's over._ "Now, how do we get back? I would just leave, but we really should return the spear."

"Need a lift?"

Susan turned around, and there was the elf on the white horse, staring down at her.

"My mother told me not to get into the cars of strange men," she joked.

"I'm not a man."

 _Dang it, you were supposed to say the horse wasn't a car! Oh well._ "True enough." She held out a hand, and the man helped her climb up. Nearby, the queen and the others were appearing.

"I will bring this one back and then return, your majesty," he said to the queen.

"That is well," she replied. "But first, allow me to offer my apology. We were somehow deceived, and while we did not attack you, we did ride against you."

Susan shook her head. "It was never the intention of The Darkness to have you fight me. It wanted to destroy me, then all the wizards that were left. With you in the same place, there would be a good chance you would be destroyed too. That would have been a lot of energy freed up at once, and removing a lot of opposition to it's plans. That's what I think, anyway."

"Perhaps you are right. What did happen here?" The queen looked out over the hole in the ground.

Susan chuckled. "Seems to have brightened up considerably. I think... because I didn't actually follow the script, the recording got broke. Plus Biddy grabbed up the energy that powered the Balor recording, so that's been released now that she's dead." _I wonder if The Darkness took that energy with it? Oh well, on the whole it can't amount to much when weighed against an entire dimension._ "I don't think the image of Balor will rise here again."

The queen nodded. "I too believe that. Go well, traveler."

"Thank you, your majesty."

With that, the elves spurred their horses and galloped off to see what this land held for them.

Susan returned to the other side and hugged Nita and Annie, who were happy to see she was still alive.

"Thanks to every defensive magic I could think of!" she assured them.

"It's gone then, this darkness you spoke of?" asked Johnny.

"Blew itself up trying to take me out. Soon as I leave, the being that sent me here will drop defensive barriers around this reality and you'll just have your own, local, evils to worry about."

"As it should be. Thank you, for helping us. I know that you're the reason all of us came back here, and unharmed." He looked a little embarrassed. "I see why you're a bit... vain. You weren't kidding about being powerful, so I guess it's deserved."

"I guess. Anyway, who wants the spear? Can't exactly take it with me, now can I?"

"I'll take it," said Ronan, walking up. "I felt something from it, and I could carry it easily."

Susan looked to Johnny, who nodded. She handed the spear over and looked over the departing wizards. "Sure you don't want me to gather energy and clear this overlay? I could stay."

"No!" he said, a little too quickly. "I mean, no, it's our problem to deal with. We'll live with it."

"Okay. I guess this is-"

"You can't leave yet!" insisted Nita. "I promised you a trip to the moon, didn't I?"

Three days later, having left from Nita's house, Susan, Sparkle, and Kit stood on the moon and looked down at the Earth. Nita had gotten to go home early, given her task in Ireland was done, so her parents no longer felt the compulsion to have her there and let her come back. As the TSA hadn't been invented yet, Susan and Sparkle rode in her pocket, _shrunk_ down, and got through security with ease.

She had made copies of some of her spells, so wizards there could look them over. As well as copies of the pages detailing the skills she had started to each them, so they could have the complete reference.

"Thank you," Susan said at last, having slipped a piece of moon rock into her sub-space pocket. Not that she thought it might disappear, but rather it was just less flashy then using her magic, and she didn't want to call attention to it.

 _Not sure what I'll do with a piece of the moon, but hey, you never know. And it's a nice reminder of this place._ She also had gotten her camera out, and snapped some pictures. _Harry and the others won't believe me, otherwise._

"Sure," said Nita and Kit together, smiling. "Least we could do," finished Nita.

"Guess it's time for me to move on," Susan said, facing them. "You've shown me something cool, guess I'll return the favor. Oh, there is one more thing, though." She got out a stack of _Alleviation spell papers_ and handed them to Nita. "My healing magic seems a bit better than yours, so use these as you see fit, okay."

"Thanks."

"This one, however," she said, taking one out of the stack, "is for a special purpose. Hold onto it. You'll know when the time is right to use it."

"Is it different?" Nita asked, comparing that one to the top one on the stack.

"Oh, no, I just picked one at random. All I mean is, keep one handy, if you start using them up really fast. The guy who sent me here said you might need it. Remember, it can cure disease as well as heal."

"Got it." Nita made them disappear into her own otherspace pocket.

"Good luck, you two," she said, hugging them both. "Now get some weapons made, honestly!"

They all laughed, and Susan stepped back. She brought her watch up, tapping it to call back to the Hub.

"Yes?" asked the agent.

"Ready for transport."

"From... the moon? I suppose it doesn't matter. Very well, doorway opening, welcome back."

A doorway of light opened next to her, and both wizards seemed suitably impressed.

"Go well," both said.

"Bye," she said, slipping into it with Sparkle next to her.

She found herself back at the Hub, and stepped out of the transport room into the main area where the agents worked.

"Well done!" said Silverstreak, coming over to her. "Another branch saved, another group of people suitably awed by your power."

"Thanks. You don't mind if I stay, do you? We both have some XP to spend."

"You know I don't. Remember your way there?"

"Uh."

"Come on," said Sparkle. "At least one of us doesn't have _no sense of direction."_

And so Susan and Sparkle spent their XP, Sparking having just enough to raise her _Spirit Mage_ skill group from a three to a five, while Susan raised it to a four. She then asked the wizards there about her _Imbued_ items, and what she could do about them. The gun was first.

"If you don't mind sacrificing a little of the XP you put into it," said the agent that was helping her, "it can be transferred in a variety of ways. You could simply move the spell to a _Materia_ like ball, and fit it inside your bracelet. Or, you can use the stored energies inside it to power a different spell, and just use it up in the process. You get back three quarters of the XP, so you only have to make up one quarter."

"It would destroy the gun?"

"Afraid so. Pulling magic out of something, in this way, isn't pretty."

Susan considered. _Would the more useful spell of Magic Domination be worth the loss of the gun? I'll never find more ammo for it, and really, bullets? I can hit someone way harder now. It's just the principal of the thing... for worlds that would even recognize it._

"Okay, show me how, if you don't mind?"

"Not at all, I'm at your disposal. Which type would you like..."

So Susan transferred the spell energies from the gun to a _Materia_ orb, getting nine XP out of the gun, and putting in four of her own to create an energy based _Magic Domination_ item. With it active, the only type of magic that would work in an eighteen meter radius around her... was hers. (And Sparkle's, as they sort of counted as the same "person," Sparkle being her _companion_ and all. They learned from the same book of magic, after all.)

That left her with four XP, so she took three from astronomy, three of her own, and raised her _Martial Arts_ to a three. With the last point she bought _wrestling,_ because why not?

As for the knife, that was tricker.

"Are you sure you don't want to leave it like this?" asked the agent, looking it over.

"It's caused some problems, people who don't know what it is walking in on me with it stuck into someone."

The agent smiled. "The universe does like to play its little jokes, don't it?"

"Is that what you call them?"

He chuckled. "We could easily turn it into a rod of some kind, but you would have to do the transfer and rework the spell to turn it into a _Materia_ like form. It's a touch based spell, and the way you've set it up is to go off when you touch someone with it. To use it in _Materia_ form you would have to physically touch the person you wanted to heal with the sphere. You could rework the spell to activate with a word and a touch, just like you reworked the gun's spell. What most concerns me is you running into creatures like those on your home world, that you can only defeat with a spell like this. Then you'll be back here wanting to put it back this way."

"Oh, never thought of that. Okay, better leave it as is, then. Thanks for taking a look. Wait a second- wouldn't a rod be just as effective? I mean if the spell is touch..."

"Wouldn't just touching someone with the knife be as effective?" the agent countered. "You don't actually have to stab the person you want to heal, right? That just insures it doesn't deflect off. If the thing isn't struggling against you, just hold the knife up to them. Don't touch their clothes, obviously, that will trigger the spell against the cloth. Just hold it against their skin." The agent paused, eyes narrowed. "You really haven't been stabbing people with this, have you?"

"Ah?"

Sparkle just shook her head, sighing.

They then chose the next world to visit, which had the following notes:

 _Many, many types of magic here. There are also many gods and demons that can be called upon. Be careful, you may be powerful but you're no deity! One type of magic is quite new; Warlocky. I would start with investigating this, its recent appearance is too coincidental not to be related to Darkvoid. Try not to get too off track, you'll have some time but remember why you're there._

Fully rested, fed, and ready for action, Susan stepped through and looked around the new world she found herself in.

She found herself on a rather busy road in what seemed to be a fair size city. At least, what a fair sized city would be before automobiles, modern roads, material techniques to build more than two or three stories, and modern sewer systems. The houses were packed tightly together, and there wasn't much vegetation to be seen, mostly dirt roads with some flat stones used for walkways to people's doors. People in rough, home spun style clothing milled about doing various things, and Susan was impressed with the variety of people she saw. Old, young, light skinned, dark skinned, people in robes that others gave a wide berth to- she saw a little bit of everything.

She also smelled a little bit of everything, and wrinkled her nose.

"Weird smell," she remarked, looking about.

"You should come down here, and my nose is better," complained Sparkle.

As far as the buildings were concerned, a lot of stone was in evidence, but there were a fair number made of timber. Thatching seemed to be the material of choice for the roofs, but the larger places had tile. All very "medieval" and not in the good way (if there was a good way at that time). All in all it looked poor, like maybe this world's people had given up a little, like it was too much effort to do some painting at the very least.

 _Back with Louise, there was at least some semblance of order and pride in one's environment. And aren't these people supposed to have "all kinds" of magic? Where is it all? These are not the homes of magic users, unless they're some kind of ruling class and live elsewhere. Seen that before._

The people, some of them having witnessed Susan stepping out of nowhere, quickly lost interest when she did little but stand there and stare back at them. Soon the street went back to normal, though more than one person, mostly young people darting about playing, stared at her openly. It took a moment to allow her to work out why.

Her clothes.

Universally the woman wore long skirts and the men wore pants, _though I suppose the more proper term is breeches._ The youngest kids wore a sort of loose T-shirt that hung down to their thigh, while everyone in their teen years or so wore more adult clothing. Susan, dressed in jeans and a neutral colored T-shirt stuck out because not only were her clothes obviously "otherworldly" she was not wearing a skirt.

 _And even on my world, a boy running around in women's clothes would get some odd looks. I know how they would feel, right now, because of my obvious "men's clothes" getting those same looks. I suppose I could_ Creation _up some more suitable garments. Hey, wonder if Silverstreak would mind me turning the portal on, glancing through, getting a feel for the style, and turning it off while I made something up? Oh well, guess I have more important things to worry about._

"So where to, boss?" asked Sparkle. "The smell isn't getting any better the longer we stand here."

"Not sure," she replied. "Usually we get met by someone, right? _Something_ happens to lead us to where we need to be, at least something always has thus far."

"Which is not to say it always will," cautioned Sparkle. "Your father sometimes had to travel quite a distance to get to the bottom of things. And it's eighty/twenty meeting someone, sometimes he never did."

"Humm, I see. Shall we wander a bit, see what this fine town has on offer?"

"Fine with me."

So Susan turned and started walking, not caring to try and remember all the turns she made on the haphazardly laid out streets. She passed an open air marketplace, streets where the houses looked better constructed, and the occasional man or woman on horseback, sneering down at the peasantry that was obviously beneath them.

"Do you hear something?" she asked Sparkle, looking around.

"Lots of things, did you mean something in particular?"

"Something's muttering, like. But I can't make out what it's trying to say. I figured you would hear it, if I hear a whisper it should be a shout for a cat."

Sparkle stopped a moment and swiveled her ears. "Just people. Maybe you're hearing them?"

"I don't know, it doesn't sound like distant crowd noises, more like... Actually if I had to put a name on it, I would say it was The Darkness muttering something. Hey, big guy, you in there?"

 _Indeed, Susan. You noticed right away, well done._ It broke into a very disturbing laugh. Which was weird, hearing the odd muttering while the same voice seemed to be whooping it up like they just won the lottery. Finally the laughing died down, but the muttering continued, an undertone the voice of The Darkness cut across. _Coming here, and so soon after you had all that trouble with the possessed woman? It's like you're begging me to kill you! This world is really going to be a treat for me, I mean is it Christmas already? Because you didn't have to get me a present, honest._

 _What are you talking about? What's this noise I'm hearing? It has something to do with your avatar here?_

 _Oh no, I don't want to ruin the surprise. Don't worry, it won't be long._

 _What won't be?_

 _Not telling! Ha ha ha!_

"Uh, Susan?"

"Yeah, sorry. He's practically skipping about upstairs," she pointed to her head. "This world, something really major is going to go down here. I need a better look, see what we're dealing with."

The city seemed huge, especially after Susan ducked down a quiet alley and did a _Flight_ spell to get a better look. At first she wanted to stay out of sight, but someone caught sight of her floating about, gave a sort of bow, and moved on.

 _So they don't freak out when seeing magic, so it must be well known. Where is it all? It's common enough they see someone doing magic as 'oh, someone doing magic' rather than the more extreme reactions the wizards at home are so worried about. Rightly so, I mean. This place... what's that?_

Susan had gotten a nineteen on her _Perception_ check, and peered over the row of houses in the direction of the sound. There, sitting in the dirt and crying, was a young girl. She was probably not yet a teenager, the cut off for wearing adult clothes, as she just had on a filthy and torn tunic. She was bare legged and had bare feet, unruly hair, and looked utterly rejected by the world. She was in front of a run down house and had left the door open, which Susan thought might be somewhat dangerous in a place like this. She hadn't seen any 'city guard' or anything resembling law enforcement, and a city this size must have its share of thieves.

People passing saw her, but looked away, hurrying past.

 _That can't be right._

"Hey Sparkle, we're going one street over."

"Okay!"

Susan looked around for the best way to the other side of this particular alley, and made her way over to the crying girl.

"Hey, do you need some help?" she asked, crouching down beside the girl.

She looked up at Susan with some astonishment, as though this offer of help was somehow unbelievable, and hadn't been previously considered. She choked back a sob.

"I think my mom is dead."


	67. Chapter 67

67

What a World

Time: Just then

Place: Outside the little girl's house

"Show me," demanded Susan, holding a hand out. She was rather angry with all the people she had seen walk by, who had not stopped to see what this little girl's problem might be. And with Silverstreak, who had not sent her here early enough to save this little girl's mother, should she really be dead. If he had mentioned something, she wouldn't have bothered raising her one skill set. That could be done later, after all. It wasn't worth a life.

 _It's not their problem,_ The Darkness explained.

 _Of course it is, don't you know the phrase 'it takes a village to raise a child.'_

 _Eh, never had offspring myself. Susan, Susan, Susan. This world is a pretty harsh place, as you'll learn. Why would they stick their necks out for a crying little girl? Maybe she just got a spanking or something, how would they know? Best to keep to yourself, after all, these people have their own problems. They don't need somebody else's, as well._

 _Good thing I'm not most people._

 _Keep telling yourself that. As far as your chrome plated friend, even he can't see every little life in these worlds. He's strictly big picture, you know?_

The girl took Susan's hand and led her inside, into the back where there was a small bedroom. The whole house was small, cramped, dirty, and none too pleasant smelling.

"Ugh, worse in here," remarked Sparkle.

"Yeah. Oh no." Susan looked at the bed, where the body of the girl's mother lay, lifeless.

"I don't know what to do," the girl said, looking up at her.

"At the moment, I'm not sure what to do either. I'm probably too late to save her..." _But I do have time travel magic in the book. With lots of warnings next to it._ "I'm sorry for your loss, but your mother is dead."

The girl took a deep breath. "I know. What's going to happen to me?"

Susan shook her head. "I don't know, but I'll figure something out. Come on, let me think for a moment." She pulled the girl out into the front room and looked around. "First of all, what happened?"

"She got sick, I think? It started a few days ago, but she told me not to worry. Yesterday when I woke up she didn't get out of bed."

"Yest-" _What the? This girl's mother has been dead more than a day?_ "Didn't you have _anyone_ to talk to about this?" The girl shook her head. "It's just me and my mom here."

"There must be someone!"

Again, a shake of the head.

 _I suppose they don't have 9-1-1 here. Man, this is a problem all right. I hope she's not still contagious. Might want to hit this girl with the knife later, maybe when she's asleep and not prone to ask questions. What does a society like this one do with dead bodies anyway? Is this sort of thing common? But they have magic!_

"I'm hungry."

"What?" Susan looked around the room, then realized how foolish that was. _No refrigerators in evidence. These people probably buy their food daily, otherwise it would spoil._ "I'll get you something to eat while I think about things, okay?"

"Okay."

Susan cast _Create Foodstuff,_ and the girl's eyes lit up. "Magic!" she breathed. "You're a wizard!"

"Something like that, take whatever you want. If you show me where you have a knife I'll cut some of that bread for you, and an apple as well. I can make you a sandwich."

"A what?"

"Seriously? Here." With the knife the girl got out, Susan cut up the bread, cheese, and meat, assembling them for the child, who tore into them. While she ate, Susan jerked her head to Sparkle and the pair went back into the mother's room.

"Think I should go back in time, it's only two days. The knife could save her."

"What, you're asking me now? Usually you just run off and do stuff." Susan eyed her. "As you've asked, I can see a few problems with that. First, you didn't exist here two days ago, so will that magic even work?"

"Uh..."

"Second, if you do, it'll cause a paradox. That little girl won't be outside crying when we arrive now. So we'll never know to come back in time and heal this woman."

"There are warnings about that."

"Yeah, a lot of them. Plus, there's Silverstreak's note to consider."

"What?"

"Playing God? Get it out again, it specially warns against that, and making it so this woman doesn't die, in essence bringing her back from the dead- that sounds like playing God to me."

"And maybe the actual gods that are around here might take exception to that."

"Who can say? But I find it rather striking that the first person we meet is a little girl and you start talking about time travel. You never suggested that at home."

"No, the warnings kept me away. But in this case I know of nothing else to save this woman."

"No, even you can't bring back the dead. And with good reason. Be very sure this isn't going to go wrong somehow before you attempt it."

And so she did. It broke her heart, but she was going to have to go back out there and tell that little girl there was nothing she could do.

 _Is there nothing you could do? I mean you could make her a zombie. That's something._

 _Gross! Don't even suggest that! But you're right, we have to do something._

She marched back out.

"This is good, what is it?" asked the little girl, half her sandwich eaten.

"Uh... meat?" hedged Susan. "It's made of magic, so I don't think it's anything really specific."

"Tastes like chicken."

"Could be chicken. Listen, a town this size, they must have someone in charge of something like this. You know your home better than I do, you can't think of anyone?"

Her face screwed up in concentration, still chewing. "The city guard?"

Susan snapped her fingers. "Now you see, we're getting somewhere. You could have gone to them any time."

Her face fell. "They wouldn't listen to a kid."

"Oh. Maybe not. Well, they'll listen to me. Finish your food... oh." Susan looked around, finally deciding upon a cook pot, which he cast a quick _Elemental Conjuration_ for some water. She found a cup and dipped some out for her. Sparkle had walked to the doorway, and looked like she wanted to talk some more. "I'll be waiting outside. What's your name, by the way?"

"I'm Illina the Quick."

"I'm Susan, nice to meet you."

"That's a weird name!" She giggled.

"I'm not from around here. Besides, wizards always have weird names, right?"

"I guess." She didn't sound convinced. Susan turned to go. "Susan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For stoping to help me."

"Don't mention it kid, it's what I do. Eat your sandwich."

"What are we going to do with this kid?" Sparkle asked. "We can't drag her around with us, fighting The Darkness."

"I can't just leave her here alone with her dead mother, either!"

"I know, it's just... don't get too carried away, the note said. Plus we're not sticking around, so don't get too attached."

"I know that. We'll find a place for her, it shouldn't take long. We only just got here, and we need to find out more about how this world works. We can do that while we figure something out for her."

"Good point, we don't know how this world works. If she's an orphan, we have no idea what the policy is."

"So we'll ask!"

"I guess you can easily pass for a foreigner, wearing those clothes."

"You noticed that too, huh?"

"Those strange looks you were getting? Yeah, I noticed. Just keep the bigger picture in mind, is all I'm saying."

"I will."

A few minutes later Illina came outside and closed the door. "Don't suppose you know where we can find one of the city guard?" She shrugged helplessly. "Okay then. We'll head back to the market, there must be someone in authority there if there's a dispute." She held out a hand, and Illina took it. Sparkle led the way.

"Uh, are we following your cat?"

"Her name is Sparkle, and yes, I am. Believe me, I can't find my way anywhere, so I'm glad to have her." Sparkle glanced back over her shoulder. "And for more than just that, too!" she hastened to add. Sparkle found this only somewhat acceptable, but let the matter drop.

"Oh, okay. Is she a real cat?"

"Real? Of course she's real. Why wouldn't she be?"

"Never heard any stories about a wizard that kept a cat. I thought she might be animated by magic."

"Totally real cat. And you obviously need some better stories."

At the marketplace Susan looked around for someone in at least some semblance of a uniform and looking bored. She didn't have to look long.

"Good day, sir," she said, marching up to him.

"Hello. Can I help... you...?" The guard looked her up and down as if not believing his eyes. Susan decided to ignore that.

"I hope so. This girl's mother has died recently. I'm actually a stranger to this, uh, area of the world. I need to know what should be done about it."

"I see. Murdered?"

"No, seems to have gotten sick."

"Ah. Well, there's two choices of course. The first is the cheap way. We can take the body and bury it somewhere. The second is the not so cheap way. Nearest temple is not far from here. You can pay for a proper burial, with proper prayers to help lead the soul to the afterlife."

Susan looked down at Illina, who was threatening to cry again. "I don't have any money."

"Don't worry, I'm sure gold is the same everywhere." _Good thing I've picked some up along the way, seems like this is a precious metal economy._

"Indeed it is!" agreed the guard. "Would you like directions, then?"

"Please."

With Sparkle again leading the way, the trio found the temple, which was actually somewhat hard to miss. Various depictions of what could only be gods adorned the front, and the place had a certain atmosphere about it that fairly shouted holy ground. The two humans walked inside, with Sparkle hanging out front, watching people go by.

"How can I help you, my... child?" The man that approached them seemed startled by Susan's clothes. _Really have to do something about that._

She explained the situation, and the man expressed his sympathies to Illina. She seemed shy and hid behind Susan.

"And what is your relation to the child?" asked the man.

"I'm just a passerby, saw her crying and investigated."

"Truly? To think such compassion still existed! Except... what exactly are your intentions towards her?"

"Not sure yet. Why? Is there a place to take orphans in the city?"

"No, that's why I ask. You don't look like a slaver, but-"

"Slaver? Of course not! How could you even say such a thing?"

The man held his palm up, which Susan thought was probably a cultural thing. "It's usually what happens to those who become homeless. They're picked up by slavers."

"Seriously?"

 _Keeps them off the streets,_ explained The Darkness. _It's a good system, really. Rather than clutter up the town and disrupt the regular folks, begging at whatnot, they get sold into slavery. Gives them a purpose, keeps them honest._

"I'm afraid so," the man went on.

"Don't worry. I'll find her a home somewhere, and not as a slave either."

"I'm happy to hear that. Now, if you would like to come with me?"

The pair was led into the building, and to the back of the place, where the caskets were. Only, they all seemed to be metal, not wood, which Susan thought would have been cheaper. The man was suddenly all business. "Now, our most basic package is one silver, which includes a fairly basic casket," he indicated the no frills box, "and an apprentice will perform the necessary prayers for the poor woman's soul. For fifteen silver the casket is quite a bit nicer," again, the indication of the model, "and a journeyman will perform the needed prayers."

"And for gold?" prompted Susan.

"Ah, yes, for gold. Two rounds of gold, and a master Theurgist will be employed to make sure the soul of the deceased will reach the afterlife safely."

 _Rounds? Does he mean coins? Two gold coins?_ "I only have coins of my homeland," Susan admitted honestly. "Can you weigh them out or is there a money changer in the city I could speak to?"

The man looked Susan over again, somewhat shocked. "You're really going to pay gold? For an ophan girl's mother you never met? You did say you were just passing by, right? I heard that correctly?"

Susan nodded.

"You don't have to," insisted Illina, tugging her hand. "I only just met you!"

 _And this is crazy, but my mother's dead, so funeral, maybe?_

 _Shut it, Darkness._

 _What? That was gold right there. Comedy gold. Too bad you can't spend that, you could make a fortune._

"Yes, I think I can afford two lousy 'rounds.' Unless there's some huge weight difference, anyway."

"We can weigh them, it will be no trouble at all!"

"Fine. Now where did I put that pouch?" She asked no one in particular. Taking the entire 1.2 seconds, she reached into her _Pocket Dimension_ which of course caused a flash of magic to be seen.

"What was that?" asked the man, looking at the pouch.

"What was what?" Susan asked back, innocently. "Now, two you said, right?" She opened the pouch and took out two coins she had gotten from Anrietta's kingdom, handing them over.

"Strange design, but they do seem to be gold. Let me go and get a scale, I'll be right back."

Susan, not wanting to trek through the streets with a body, caused a minor stir when she opened a _Teleportal_ and walked back to the house.

"Never seen magic like this," said the man, sticking his head through. "The god Asham the Gate-Keeper can make a doorway such as this, but I never heard of a wizard doing so. And you didn't even use any components. Did you have it already prepared?" He didn't give Susan a chance to answer. "Of course you did. Silly of me. Sorry, it's not every day a foreign wizard walks into town, decides to help an orphan girl, and pays in _gold."_

"Too bad. The world might be a very different place if they did."

"As you say, as you say."

Susan wrapped the body up in the blanket on the bed and easily picked her up.

"You're stronger than you look."

"Oh, I'm just full of surprises."

The funeral was short and to the point, with the Theurgist being summoned immediately. Susan got a sense that something quite magical was going on as the man prayed over the burning body, and she felt a powerful presence with _Spirit Sense_ that faded away as the ceremony ended. It seemed the soul of these people was not released without burning the body, which Susan thought was a bit odd.

 _What if someone is lost at sea? Or gets lost and dies in the desert? Will their souls never find rest?_

But these people knew their craft, and after Illina said a few words over the body the lid was closed up, the casket lowered, the hole was filled in, and that was that.

"Thank you, for taking care of my mother," Illina said on the way back to the house.

"It's okay. This world failed you a little, I'm just glad I could make it right."

"But what am I going to do?" she asked, pleadingly. "I'm too young to be apprenticed to anyone, and it would be unfair to ask you for more money."

 _Apprenticing? Is that what they do around here? No schools, huh? Interesting._

"You must have other family. What about your father, or maybe some grandparents?"

She sadly shook her head. "I never knew my father. Mom wouldn't talk about him. And my grandparents live a long ways away from here. I don't know exactly where."

"I'm sure I could find out. Okay, we'll head back to your place, gather up anything you want, find out where your grandparents live, and see what we can do to find them."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why do this for me? Who are you?"

"I'm the person that's going to save the world. But I believe in starting small." She winked.

"Do you have something in your eye?"

"What, people don't wink around here? Barbarians!"

While Illina gathered up what few belongings she owned, Susan did some casting of the _Question_ spell, seeking her grandparents. To the question "where do the grandparents of Illina the Quick live?" she got back

 _Tintallion_

When she asked where in Tintallion they lived she got back

 _The village of Dawn_

"Do you know where Tintallion is?" she asked Illina.

"Up the coast? My mom said she came south when she was a girl."

"So we'll have to go by boat, then?"

She nodded.

"Then I guess we need to find the coast."

"I think it's... that way?" she pointed.

"Humm. They didn't before, but no one is going to freak out if I fly up and take a look, are they?"

"I've watched wizards in the sky before, it's no big deal."

"Then we can know for sure soon."

After Illina grabbed what she wanted, Susan basically looted the place, figuring as soon as it was known the house was empty, it would be looted anyway.

"You're probably right," agreed Illina. "My mom was renting this place, and with her... gone... it'll need to be rented again."

Susan could only mutely nod, thinking about the bum deal this poor girl got, in a world where gods and magic could be summoned just by walking up the street and paying for them.

As far as the possessions, she could dump the stuff out of her _Dimension_ when Illina got to her new home. _At least I know they're still alive. I just hope they agree to take her in. She's family, I can't see why they wouldn't._

"You use a lot of magic," Illina remarked, after Susan made a wooden crate with _Creation_ to hold everything. She then hefted it and shoved it into her _Dimension._ Illina's eyes got wide. "And you're really, really strong!"

"I guess. Is that a problem?"

"My mom always said wizardry was pretty dangerous, that's why it's so expensive. Was she wrong? You don't seem worried."

"Tell you the truth, I have no idea. Look," she spread her arms wide. "You can tell just by looking at me I'm not from around here, right?"

"Yeah, but here in Ethshar of the Rocks we get a lot of travelers. It's a coastal town."

"But I'm guessing never anyone like me. I mean even my hair is different, right?"

She nodded.

"I thought it might be rude to say anything."

Susan snorted. "Well, anyway, I'm from a lot further away than you might guess. That makes my magic different too. Is that okay with you?"

"As long as you don't turn us into frogs or something by messing up a spell, sure."

"I'll try my best. Come on, look one last time, we won't be back here."

She looked sad again. "I know." But she went to look.

After flying up and verifying that yes, this was a coastal town and a ship heading north should be easy to find, the three made their way to the docks. Susan couldn't tell one type of ship from another, but even she could see the difference between a ship loading cargo and a ship loading people.

This place was called "of the rocks" for a reason, the docks were built into the side of the town, which was pretty rocky and high up. Thus, the decks of some of the boats were almost level with the docks, so you could walk straight across rather than up to get to the deck. It was a busy place, and really ships sailing from here only went north or south, so it didn't take long for Susan to find a passenger craft. (With her LUCk check of 23)

"Where ya headed?" asked the man at the top of the gangplank.

"North," replied Susan. "Looking for a place called the Village of Dawn?"

"Yeah, I know it. Pretty far inland, but we can show you the major road leading into Tintallion _._ "

Great. How much?"

"Depends on what level of comfort you want while aboard ship. Five coppers a person gets you a hammock in the hold and some basic food. For a silver piece you get a cabin to yourself and the food's a lot better."

"Humm... what if I wanted the cabin but could take care of my own food?"

"You don't seem to be carrying anything eatable, don't think you can sneak into the galley or anything."

"She's a wizard!" insisted Illina. "She can make food with magic!"

"That so? A wizard, huh?" The man looked her up and down. "Doesn't look like any wizard I've ever seen. Where's the stuff for your spells, then?"

"You let me worry about that."

"Hey, whatever. You want to call yourself a wizard, no skin off my back. You aren't and the guild gets word of it, they'll probably just kill you. Say, ten coppers then?"

"So that's twenty for the both of us? Fine. I only have gold at the moment, can you make change?" She hadn't put the bag of coins away, and got out another to give the man.

"Sure, odd coin though."

"I travel a lot."

"Yeah, so do I. Never seen a coin like this." He seemed to weigh it in his hand, then compared it to one he had in his money pouch. "Seems pretty close, so I guess it's fine." He handed her some silver and a few copper coins back. "You can have cabin seven, but I'll be watching you at mealtimes."

"Fine." Susan waved him away, and he stepped out of the way to let her pass. Illina and Sparkle followed.

"Hey wait, this cat yours?" he protested.

"Yeah, what's the problem?"

He stared down at her. "You're really taking a cat to sea with you?"

"I really am. That's not a problem, is it?"

"Whatever. We won't be held responsible if it jumps overboard though."

"She won't."

"Good ratter?"

"You won't find a better." _Given she has human level intelligence and more magic than you've ever seen in your life at her command._

"Fine. Go on then."

The three went aboard, and Susan asked if Illina wanted to go to the cabin right away or watch the ship pull out of the dock.

"Can we wait? I've never been on a boat before!"

"Sure. Uh, by the way, do you know your numbers?"

"Sure, my mother was teaching me." She looked a bit sad again.

"Okay, because I can't read your language. You'll have to point out which cabin is ours. Seven, right?"

She nodded. "You speak really good though."

"Thank you." She got down close. "Don't tell anyone, but that's actually more magic."

She grinned back, happy to be let in on the secret, and the three milled about on deck until preparations to leave were done. And by preparations, it was mainly getting enough people to have a full load, and they finally furled the sail and started pulling away from the docks.

Illina was happily waving to the people on the docks as the ship went past, and some waved back with a smile.

"Now what in the world?" Susan was watching as a young woman, traveling bag in hand, was racing down the dock waving her arms and shouting as if that would cause the ship to stop.

"Crazy fool!" remarked the man next to Susan. "Does she think this ship can just- by the gods!"

The woman had gathered herself and _leapt,_ and Susan could see she was going to fall far short of the deck and plunge into the sea. She was about to cast _Telekinesis_ when the woman's face screwed up in concentration, and she simply floated the rest of the way, collapsing in a heap and breathing heavily, upon the deck

 _Who does that girl think she is, Princess Peach?_ asked The Darkness. _That was dangerous, she's no warlock._

The man who had taken Susan's money at the dock went over to see what was up, but the woman waved him away, struggling to rise. Susan headed over there to see if there was something she could help with, but stopped when she got in range to hear what the woman was saying.

"Never mind that, there's something powerfully magic on this ship, I tracked it all over town. It could be extremely dangerous, I have to find it!"

 _I can't take you anywhere,_ complained The Darkness.


	68. Chapter 68

68

Sky of Blue, Sea of Green

Time: A moment later

Place: The Laughing Gull, headed north

 _Wonder if she's looking for us?_ The Darkness asked, somewhat amused. _You're pretty magical and dangerous, right? A real magical girl, that's our Susan._

 _Hey, why are you being so chatty all of a sudden?_

 _I'm in a good mood for once, that's all. Don't spoil it by getting all... witchy on me. Witchy, get it?_

 _No._

 _Ah, you will._

The girl, only somewhat recovered from her exertions getting here, was now stalking about the deck glaring at people. Susan wasn't sure if she should edge out of sight down to the cabins, though she had no idea where the ladder or stairs were. Also there was the possibility that would make her look guilty, moving off so suddenly.

 _After all, what would a totally innocent person do right now? Oh, I know, lose interest and go back to watching the boats in the harbor, right?_

"Well, that was some excitement, wasn't it?" Susan said to Illina, turning back to the railing on the boat.

"Do you think our journey will qualify as an adventure? I've always wanted one."

Susan laughed. "Stick with me, kid, and you'll have all the adventure you could ever want."

"Neat! Hello!"

 _Hello?_

Susan turned to see the woman, having made her way over to them, now staring at them.

"Odd clothes," remarked the woman.

She herself was dressed in the sort of standard fare most woman around here seemed to wear, though of a slightly better quality than most. Both her top and skirt were black, but she had splashes of color little adornments like a brooch and a red cloth tied around her waist so it made a triangle to one side. Then she raised her eyes.

And Susan found herself staring into the biggest, most beautiful pair of sparkling green eyes she had ever seen. Susan had naughty thoughts about taking the owner of these eyes, finding their cabin, and after many, many hours, making sure the person attached to them would be too worn out to move so she could stare into them all she wanted.

The woman suddenly blushed furiously and looked away, but then seemed to think better of it and grabbed her arm. Susan, of course, could have knocked her away easily with her STRength as high as it currently was, but she let the woman lift her arm up and pull up her sleeve. The _Wizard Bracelet_ sat there, high on her arm.

"No, that can't be right!" insisted the woman.

"Can I help you?" asked Susan.

The woman ignored her, grabbing the other arm and looking at her charm bracelet. She then stared at Susan's empty palm, where her _Somatic Sword_ came out of when she summoned it.

"No, no, impossible!" she woman breathed, dropping her hand and taking a step back.

"What's impossible?" asked Susan with a grin. "You're not making much sense you know."

"And you can't be on this ship!" insisted the man, who had been following her around.

"I'll pay her fare," Susan told him. "That's not a problem."

"The problem is we cast off because we were full! That's what I've been trying to tell her. You know her?"

Susan shook her head. "Never saw her in my life." She didn't add, _and I've only been in this world like an hour or two._

"Well, if you're paying her fare then she's going to be in your cabin. That means you're sharing a bed."

"Oh, that's no trouble," Susan assured him, thinking about how beautiful the color green was, and how she had never really noticed that before.

"Whatever." He held his hand out, and Susan reached for her coin bag.

"Wait, I can pay my own way!" said the woman, finally reacting to the man. "You're really full?"

"We're really full."

"I caught that thought earlier, am I going to be safe, sharing a room with you?" she teased.

"Safe? Wait, what do you mean caught that thought? Is that why you blushed like that?"

"I'm a witch," she said, as if that explained everything.

"Ahem?"

"Insistent, aren't you? What's the fare?"

"Depends. Is your new friend here going to provide your food, too?" Susan nodded her head. "Fine. I'll say eight, as you're going to be sharing a room, and you've already got the kid in with you."

"Kid?"

"Hi," Illina said hesitantly, where she had been hiding behind Susan when the woman came over.

"Hello. Is this your daughter?"

"No, I'm just seeing her safely to her grandparent's house."

"I feel a lot of pain from her, is she okay?"

"Her mother just died, that'll take some time."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thanks," she mumbled.

"I am rather busy," reminded the man.

"And with a rather one track mind as well. It isn't like I can go anywhere, man, now is it? I'm on a boat!"

This seemed to give the man pause. "I suppose that's true."

"But as you're so eager for it..." She got out a coin pouch and counted the eight copper pieces into his hand.

"Thank you. Enjoy the voyage." He walked away muttering about crazy witches.

"Now that he's finally gone," said the woman, "what exactly are you?"

"Susan Fel- what did you say?"

"What are you? And don't try telling me you're human, because I wouldn't buy that. I feel the most magical thing _ever_ appear in town out of nowhere and start wandering around. Then suddenly it's back where it was, then it's moved instantly again. Then it walks back. Then it heads for a ship and I find out it's you?"

Susan was looking pleased. "I'm really the most magical thing you've ever felt?"

"Yes," she replied suspiciously. "I mean your strength of will and physical strength seem unmatched. That bracelet is unlike any talisman I've ever seen. It's got magic all over it, so does that other weird bracelet you have on, plus there's something in your hand I've never felt before... there's no way you're human."

"I'm actually a little insulted," said Susan."I don't look human enough for you?" She flipped her hair and batted her eyelashes.

"You leave her alone!" shouted Illina. "She helped me when no one else would, and paid for my mom's funeral, and showed me all sorts of neat magic, and now she's taking me to the only family I have left. So I don't care what you say, she's... she's..." Illina started to cry again, hugging Susan tight from behind.

"There, there," said Susan, holding her. "This has all happened rather quickly, hasn't it? I forget my whirlwind way of doing things is rather hard on most people. Let's get you to the cabin and my new friend and I can talk, okay? You probably didn't sleep much last night, did you?"

"She didn't," answered the witch. "And... I'm sorry too, little one. I was just surprised, I didn't realize how special she was to you." Illina just glared at her. "Oh my, I seem to have made a mess of things." She shook her head. "My master would speak to me quite harshly if she saw this."

"Come on." Susan easily hefted Illina and went in search of cabin number seven.

With Illina tucked in and Sparkle at the foot of the bed to watch over her, Susan and the witch went in search of a quiet place to talk.

"So before I answer any of your questions, let's get a few of mine answered," she insisted. "Like who you are, and how you can read my mind." _Without giving me a chance at a RESolve check to keep you out._

"I'm Sativola of the Sparkling Eyes, which you noticed earlier." She blushed again.

"Yes, rather up close, not that I'm complaining."

"And you really would have, um, taken me to your cabin and, uh, you know?"

"You really can read minds." _And she must have a_ Magic Sense _skill I like do. Nice to finally meet someone I don't have to teach that to._ "I mean, uh, I have someone I'm involved with right now, you just came upon me rather suddenly, so I couldn't help myself. Are you offering? The rest of you is as pretty as your eyes, if I may say so."

She waved her hands. "No, no, I was just, well, I've never thought about being with- can we- I shouldn't have asked..." She trailed off, not sure how to proceed.

"We can just drop it, if you'd rather."

"Oh thank the gods. Not that I think wrongly of that sort of thing, I just never saw myself as-"

"Already dropped."

"Right, okay?"

The pair stood in silence for a moment. "So you're a witch then?"

"An apprentice, actually. I'm on a journey to prove I'm ready be called a journeyman now. That's why I ran after that source of- you. That's why I ran after you."

"I hope it goes well for you. Why did you run after me though, I could have been dangerous, like you said!"

"Thank you. My master said I had to do something that elevated the art of witchcraft, or otherwise do something worthy of a story while traveling the world. I thought if I could find the source of that magic..."

"It would qualify. Got it. Hope you're not too disappointed?"

"Oh, I think it might work out. I feel good things around you. Uh, what was your name again? You started to say it..."

"Oh yes. I'm Susan Felton. Nice to meet you."

Sativola looked confused. "Susan... of Felton? I've never heard of that town."

"What, no, that's my-" Susan paused. "Names don't work that way here, do they? Illina was the same way, she said she was 'Illina the Quick.' I was too worried about her mother and her to pay much attention to that. You don't have last names, do you? Just a first name and some kind of descriptor. What an odd custom!"

"Where are you from that you think that's odd?"

"Further away than you can possibly imagine."

"I'm getting a sense of it from your mind, but I can scarcely believe it."

"Don't go too deep, that's a rabbit hole you'll never escape from. Anyway, I guess around here you can call me Susan the Wanderer. I think that'll fit me best."

"You don't mind if I tag along, do you? At least for a little while? A person with as much magic as you do must have some great stories to tell. I bet traveling with you will get me one, too!"

"I suppose it would. I should warn you, being around me will be dangerous. I'm hunting something, and if you think my magic is impressive, well, I've come out on top thus far but this world has me a bit worried."

"This... world?"

"It's a long story."

"Good thing it's a long voyage."

Susan laughed. "I guess so."

And so Susan took a few hours and explained things to her new companion, the almost-but-not-quite witch. She talked about how she was traveling not the world, but between worlds, which Sativola accepted without too much fuss.

"After all," she reasoned, "if wizards can create or travel to other worlds, what's to stop the people on those worlds traveling here?"

 _How logical. I'm really starting to like this girl._

She talked about The Darkness, which did concern her, and about her magic, which was similar/different to magic that might be found around here.

"Let me see if I understand this," Susan said after getting a short explanation. "Wizardry is the most flexible, but the most immediately dangerous. Spells require a host of weird ingredients, like baking a magical cake, but the cake can do anything?"

"That's right."

 _Sounds the most like my magic, but way less convenient._ "Then there's your type, witchcraft, which is more emotions, moving things without touching them, limited spells, mind reading, seeing the future, that sort of thing? And of course sensing magic, lies, even auras to an extent."

"Exactly."

 _So like ESPers, and the elves back home, but either more limited or they just haven't figured out what all they can do yet. Though maybe teleporting is a witch secret they don't share? But the elves fought in defense of the castle, right? If what she says is true, just lifting something with witchcraft is as strain._ "Then there's warlocks, who appeared suddenly on this Night of Madness. They can do some of the same things you can, just better, but other things you can do they can't do at all?"

"Right. They can lift more, and heal more, but they can't find missing things or tell the future."

"And they get _stronger_ the more magic they use?"

"From what I hear."

 _That's the opposite of me. Imagine doing a spell and having more energy when you- Vincent and his lightning_ Materia _combo! Is it something like that? Are they drawing energy out of the air, like a Spirit Mage? They just happen to get more than they use?_ "But it's the most dangerous, long term, because they can hear this _Calling_ and head north?"

She nodded. "Where they disappear, forever."

 _I don't like the sound of that. I've been hearing a voice, and I think The Darkness is talking so much to try and distract me from it._

 _Like I said, I'm just in a good mood. Can't I be in a good mood once in a while? Why does it have to be this major production that I want to talk a little?_

 _No, you can't! Something important there, but I don't yet know what._ "Then sorcery can make talismans? Why couldn't you do something like that? You have magic."

"I probably could, if I wanted to study how. But the wizard's rules are absolute. One type of magic to a person. If you have magic you can't be in government, because that's equivalent to magic in their eyes."

"I suppose." _Natural Magician is four points, I suppose being a ruler of a small city would be worth that, at least._ "And the various others like praying to gods, summoning demons, and people who are just faking it."

"That about covers it!"

 _I hope the wizard's guild doesn't have a problem with me. I can do just about anything these people can do, and she didn't mention_ Fabrication _. It's almost like my magic got smeared across the whole range of magic using types, so as to keep any one person from... well, becoming me, if I want to be totally honest with myself. I guess I could see the wizard's point. They aren't traveling worlds, what would they need with different types of magic? Plus, they don't have XP like I do, they have to actually practice. Learning just what they learn takes years, if they learned both Wizardry and making talismans, each would suffer, they wouldn't be as good at either. They can't make up the difference with energy like I can, I bet._

"So, that's the story. If you're willing to help me on this world, keep me from making a fool of myself maybe, you're welcome to tag along."

"Oh yeah," she said emphatically. "If I can't make or discover some elevation of witchcraft, or live a good story following you around I _never_ will."

"Elevation of witchcraft, huh?" Susan did a quick _Augment Skill_ and then _Dimension Sense,_ getting a twelve (one from minimum). Still, enough to determine she felt like she belonged here. "Give this a shot." She handed over her bracelet, and Sativola took it hesitantly.

"What am I supposed to do with... what's a health level? And why do you have ten of it?"

"Never mind that. Just try levitating that box over there."

"Okay?" She stared at it and it rose a little, but not enough to attract attention. "Hey, it seems easier than ever! What is this, exactly?"

"Thought so." She held her hand out and got it back, shoving it back up her arm. "Witchrcraft really is tied to your body, isn't it? In that case, I can elevate your art here and now with some simple advice."

"Really? What is it?"

"Exercise."

"Do what now? I don't know that word, I don't even recognize the sound of the language it comes from. I can see in your mind what you mean but I can't be seeing that right."

"I think you are. Ditch the skirt and run a couple of miles every day. Lift weights. Do sit ups. The more you build up your body, the easier witchcraft is going to be, right? And of two equally trained witches, which will be able to do more magic, easier? The one with poor diet, who just sits around, or the one that eats right and has strengthened their body?"

"But I can't wear men's... clothes..." She looked Susan up and down again. "Oh."

"Starting to understand, huh? You can't fight the monsters of the world dressed up for going to a ball. If you're serious about your craft you'll practice it, right? But there's only so much practice can do if your body can't keep up. I proved that with my bracelet. When you got super strong, your witchcraft got super easy."

"Witches are trained to recognize the truth, I suppose I have to recognize it within your words, as well."

"That's the spirit."

"But to wear breeches, like a man!?" The very idea seemed scandalous to her.

"Oh, it's worse than that. Come with me."

Back in the cabin, Susan ordered her to stip.

"What are you going to do?"

"Make you some exercise clothes. Don't worry, I'm not going to ravish you or anything."

She reluctantly started getting undressed, (which didn't take long, she wasn't wearing a heck of a lot. Cloth was expensive, and it seemed bras hadn't been invented here, or weren't the style or whatever) while Susan focused on _Creation._ Two castings later, and she had a pair of stretchy garments, not unlike the outfit she had made to sneak around in on Louise's world. Just... less.

"Okay, put these on."

"I can't wear that, especially not in public! There's more of me left uncovered than covered!"

Susan sighed. "Yes, that's the point. Look, when you're running around you get hot, right?"

"Yes," she slowly admitted.

"This will help keep you cool. Running about in anything but this will get you overheated, it's not good for you. Now this is just a pattern, basically, because I can only make one kind of material per casting of the spell, and you don't have this kind of stretchy fabric I'm guessing?" Sativola shook her head. "So have something like this made, only with buttons and things, that fits you. But for now, try them on, see how they feel."

"Scandalous!" she squealed, after slipping them on. "You want me to get up, put something like this on, and then run about the city? Are you mad?"

 _No, but I am jelly, she is looking fine._ "Ahem. No, I'm not. Look, you must know other witches your age, right?"

"Some, I guess?"

"Get together and all run at the same time. In a group it won't seem so odd, and no one person will stand out. After a while, people will stop caring. 'Oh, it's the witches out for their morning jog.' People will understand why you're doing it, and soon no one will look at you twice."

"I suppose that could happen..."

"Trust me, the odd becomes normal for people pretty quickly."

"I'm changing back."

"Oh, no you're not. This is a great start."

"What?" she squeaked.

"There's not that many people around, it's isolated, perfect for you to get used to wearing it. I'll make you some pants so you can get used to wearing them, too. But for now, I'll make myself a set and we'll go up on deck and I can show you some exercises to start practicing."

"What? Now?"

"Of course now. Why not now? You have something better to do?"

"Can I come too?" asked Illina, smiling at them. "It sounds like fun!"

"Fun?" squealed Sativola.

"Yeah!"

"Okay then, two more sets. I'll get to work."

"Yay!" shouted Illina, throwing off her top. "I get new clothes too!"

"This'll end in disaster..." Sativola predicted.

But it didn't.

The sailors stared openly, and many people came up from below to see what the commotion was about, but the three did various exercises so Sativola could get used to them and see which she liked best. Many of the kids (being bored to tears by that time) also joined in, working out some of their energy, much to the relief of their parents. Susan showed them some games and made them some bouncy balls and hoops and chalk with magic, and they played until it got too dark. The kids loved her, and they all wanted to play again the next day, and Susan said they could, she would like that too.

Many parents came up and thanked her, or made sure she didn't mind watching them. They were quite grateful for the break, and curious about the strange clothes the three were wearing. She explained they were all witches trying a new training exercise, and they all nodded appreciably.

"Oh, magic," said most. "Nice to know there's some magic users on board if something happens."

Susan got the impression that they knew magic existed, but weren't sure exactly what it could do or how it worked. She figured she could get away with running around naked if she told them it was for some vague "magical" reason.

That evening, the three recovered in the cabin, munching food created by Susan's magic. _Never got this low on energy just from making simple toys for kids, before. It's always been either a fight for my life or making_ Spell Papers. _Somehow this seems more satisfying._

She also gave Sativola's abilities a complete run down. Like she could ignite something, could she do the opposite and freeze something? She could hear thoughts, could she project them? She could lift something, could she tear it apart? Most of what Susan suggested witches had never even considered doing, and Sativola was surprised to find she could do several of the things that were suggested. She was shocked at just what could be possible, and knew just this information, brought back to her master, would qualify her to be a full witch. She sat, stunned, and wondered what other surprises traveling with this strange, otherworldly girl might bring.

She wasn't even thinking about her bare legs and midriff anymore, having forgotten to change back after they returned. (Just as Susan intended. Not only for herself, but so that Sativola got enough courage to wear it in the city too.)

By the time they fell into bed together, all three were somewhat exhausted. Susan had made an extension out of wood so the bed was bigger, and a memory foam mattress so it was nice and soft. The three fell asleep with something they hadn't expected to find only hours ago.

Friends.


	69. Chapter 69

69

Yo Ho Ho!

Time: Two days later

Place: Aboard ship

And so, Susan and her new friend Sativola, and her new charge Illina, sailed the open seas. In fact they didn't get that far away from the coast, but stopped at various towns along the way to drop off and pick people up. Susan spent time watching over the kids with the help of the available parents, making replacement _Alleviation Spell Papers_ to replace the ones she gave Nita, and working with Sativola to expand her set of abilities. Finally having a free moment she also asked _Question_ to see if Luna was around anywhere, and got a no answer as she feared.

"I didn't expect to," she told Sparkle. "After all, it's only been a couple of worlds, and even with my better LUCk, it's a complete long shot where she ended up."

 _Plus the story would be over if you completed your objectives..._ "You're not going to give up, right?"

"Give up? I don't even know the meaning of the words."

Both her new friends knew about Sparkle talking by this time, and the captain found half a dozen dead rodent heads in front of his door, so he wasn't about to complain about her presence. Everyone was amazed by how "tame" she was, getting petted, everyone remarking "it's almost like she understands me!"

Illina was looking and feeling better, having been hit with the knife and getting something resembling a proper diet for the first time in her life. She was having a grand time, just playing with the other kids and running about the ship, though she still seemed sad sometimes. She wasn't the only one, and both Susan and Sativola worked their way through the ship's population, providing what cures and advice they could, as a "wizard" and a witch, respectively. It was actually somewhat easier here, as people expected a wizard to be waving a knife about, and few had seen enough wizardry to think it strange she wasn't flinging bat's blood and the scales of a fish to work her "healing magic." She just did some mumbo-jumbo, cast a grade zero spell to provide some flashy lights for effect, and stuck them with the tip of the knife.

Worked every time.

Illina was very interested in magic, but Susan was hesitant to tell her about her own, seeing as she could never learn any of it. She suggested keeping a close eye on Sativola, being as she could easily apprentice to a witch. She had the _spark of magic,_ in fact at least a third of the people on the ship did, which astonished her.

 _Oh sure, my mother said every other person on my father's world was a wizard, a cyborg, an ESPer, or some kind of martial arts master. But given how many people here could work magic, it's astonishing to me they don't._

"Not everyone can afford it," Sativola explained when she asked about it. "Being apprenticed to a master is expensive, magic doubly so. You can't just pick up some magical tricks or anything, either. You get taken in by a group, like the wizard's guild or the council of warlocks (or my own sisterhood) or nothing. The wizard's guild accepts nothing less, (despite it being none of their business, really.) It's almost impossible to do wizardry without learning from a master, and while a really good witch might work a few things out, what's the point? It tires you out same as doing whatever you're trying to do manually, so you might just as well do that. Plus there's only so many people in the world willing to train young people, despite the basically free labor they provide. So it's not that hard to understand."

 _Sure, from a certain point of view. But it's magic! I can't believe even wizards wouldn't want there to be all the wizards there could possibly be in the world, given how useful magic is. It can't be all that dangerous, right?_

It was the afternoon of the second day when the other ship was sighted and the crew started running about frantically. Susan wasn't sure what this ship being nearby was all about, they had passed ships and been passed by ships for two days now. But it was worrisome, this ship seemed to be heading straight for them.

"Pirates," spat Sativola, standing with her by the ship's railing. "This isn't good."

"No, it's excellent, I need the XP." Susan was rubbing her hands together in anticipation. _I figured I wouldn't get any until I got to where we were going, so bandits could attack me or something. I should have realized the world wouldn't wait._

"Are you crazy? Those men over there are killers! They won't think twice about... what's XP?"

"Never mind. The better question is; most of these people are poor, what do they expect to get out of attacking us?"

"They don't know that. We could be carrying something good."

"True. Tell me, how are you in a fight? Any experience?"

"Who, me? None at all! Witches don't get into fights, we can feel the pain of our opponents!"

"Ah, pity. I could think of some uses for telekinesisin fight, like animating swords. You get to stay out of harm's way but they still have to fend off a blade. Much easier than trying to throw them. Or using your ability to read thought to anticipate someone and throw them off."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Look, take the kids and go below. If any slip by me, I'm counting on you to delay them until I can... actually, Sparkle?"

"Yeah?"

"She might need your help more than me. Would you mind going with her?"

"I'm your _companion,_ but I don't think a bunch of pirates will be any threat to you at all."

"I'm thinking no. They don't even have gunpowder here that I can tell. Not that bullets would even really hurt me. The hardest part will be not just killing them all instantly."

"You aren't thinking of taking an entire ship full of pirates _by yourself_ are you?" she nearly screamed.

"Of course. Sativola, please understand, this is what I do. Now, would this ship have been attacked if I wasn't here? I have no idea. But it is, and it's my responsibility to make sure this ship stays safe. Now go, take Illina and-."

"I want to watch!" insisted Illina.

"No, go below with Sativola."

"Please!"

"No."

"Please!"

Susan looked into her pleading eyes. "Oh very well." She looked around the deck, and her eyes fell upon the boxes that Sativola had been practicing her magic on. They were pretty heavy, and stacked up. "Come on." She shifted them and let Illina get behind them, then closed the gap up again. "Can you see?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Stay there. You get traumatized by seeing someone's head get lopped off and I'm not to blame, you hear me?"

"What's tamurt- what's trawert- what's that word you said?"

"Bad dreams. If you have bad dreams because of this I'll only say I told you so."

"Okay."

 _Oh well, it's not like I planned to kill any of them anyway..._

"You have to kill them!" insisted Sativola, picking up on that thought. "They're pirates!"

"They're still people. I would have thought a witch would understand that much. Anyway, get those kids below, and try to calm everyone down. Tell them a wizard is defending the ship, they've seen me use magic, that should put their minds at ease."

"I'll try. Come along kids!" she shouted. "Clear this deck!"

Sparkle cast _Acceleration_ on Susan and walked down with Sativola, herding frightened children down to the lower deck.

"You will stand with us, wizard?" asked the captain, walking up with sword in hand. "I must say, I'm surprised."

"Actually, if you could take your men below decks, they won't get in my way."

"Bold words," he said at last. "You are a strange one, with your leaping about and wearing strange clothes. You befriend children, you help the crew and display unheard of strength, you entertain with magic. Can you fight as well as all that?"

Susan giggled. "I think you'll find that I can."

The man glanced at her, not willing to take his eyes off the pirate ship for long, which was almost upon them. "If you say so. I have seen your magic, but not any of the usual paraphernalia of wizardry. You haven't even drawn your knife. Are you so confident in your magic, then?"

"I am."

"So be it. Far be it from me to send away a wizard, even one as young and female as yourself. I will be in your debt if you can save my craft and my passengers."

"No worries, captain, you will sail unhindered before long."

 _After all, these people don't have cannons. They can't exactly sink this ship, they'll just swing over here and harass the place. Do a bit of strutting around, look menacing, and maybe haul off some 'booty.' At least that's what they would have done- they won't be expecting me._

The ships collided with a crash, and Susan was sure that if her hearing was better, she would be able to hear the panicked cries of the people below.

 _Here we go._ " _Augment Skill,"_ she said, activating the _Spell Symbol_ on her bracelet for _Martial Arts. After all, if I use the sword I might actually kill them by accident, swinging it around. Let's drive these guys off this ship without killing any of them. They should be able to swim, if I throw them overboard, right?_

 _It would be faster just to_ Slash-All _them though, right? a_ sked The Darkness. _These guys aren't made of stone. One punch and it's all over for them. I mean, someone on their side could get a lucky hit in and kill someone over here. How would you feel about that, an honest man, a sailor, dying because you couldn't kill a pirate?_

 _I'm going to be fighting flashy enough that I hope they try taking me out first. I'm right near the other ship, they have to come this direction anyway. It's something to consider though, how do I weigh one life against another?_

And then there was no time for more debate. Three pirates jumped from the other ship, landing before her, and Susan gave them a quick bow. Then she burst forward, taking her two meters of free movement and doing a _Pushback maneuver_ , striking the one in front of her with an open hand- not for damage, but simply to push them back over the edge of the railing. She got a seventeen to hit, he got a sixteen to dodge, so she hit him. They made opposed STRength checks, thirty two (her maximum) to eighteen, and the pirate went flying back fourteen meters off the ship.

The two pirates to either side gaped at her, unbelieving.

"Next?" Susan chirped happily. _Still, guess that rule breaks down for someone like me. How can I shove someone fourteen meters back and not have them take damage? I guess he'll take some from the fall..._

Both raised their swords and shouted a battle cry.

Pirate "three" was .2 seconds faster than his companion pirate "two" so he brought his sword down to slash Susan to ribbons. He didn't expect Susan to make a called shot to the blade as a parry and try catching the thing in her bare hand. But that's what she did.

Her nineteen beat his fourteen, and the blade slammed into her hand, doing one damage to her. The pirate just had time to think _this girl must be nuts,_ before her off hand action of nineteen swept him off the deck just as easily as his fellow pirate before him. He went tumbling twenty meters (or so) before plunking into the watery depths.

Pirate "two" was already committed to his action, and Susan took another reactive "parry" to catch the sword, which missed by five, astonishing her. The blade slashed across her face, catching her right in the jaw.

"Ow!" she said, as a faint scratch appeared. "Not the face!"

The pirate grinned, but Susan again used her left hand to grab his clothes and haul him overboard. She got minimum on that check, and the pirate danced back out of her way as he got maximum. "You won't get me that way, girly!" said the pirate, coming in for another slash.

 _Then I'll get you another. "Thrust!"_ she cast reactively, throwing some energy in and relying on her bonus from the _Acceleration_ spell. She shouldn't have bothered, he couldn't make the STRength check to resist because he was hitting her, one damage to the body. He also flew overboard, leaving her with no one to fight at the moment. Two pirates jumped down from the forecastle, eying her warily.

 _Can't use_ Thrust _on them until I get to the other side there. They'd smash into the wall behind them if I used it from here._

"I don't know what you did, but you'll pay for it!" shouted one, as both ran towards her.

Susan stayed put, letting them come to her. That brought it back to her action just as they got near enough, letting her do a _Martial Arts_ attack to touch the closest one. She grabbed him a thirty one, beating his dodge by eight. She got ready to make a _Wrestling_ check to toss him to her right and off the boat.

From behind, a pirate that she hadn't seen swung his blade with all his might, making a called shot to the neck. This did another one damage, and stopped the blade cold.

"One second, guy," she said, turning her head just enough to spot him. "Let me throw this trash over first."

"What are you?" he asked, staring at her in disbelief.

"I'm the wizard protecting this boat."

"Wizard!?"

Pirate "five" and her now went, and her action was to make her check to throw him off. He was assisted by "five" who rather than slashing, tried to break her grip on his friend.

It was still twenty eight to twenty two, and pirate "four" went sailing overboard as she spun and tossed.

"Now then," said Susan, grabbing for the one that tried to decapitate her. Ties go to the defender, so "six" dodged out of the way. "My goodness you guys are squirmy!"

"We need some help over here!" shouted the one that was now behind her.

 _Excellent, exactly as I intended. You guys focus on me and not the people that can actually get killed by those puny "swords" of yours._

Another two pirates dropped from the forecastle, swords at the ready.

Susan stepped right, getting to the side of pirate "six" so she could make a straight line _pushback_ again, and got in close to shove him. She got minimum again, and the pirate dodged out of the way. She felt another blow hit her body as the pirate now behind her tried to stab her in the back.

 _Dang it, one more and I'm at a penalty. Even moving this fast, they can wear me down I guess. Time to start throwing energy into my attacks? I wanted to try it without, but even with a fifteen skill rating, these guys are still dodging me._ Susan lunged at him again, this time throwing energy into COOrdination, getting a twenty four and missing by two. _Oh come on! That was a COOrdination of at least ten plus a skill of fifteen. They can't even spend that much energy, how are they getting away from me? Ugh, those other two guys will be over here in a second, I have to take this guy out!_

 _Wait a second, I'm dumb. This place has two moons, just like that world Louise lived on! What's with primarily magic worlds having two moons anyway?_

" _Dazzle!"_ she cast, putting in maximum energy and targeting all four of the men.

All four failed to resist, and magical light staggered all of them. Blinking and trying to figure out what had just happened, pirate "six" had no chance to avoid Susan's strike and went flying.

He was swiftly followed by the other three, and Susan hoped the _Dazzle_ wore off before they hit the water. _Still, swimming checks are an active action, so I'm sure they'll be fine._

By this time the crew members had joined Susan's side, but realized they were totally unnecessary, as there were currently no pirates to drive off.

"Uhm-" started the captain.

He was interrupted be someone hopping up on the railing and looking down at them all. He was dressed better, with cleaner clothes and real leather boots. His pants were black, and he had on a white top with puffy sleeves and a red vest. Golden chains hung from his neck, and rings glittered from his fingers. _All the spoils of his piracy, no doubt._ He had a mighty beard, and a fine blade hung at his side.

"It is a girl!" he said astonished, doffing his hat in Susan's direction. "I saw my men being scattered like tenpins, but I never could have dreamed such a beauty could be responsible."

 _As if. My LOOks are only a five, so don't give me any of that crap. I know for a fact I'm only average looking._

"You're the captain?" she shouted up at him.

"Galvyn the Bold," he introduced himself with a bow. "Captain of the Raccoon's Hand, at your service."

"Great. Retrieve your men, leave us in peace, and I won't do to you what I did to them."

"I beg your pardon, is it not customary to return a name for a name?"

"Susan the Wanderer. Happy? Now get out of here. You will take no plunder from aboard this ship, not while I stand upon her deck."

"Her manners are as blunt as her fists, I see. Very well, I shall take the ship myself, after I show you how a real man handles a sword!"

 _Oh, come on! Seriously? Where is he getting these lines from?_

And down he jumped, lightly rolling out of the fall and drawing his sword.

"Are you sure you won't take a sword?" asked the captain, holding his out.

"Shouldn't the two captains of the ships have it out?" Susan asked.

"Normally, I guess we would? But you did offer to defend the ship..."

Susan sighed. "I suppose so. Come on then, Galvyn the Empty Headed, and I'll toss you overboard as I did your fellows."

"I highly doubt it. Have at you!" He charged, and Susan rolled her eyes, intending to catch his sword hand as he swung, saving herself the one point of damage. It didn't go so well as when she went to make the check against him, both were violently shoved away from each other as a sheet of flame erupted between them. This flame wrapped around the man protectively, and the captain ran screaming from the scene, yelling about abandoning the craft which he logically believed was in serious danger of burning to ashes. His crew also reacted rather poorly, one of them shouting about wizard's spells going out of control, but Susan knew this had nothing to do with her. She watched.

The fire gathered in front of the man and began to coalesce into the shape of a man holding a large, curved blade. When the fire and energy was gone the giant beast like man looked down at Susan with contempt.

"Who dares threaten my master?" it demanded.


	70. Chapter 70

70

Fight Fire with Fire

Place: Deck of the Laughing Gull

Time: Just then

After bellowing his demand to know who threatened his master, the giant figure looked around puzzled. Susan took a moment to look it over, and access the situation as only a _Paragon_ can.

The creature was easily a +1 size modifier larger than she herself was, and she could feel heat and energy radiating out from it unchecked. Her _Spirit Sense_ was buzzing, _this thing has several times the amount of energy I do!_ It stood, confident, the sword held loosely in its right hand. Horns poked out of the top of the turban it wore, and she could see it had twenty six lethal health to lose and ten more before it would be dead.

 _Not a boss type then, but still it could be a problem. I have no idea what it can do or how well it can fight._

Nearby rope and canvas burst into flames, causing the crew to freak out even more.

"I see my arrival has scattered most, are you simply rooted to the spot in fear, little one?" he asked Susan. "If you retreat now, I'll spare- wait a moment." The creature bent forward, looking her over, and his eyes widened.

"Master!" he shouted, turning. "You must retreat! Never before have I felt such- eh?" The pirate, all bluster and swagger gone, was now trying to scramble backwards away from the figure, but couldn't because his back was already pressed into the side of the ship. "You are not my master, where am I?" asked the figure, looking around again. "A ship? Why am I on a ship? Where is my master, what have you done with him?" he demanded.

"Don't hurt me!" pleaded the pirate. "I'll do anything, give you whatever you want! Please don't hurt me!"

"Bah, spineless. But you-" He turned back to Susan. "You seem quite composed. What transpires here?"

Susan shrugged. "Don't look at me. That man over there was going to show me 'how a real man uses a sword' and plunder this vessel. When I went to smack him, you came out."

"He does wear my master's talisman, that much is plain. But where is my master, Hefeydd the Sorcerer?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know that name." _Not that someone else might, I've only just gotten here._

"He was a rather minor sorcerer, I admit, but with enough contacts to have a demonologist summon me, and with skill enough to bind me into the talisman." He sighed. "Looks like the fool either died or took it off long enough for it to be stolen. Pity."

"So I guess you're free now, right?"

The demon looked down at her incredulously for a moment, then began to laugh. "Oh, if only that were so! No, I am bound to protect the holder of the talisman, curse my luck."

"Kill- kill her!" Screamed the pirate, pointing at Susan. "I... I... I command it!"

"Quiet, little man!" chastised the demon. "I am to protect you, true, but thus far this girl is not threatening you at all. Allow us our moment to converse."

"You really have to protect me?" asked the pirate, calming down.

The demon's eye twitched with displeasure. "Despite my feelings on the matter, yes. Were it up to me I would simply wave a hand, reduce this ship to ashes and... be stuck out in the water here possibly miles from-" It raised up a bit, obviously able to fly under its own power, and looked around. "Ah, I see land. I would make for the nearest town and all would know my power and splendor!" He touched down on the deck again.

The pirate seemed to have lost most of his fear by now. "Which one is it?" he asked excitedly, holding up his many necklaces.

"Which do you think, fool!" he roared, and Susan had to admit, the one with the big, glowing blue stone in the middle was pretty much a dead giveaway.

"Oh, right. Imagine, I had something like this at my command, and never- wait a second, I've had this one for years! Why haven't you come out before now?"

"You think to chastise me?" As he roared this, he lifted his sword and flames blazed from it. The man flinched back, cowed for the moment.

"It is an interesting question," admitted Susan, "I mean I can see why you came out against me..."

"And the longer I stand here, the less I wish to face you," admitted the demon. "But the truth of the matter is, I never felt he was in danger before now, and so I was not released from my prison."

"Ah."

"We'll leave!" said the pirate instantly. "You said we could go, right? I could collect my men and depart? You said that!"

"That was before I knew you were carrying this fire demon or... whatever- no disrespect intended, you are a fire demon, yes?"

"I am."

"Ah, thank you. As I was saying, carrying a fire demon around with you. That seems a little too dangerous to leave in the hands of a pirate."

"You can't take it, he'll stop you!" He gripped the talisman tightly now, fingers going white about it.

Susan glanced over to the demon, then back. "No offense again, but he couldn't take me."

"None taken," growled the demon.

"What? You're insane! His sword alone is as big as you are!"

"What difference does that make?" She turned back to the demon. "Look, how you would feel about passing into my service instead, Mr. Fire Demon?"

"My name is Fearghus the Ifrit, and mind your manners, human! You may radiate power and magic above most other humans but _so do I._ Your victory in combat would not be assured."

"Fearghus then. What do you say to my offer?"

The demon went from angry to considering again. "Hummm, you seem strong, I would never see the light of day again. Galling as this service is, at least I do see some sort of action now and again."

"What if I offered you your freedom?"

"Free- a demon?" Both the pirate and Fearghus said this, then glanced at the other, surprised to be mirroring each other.

Susan raised a hand, palm up, having caught the gesture from the others aboard ship the last few days. "You seem a decent enough sort. Don't you want to go home?"

"To Hell? Huh, that's a tough one." He stuck the point of his sword down into the deck and leaned on it, pondering for a moment. "Continued servitude to a human or returning in disgrace to my home, after what can only be hundreds of years, freed by a mere girl. No offense."

"I deserved that one, none taken."

By this time, the crew had realized their ship wasn't going to burn down, and were edging closer to see what was going on. Some were beating on fires that stubbornly refused to go out.

"Has it been so long?" she asked.

"I don't really feel the passage of time while in the talisman, so it is difficult to be sure. When did the war end?"

"The Great War? Two or three hundred years ago." ventured one of the sailors.

"There you are then."

 _Note to self, look into 'Great War' sometime._ "I see. Well, my offer stands."

The Ifrit shook his head. "I'm not even sure I can be freed, now. Defeating me simply means I return to the talisman to heal. Breaking it... might destroy me completely. Even I do not crave non-existence."

"What about summoning you out, then breaking it? You wouldn't be able to return at that point."

"I do not know. My essence is within, you would have to ask a sorcerer."

"I guess I will, once I get it away from... what did you say your name was, again?"

Both looked over at the pirate. "She plans to... to hurt me and take the talisman," he said, getting up but with it still gripped tightly in one hand. "Defend me, demon!"

The demon sighed, yanking his sword back out of the deck. "I suppose I must."

"And I must defeat you, and take that talisman before it falls into even worse hands then his. You're sure you won't die if slain?"

"You think it shall be so easy?" he asked, blade igniting again. "I feel your power but mine is also not to be trifled with. Do not get above yourself, little human!"

"Fair enough," remarked Susan, raising a hand. "Blade."

Her _Crystal Sword_ appeared, the one damage to her hand hardly seeming to matter now, as she grew in size to match the Ifrit as _Avatar of War_ once again took hold of her.

The crew members scattered again, terrified. Even the pirate looked about ready to faint away, slumping down again and trying to escape notice by the two towering figures that now began slowly circling each other.

"I knew I felt fire in you," said the Ifrit. "We are almost kin, you and I, did you not feel it? Both, I think, called into a service we didn't ask for, but are now powerless to escape."

Susan had to admit he had a point. _All I wanted to do was find my father._ _But now I have to travel all these worlds and look for Luna, fighting The Darkness every step of the way. It's fine, but what if I never find her? When do I give up? When do I put my own needs above hers?_

 _Now you're thinking like you should,_ remarked The Darkness. _I certainly won't berate you if you decide to give up._

 _Now I know I'm making the right choice. Now be quiet, I have an Ifrit to beat up._

 _Fine, fine._

The two continued to circle, Susan holding her action to see what the demon would do. She had her back to the boxes when Illina suddenly screamed, and Susan whirled. One of the boxes she was hiding behind was barreling straight towards her! She made a _Martial Arts_ check with her left hand, getting maximum. However, she knew that was not enough and the box was going to slam into her.

 _I declare the use of card four, I Don't Think So!_ she hastily thought, realizing suddenly she had two cards to work with. This forced reality into a new configuration, making the demon make his _Telekinesis_ check again. This time he got less, and Susan's mauled fist slammed into the box, doing twenty one damage to the crate. As the crate had a _DC_ of only 18, it smashed to pieces, and Illina flinched away from the debris. This also caused the contents of the crate, various bits of cloth and bottles of perfume, to go spilling out and smash against her armor. This didn't hurt, but getting herself untangled from it all cost her precious _segments._

It seemed she was still going next, and took a swing at the demon with her blade, fully realizing this thing was probably immune to the fire. But it wasn't immune to being chopped to bits, if she could hit him.

She didn't.

He sailed over her strike, flipping over and landing amid the boxes that still partially hid Illina. She screamed again.

"What's this little morsel?" the demon asked, reaching for her. With nowhere to go, he easily plucked her up and grabbed her in a beefy arm, holding his blade to her throat. Illina went stiff, terrified.

"Don't you dare," growled Susan, wishing now she had saved before the pirates had come over. _But you didn't expect anything but pirates, did you, Susan?_ she berated herself. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

In the timeless space between actions, Susan considered her options. The demon had just acted, seemingly twice, dodging and then scooping up Illina. As she was _Accelerated_ this demon was either very quick, or spending XP for extra actions. So she should get the next action, because he had just gone. _I could use_ Transposition, _but he'd just grab her up again._ Immobilize _is out, I don't want him holding onto her tighter. Fire magic won't work, I hate to knock her out too with_ Elemental Burst: Knockout, _and even_ Dazzled _the slightest movement of his hand will chop her head off! Don't know how smart he is, trying_ Hypnotic Pattern _might spook him too, that's seven segments, or a pretty hefty penalty. I have no ideas..._

"This is between you and me," she said to him. "Don't lower yourself by taking hostages." She held her action to see what he would do, hoping he might take the bait.

"It's a fight, anything goes if you want to win. Now, the morsel and I are going to take a little trip, okay? Servants of fire, I summon thee!" As he said the last, he rose into the air again, taking his free movement as part of another action.

 _What?_

Beside Susan, two creatures, seemingly made of fire, appeared, and made a grab for her. They were as big as she was, and grinned in a most distressing manner as they lunged for her. She wasn't sure what capabilities these new creatures had, so she dodged out of the way, away from both of them. Thanks to _Acceleration_ she managed it, and the two closed around nothing but empty air. Susan raised her sword as they turned their heads towards her.

She swung, not doing a called shot, and getting an eighteen (her maximum for that roll). The one she swung against deftly dodged, so she swung again. Again her opponent deftly weaved out of the way, letting her hit nothing but air.

She also got pounded on from above, the Ifrit was shooting fire at her out of his sword. This of course didn't hurt her in the slightest, but did do sixteen damage to the deck beneath her feet in a circle around her. This was just enough, (and Susan was pretty heavy at the moment, being +1 size herself) that she went crashing into the deck below.

The Ifrit laughed uproariously at this.

Susan, meanwhile, made her _Martial Arts_ check to stand in one action, and then made a _Jumping_ check to get back up on deck. She easily cleared the hole and brought her sword up again.

Against a dozen or more of the creatures.

 _Oh come on!_ She was about to activate her _Slash-All Materia_ with energy, but then realized the demon would be hit too. _And if I accidentally take him out, Illina will fall from wherever she is right now, and even with_ Acceleration, _do I want to take the chance I can't catch her? She probably wouldn't die instantly even if she hit her head, but how can I risk it? I don't have any skill at_ Catching.

She raised her sword, about to swing at the nearest fire creature when she suddenly made a _Perception Check,_ getting a seventeen. She noticed that only two of the creatures had health information above their heads.

 _So either they called a bunch of boss level monsters, or this is some kind of trick to throw me off. Well, two can play at that game, right?_

 _"Dazzle!"_ she cast instead of swinging, targeting the two "real" ones she saw.

One staggered, one did not. She made a _LUCk Check,_ getting a twenty five, and sure enough the one controlling the _Illusions_ was the one that failed to resist. It went slack, and the other monsters vanished.

 _Score one for the good guys._

Susan darted forward, knowing this was her best chance to take it out, and did a called shot to the body of the thing. She plunged her sword into it, but somehow, impossibly, it managed to dodge. (Even without the called shot, ties go to the defender!)

With a yell of frustration, Susan used her _Off Hand_ to punch the thing, not caring it did slightly less damage.

 _You would think a sword would do massive amounts of damage, but no, hitting this thing with my fist is 96% the same as hitting it with the sword. I guess it's a TR thing, the sword still has a higher OTR then my fist._

She connected and did twenty three... non-lethal damage to it. It looked at her as if to say "is that all you've got?"

She could have screamed in frustration. _Right, that's why the sword. The OTR increase._

The other creature now moved, trying to get behind her in some kind of grab.

Susan, realizing this is what the thing was going for, let it. It touched her.

This brought her back to her action, and the two made opposed _Wrestling_ checks to see who would be controlling who.

It was thirty two to forty two, and Susan was down to less than half energy. As Susan got to decide what she wanted to do with the creature, she chose throwing him overboard, figuring that would give her some breathing room.

The creature went sailing over the side of the ship, and a few seconds later, plunked into the water below.

 _At least it can't fly as well._

"And now for you," she said, somewhat mollified. She did another called shot to the body, swinging two handed and putting energy into COOrdination. This did twenty six damage to the creature, biting in and sticking, even as the thing tried to pull away. Susan could see the thing had thirty two health to lose before dropping, and figured she could easily do another six damage on her next action.

If she hadn't needed to blast fire up at the demon, who was again trying to at least drop her down to the lower deck by shooting fire with his sword. She didn't even bother putting extra energy in, just knocked his fire aside with her own, while careful to avoid hitting him and put Illina in danger. (She got an eleven on _Magic Combat_ to perform this maneuver.)

With that she turned her attention back to the creature. Not even bothering to put her other hand back on the blade, she ripped it though the creature, tearing it in half and making it disappear.

"I still have your little friend!" the demon called down to her as she looked around for him. Oddly, Illina wasn't struggling anymore, and seemed frozen in his arm. The blade was once again against her neck.

"Not for long," Susan muttered, and prepared to cast. She knew magical energy would surround Illina, making the already jumpy demon probably slice her head off, so she cast _Transposition_ instantly, figuring her bonus from _Acceleration_ and energy would make up any difference. She got a twenty one, and found herself in the position Illina had been in, with her safely on the ground. She made a STRength check to burst free, getting a thirty four and turning in mid-air to chop into the demon. The surprised demon tried to parry, but the blades just touched, and Susan drew a deep slash across the Ifrit's body.

Of course, this meant she was now falling, but that was easily taken care of; she cast _Flight_ as her next action, catching herself in mid-air, and spinning back to the demon. It was badly hurt, sword up in a guard position.

"He's getting away you know," it said, pointing down with a finger.

 _Probably a trick, but can he really hurt me?_ She glanced over, then did a double take- the pirate ship was in fact pulling away from the Laughing Gull! _He must have turned tail and ran while I was distracted fighting the creatures!_ "You've got to be kidding me!" she screamed to no one in particular, and tried to estimate how far away it was with another _Magic Combat_ check. She was off by eight meters, even if she didn't know it, but that was still enough to tell her she was out of range of M distance spells at this point. At least, if she didn't spend most of her remaining energy to pump up her rating in the skill, at least.

"Stay here," she growled, figuring she was fast enough to get there and back before he could really go anywhere. He looked pretty badly hurt, after all.

She swooped down with a speed of seventy, taking six segments to get there and wonder how she could stop a freaking ship that size from going anywhere.

It came to her fairly easily. _Take out the thing that makes it go._

 _"Combust!"_ she cast, figuring that without putting any energy in, she could get 3 meters across on the sail per casting. With her bonus to STRength checks (which is what Mars is, after all) she cast it simultaneously twice each on the smaller sails, three times on the larger, for a total penalty of eight. She rolled maximum, working out to be a thirty seven, and the sails burst into flames in multiple places. A few sword slashes later, and the burning, tattered remains of the sails fluttered to the deck.

 _Now to get back and finish off my demon buddy._

Susan sped back, then hung in front of the creature, stunned. It was completely healed.

"Ready for the next go around?" it asked, bringing its sword up. "Nice work on the sails, by the way. Burning them like that? I approve."

"Just- Just shut up! You think I wanted to do that?"

It looked Susan over. "Hard to say under all that armor, but you seemed to be having a good time doing it, yes."

 _I agree, you were doing a lot of shouting and carrying on while you were slashing those ropes that held them up._

"Both of you shut up!" Susan yelled, lunging for the demon.

Their swords clashed together, both pushing against each other in the air. "Uh, there's only us two here, are you feeling all right?"

 _I am rattled. Calm down, Susan, you can still take him._

" _Dazzle_!"

The demon flinched, but the spell bounced off his RESolve check.

 _How much energy does this demon have to spend? Wait, energy?_ She made an off hand attack, grabbing his arm.

" _Energy Drain!"_

Unfortunately, that didn't work either, as the demon shrugged it off as well. Susan now had only fifteen energy left, and was getting somewhat desperate.

"Now you will see why we ifrit are so feared!" he cried, and was suddenly one size larger.

Susan held on, crying " _Mimic,"_ the trigger word for her _Emulate Materia._ She also got one size bigger, keeping them even.

"And now I see why I feared you so much," he remarked, throwing her off. "How in Hell did you do that? It felt exactly like what I just did, not magic." In reality, Susan allowed herself to let go, not even making a check to hang on. She floated back, knowing that, as he had just done something actively it would be several segments before he would act again.

 _Have to end it quickly, before I'm out of energy and helpless!_

She started casting, putting maximum energy into her spell, leaving her with five that she got back from _Energy Boost._

"What are you up to?" asked the demon, as a magical circle appeared underneath them. "Whatever it is, I'll stop you!" He swung, aiming to decapitate her, and she simply stood her ground, casting.

He did a raw thirty seven damage to her, divided by fourteen for her _Giant's Soul,_ then again by three for being a plus two size modifier at the moment. That left him doing one damage... to her armor.

Susan finished casting, getting a twenty nine against his REAson check of nineteen. He went slack, floating in mid air, with the sword held loosely by his side.

 _Should have just done that first. Can't spend energy on REAson checks!_

 _Yeah, why didn't you just do that first?_

 _Didn't I tell you to be quiet?_


	71. Chapter 71

71

A New Power

Place: High above the two ships

Time: Seconds after defeating the Ifrit

High in the air, Susan breathed a sigh of relief as the demon was held fast by her spell of _Hypnotic Pattern._ She made a mental note to look into spells that were resisted by things that enemies couldn't put energy into, especially if this world was going to throw things like this at her. She could still feel heat and power coming from this thing, and it had no doubt been throwing energy around like crazy, just as she had, to avoid her attacks and spells. Plus there was that whole healing itself thing, _that must have taken some energy, right?_

She debated for a second if she should drain the demon dry of energy or just go after the talisman held by the pirate captain below. She had only five energy left, after all, and with the loss of the sails the ship wasn't exactly going anywhere. But there was the demon's feelings to consider, it might be more agreeable if it passed into her service without the memory of being destroyed in that manner. It seemed bound by the talisman to serve, but how hard it actually had to fight was probably not magically enforced, and she would rather have it somewhat willing than completely resentful of her.

And so she left the _Pattern_ going and flew back to the pirate ship, where they were trying to put out the flames from where the burning sail had fallen. The captain wasn't immediately visible, but she did notice several people in the water trying to catch up to the ship and with a sigh went to go pick them up. With her increased STRength she was easily able to ferry them to the deck, where one by one she unceremoniously dumped them, then went back to fetch another. When she finally had them all out of the water she hovered above them, fiery blade in hand.

"Where's the captain?" she boomed, singling one man out with her sword. "I've just saved the lives of most of his crew. Bring me the talisman or I'll start putting you back out there. Well? Which is more important to you? That talisman or your worthless lives?"

Oddly, they seemed to be discussing it. There were many furtive glances over to the ball of flickering light that held the demon immobile, and finally they went off in search of their superior. He was hauled, protesting the entire way, up to the deck where he was shoved and fell over.

"The talisman," Susan demanded, holding out her left hand. "As you can see, I've bested your little pet, and by rights you did try plundering the vessel I was protecting." _I got to say the word 'plundering!' It's a good day after all._ "I think I can reasonably demand the talisman in recompense. It's a better deal than you would get in front of a..." _what would they use here?_ "Magistrate?"

"Get her, get her!" screamed the captain, trying to back away on all fours.

"Are you nuts?" was the general sentiment shared by his crew, and they made a grab for him to try and get the talisman away from him.

 _I suppose I could use_ Retrieval _and just grab it, but I would really like to hold onto that five energy I have left._

Susan watched in frustration as the men fell all over themselves to try and get the Talisman away from the captain, and finally decided she'd had enough. Hand still outstretched, she began to envision the mystical symbols that would make up the _Retrieval_ spell. She had in mind the talisman, that she could see being tugged back and forth by the captain and two of his men. What she really wanted to do was go down there, start swinging, and if a couple died, who cared? Or something more dramatic and showy than it just vanishing. If only she could just make it leap out of their hands and fly towards her! Her ears were ringing, and that muttering voice in her head suddenly swelled as the amulet _really_ _was_ ripped out of their hands and flew towards her!

She made a _Catching_ check untrained, getting a 7 (one from max) and the golden necklace almost seemed to magnetically guide itself into her waiting hand. She was so surprised at what had happened she nearly dropped it. She could _feel_ it, somehow, not with _Spirit Sense_ or _Dimension Sense_ or anything like that, but through the muttering that had offered her power. Ironically, she also was surprised to find she now had six energy, not five, and looked down at the astonished faces of those below her.

"I think that will be enough of that," she tried to say, but it came out rather more shaky and surprised than she had intended. She cleared her throat, putting her arm down at her side. "Do you have enough spare material to make new sails? I would not becalm even a vessel such as this one." _Becalm now, it's like a nautical paradise around here, verbally._

Her brain started singing a messed up fusion of _Amish Paradise_ and nautical terms, but she shushed it.*

The men below her now fell over themselves assuring her they would be fine, and to please leave them alone, and go far, far away. The captain was sobbing and demanding his talisman back, and Susan figured unless he got his act together, there might be the _Mutiny_ card played on this boat before the night was through, and a new captain would rise.

This wasn't her concern, and she nodded a farewell to the men and went back to see about her new demonic 'ally.'

Hanging in midair, she looked the demon over, wondering what to do now. _I should now be the demon's master, right? I hold the talisman, though it might be a safety feature that once he's out, he regards the person that had it when he came out as his master even if the talisman changes hands. Of course, couldn't I order him back into the crystal? He wouldn't have to make a check for that, right? I'll try that, then if it doesn't work I'll drain some energy in case he gets uppity, then release him and see what he says._

"Demon... no, Fearghus the Ifrit, by this talisman I command you! Return to the crystal at once! Pleasant dreams?"

The demon shimmered and seemed to break apart into energy sparkles that were sucked into the stone, which finally stopped glowing.

 _Ah, excellent._ Susan stopped maintaining the _Pattern_ and touched down on the deck of the Laughing Gull, putting her sword away and having all her spells vanish. What she saw concerned her- The crew was clustered around Illina, looking worried.

"She won't move!" insisted the captain when she got close. "We didn't dare touch her, for fear of becoming like her ourselves. But we tried to wake her up, honestly we did!"

"You did the right thing, captain," she soothed. "Let me take a look."

He seemed quite relieved and shouted for everyone to make way. Susan looked her over, then walked around her.

"Susan," said Illina, making her jump.

"Illina! You scared me. Are you okay? Why can't you move?"

"I don't know," she said pitifully, "is that demon gone?"

"Safely sealed," she said, holding the talisman up. "And it knows I can beat it, so it won't cause trouble. What happened to you?"

"He picked me up, then I was trying to get away and he said 'stop squirming' and touched me. I couldn't move after that. I was afraid to speak to the crew..." Tears were freely flowing down her face now.

"Oh, don't cry, we'll have you moving again in just a moment," she soothed, wiping Illina's face with a bit of cloth she found flapping in the breeze from the box attack earlier. "I'm just going to feel out a few things, see what I can tell about this. If needed, I'll try commanding the demon to tell me what he did. I would, of course, rather not have to resort to such things. Maybe our friend Sativola can help, too. Could someone go get her?" She looked behind her, but most seemed confused. "The witch, can someone bring the witch here?"

They all nodded, understanding, and someone rushed off to bring her.

Susan, meanwhile, tried sensing her out. _Magic Sense_ at a ten gave her nothing, and _Spirit Sense_ at a thirteen also just told her Illina's energy was far lower than hers, (higher at the moment of course) but that nothing was amiss. She scratched her head. _Some kind of paralyzation that will wear off? Some kind of technique to relax her muscles that doesn't leave a signature after it activates? I suppose I could use_ Liberty, _but that's grade ten! Actually, I wonder..._

Susan got the knife out and held it up to Illina, but that didn't help either.

 _Magic, magic... what magic can I use to get this girl moving again?_

It didn't help that Susan was somewhat distracted by the murmuring of the voice in her head, that seemed to have gotten stronger, and the odd sensations she was getting of "seeing the space between things" that she couldn't have explained to someone if she tried.

 _Is that you?_ she demanded of The Darkness. _Because it sounds like you, and if this is some new trick you're trying..._

 _Who, me? I don't need tricks, Susan, you know that. I only need you to be yourself. Proud. Angry. Vengeful, and powerful. Those are the moments I slip in and make you mine, just a little bit more. All this holding back you're doing, sticking to physical attacks of all things, do you really think they'll save you from me? We'll always be together, you and I, and I'll never get tired of corrupting you._

 _Better watch out though, maybe I'll be the one corrupting you someday._

The Darkness chuckled at that, but said no more.

By that time Sativola and Sparkle arrived, demanding to know what was happening. Susan filled them in, and both took a look over Illina.

"But I'm no Demonologist," cautioned Sativola. "I don't know what they can and can't do. Heck, you've proven to me in just the last two days I don't even know all that I can do!"

"Please try," asked Susan, putting a hand on her arm. "You know this world better than I do, and you have senses I don't."

Sativola nodded, then looked back at Illina. "You're terrified, aren't you? Don't worry, we're all doing the best we can to make you better, okay? Be brave for Susan and me, okay?"

"Okay," Illina said pitifully.

"Between you and me," Susan whispered to Sparkle as Sativola looked her over, "I'm pretty tapped out, energy wise. I might have one more strong spell in me, but without draining some energy from the crew, or resting, I'm out."

"That's not like you! That demon really pushed you, didn't it?" Susan nodded sadly. "Well, my ratings are nearly as good in _Theory_ and _Scripture,_ sowith you assisting, I bet I could read over whatever and try it."

"And I do still have a _Lucky Break_ card, I could use it and hope something happens to negate this."

"Sounds like a plan."

They looked through the book as Sativola sat cross legged in front of Illina, eyes closed. The two discussed various spells, and Susan got excited while reading over a Uranus spell referenced by the Mercury spell of _Paralysis_.

"Maybe we don't need the grade ten spell after all!" announced Susan. "The spell of _Mobility_ will cancel out any and all forms of Paralysis, both physical and magical. And she seems paralyzed to you, right? Let's read it over!"

As they did, Sativola's eyes suddenly snapped open, and she reached for Illina, making a grabbing motion on her chest. "Ah ha!" she announced, pulling something invisible off, and Illina collapsed into a heap.

"You did it!" exclaimed Susan, getting up and going over to them both. "Illina, are you all right?"

"I'll be okay. What was it?" She was flexing her fingers experimentally.

"I'm not sure," admitted Sativola. "I felt something there, and I grabbed it off of you, but whatever it was it's gone now. I couldn't hold onto it."

"She'll be okay?" asked one of the sailors, who had been watching them intently.

Susan helped her up, and Illina did some stretches. "I'm okay!"

"Hey everyone, she's going to be okay!" he shouted, and the cry was taken up by everyone along the ship.

"Seems you've made some friends here," Susan said with a sly smile, bumping her with an elbow.

At this point, the passengers started making their way on deck, and asking what happened. The sailors told an only slightly exaggerated story of Susan's heroineism, and she was thanked many times for driving the pirates off. The kids went back to playing, and the pirate ship slowly slipped out of sight as the Laughing Gull's sails were furled and once again caught the wind.

The captain was the last to approach Susan.

"I have to thank you for saving my vessel," he said. "I've never seen a wizard fight like that, I mean I've heard stories of what magic can do, but never- anyway. Here." He handed Susan a jingling pouch, and she hesitantly took it. "Please," he said, pushing it on her. "It's the least I can do, I would have lost far more if that gang had their way. Possibly even my life, trying to defend my ship. But you, dying never even crossed your mind, did it?"

"Not really," admitted Susan.

"Well, you do things strangely, I won't say you don't. But if those are the results, I say you keep on doing them." He looked embarrassed. "I don't suppose you'd consider sticking around, getting to know an old sea dog, would you? I've always wanted to sail other places than just the coast, and with you by my side, think of the places we could go! We could even become pirate hunters, make the sea safe for all honest tradesman! You and me, sailing together, the entire world our port of call." He lowered his voice, and shuffled closer. "I wouldn't begrudge you another kind of reward, in my bed tonight. Be better than sharing with that witch and the girl, am I right?" He didn't even have the decency to look even somewhat bashful when saying this last, but instead gave her a wide grin and a wink. Susan barely avoided rolling her eyes.

 _No, captain, I'm afraid you couldn't be more wrong._

But instead she said, "A fine offer, but I'm not called Susan the Wanderer for nothing, captain. And my wandering isn't done on any one ship. Besides, she was taken by the demon, she may yet have nightmares. Best I stay with Illina, make sure she sleeps well."

"Oh, yes, that's most likely for the best. Well, if you change your mind... That is to say, the offer's open... I'll just be about my duties then." He turned and shouted something meaningless to the men, and Susan wondered if she had just gotten her first marriage proposal.

 _Should I be relieved to know that men, even those in other dimensions, are consistent in wanting only one thing?_

 _Oh, like you wouldn't want that thing from Miss Sparkling Eyes over there,_ chided The Darkness. _If there was even the slightest chance she would give it to you._

 _That's different._

 _Oh? How so?_

 _It... it just is, that's all._

That night, Susan demonstrated floating things around for Sativola, who said she was definitely using Warlocky. She seemed very concerned about it, too. Sparkle did, as well.

"You get an energy every _turn_ you use that power?" she asked. "I'm sure that doesn't have any sort of drawbacks."

"Can you use it?" Susan asked her. "Listen for some kind of voice, or mutter in the back of your head. That seems to be where this energy is coming from."

"You mentioned that before, when we first arrived. I still don't hear anything."

"So it's not the _Adaptive Skill,_ letting us use that kind of magic that's here?"

"I don't know what _Adaptive Skill_ gives us yet. Your father always had to sort of figure it out by trial and error, if it wasn't obvious because people were doing something he'd never seen done before."

"Super."

"I'd suggest not using that power at all, if you can help it," cautioned Sativola. "Warlocks come to a bad end on this world, and even if you're here for only a short time, using it a lot could trigger the Calling."

"I can see why they call it that. If this voice in my head gets worse, I could see it driving me mad and making me do something I wouldn't normally. Are you sure warlocks are drawn _to_ this place and not directly _away_ from it? I mean if I was a warlock I would try to make the voice as quiet as possible. That would mean running away from it."

"I only know what any non-warlock knows. Using too much power leads to using the power unconsciously, which makes them want to use even more power. It isn't long after that they go flying off towards Aldagmor, and are never heard from again."

Susan grimaced. "Great, and that's the very place I need to go in order to investigate warlocks as you-know-who suggested. Does that mean as I get closer, this voice in my head is going to get worse?"

Sativola nodded gravely. "Anyone that goes too close becomes a warlock and is never heard from again. Whole towns disappeared on the night of madness, and that area became a wasteland, ruled by dragons and such."

"Wonderful. So why me? Why can I hear it and Sparkle can't? That doesn't make sense, unless he changed me without telling me before I came here, so I could hear it. That would make investigating it easier, but he's not Inari, to just smack someone with magic and not tell them about it, right?"

"I couldn't say," Sparkle replied. "I don't know enough about him or his motives. Remember what he is, even you're an ant from his perspective, as nice as he seems. It could be just an act, and he'll use you for his own ends- heck, he _is_ using you for his own ends! Having you clean these worlds out, instead of doing it himself. He could have done anything to you, and you would never know it."

"I guess you're right. Still, I have a ten RESolve, so I should be able to resist using this new ability to any extent. I've only used it twice now, that shouldn't be enough to cause me problems, right?"

Sativola shook her head. "A warlock can expect twenty years of using that power, from the time they're an apprentice to the time they are as powerful as they can be. If they don't flaunt it too much, that is."

"And Susan isn't one for flaunting, let me tell you!" said Sparkle seriously.

"Not when it can kill me!" she protested. "To look cool, then naturally."

"Cool?" asked Sativola.

"Never mind."

 _Still, it deserves thinking about. What is offering this power, that I can hear it and Sparkle can't? Why do only some people on this world hear it? Why does getting to be a powerful warlock take negative effort, if using it gives the warlock energy rather than taking it? And why, after a certain amount of time using the power, do warlocks get drawn off and captured, or killed, by whatever is offering the power?_

 _And why does this voice remind me so much of The Darkness?_

 _*Been spending most our lives living in a Nautical Paradise._

 _Manned the oars once or twice, living in a Nautical Paradice._


	72. Chapter 72

72

To Grandmother's House We Go

Time: Three Days Later

Place: Port

The next three days passed uneventfully, with Susan and the others going about their business. Susan's main task was to look through her book of magic and find spells that used a stat different than RESolve to resist. She found... fifteen. Of course, some couldn't be resisted because they were cast on oneself or weren't cast on humans, like the spell to allow stone to talk, but nine spells in her original book were resisted by STRength and only six by REAson.

False Image

False Sound

Hypnotic Field

Illusion

Nightmare Vision

False Invocation

 _And that's it. Come to think about it, the fact that people can just will my magic away seems odd. I mean, here I am, calling upon one of the very forces of nature, akin to calling lightning down out of the sky. If you get hit by lighting, you can't think really hard about how you would rather not be hit by lighting, and the lighting says 'okay, sorry about that' and gets sucked back up into the clouds. But I cast_ Shrink _on someone, and if my 'result' is less than the 'result' they get by wishing really hard not to shrink, they don't. Even a person who doesn't even know what magic is would spontaneously get the ability to resist the second I cast the spell on them._

 _Am I, in essence, making them a_ Paragon _for that split second they need to resist? And if so, what does that mean? Anything? I mean I carry my need for XP around with me, and the world provides me opportunity to increase my skills via that XP. Nita remarked on that as well, that I couldn't sit still and had to be doing something, like making spell papers or researching stuff. I thought that was just how I was, but could it be a function of my being a_ Paragon? _I can't use Sparkle as another data point, she's a cat, despite what she says, and is usually napping. She's clearly a_ Paragon, _I've seen her character sheet. But she admitted to being found by my father, and left as my_ Companion _when he left this world. Did she become a_ Paragon _by being put on my character sheet, or was she always one? Where did she really come from? If she was always one, are there other_ Paragons _worlds? Would other_ Paragons _be like me? Or would they lounge around like Nita did, despite the clear danger she was in?_

 _And what about my own_ Character Sheet? Susan got it out and stared at it. _My father could summon his, that much is clear. And Aerith and her friends seemed to know their stats without consulting anything. I mean they went on about "attack values" and "raising their level" and "I got five STRength from that last level," right? Is the world my father came from so very different, that we can use things like this? This separates me from others, rather than letting me get to understand them better. Is that worth how powerful I've become, and how much more powerful I'll get in the future? I couldn't have been born just for this, right?_

 _Well, anyway. I was thinking about magic, and what I could do if someone gets grabbed like that again. Guess_ Hypnotic Pattern _is about it, and throw lots of energy into it. Most things won't have a REAson above eight, right? Even demons from the lower plains can't be that smart, or they would figure out a way to escape Hell._

Susan got her book of magic out and stared at it. "I want a spell to look at someone else's character sheet, or equivalent!"

"OW!" Susan dropped the book in surprise, it had actually shocked her and fell open onto the deck. "What in the world?" She looked at the page that had been opened to, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

 _This spell cannot be researched because no planet you can cast from deals with the stated request. Sorry, my daughter._

"Dad... you really are inside my book, aren't you?" She gently closed it and hugged it to her chest, thinking about her life and what her fate was going to be if she ever completed this journey she was on.

She didn't even think to wonder what planet _would_ deal with the stated request, and what that would mean.

"You'll want to disembark here," said the captain at the end of the third day after the attack. "Follow the road inland, the one going north-east, and you'll reach the town you're headed for in about five days. Maybe more, as you're traveling with the ki- with Illina. There should be places to stop along the way, but you might have to spend a night or two out in the wilderness. Good luck."

"Thank you captain, I'm sure it'll work out just fine."

He snorted. "With the magic at your command, somehow I believe you. I'll be sorry to see you go, both you and your cat. Are you sure I couldn't persuade you to stay?"

 _Not with a maxed out_ PERsonality _and a ten in_ Persuasion _._ "Sorry captain, I don't see myself becoming Susan the Captain's Wife anytime soon."

"Does have a nice ring to it, though right?"

Susan laughed and stuck out her hand. "Goodbye, Captain. It was nice sailing with you."

"And you. Thanks again for driving off those pirates. Any time you want to sail, you do it for free aboard the Laughing Gull."

"I'll keep that in mind. You ready, Illina?"

"Yup!" She waved goodbye to all her new friends, made aboard ship, and the group went down the gangplank to the dock.

"Is this where we part?" asked Susan of Sativola.

"Are you nuts? I can bring back what you're shown me so far, it's true. But I have a feeling traveling with you is the opportunity of a lifetime. Until you have to leave this world, I'm with you."

"Very well. Come on, we'll head through town before we pick up speed, don't want to upset the locals after all. Though if five days is right, maybe we should stay here the night."

"What do you mean?"

"You heard him, it's a five day journey right? Not looking forward to it, tell you the truth." She glanced at Illina.

"Don't worry so much. We'll be there tomorrow night at the latest."

"Huh?"

Susan giggled. "You'll see."

Susan asked around, but this town was too small to support a full time Sorcerer, so the group stopped into a local Inn, which didn't gouge them too much, according to Sativola. Of course everyone in town stared at Susan's strange clothes, and no one believed she was a wizard. Sativola, of course, looked the part of a witch and lent some air of authenticity to the claim.

"It's just wizards and witches never travel around together," she explained at dinner. "Wizards are... how to put this? They think they're a bit above everybody else?"

"If you meet some you should get on famously," remarked Sparkle.

"Or they'll immediately try to kill each other," giggled Illina.

"Why would we do that?" Susan asked. But she just shrugged.

Sativola went on. "And they don't consider what we do to be real magic."

"Of course it is. Anyone with eyes and a bit of _Magic Sense_ can tell that."

"Ah, but wizards don't sense magic like that. Only we can do that."

"Weird. But then, from what you said no wizard would stoop to asking a witch for advice about magic."

"There's that, and the guild wouldn't allow it. They consider that skill witchcraft."

"And kill the wizard practicing two 'types' of magic, even though magic is magic."

She nodded.

 _Maybe Illina is right, maybe we would immediately try killing each other._

The next morning the group awoke and had breakfast, then made ready to leave the town and make the journey. It wasn't far outside the town's borders that Illina was already complaining about having to walk.

"Good thing we're not walking the whole way then," Susan said to her with a grin.

"But you didn't buy any horses..."

"Horses? No, no, they're good for speed and short distances, but honestly they have to spend a lot of time eating, and they have to stand around to do it. You won't get much further on a horse than your own two feet. Not if you want the horse to be alive at the end of it, anyway."

"So will you do something with your magic?"

"Exactly," she said, beeping her noise. "How would you like to fly?"

"Fly?"

"Yup. It won't tire you out like walking, and it's way faster. What do you say?"

"Okay!"

"You got it then. _Flight."_ Susan pushed as much energy into the spell as she could, as their speed depended on her REFlexes and the rating she had in the skill, and as the magical energy dispersed, she rose into the air. "Just think about it, and you'll do it," she explained. _Who needs pixie dust and a happy thought?_

"OH!" Both her new friends tentatively rose into the air, then moved about. "It's easy!" exclaimed Illina, doing a flip.

"It sure is. Now come on, I'd like to be there before dark, unless you want to sleep out under a bush."

"No thank you!"

They flew.

With Susan's magic, their speed was now a 160 vs the 7 it would have been, had she been walking. (Further slowed by Illina's low stats and short legs, though Susan could have easily carried her. And Sativola, for that matter) The landscape flew by beneath them, though they stayed pretty low to the ground because the 'road' was more a worn path than anything constructed by people. Susan didn't want to lose it, despite causing some concern to people already on the road when they flew by.

"Now I know how warlocks feel," remarked Sativola. "Flying like this. I couldn't do it on my own, that's for sure."

"I feel sorry for them," said Illina.

"What, warlocks?" asked Susan.

"No, the people that have to walk."

"Oh. It is odd, you think wizards could make a permanent teleport point between cities, and just charge per use. Even if the ingredients were hard to find or expensive, they would beat ships and have a constant income."

Sativola shook her head. "But what if soldiers wanted to use them? That comes too close to using magic for political purposes. So even if they could, I bet they wouldn't, just on the off chance that happens."

"Man, so many rules, no wonder..." _these places look so run down, despite a general availability of magic._

Not long later, the trio and one cat set down in the Village of Dawn. It, like the port town, featured neglected buildings, dirt roads, and lots of farmland at the outskirts.

"Now we just have to find your grandparents," Susan remarked, looking around.

"Yeah," said Illina sadly.

"Guess we'll just ask around. Want to split up?"

"Probably best," answered Sativola. "Who should I ask for, anyway?"

"What?" Susan stared at her, but then realized she couldn't exactly ask for Illina the Quick's grandparents and be understood. "Oh, no, I get it. I never did ask you their names, did I?"

"No, you didn't," answered Illina, somewhat more sadly.

Susan waited.

"Oh dear," remarked Sativola, picking up on it more easily.

"What? Don't tell me..."

"I don't know their names!" wailed Illina, starting to cry. "Mom might have told me, but I don't remember. I thought I would remember before we got here but I didn't and now you'll all hate me and leave me here to be homeless and-"

"You told me," she sighed, taking Illina into a hug. "Come on now, don't cry. My magic has gotten us this far, right? I can just ask it what their name are, or who is best to ask. We know they're here, and the town isn't that big, right? It'll be fine."

"Okay," she sniffled.

One quick _Question_ later and the group knew the person they were looking for was named Yseult the Closed Minded which Susan thought might be a bad omen. "Now we just have to find the right person to ask." _Though in a town this small, wouldn't everyone know everyone else?_

"Let's ask at the well, that's a common enough meeting point in a town like this."

 _Well?_

But Susan followed Sativola to near the center of town, and sure enough there were a few ladies standing about talking, supposedly drawing water out of the well they were all leaning on. They looked shocked when Susan came up to them, and looked her up and down.

 _Ugh, keep forgetting about that._ "Good morning!" she said cheerfully, resolved to ignore it. "I wonder if any of you can direct me to the house of Yseult the Closed Minded. This is her granddaughter, and I've just gotten into town, so we need to find her."

"Yseult? Wife of the carpenter? Sure, I can tell you where to go," said one of the women.

"You can? Thanks, that would be great."

So Susan got directions, which she hoped Sparkle was listening to, and went off in the direction the woman pointed to get started.

Sparkle took the lead again, and Susan followed.

"How did you do that?" asked Illina, "More magic?"

"Do what? I just asked where to find her."

"No, understand their funny language."

Susan stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait, they speak a different language here? We didn't travel that far!"

Sativola nodded. "People that travel need to know a bunch of different languages, at least the basics. They're all corruptions of some more common languages from way back when, so people can learn them pretty quickly. But yeah, even I was impressed with how you understood them."

Susan sighed. "Great. She's not even going to be able to talk to them until she learns the local language. It's never easy."

The houses didn't have something sane like numbers, but Susan was sure this was the place because of all the wooden things strewn about. Wood flower boxes, wood gutters going into a wooden rain barrel, that kind of thing.

"You ready for this?" asked Susan.

Illina nodded.

The group went up to the door and knocked.

They waited.

"Must be out," remarked Sativola.

Susan made a _Spirit Sense_ check, getting an eleven. That was enough to tell someone was in the house, or at least not far in that direction, anyway.

"Someone's in there. Maybe they're in the middle of something. We'll wait a few minutes and knock again."

So the group stood around, feeling a bit silly, and a neighbor came out and headed for them.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"We're hoping to see Yseult," Susan explained, pointing to the house with her thumb. "This is her granddaughter, who we're hoping she'll take in."

"Oh dear, that might be a problem. Anyway, she's gone deaf so you'll have to go round the back and hope she sees you." The woman paused. "Uh, she never mentioned a granddaughter."

"I see. I don't know anything about that, but hopefully it'll work out somehow. Thank you for letting us know."

"Of course dear." She went back, but glanced at them suspiciously.

 _So not only does she speak a different language, she was never told her daughter had a daughter, and she's gone deaf? This should work out really, really, well._

"Can you do anything about deafness?" she asked Sativola.

"That depends on why she went deaf," she explained. "Some forms I can cure, others I can't. I can practice that way of _sending_ my thoughts, but that might really freak her out."

"I suppose. Guess we'll see what happens..."

The three went around the back of the house and waved into the windows to get the woman's attention. She opened the door, looking confused.

She looked worn, like most people, and Susan couldn't help but think she looked older than her years. _Is she forty or sixty? People probably have kids early here, so two generations might not be as far apart as they would back on my world._ Her hair was gray, and her face lined, but she got up quickly enough from the sewing she was doing to answer the door.

"Can you hear me?" shouted Susan. The woman continued looking confused. "Of course not."

The woman pointed, and Susan looked behind her to a large shed looking structure sitting in the back yard.

"I think she wants us to go back there," ventured Sativola.

"Maybe her husband is back there?"

"Can't hurt to check it out."

Susan nodded, and the woman seemed satisfied, and closed the door again. The trio went over to the barn and looked inside. There was a man who, like the woman, was worn before his time. Beard, calloused hands, smelled of wood. He was holding a plane in his hand, and Susan realized she had never actually seen such a thing in person before.

Illina was hiding behind her again.

"Yes?" said the man.

"Sorry to disturb your work, but I believe you had a daughter that moved to Ethshar of the Rocks some time ago?"

"My daughter lives there, yes. What's this about?"

"Just to be clear, that's Rhiannon of Ethshar?"

"Her name is Rhiannon, yes. Really, what is this... no, it can't be." The man dropped his plane, looking at Illina for the first time. "You... are you... you look so like her when she was small!"

"This is your granddaughter," Susan said sadly, knowing Illina wouldn't understand his question. "I have some sad news regarding your daughter."

"She had a child? You're really my daughter's daughter? She never said, never wrote to us even once. Wait, if you're here that can only mean..."

Susan nodded. "I'm afraid she died several days ago. Disease, she died in her sleep. I'm sorry."

"My daughter, is dead? How do you, no, she couldn't be dead. Who are you? Can't be dead." The man seemed a bit dazed, and sat down heavily in a nearby chair.

"My name is Susan. Susan the Wanderer. I found Illina here outside her house crying, and had the body buried. It turned out you were her closest relatives, so we came to see if you would take your granddaughter in. I know this is going to be hard, but we'll need to speak to your wife and decide what we're going to do with Illina."

"Making her understand her daughter is dead... I can't believe it myself. How did you even find us? She was so adamant about never coming back here again, or wanting to see us again. I didn't think she kept any record of where we were, and we came to this village some time ago, after she left home!"

"I found out with magic," she answered simply.

"You hired a wizard, or a Theurgist? I suppose you would have-"

"No. I'm a wizard."

"You?" He looked doubtfully at Susan.

"How about I prove it by curing your wife's deafness, and we can discuss things with her?"

"You can do that?" He seemed impressed, but sobered again "This is all so sudden. Can you even prove anything that you're saying? How do I know this isn't your daughter, and you're trying to get rid of her?"

"I could take you back to Ethshar, you could talk to the Theurgist that prayed for her soul to find the afterlife. Or the city guard, have them show you her now empty house."

"That would take weeks?"

Susan shook her head. "I could have you there in less than a minute."

"What's a 'minute?'"


	73. Chapter 73

73

Do You Believe In Magic?

Place: Inside Illina's Grandparent's house

Time: Moments later

Susan wasn't sure if _Alleviation_ would work in this case, because if Yseult's deafness was age related, that spell wouldn't work on it. The much easier to cast and far lower level _Cure Deafness_ would though, so Susan quickly read it over (with eighteen and fifteen checks) and cast it.

"Can you hear me now?" she asked, aware that the phrase most often said over cell phones (in desperation because we can communicate with rovers on Mars but can't get a signal across a neighborhood with any kind of real reliability) had a totally different meaning here.

"I can hear you perfectly fine," replied Yseult. "I don't believe it."

"What, that magic could cure deafness?"

"No, that any wizard would work for free. What do you want?"

"As I explained to your husband, I want nothing. Your granddaughter, on the other hand, needs a place to live until she's old enough to be apprenticed to someone, as I understand it."

"Who? Start at the beginning, won't you?"

So Susan and Glifieu (The Handy) explained to the woman that her daughter was dead, and she reacted a bit differently than her husband.

"I don't believe it."

 _Wow, if there was a person that took_ Skeptic _to an extreme, it would be her._

"As I said to your husband, I can take you back to the very room your daughter died in, and show you my arrival and the removal of her body. We can also talk to the priest- sorry the Theurgist who performed the burial."

"Go on then, let's see this wonder!"

"Very well. _Teleportal."_

Susan had no trouble opening the hole back to Ethshar of the Rocks, and Yseult grunted and stepped through.

"This could be anywhere!"

Susan sighed. "And I suppose if you stopped any random person on the street and asked where you were, they would probably lie to you."

"They probably would."

"I'm sorry about her," apologized Glifieu. "I believe you. That was magic if I ever saw it."

"Not like I ever saw," muttered Sativola, poking her head out the door. "We're really here, just like that."

"Now for the second part," said Susan, readying _Time Area._ She specified the time just before she and Illina could be seen collecting the body, and the ghostly image of the dead woman appeared in the bed.

"That is our daughter," remarked Glifieu sadly. "Even you can't deny that, Yseult."

"I... well..."

They all watched as a ghostly vision of Susan was seen through the older _Teleportal,_ walking back into the room and easily picking the body up. She then walked back and the _Teleportal_ winked out, so Susan dropped _Time Area_ as well. "Satisfied?"

"I am."

"I suppose."

"Shall we go back, or would you like to speak to the Theurgist?" Susan indicated the floating hole in space.

"She really is gone?" asked Yseult.

"I'm afraid so."

"Well, she didn't want anything to do with us, I don't see why we should have anything to do with her brat." She turned and walked back through.

 _Hey, think there was a reason for that?_ asked the Darkness. _Like maybe these weren't the best parents, and maybe leaving Illina with them will only lead her to turning bitter and hating them too?_

 _You know, you're probably trying to stir up trouble, but that's actually a good point._ "Why did your daughter leave, if I may ask?" she asked Glifieu, who was still looking around.

"What? Oh, can't you guess?" He nodded in the direction of Yseult, who was back sewing like there wasn't the most powerful magic user two meters from her.

"No, I can. That's why I'm asking. I have to do what's best for Illina, and I'm beginning to question if leaving her with you two, no offense, is the best I can do."

He sighed. "I can see your point. Come on, let's talk to her, I'm sure we can work something out."

"They don't want me?" pipped up Illina. "Is that what they're saying?"

"Your grandmother is being a bit difficult," explained Susan. "We're going to see what arrangement can be made."

"I'm sorry!"

"It's not your fault. Come on, let's head back."

"A week's journey, back and forth, in just a step," remarked Sativola as she stepped through again. "I can't get over it."

"I thought I made my position clear," grumped Yseult, once all were back through and the _Teleportal_ was shut down again.

"Sadly," Susan said sarcastically, "you only get one half the vote. Your husband seems more inclined than you to take in _his own relative_ so you either have to convince him otherwise or allow her to stay. Simple as that."

"I don't change my mind easily, girl."

"Neither do I," Susan said angrily, leaning closer. "And I can just as easily put your deafness back if you turn her away. The cure is part of the deal."

"You wouldn't!" gasped Sativola.

Sparkle nodded, but only the party saw it, the other two weren't paying attention to 'the cat.'

"Now, now," calmed Glifieu, "let's not let our emotions get the better of us. This has all been a bit of a shock, and I know you're grieving for your daughter in your own way. Perhaps we should all just take the day and think about things?"

 _Hey, what do you think this guy's rating in Persuasion is, living with a woman like that?_

Susan snorted. _Good question._

 _Hey, think you'll end up like her when you're ancient? You're both unreasonable women, right?_

That brought her up short.

He was staring at the group as if expecting an answer.

"Oh, he wants to maybe revisit the topic tomorrow, when the shock has worn off a bit," Susan translated for the others. Sativola now seemed to understand, and Illina just looked more pitiful.

"That sounds like a good idea," said Sativola. "There's an inn here, right?"

"Yeah, you must have passed it on the way in."

"Why doesn't Illina at least spend the night here, get to know her grandparents? Perhaps when Yseult sees what a nice, polite girl you are, Illina, she'll be more inclined to allow you stay?" Yseult snorted. "We'll stay at the inn, and come this time tomorrow to finalize everything. What do you say?"

"Okay," Illina said pitifully. "But I can't talk to them!"

"So listen. If you really want to be a witch, listening is one of the best skills you can learn. Maybe you can watch your grandfather working, and he can tell you what he's doing. Languages aren't that different, once you get used to them."

"Okay."

Susan turned to the man. "Is it all right if she stays here the night? You should get to know her before you make any final decisions, right?"

"Just keep her out of my way," injected Yseult, to no one's surprise.

"It sounds fine to me. She can have the spare room, we'll get it ready together, how does that sound?" He knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at Susan. "He's asking if you'd like to help him get your room ready?"

"Okay!"

Susan considered a moment, then pulled off the talisman and slipped it over Illina's head. "You protect her for the moment, understand?" It glowed slightly.

"Is that necessary?" asked Sativola.

"Probably not," Susan admitted. "But she's the only one of us without magic of her own yet, so it makes me feel better knowing she has it. Just in case." Her eyes darted to Yseult, who was trying to look past her to see what Illina had been given.

The two went off, and Susan turned back to Yseult. "Do you want your daughter's things?"

"Things? What things? Her house was empty! Probably whoring in the streets, that's where her brat came from."

"It was empty," Susan continued somewhat angrily, "because I already collected everything in it, with magic. If you want her stuff I'll dump it someplace and you can go through it."

"Probably just junk anyway. Sure, go put it somewhere, I don't care."

"Wonderful person," remarked Susan as Sparkle and Sativola left the house.

"We don't know her situation though," cautioned Sativola. "Everyone has a reason for why they are the way they are."

"I suppose."

"Would you really have made her deaf again?"

"I'd like to say no, but knowing me, yes, probably. Her not taking in Illina would have infuriated me, and burning their house down wouldn't be fair to her grandfather."

"I... I see."

"She wouldn't burn the house down," chided Sparkle. "Not even you're that far gone, Susan."

 _Yet,_ put in The Darkness. _Pity, really. I always did love that traditional outdoor meat roasting ceremony you people are so fond of. What do you call it? Barbecue?_

"So what do two young girls looking for a good time do in a town like this?" asked Susan, walking back towards the inn.

"Try and keep as low a profile as possible?" replied Sativola, holding a palm up.

"What?"

"Not a lot of law enforcement around here, and travelers are easy marks," she explained.

"Not these three travelers," scoffed Susan.

"Ah, but they don't know that. Did you have something in mind?"

"Hard to say, I guess I want to learn more about the place we're leaving Illina. What kind of people live here? Will she be accepted into the community? Are all these people werewolves or ghouls in disguise? These are all important questions, you know."

"What are either of those things?"

"Guess not. Hey, what's this all about?" In front of the inn there was a large board with papers tacked up on it.

"Seems to be some kind of announcement board. News, requests for help, that sort of thing."

 _Ah, no newspapers in this time. Wonder if I should help someone invent the printing press?_ "Wait, requests for help!? Now that's right up my alley! What have we got, I'll have this board cleared by dinner time!"

"Is she serious?" she asked Sparkle.

"Usually. She gets a kick out of showing off her magic, so why should being here be any different? I'm going to find a place to nap, you girls have fun."

The first notice was from a farmer on the outskirts of town that wanted several men to help him dig a new well. After he figured out where to put the new well, that is. Susan figured she could do both, and with Sativola's help found the right place and wandered around until she found the owner.

"Still looking to have that well dug?" she called over to him.

"Your brothers looking to do some work?" he called back.

"I tell ya," she remarked to Sativola, "sexism in the workplace. It never ends. Actually I'm a wizard!" she called. "I'll have you a new well dug before you know it."

"Wizard?" The man looked her up and down. "I can't pay a wizard's prices."

"I'm only asking what you would pay the men who came to dig. I'll find the spot for free."

"You serious?"

"I sure am."

"Go to it then. Old well is out that way." He vaguely pointed, and Susan ducked her head in thanks and headed in the direction he pointed.

"What's the plan?" asked Sativola.

"Don't suppose you can find water?"

"Water doesn't have thoughts. But with what you've been showing me, who can say? Let's put it this way, I've never tried to before so I have no idea."

"Ah well. There's a spell called _Elemental Discovery,_ perfect for finding the largest nearby source of an element. In this case, I'll cast it for water, and see what I get. In all likelihood the water is just shifted over underground, so we'll find it and I use my digging spell to get down to it."

"Oh."

So she did.

There was another source of water not far from the old well, so Susan cast _Excavate_ a few times, not going for width but rather depth. The spell didn't care what direction the '1-cubic meter per Uranus rating' was, so straight down she went. She cast it twice and went to get the bucket and rope from the old well. The farmer saw her and came over, curious.

"You really did this?" he asked, looking at the neatly placed stack of dirt beside the new hole on his property.

"I really did," she said, lowering the bucket.

"You going to be okay? That bucket's pretty large, and it's heavy when it's full."

"Not to worry."

She brought up a bucket full of water.

"Well I'll be! And you really don't want any more than I would have paid a couple of men to do that?"

"That's right."

"Okay. Last wizard who passed through here wanted way more than I could afford, but as long as you're happy..." He handed her some coins.

"I'm not done yet," she protested.

"What, it's water, isn't it?"

"What about the wall?"

"What _about_ the wall? You aren't going to move that too, are you?"

"I can't just leave it a hole in the ground. That's not a well, that's an accident waiting to happen. There are kids running all over town, what if some of them came back here?"

She walked back over to the old well. "It's just bricks stacked up around the hole, right?"

"That's right."

"Super." One casting of _Telekenisis_ later, and the whole thing floated over to its new home. _Luckily, this counts as one object as it's been all fused together. I don't have to target each individual brick._ Then she targeted the pile of dirt with _Elemental Sculpting_ (a grade two spell to control an element) and made it slither itself into the old hole, closing it up at least part way.

"You're a warlock!"

"Who says I am? And would it be a problem if I was?"

"But... No, I mean... Ah, who cares? Long as the job's done, I don't care what kind of magic you're using. You've saved me a lot of work, I'll add a bit more copper. Here you go."

"Thank you kindly."

The next job found Susan, as she heard a crash on the way back to the job board, followed by some choice swear words. She jogged over to find a cart laden with flat stones that had a rather obviously broken rear wheel. A man with a younger boy were standing there, and the man was obviously in some distress. The younger man looked resigned, probably thinking how they were going to have to unload all the stones, prop up the wagon, repair the wheel, and then put all the stone back. Others in the town were gathering to see what the commotion was.

"Seems you have a busted wheel," remarked Susan.

"No, you think so?" groused the man, throwing his hat down. "And I have to get this stone in by tonight, too!"

Susan looked the cart over, the stone was pretty well packed so it didn't seem any had broken. At least, not on the top.

"What say I fix it for you?"

"You the town fool, in those clothes? Get away from here!"

"That doesn't seem all that polite," she remarked, easily lifting the corner of the wagon into the right position.

"By the gods!" shouted the man, taking a step back.

"Yes, yes. Bow down and all that. _Repair!"_ The wheel was fine again, and Susan gently set it down, making sure it would hold. "There, see? Not worth carrying on about, now was it?"

"A warlock! Well, I'm not paying you for it. For all I know you caused the wheel to break in the first place! You're looking to scam me out of the job fixing the wheel, yeah, that's it!"

"That's fine, I wasn't going to charge you in the first place! I just thought doing a good deed would be appreciated. Guess I was wrong."

"Master, you said yourself if that wheel made it all the way, it would be a miracle."

"You shut your mouth boy!"

"I just don't think it's wise to upset a warlock. Especially not one that can lift that much weight, she could explode your head from there."

The man stiffened, looking over at Susan who was lifting four or five of the stones at once, checking to see if any lower down were cracked. She smiled at him, looking out the corner of his eyes. The man reached for his pouch. "How much?"

"Let's get this delivered first," she said, waving him off. "I think some of the lower ones _are_ cracked, or at least chipped. If you want them repaired too I'll come along. And don't worry, my rates are fair, especially when you consider the cost of hauling new stones around to replace the busted ones if I don't come with. Figure in the replacement cost, unsatisfied client, another day of work… Need I go on?"

The man's eye twitched, but he said that was fine, and climbed up into the seat again.

In the end, Susan had to cast _Repair_ a couple of times, and in addition to a silver coin, paid by the wealthy man having the stones set into his back yard as a kind of patio, she took some energy from everyone there to replenish her supply. They were quite hesitant to have it done, but after Sativola offered while they watched, they agreed.

In the end Susan spent the day going about town and cleaning off the job board. It seemed there was no shortage of work to do, at least dirty jobs that no one in their right mind would actually want to do for the amount of coin the people with the jobs were offering to pay. But Susan didn't care, she used her magic to do most of the work, and her STRength took care of the rest. From each person she took some coin and some energy, so even after hours of work she still had a reasonable amount. And a bulging pouch of copper and silver, even a few gold pieces too.

"You really do like showing off," Sativola said as they came back to the inn after the last job.

"I like helping people," Susan corrected. "If that means I get to show off a little, so be it. I have an amazing amount of magic at my command, and I'm good at it. Well, slightly above average anyway. And these people look like they need all the help they can get. Plus I have the coin of the realm now, which can't be a bad thing. Would you have preferred to just sit around, bored all day? This way I got to meet the townsfolk, did some good, made some money, and used my magic to help people. It's win-win-win-win."

"I guess you're right about that. Hey, do you feel that?"

"Feel what- Earthquake!"

In fact the ground was shaking, and nearby kids were scrambling back to their houses in terror.

"What's an earthquake?"

"What's an- this! Don't you have earthquakes, either? You know, tectonic plate movements?"

"The what? This is magic, the earth never shakes like this!"

"Magic? That's crazy, why would someone-" Susan did a _Magic Sense_ as she said this, getting an eleven, and both girls looked in the same direction. "You're right. We better get over there!"

Susan and Sativola skidded to a halt in front of a growing hill, and Sparkle ran up behind them.

"You're not doing this for some bizarre reason, are you?" she queried.

"No!"

"Oh. Then you better be ready for trouble!"

"I'll make it double!"

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Quiet!" She laughed as she said it though.

"Do you hear music? Like a flute playing or something?"

"No, just rumbling."

"Wait, it's opening!" yelled Sativola, and she was right. From the mound an opening started to form, and several figures stepped from the very earth. Each wore a fine robe and carried a staff. One carried two, probably for the one currently playing the flute. Another carried no staff, but instead a fine golden goblet, and she had a knife poised ready to dip into it. In fact all had knives out, and Susan immediately knew that these eight people were wizards.

The woman in front stopped playing and the ground stopped shaking, the small hill also melting back into the ground without a trace. She shoved the flute into her sleeve, grabbed her knife and staff from the man next to her and shouted to the assembled crowd now gaping at the assemblage of wizards.

"What's going on around here!?"


	74. Chapter 74

74

Wizard Battle- Not so Much

Place: About the center of town

Time: Just then

 _I'll tell you what's going on,_ said The Darkness. _A bunch of wizards just popped out the earth and started demanding to know what was going on!_

Susan giggled, but didn't shout this out despite her desire to.

 _Too bad, it would have been hilarious. Anyway, these people seem a bit perturbed for some reason. You don't think it has anything to do with you, do you?_

 _I don't see why it would..._

 _No? You think the wizard's guild, most powerful group of magic users in the entire world, wouldn't take issue to some young thing like yourself flinging the gods only know what sort of magic about all over the place?_

 _They aren't witches, how would they know?_

 _You think they can't_ employ _witches? Or that they don't have scrying spells going to make sure another Night of Madness isn't happening under their noses?_

 _Night of- oh, you mean when warlocks came into the world and everybody went nuts overnight._

 _Yeah, that one. They take a dim view of competing magic here, Sativola told you as much. Wonder if you'll have to fight them! That would be a nice change of pace from all this goody-goody stuff you've been doing all day._

 _Good point. Not that any magical battle wouldn't be rather one sided, even with that many 'wizards' on their side. But I've not gotten to use this yet, and I paid enough for it, so why not?_ "Negation," Susan said, touching her _Wizard Bracelet._ The spell of _Magic Domination_ took hold, and now Susan's magic was the only magic that could work anywhere around her.

An elderly man hobbled up to the assembled group and started bowing and scraping before the assembled wizards.

"Mighty wizards!" he began. "So honored to have you in our humble village. I'm the mayor, we certainly don't want any trouble here. You asked what was going on? I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean. Please, come to my house and we can discuss things as you desire."

 _Wow, he's really afraid of them. The wizard's guild really does throw its weight around, doesn't it? Even in a podunk down like this, the mayer is falling all over himself to try and placate them._

"No, we must discover the source of what we have come to find before it gets away. All of you, stay where you are!" shouted the woman in front. "Line up. We're looking for someone in foreign clothes..." She trailed away as her eyes met Susan's. "You!" she shouted, pointing with her dagger. "Come forward!" The crowd parted.

 _Odd thing to wave about, a tiny dagger like that. Wonder if it's the local equivalent to a wand?_

"Me?" Susan said, trying to act innocent. "What would the great and powerful Trixie, I mean, wizard's guild, want with little old me?"

"Don't play stupid!" snapped the woman. "Our magics told us about the incredibly powerful source of magic that appeared in Ethshar of the Rocks several days ago. It then moved about the city, sailed up the coast, then made it here in an hour. We traced it to a young girl in strange clothes, and you fit the bill. Who are you?"

"Susan The Wanderer, at your service, of course, mighty wizard." She made a mocking bow.

"I know of no Susan the Wanderer. Your magic is not wizardry, or warlocky, or witchcraft. There was some sorcery near you, but that seems to have vanished. Yet your magic resembles all three of these, something expressly forbidden by the guild! Explain yourself!"

"I don't see why I should," countered Susan. "Who are you, to demand explanations from me? You want to know me? Fine, speak to the people my magic has helped in this town. They'll tell you I used my magic responsibly, and charged a fair price for it. You have no claim to learn any more about me than that."

"The wizard's guild holds dominion over all magic, that gives me the right to demand your answer!"

"It's true," someone from the back shouted.

"Thank you, but I don't need your help."

"No," said a man coming from the back. "I mean it's true what she said. She came to me about a job I posted a week back, and she worked quickly and well. Never saw anything like it, to be honest, but what do I know of magic?"

There was a general murmur of agreement, Susan had met a lot of the townspeople on her 'do good' binge that day.

"That's not the point!" insisted the wizard. "Her magic is too strong, and too dangerous. If she will not cooperate with us, then the law is clear. She must be put to death for practicing more than one kind of magic."

There was a cry of protest from the crowd, but the wizard remained unmoved. Susan stood there, arms folded. "You can prove that, can you?" she challenged.

"What?"

"Prove it. Prove I'm using 'more than' one kind of magic, instead of just my own personal magic, which happens to be a bit better than yours. You say my magic isn't wizardry, or warlocky, or the rest. And you're right, it's my magic, one type of magic, which you would have learned if you had come here and asked me, rather than make demands of me."

"The law is clear, and your magic, as unknown as it is, must be stopped before great tragedy befalls the world. All our divinations have pointed to this one undeniable fact, that you are at the center of a great upheaval in our world. To avoid this fate you will be painlessly put to death unless you submit to our demands immediately!"

"I'm here to _save you_ from this great upheaval you speak you! So of course I'm in the center of it. But if you think you can take me, then go ahead, try it," she growled. "See how far it gets you."

"Very well, you leave us little choice. By the power vested in me by the wizard's guild-"

 _I pronounce you all jerks together,_ The Darkness snuck in there. Susan struggled not to giggle.

"-I sentence you to death!" She nodded to the wizard holding the cup, and that wizard plunged the knife she was holding into the liquid in the cup.

The crowd waited.

Susan stared at them.

"Well?" she said at last. "That doesn't seem to have done much. What else have you got?"

The wizard's eyes were wide now, apparently they hadn't considered whatever they were doing to be fallible, but before anything else could happen, a small figure shot forward and stood in front of Susan, arms spread.

"Don't you dare hurt her!" cried Illina, "Stupid wizards, with your rules, and your greed. Where you were when my mother lay dying? Where were you afterwards, when I was crying and alone and scared? You didn't do anything! Susan did! She took me in, and fed me, and made me clothes, and paid for my mother's funeral, and for passage here, and fought off pirates, and introduced me to my grandparents. She's my friend and if... if... you hurt... you'll have to go through me first!"

By this time, everyone was gaping at her, unsure where this little fireball of a girl had come from. Susan, on the other hand, was moved. She crouched down and hugged Illina from behind.

"Thank you," she said softly. "That was probably the bravest thing I've ever seen anybody do. Yelling at wizards, who taught you that? When I have a daughter, I hope she's just exactly like you."

"You mean it?"

Susan couldn't even answer, she just nodded her head and wondered if she could make a RESolve check not to cry or burst with pride at the girl she had only known a few days.

 _There are some extraordinary people here,_ she figured. _If only they could really be given the chance I was. What happened to this world, anyway? How did the people here get so beaten down?_

 _Magical wars,_ answered The Darkness. _Terrible, joyous, magical wars._

Meanwhile, the lady with the knife was plunging it into the liquid over and over, as if trying to start a car with a dead battery.

"Oh, knock it off," Susan shouted to her, making a twenty three RESolve check to not use warlocky. Instead she did a quick _Retrieval,_ and the knife was in her hand instead. She stood up, Illina by her side and one hand protectively around her shoulder. The wizards gasped. "That's right, I've locked down magic in this area. Mine, and mine alone, will function."

"Give that back!" demanded the woman, struggling against the man now holding her back from charging at Susan.

"Is it really that-" Susan held it up to look at it, and caught something odd with _Spirit Sense_ now that she was touching the thing. She made a check, getting a seven, but even that was enough to tell the thing had _spirit energy_ inside it. And the only way that was possible was... "Oh, tell me you didn't. Seriously?" She also did a _Magic Sense,_ getting a nine, but again the knife was very charged magically (taking 24 hours to create, not that she knew that) so she could feel both kinds of power in it. The only things that had _spirit energy_ were alive things like animals, or planets in the form of _ley lines._ That left only one conclusion for this item. "You put a piece of your soul in here, didn't you?"

There was a collective gasp as the wizards recoiled, fury bubbling to the surface.

"Kill her! Any way you can!" shouted the lead wizard, and the staves were thrown down. Powders and other weird things were produced from pockets and pouches as the wizards as a group shouted, gestured, and waved their little knives about while Susan watched.

"Are we going to die?" asked Illina.

Susan scoffed. "No, we're perfectly safe, my magic is protecting us."

"Oh, okay." She smiled.

After a moment the wizards figured out they couldn't work any magic at the moment, and the one with the flute brought out another and tried playing it. Sound came out, but nothing else happened.

She lowered it, looking over at Susan as the blood drained from her face.

"What... what are you going to do to us?" she asked, plainly fearful. "If you kill us, other wizards will know-"

"Do? What do you mean? Oh, right, you attacked me. How about I just break this?" She held up the knife, and the wizard finally tore out of the man's grasp and lunged for Susan with a yell.

"Enough!" shouted Sparkle, putting herself in between the two. "She won't do that, trust me. Susan, give her the knife back, it obviously holds her soul so stop teasing her. She's obviously terrified, just look at her."

"Fine." Susan rolled her eyes but flipped the knife in her hand, holding it out to the woman who gratefully snatched it back.

"Now look," Sparkle continued. "If you all would stop posturing and threatening each other, maybe you would find out you were all on the same side and could work together. Remember that, Susan? Working together with the local people to drive back The Darkness? You're going to need their help, and you know it. As far as you all, I am very disappointed that the very first thing you did was try and kill her. You could have sent someone to check the situation out. You could have extended a hand of friendship. But no, you threatened her, and that won't work with Susan, believe me. She won't kill you, but maybe you'll wish she had in the end. She could easily take your magic away and there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it. Now start getting along, already!"

The wizards stared at the cat.

"Did... that cat just talk?" asked one of them.

Susan sighed. "Yes, she did. And as usual, she's talking sense, if a little late. Look, I'm sorry about the whole knife thing, I don't really know what it means that you did what you did with it. But the fact remains you did try to kill me just then, so at least part of the blame is yours."

"Maybe I could mediate or something," spoke up Sativola. "I'm not in the guild, but Susan trusts me, I think, and the guild could check up on me. I wouldn't mind that."

"Who are you?" asked the woman with a sigh of resignation.

"Sativola of the Sparkling Eyes, guildmaster," she replied. "And once I speak to my master again and tell her the amazing story of my adventures with Susan, and what she's taught me about magic, it'll be Sativola The Witch."

"A witch. I see. I suppose she could be counted on to tell us if the girl was lying."

"My name is Susan."

"That has yet to be determined."

"It is!" agreed Illina, who was ignored.

"If you will lift this 'restriction' of yours, we can be on our way." She lifted the flute again.

"Very well, once I do a few things here. First..." She stalked over to the man now holding the cup, and roughly grabbed it away from him. Dumping the liquid out and crushing the cup in her hand with a thirty two STRength check, her eyes never left the man's. She let it fall, then walked back to Illina. He stared down at the crushed lump of a cup and gave it a quick tap with his toe to make sure it was real. "I'll be back tomorrow, I promise," she said to her. "You be good for your grandparents, and here..." She handed her the pouch of coins she had made that day. "You'll need money to be apprenticed, right?" Illina nodded. "This money is yours now. I don't know if it'll be enough, but it should be a start."

"It will be for me," said Sativola. "I'll be a real witch soon, you can apprentice to me when you're old enough. I'll come back when you are, that's my promise to you. But I'll still see you again tomorrow, in any case."

"Yay! Thank you!" She ran over to hug Sativola.

 _Perhaps someone else has noticed her potential as well?_

"And I guess you could come live with me, if your grandparents refuse you. But I think your grandfather will talk your grandmother around, so give them a chance, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Now can we go?" asked the wizard.

"Awfully impatient," remarked Susan. "For a bunch of people that just showed up out of nowhere and started demanding things. In any case, I'm not going anywhere with you. You're going somewhere with me."

"Outrageous!" said one of the male wizards.

"Hey, I have business in this town still, and while it would be easy enough for me to get back here, I want you someplace I can keep an eye on you all. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, and that's pretty far, come to think of it. You want to know who I am? What I'm doing here? Why I have the power I do? I'll be happy to tell you- on my terms. I'm not crazy about people trying to kill me, but Sparkle is right. I may need you before this is over, so I'll put your reaction down to fear and hope you're wise enough to see I can be of great help to you. If you'll let me."

"It's a question of security," said the head wizard. "We aren't going to your room at the inn or whatever."

"I haven't even been there," replied Susan, brushing that off. "No, you're going to my world."

The wizards looked a bit uncomfortable, but Susan didn't care.

"Clear a space here, move along! Show's over!" she shouted, getting out a _Spell Paper_ of _Personal Dimension._

 _Good thing I made some of these, standing around for twenty minutes with a bunch of trigger happy wizards, even ones that are declawed at the moment, isn't on my to do list._

 _What kind of mixed metaphor was that? asked The Darkness._

 _I don't think I need to explain myself... to myself._

 _Whatever._

Susan activated the paper, and a dimensional tear appeared before her. "All wizards who want to talk, come with me. Once I'm inside wizardry will start working here again, and anyone not coming can go back."

There was a quick council as the wizards decided who was going, and in the end, six of the eight decided to go while the wizard in charge handed over the flute to those going back. She stepped through, followed by the others.

Sparkle and Sativola followed, and Illina peaked in, then waved and ran off again. The portal closed, and the wizards looked around.

"You didn't even use a tapestry, you just tore open a hole to this place!" remarked one.

"Indeed. Come on, it's not a long walk to the cabin, I can offer you some refreshments and we can talk. I'll be happy to answer all of your questions about me, this place, my magic, the whole bit. Oh, and don't bother trying to kill me here. I'm sure you can work out for yourselves... if you do, you'll never leave."

 _At least, in theory. If I die outside my dimension, everything in it comes tumbling out. But what happens if I die inside it? My father's notes don't say, probably because no one was foolish enough to ever try it._

 _Or else if they did, their bodies were lost to the space between dimensions,_ put in The Darkness, sounding pleased with the notion.

So Susan played the hostess, and offered her "guests" some food and drink from other worlds. (Basically prepackaged food and soda, which they all exclaimed over) Two even started a discussion about what kind of spell could duplicate the effect of carbonation, as well as the refrigerator that was keeping them cold.

Finally they got down to business. Susan explained she was a dimensional traveler, which they actually took in stride pretty well.

"Have you met a spriggen yet?" one asked. "They came to this world from a magic mirror, so there's precedent. Wizards have long known other worlds existed, we can reach them with tapestry magic. It stands to reason someone from one of those other worlds might come here one day."

She also told them about her magic, and how it was applied, and what the limitations were. They were very curious about her limits, and just how much magic she could do at any one time. It seemed wizardry was very time consuming here, on the order of hours for many spells, which limited what one person could do in a day. Basically for them, wizardry was _Imbuing._

 _That's it! Their magic is somehow imbuing everything, for a single use. They need ingredients, imbuing needs them. Their spells take hours, imbuing takes at least hours, for a single use item. And each imbuing is different, because they use gestures and chants and waving the knife around. In a different sequence for each spell. I didn't know how good I had it! Imagine being a wizard, studying for ten years and diligently learning spells, only to be useless because your house burns down or something. Or needing to lug around a trunk full of crap just to do a little magic!_

 _Now you know why they're all so grumpy._

They seemed to accept her explanation of 'energy,' and how it was consumed for her to do every bit of magic. The point was especially driven home when she demonstrated _Spirit Sense_ and told them that's how she knew about the guild secret of the anthame.

"But seriously," she protested. "You wave those little knives of yours around for every spell, and you think someone isn't going to put two and two together? You can't be serious."

They just looked uncomfortable at that.

She put the spell of _Group Literacy_ on them, a spell two grades higher then basic _Literacy._ That one was cast upon the self, and could allow her to understand a different written language. This one allowed the entire group to read her book at the same time, so they could look it over and see what kind of spells she could cast.

"You can cast all these?" The wizards were impressed, they explained that even a master wizard's book might only have a hundred spells in it.

"With a little time looking them over. I've read and understood a good portion of them, but I've only memorized fifty or so, meaning I can cast them without the book, and most in less than five seconds."

"Fifty?!" They went back to muttering over the book. Susan caught "five seconds?" and "energy" and "This is like one of our spells! It's Fendel's Assassin I tell you!"

Finally they handed the book back and seemed dazed. They explained that no wizard worked any but the most basic spell _from memory,_ it was just too dangerous. They always had their books open and consulted them for any spell taking more than a minute or two.

"So what are you doing here? Why has such a powerful person come to our world?" the head wizard demanded. Susan still hadn't gotten any names out of the bunch, and wondered if they were hesitant to offer even fake names to a 'wizard' of her power. She had caught them talking about True Names when looking over her _Descry_ spells, and wondered if names had power on this world, like stories sometimes did on hers.

"I think," she finally ventured, "that I'm here to save your world from warlocks."


	75. Chapter 75

75

Wizard Deliberations

Place: Inside Susan's Dimension

Time: Just then

One of the wizards smashed his fist into the table. "I knew we should have killed those people when we had the chance!"

"Quiet!" snapped the lady in charge. "Let's not rush off into another situation like this. We scrambled around without realizing the implications of coming here, and see where it got us? Humiliated in front of a whole town. Let's not charge after warlocks in the same way."

The man grumbled something Susan didn't catch, but relaxed back into his chair.

"Now let me make sure I have all this straight in my mind. You're some kind of warrior wizard from a world that uses wands primarily, but only ingredients for potions. You were born differently because one of your parents, your father, was from a different world that used magic differently. Your father left that world, because it wasn't his, to continue to fight this darkness being you're currently hunting down. This 'Darkvoid' creature. Which according to you is a being from beyond our reality and wants all the energy we currently enjoy for itself. It will accomplish this by taking something over, using that thing's native powers and supplementing them with power and knowledge it has gained from other worlds. If it wins the day, our reality falls and every possible version of everyone alive dies." Susan nodded. "So you have no interest in taking over, or disrupting our way of life, or anything like that?"

"Correct."

"Because you're leaving to look for your friend as soon as 'The Darkness' is dealt with. That much I get. So a little more than thirty years ago, something fell to our world and warlocks were created. You're concerned this 'The Darkness' and warlocks are somehow related?"

"I'm not. The being that sent me here, a being like The Darkness itself, mentioned that it was rather coincidental and I should look into it. Plus, coming in here has, perhaps inadvertently, given me a clearer picture of what just warlocky is."

"What is it?" demanded the man.

"First you have to have a bit more background. The reality is, The Darkness put a little piece of himself inside me when I was conceived, as a way to spy on me and exert a subtle form of control over me."

 _Hello!_

"Not that subtle sometimes," muttered Sparkle.

"Hey, I can't say where it begins, but I have to believe my soul carries far more weight than it does in determining my personality. I don't know who I would be without it around, but I can't say I wish I was different. I am what I am, and I like being me. Now is that it talking? Who knows. Anyway, it talks to me, and it's been a blabbermouth ever since I got here."

 _You take that back you big meanie! Mom, Suzzy called me blabbermouth! Make her stop!_

"It's never spoken as much as it has since I got here, and it expressed absolute joy that I was here, like some plan it had was going to work out better here than elsewhere."

 _Oh, it is. I'm still stoked about it._

"Shut up! Ahem, sorry. It's never done anything like that before. I later learned from Sativola that warlocks hear a kind of voice in their heads, and that's what they draw power from. Well, I hear that same voice, and I can draw power from it as well."

"You're a warlock as well?" asked the man. "You didn't say that before!"

"But I'm not. Look, I've been granted a skill because of my traversal of other realities, the _Adaptive Skill._ Basically I can intuitively pick up and use things unique to the reality I'm in without the bother of having grown up with it or whatever. So be it a different type of magic, or a language they use, anything that's unique to a world, I can use. And I can get better at picking up those unique skills by practicing, in general, with what is unique in that world. For example if it's a language and I practice that language, but the next reality has a weird swimming game everybody plays, it would translate over. Are you getting any of this?"

The wizards seemed to understand, and there was a general nodding.

 _Man, explaining things to non-Paragons is hard. All that to avoid saying 'I put XP into a special skill and I can use it on every world.' Sheesh._

"Okay. I first thought the voice and power were related to that skill, because warlock power was unique to this world. But here's the twist- Sparkle has the same skill, heck she's better at it than I am at the moment. _And she doesn't hear the voice."_

Everyone looked over at Sparkle.

"It's true. I can't move things with my mind like she can. We still don't know exactly what the skill will allow us to do around here. Maybe your kind of wizardry?"

Susan put a palm up. "Doesn't seem to be needed, anyway, all my magic works so I don't need anything else in such a primitive world. The point is, as soon as I got into my _Dimension_ here, the voice cut off. I don't hear it anymore. And I can't use warlocky either, I've been trying. Without that voice, the connection to whatever it is that gives warlocks power in this world, I'm just me. The reason this is all so important is because that voice sounds an awful lot like the voice of The Darkness. If the thing that fell all those years ago is offering your people power in this world... it's not for your benefit. Because it's been taken over by The Darkness, and who knows what it's plaining to do here?

"So am I a warlock? No. But at the same time, Sparkle can't use warlock power so it's not _Adaptive Skill._ So I don't know what it is, or why I can draw off that power as though I was a warlock. She's the same type of magic user I am, and a _Spirit Mage,_ so none of those things are a factor. The only difference- I have The Darkness in me, she doesn't. What does that suggest to you?"

The wizards pondered this new information.

"She's telling the truth?" the head wizard asked Sativola.

She nodded. "As she knows it. I've never felt a more confident person, I truly believe she thinks we are all in grave danger, and she is the only one that can save us."

"Say this is all true," said another woman. "What do we do about it? We can't get close to the source, it would turn us and we would be caught by it."

"Make warlocky illegal!" suggested the man. "At least slow the flow of warlocks to the north so we can make other plans."

"You know as well as I do how that edict would go over," the head wizard scornfully replied. "Besides, warlocky is a drug, they can't stop using it. Especially those close to being called, they use it unconsciously, for everything. You know that."

"At least if it was illegal, we could take action against anyone practicing it."

"I wouldn't want to fight a city full of warlocks," said another man. "We didn't when they first appeared, and I sure as heck don't now! You must see that's what it would turn into. It's been thirty years, they're established. They do good works. If I hadn't seen her resist being turned to stone and blocking all our other magic, I wouldn't believe her. I'm still not certain I do! How can we make warlocks believe it and give up their only way of life?"

The head wizard considered. "True, with preparation, we could probably pull off anything Susan could do, or at least fake it well enough they could legitimately say it was a trick to deceive them. They can't sense magic like witches." She nodded to Sativola. "It would be a hard sell, just putting her forward and saying 'this is how things are.'"

"But a necessary one," he argued. "There have been many theories why warlocks get called, what if this 'Darkness' of hers is creating an army of them?"

"Why wait thirty years?" she reasoned back. "The first people Called would be in their declining years or even dead by now. Even this darkness can't control dead warlocks, right?"

Susan shrugged. "I don't know what it can do, here. It depends on what it's taken over. You say it came from space, is it some kind of alien? A non-human life form that actually calls the void of space its home? That would be pretty crazy, actually."

"We don't know that either, our magic can't see it, and believe me we've tried. It still doesn't make sense, waiting. Why not fly about, convert half the population, and make them slaughter the other half? It obviously can't control their actions expect for the desire to go north. Not a very effective army."

"What then?"

"Food? I mean it's pointless to speculate, isn't it? Even if it was eating them... the time is still the issue. It can't be absorbing their magic, it's sending their magic." She shuddered. "Imagine trying to fight the creature that powers every warlock in the world!"

"Maybe it doesn't have that power itself? Maybe it's some interaction between us and it that creates warlocky. That could be why the Calling exists."

"It's been my observation that The Darkness waits for some event the world was going to experience anyway for the assault to begin. That's ranged from an ancient dragon busting loose from a mountainside to a reenactment of events that happened hundreds of years ago. I think it waits as a form of energy conservation. The native people get stirred up, but The Darkness itself doesn't have to lift a finger it doesn't need to, thereby saving energy. Have your divinations given any indication that something big is about to happen on this world?"

The wizards all looked around, but everyone was shaking their heads.

"So we probably have some time. Maybe I can talk to some warlocks and get their input. Until they go through this Calling, as it's called, they're still themselves, right? I'd be interested to see if any recognize me, or what they might have to say about the whole situation."

"We're going to have to debate this, and see what our next steps are. Can we speak privately?"

"You mean you want me to go away for a bit. Fine, I'll head down to the pond for a swim. Just follow the water down and you'll see it, it's not too far."

"Why don't you go with her, Sativola?"

"I'm not a very great swimmer... Oh, I see. Very well."

The two got up and Sparkle curled up in a corner, which the wizards didn't seem to even notice.

 _They probably haven't yet adjusted to the fact she's a person, and are ignoring her as though she was a cat. Their mistake._

The two girls followed the water downstream a ways until where the water collected into a small pond, where Susan shed her clothes and dived in. "Come on," she called, "the water is the perfect temperature, of course. I mean why wouldn't it be, here? And there's some neat caves I could show you under here."

"Actually, I can't swim at all," the other girl admitted.

"You don't have to, I'll let you breathe underwater with magic. And then we can practice, if you want to learn."

 _You just want to see her naked,_ remarked The Darkness.

 _Course I do, what's wrong with that?_

"Oh, all right."

 _Yes!_

Some time later, the head wizard came to get them, and both shook themselves off got dressed again.

"Thanks... for the lesson."

"Any time."

Back at the cabin, Susan sat down again and regarded the assembled wizards. They didn't seem particularly grim, so she was hopeful some agreement had been reached between them.

"We're going to give you a chance-" said the head wizard.

"Thank you."

"-to prove yourself."

"What?"

"The fact is, your appearance in this world breaks several guild laws. The first against more than one form of magic, as you admit to being able to use what seems to be wizardry, warlocky, sorcery, and have some of a witch's senses. The second about using what can only be wizardry, but not being a part of the guild. The third, using Ellran's Dissipation..." She paused as Susan looked puzzled. "You have spells in your book to destroy magic, that's illegal."

"Oh, so I do. But I haven't used it!"

"Yes you did, after we arrived!"

"No, no, that was temporary. Magic worked there, just not your type of magic. Besides, wizardry works there again now, so nothing was destroyed."

"That's... well, but the fact remains you do break our first two laws. But you are here, and you can obviously turn aside any wizardry we can throw at you so we would rather just find out if this so called threat to our world is real, fix it, and have you go on your way."

"That is my goal as well!"

"Fine. You want us to trust you, it'll be on our terms. Our laws are typically absolute but given that you obviously come from outside our world..." She paused and glanced around again, looking at the modern kitchen appliances that took up part of the room. "We'll relax them, as long as you don't go flouting any more of them. We'll get you copy at some point. Basically, don't kill anybody or use magical compulsion on them. And don't heal anyone that's involved in government either."

"I really can't promise that if some mayor falls and takes a blow to the head I won't immediately spring up and heal them. And who will really have the moral high ground if you start trying to kill me again for healing someone?" She gazed steadily at the wizard.

"We'll put that aside for now. For now, anyone that asks should be told you're a member of the guild, that'll satisfy our second law, even if you haven't been through our initiations. You do know some of our secrets, after all." She unconsciously stroked her knife. "Meanwhile, we'll assign you a series of tasks, and appoint a guild representative to, uh, smooth over any mistakes you make, not being a part of our culture."

 _To spy on you,_ clarified The Darkness.

"A witch and a wizard following me around? Maybe they'll even learn something about working together."

The wizard glared at her. "You said you had further business in this town?"

"Yes. The grandparents of the little girl you saw need to decide if they're taking her in. I'm giving them until tomorrow to work it out, and if they decide not to, I'll need to make other arrangements for her. Sativola here has said she'll take the girl in, if it comes to that. But I can't drag her around while I fight The Darkness so I'll have to find someplace she can stay."

"The guild could probably look after her for a time, in that case," the wizard grudgingly admitted. "She looks nearly twelve. Very well. Can you get to Ethshar of the Spices tomorrow?"

Susan shook her head. "Not sure where that is. I came in at Ethshar of the Rocks, and I can only go to a place I've seen before. I could fly there if you could provide a map. But depending on how far away it is, could take me more than a day"

"I see. It's some distance away, south west along the coast. In that case, go back there and head to Wizard Street. Ask for Telthalon the Wizard, he'll put you through a tapestry to the Spices. From there we can give you your tasks."

"Very well. And who should I ask for once I'm there?"

The wizard looked uncomfortable, but finally answered "Ask for Ithinia the Wizard."

"Thank you, I will. Now, if there's nothing else?" _Get out!_

"Not at the moment, no." The wizards all rose and pushed back their chairs.

"Then I will see you tomorrow."

Susan let the wizards out, then watched them disappear back into the mound of earth that rose up as Ithinia played that flute of hers. Soon it was gone again, and she headed back to the cabin. The wizards were _probably_ gone, but she wanted to talk to Sparkle without any danger of being overheard. Going to the inn now would make her easy to eavesdrop on.

"So what's the real scoop?" she asked Sparkle.

"Basically they're going to throw you at the worst problems of the world and see if they can kill you off that way. If you survive, they figure nothing they can do will kill you, and they'll try working with you because your story, by means of process of elimination, must be true."

"Shouldn't be too bad then."

"Not too bad?" Sativola countered. "Are you crazy? Things wizards can't deal with... I mean I've seen what you can do but how are you not upset about all this? They're basically trying to assassinate you by proxy!"

"That's what they think they're doing. In reality, they're just giving me a chance to gain XP. I know, you don't know what that is. Never mind that, for me going on adventures like this is standard fare, so I'm not worried. You want to stay in here the night? I have some beds in the cabin we can use, that I guarantee are nicer then what you would find at an inn. Cheaper, too. I won't charge you!"

"We might as well."

"Great!" She closed off the portal back to the 'real' world, and got out some paper. "I'm going to replace my _Spell Papers_ for _Personal Dimension,_ you can wander around outside, there's no dangerous creatures out there. At least, there better not be!" She laughed.

"I think I'll just turn in."

"Suit yourself. The beds are downstairs, because the sun never sets here and I wanted it dark. You can make a light, right?" She nodded. "See you tomorrow then!"

With her gone, Susan worked awhile on _Spell Papers,_ not that she could make very many given the spell took eighteen minutes to cast from writings. But at the very least she could make three, two that replaced the two opening it for the wizards, and one to get out of it herself in the 'morning.' That done she tided up from the wizards and went down to bed.

Her bedchamber had rows and rows of every sort of bed conceivable, as neither space nor material considerations were an issue here. She found one near were Sativola was laying and stripped off her clothes again to go to sleep.

She mentally reviewed what she needed to do the next day, _take care of Illina's situation, get the talisman back? Find Wizard Street, get XP._

 _Should be simple, right?_


	76. Chapter 76

76

The Wizard's Tasks

Time: The next day

Place: Village of Dawn

The next day, Susan enlisted the help of Sativola, a local seamstress, and some _Creation_ magic to make herself some clothes more resembling what the wizards were wearing the day before. Her _Alleviation_ knife she now hung at her side. As everyone would be expecting to see a wizard with a knife, there was no reason to hide it.

This complete, she was finally able to walk around the town and get bows of deference rather than outright stares of bewilderment. So that was somewhat of an improvement. With that done, she went to go see Illina's family. She heard that weird muttering the instant she stepped out of the _Dimension,_ and was somewhat revolted at how pleased she was to be hearing it again. She resisted the urge to levitate something, just to make sure that she still could, and asked Sativola to lead on to the house of the carpenter.

"We'll take the girl in," Yseult admitted when she arrived, without preamble.

"Oh? That's great, what caused this sudden reversal?" Susan asked.

"Never you mind. I said we'd take her in, didn't I? That should be good enough for you. Say your goodbyes and get out of here."

"It was the money," Glifieu put in. Yseult scowled at him. "Once she saw that pouch of coins her attitude changed sharply."

"You don't have to say it like that!"

"It's true though, and they did ask. Also knowing she had an apprenticeship lined up helped. Illina couldn't stop talking about it yesterday when she got back."

"And you didn't have anything to do with it?" Susan grinned at him.

"Oh no, I never get my way around here." He grinned back. "In any case, we'll look after the girl until she's old enough and Sativola comes for her. You, uh, do plan to do that, right?"

"Witches don't lie," she answered.

"True, but Illina could have misunderstood or something. Hearing it from you eases my heart."

"No, I think she shows great promise, I'll be back for her, I promise."

"Yay!" said Illina.

"Very well. I guess we'll leave you two to say goodbye, then. Thanks for looking out for her, I know you didn't have to. Having her here might make the death of our daughter a little easier to bear."

"Just... try to keep your wife from driving this one away, okay?"

He sighed. "I'll try."

"Here's the talisman back," said Illina, handing it over. "Thanks for everything."

"Of course," replied Susan, sweeping her up in a hug. "I'll come visit you before I leave, okay? You can here all about what other adventures I've had, how would that be?"

"I'll be waiting."

With their goodbyes said, the two young women and Sparkle stepped through a _Teleportal_ back to Ethshar of the Rocks, and started to look for Wizard Street.

"Talisman first, then we'll find this wizard," Susan said, looking about. "You can read these weird signs, right?"

"Of course. It's against the law to be illiterate. Parents are punished quite harshly for not teaching their kids to read."

"Is that right? Interesting. Guess I don't just break wizard laws by my very presence here. Good luck punishing my father for it though, I don't even know where he is currently."

They found a shop that claimed to be run by a sorcerer, and stepped inside to be met by an apprentice. The place was simply and starkly furnished, brightened by a glowing, milky white globe that stood on a small table in the center of the room. The boy was studying something at a desk, and jumped up when they walked into the room.

"Oh, a wizard!" He exclaimed. "And a witch. I, uh, I'll go and get my master then, shall I?"

"Do that," replied Susan, seating herself on the small couch at the other end of the room. The boy scampered off, through a door next to the desk. Moments later, a middle aged man came back into the room, smiling widely. He was dressed rather plainly, nothing so grand as the wizards were wearing the day before, and without a cohesive theme like Sativola seemed to be trying for. He did wear a vest with plenty of pockets, and some of them even bulged with something inside.

"Ladies, welcome to my establishment," he boomed, seemingly pleased to see them. Susan rose and took his hand, then Sativola did the same. "Not often you see a wizard and a witch traveling together. Please, sit! What can I do for you?"

He pulled the chair out from the desk, leaving his apprentice to stand there awkwardly, and sat facing the two girls.

"We were hoping to get more information about this," Susan replied, grabbing the talisman from her sub-space pocket and handing it over.

"Interesting tri- is that-" The man instantly forgot about the relatively minor matter of having objects pulled from nowhere as he took the talisman with trembling hands. "It is. It's a Fil Demisnicis. Where in the world did you come across such a thing? Does it still function? Are you looking to sell it? What sort of creature does it contain? Have you summoned the-"

"Whoa, one question at a time, please!" begged Susan, holding a hand up. "I take it this device is somewhat rare?"

"Rare? I've only heard stories, and even then they should have all been destroyed after the war ended. To find one intact... it is intact, isn't it?"

"If by that you mean a fire demon jumping out of it if the wearer is in danger, yes. Taking it down and getting it back inside the talisman proved to be quite troublesome, let me tell you."

The man goggled at her. "You fought it?" he finally managed. "And you're still alive?"

"Oh, I suppose I see where you might be skeptical. Believe me, I could have taken it out a lot faster if it hadn't been threatening a little girl at the time. I had to keep her safe, as I honestly believed if I didn't one shot the creature it would slice her throat without a second thought."

"No doubt it would. A fire demon, in my hands. Astonishing! So, you know what it does, you didn't need me to tell you that. Why are you here?"

"I want it destroyed, but in such a way that-"

"Destroyed?" the man interrupted. "Are you mad? I mean, no offense." He seemed to realize again that he was talking to someone most likely representing the guild. "No one in the guild wants it? I assure you, the the stories all say the demon can not act against the holder's wishes."

"You misunderstand me," Susan explained patiently. "The fact that it is so desirous is why must be destroyed. It was owned previously by a pirate, and if he had realized what he had at the time, he might not have been content to stay a mere pirate."

"Yes, I can see that. But now it's back in the hands of the guild... ah, yes, the prohibition on using two different kinds of magic, I see. Well, you aren't really using the talisman, it just activates, right? I mean I don't know how strict the guild is about this sort of thing..."

The two girls looked at each other, wondering how much to tell the man.

"In any case, can it be safely destroyed? And what happens if we do?"

"I suppose you could set it down and smash the crystal to pieces with a hammer. Then melt down the metal, that would destroy it completely. I assume you would want no part to remain, to provide even partial clues at to how it was constructed?"

"That would be best, yes, but my main concern is the demon inside."

"Would probably perish, but I don't really know. As I've said, I have nothing to compare it to."

"So it could let the thing out to rampage?"

"Oh. Yes, I suppose it could, now that I think about it. I would say there was an equal chance of that happening. I don't know how they were all dealt with after the war. Are you sure I couldn't buy this from you? I know my house wouldn't be enough, but perhaps my house, all my wealth, and we could set up a sort of payment plan at regular intervals until I've given you enough?"

"It's worth that much?"

Sativola put a hand on her arm, and Susan heard her voice inside her head.

 _You have to realize, and a wizard would know this, that a lot of knowledge was lost after the war. Some was forcibly erased, by the guild, some just because things were discovered during the war, not written down lest they fall into enemy hands, and the people that knew them died. This might be one of those, so the potential for learning how to make them again makes this far more valuable than the object would imply._

 _Can you hear me, too?_

 _Yes._

 _Nicely done! Why can't they just work it out again on their own? They did once..._

 _It's not that simple. Average lifespan of a wartime researcher was less then thirty days. Many people died trying to research things. And something like this, that combines sorcery and demonology? The guild would certainly frown on something like that in peacetime. They coludn't stop it while the war was on, but..._

 _Oh. Got it._

The man was looking between them, wondering what was going on.

"Never mind, I see what you mean," Susan said to him. "Are you sure you want to own an object that combines sorcery and demonology though?"

The man twitched in his chair. "Hadn't considered that. Though again, the sorcerer wouldn't be using demonology depending on your interpretation of the law..." he trailed off.

"Yes, tell me how wizards interpret their own laws."

"Perhaps you should just have this back." He handed it over again.

"So the control is absolute? If the demon comes out it must obey and protect the person that wears it?"

"From what I've heard of them, yes. But of course it was war time, and demons would have reveled in combat anyway. There would have been no need to disobey an order to fight, they would gladly do so, to kill humans."

"I see. Is there anything else you can tell us about it?"

"Not without a lot of study."

"Very well," said Susan, getting up. He got up too, putting the chair back over by the desk. While he did this, Susan got out a gold piece and tossed it to him. "The information was very valuable, thank you for your time."

"Oh, certainly!" he said, glancing at the coin and making it disappear into one of his many pocket. "And if you change your mind about selling it..."

"You'll be the first to know. Good day."

"Good day!"

Once out in the street, the two walked some ways away with Susan staring at the thing and thinking about it.

"You could take it down again," Sativola remarked. "If you wanted it smashed up. Just take it to your world and release it there. You can fight all you want there, no one in the way, right?"

Susan shook her head. "It would fight all the harder, there. It would have nothing to lose." _And way more energy than I have, and did I even see all that it could do? Somehow I doubt it._

"So what will you do with it? Just take it out of the world when you leave?"

"I could." Susan considered. "And having a demon at my side for my battles would be useful, if what the guy said was true. For all we know the hold a person has over the thing weakens every time it comes out, and that's how it got away from the original owner. He was killed by it. There's just a lot of things to consider."

"I guess you're right."

"Is it for us to decide?" asked Sparkle. "It really has nothing to do with our mission, right?"

"I suppose you're right. Here, stop a minute." Susan spread the chain and dropped the necklace over Sativola's head, then gently gathered her hair out of the way so the chain touched her neck.

"You're giving it to me?" she squeaked, holding it away from herself.

"For safekeeping. The only people that really know about it are the people on the two boats. Hopefully none of them will come after at, knowing what that would mean for them. And you can see them coming, right?"

"I suppose. And hopefully it wouldn't need to come out that often, no one attacks a witch. Word would get around and witches would never care for a person they knew had hurt one of their own if they came asking. So generally we're left alone."

"And it can't come out otherwise, sitting around in a chest, and being carried by the pirate who knows how long proved that."

"You have a point. All right, I'll take care of it." She tucked it under her shirt.

"Great! And if you decide it should be destroyed, perhaps a demonologist could assist you, as they would know how to deal with unruly demons. Until your world is safe, though, keep it handy. The Darkness doesn't care that you're a witch, after all.

"Now that we have that settled, let's find this Telthalon the Wizard."

As the shops all had the name of the practitioner (and some indication what they knew how to do) he wasn't difficult to find. And as he had been told to expect them, he brought them up to his second floor and set his knife against the door. He spoke a few words, then brought out a large iron key which he turned in the lock. Then more passwords (or something) were muttered, and he threw the door open. Inside was a bare room with a large tapestry hung on the wall.

And nothing else.

The tapestry hardly looked like cloth, Susan would have said it had come from a high resolution printer from her world, it was so detailed. Of course, the scene itself wasn't that interesting, just a blank wall somewhere.

"Go on through," said Telthalon.

"Go... through?" asked Susan, confused. "You mean step through? It's not really big enough."

"Have you never- but of course you probably haven't, not many do. Just touch it, that's all that's required."

Susan shrugged and reached for it, but her fingers never seemed to brush against it, as suddenly the "picture" expanded and she was staring at the full wall that had been shown in the hanging."

 _Now what?_

She reached a hand out and felt the wall in front of her, but it seemed perfectly ordinary. Someone cleared their throat behind her, and she whirled, startled. There was an older man, in wizard's robes, sitting at a desk and surrounded by what Susan could only imagine was wizardly stuff. There were vials holding different colored liquids, and dried insects, and leaves, and other random bits and bobs scattered about the desk.

"Susan?" asked the man.

"That's me," she replied.

"Come forward then. Your friend can't come through until you move."

 _Seems like a rather bizarre restriction, but then, I wouldn't want her to_ teleport _into the same space I was occupying._

Once she moved, Sparkle and Sativola appeared, and the wizard sent a small dragon looking thing flying down the hall to let someone know she had arrived.

"Why the wall?" asked Susan as they waited. "And this tiny space?"

"If someone ever got ahold of that tapestry, they would come here. This place is easy to defend or change or block off should that happen. Depending on what I thought was needed," he indicated the ingredients on the table, "I could do all three with the wizardries I know."

"Sensible." _Though why they just don't have a public service, that opens to a public area..._

 _Because the image in the tapestry has to match the image at the other end,_ explained Sativola mentally. _That's why it was pointed at the wall. The wall won't change, so the magic always works._

"Oh. Like how I had to move out of the way! They couldn't just put it in the town square, because that shifts second by second, and the effort put into the thing would be wasted!"

She nodded.

"What?" asked the wizard, looking between them.

The two girls grinned at each other, Sativola because she knew a type of magic no wizard even knew could be done, which was turning out to be quite useful. Susan because she realized Sativola realized it too.

"So wait, I could paint an X on the wall and the tapestry would be ruined until it could be cleaned off? Or the X put into the tapestry somehow?"

The wizard nodded cautiously.  
 _Every day, in every way, my magic looks better, and better._

A few minutes later, another wizard joined them and said he would take them to see Ithinia, who was expecting them. They walked through an underground tunnel to some stairs, then up into the main meeting hall of this particular building, where Ithinia and another wizard were waiting, already seated. They had passed many rooms, some with people working inside, some giving instruction to young kids, some doing paperwork. All in all, a pretty busy place.

"Glad you could make it," Ithinia said, somewhat sarcastically.

"Sorry, I had stuff to do this morning," countered Susan. "You knew that, I told you that yesterday."

She waved it off. "Never mind, you're here now."

 _Wizards probably aren't used to waiting,_ thought Sativola. _She figured you would come straight here because that's what any other person working with the guild would do._

 _Then she doesn't know me very well yet,_ Susan thought back with a grin.

"I'm here now," she said aloud. "And ready to see what you've come up with for my tasks."

"Great. They are two fold. The first, though you can do them in either order, is to make some lasting contribution to wizardry. I've seen your book, I know your spells are powerful and you can do most anything. If you really want to help us, prove it by finding some way of making our wizardry better. I realize you don't do true wizardry yourself, but there must be something, and an outsider would probably have a better chance of seeing something obvious then we would. I believe you mentioned something to that end for witchcraft, and Sativola here?" Susan nodded, it was true after all. "Then you can do no less for us. Plus you claim to have visited other worlds, perhaps something from another world could be useful to us as well."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Fine. The second, and more dangerous, is to travel to the kingdom of Reldamon, which lies on the eastern border of the small kingdoms. We've been getting odd reports from that corner of the world, rumor has it that an actual demon took over the kingdom some years ago. We've never had any way of proving it, as we've not tested our magic on demons all that much. And our scrying efforts just show the same old king walking around. But twice now while we were spying on him, late at night, he got up and went to the castle basement where our spells lost him. Hours later he came back and they picked him up again.

"Prove his being a demon one way or another, and find out what he's doing in that castle of his."

 _Given Sparkle said they were going to throw me at the most dangerous thing they could, they probably already know he's a demon and just don't want to confront him directly. Still, if he's anything like the last one, I can take him. I just have to make sure he doesn't take any hostages._

"How do we get there?" asked Sativola. "Even the western edge of the small kingdoms is pretty far from here."

"We can send you to Ethshar of the Spices, where you can take a boat across the gulf of the east. From there, you'll just have to fly. The guild doesn't have a lot of presence in the small kingdoms, and certainly no tapestries to waste to make the journey."

 _And they don't want to take the effort to do that flute thing?_

 _Hey, you're the one who claims to be so powerful,_ said The Darkness. _You don't need their 'lesser' magic, now do you?_

Susan ignored him. "But hopefully some sort of map can be provided, so we don't sneak into the wrong kingdom?" asked Susan. Ithinia handed them a rolled up parchment, which Susan took a look at and saw it was a map of the area. "Ah. Thank you."

"Certainly. Will you leave now? I'll instruct everyone here to cooperate with your questions when you're ready to see what you can do for wizardry."

"This seems more urgent, and I'll have to think about what I can do for wizardry. You did say you were assigning me someone, right? I can question them during our journey, maybe start work on something during the trip down there.."

"That seems reasonable. He's been sent for... oh, here he is now."

"Here I am," said the boy who came down the stairs with a traveling bag. "I'm Kelder the Apprentice. You must be Susan, nice to meet you."


	77. Chapter 77

77

A short journey to Reldamon

Place: An inn halfway through the Small Kingdoms

Time: That evening.

The group had made good time on their way to Reldamon, Susan simply flying them over the gulf despite Kelder's insistence he wouldn't dare try such a thing. Susan simply left him behind and he was forced to catch up, and made it over the water without further incident. Once into the Small Kingdoms, he insisted on crossing the borders properly, rather than just flying over them all, to Susan's annoyance. But they didn't call them "small kingdoms" for nothing, and walking through them didn't take long.

They were now seated at the inn, waiting for their food to arrive, and Susan figured now was a great time to get to know her new "keeper."

"So, did you volunteer for this mission, or what?" she asked.

"No, I was assigned it. And while I appreciate your wanting to get there quickly, don't rush on my account."

"You'll want to get back to your studies, won't you?"

"Oh." He colored. "I'm not really that great a wizard. I think that's why they made me come with you."

"Because they know I didn't need magical backup?"

"Uh, no, because I wouldn't be missed."

"I see. What's the trouble, exactly? I've helped people figure out why they're bad at magic in the past. Well, once, anyway. It wasn't what everybody thought, I'll tell you that."

"It's not so much that I'm bad at casting spells, exactly. I can get through most all right. It's just my master didn't know all that many to begin with. It seems like a recurring problem, actually. When I'm considered ready to train someone the only spells I'll have to hand down are the ones my master gave me. I don't want to deny someone the craft if they want to learn, but it almost doesn't seem worth it."

"And the guild won't give you more, round out your book?" He shook his head. "That's nuts. I suppose you'll tell me there's some reason behind it," she said to Sativola.

"Hey, I'm with you on this one," she replied. "I'm going to tell as many witches as I can about what you've taught me, and keep looking for ways to use my magic. But then, none of what I'll show them is all that dangerous."

"But wizardry is, right. Still, a wizard with a bunch of grade 1 spells is still better than a wizard with spells that are all over the place in grade. They can't be that dangerous, and still more useful than not having them."

"You mean first order? You never can tell what a wizardry will do if you mess it up. Even very basic magic can go wrong fast. Remind me to tell you about the pillars of flame sometime."

"Okay. Well, if you can do magic, just not a lot of it, I'm not sure I can help."

"Actually," put in Sparkle, "maybe you can."

She looked down at her. "You think?"

"Sure. Remember, wizard's spells are written down. They don't memorize them like we do, they get them out of the book every single time. While you can't exactly steal a better wizard's book, you have something much more convenient."

"The _Research_ spell," she breathed, realizing her intent. "Just like Tom reading Hermione's diary long distance. Of course!" Susan put her hands under the table to hide the light, and spent four minutes gathering the magical energies. She got a thirteen on the check and handed Kelder the new, ghostly book of wizardry she had just conjured out of the air. As she had asked the magic for research relating to "currently practiced wizard's spells," she was confident it would contain actual magic rather than just topics about researching spells. She saw that she was right as Kelder looked it over. (She had cast it for him specifically, so the language was his. She wouldn't have been able to read it without casting it again for herself.)

"Where did you get this?" Kelder asked, excitedly paging through it. "These are spells, with the ingredients and words and everything. I don't believe this!"

"You watched me. It's a spell of mine, I made it just now. It'll vanish when you're done though, it won't stick around forever. Probably when we get up, in fact." _Yeah, this dinner would be a 'scene' wouldn't it?_

"You can just bring knowledge out of nothing?"

"No. I can bring together writings relating to a certain subject. I couldn't ask the book for wizardry that didn't exist, though it could show me notes made by wizards in pursuit of spells. That could help guide someone through the spell creation process."

He closed it and shoved it back. "No thank you."

"What?" All three exclaimed, not believing their ears.

"You're trying to bribe me with this, but I won't fall for it. I'm going to report exactly what you do and how you do it. Because that's my job. I may not be a great wizard, but the guild is relying on me so you can't tempt me, even with this."

"You sure about that? I'm not worried about what you're going to tell them. Even if they don't like it, there's nothing they can do about it. But I'll do what they ask to the best of my ability, don't you worry."

"So you say. Take it back."

"Very well." Susan ended the spell, and the book vanished. "If you change your mind-"

"I won't. I'm going up to my room." He pushed his chair back.

"Very well," replied Susan, leaning back in her chair. "Hope I don't slip out the door the minute your back is turned, now that I know I can't buy your loyalty."

He froze, half out of his chair, then sat back down again. "Maybe after another mug of ale..."

"Oh, don't tease the poor guy," admonished Sparkle. "She won't leave without you, don't worry."

"And I'm supposed to believe some talking cat?"

"I thought I had a pretty honest face," she remarked, fluffing her whiskers out. "What about me tells you I might lie to you?"

"Of course you're going to say what she wants you to. You're traveling together."

"And what about me?" asked Sativola. "If I told you she had no intention of leaving without you, would you believe me? I'm from around here, unlike Sparkle, so there's no reason for me to mislead you."

"I..." He looked her over, and she was smiling slightly. He looked away. "Fine, I guess I'll believe you. See you in the morning."

"She really didn't want to bribe you," she said as he got up. "She just wanted to help. Believe me, I followed her around a whole day as she helped people out, back in the Village of Dawn."

"It's fine, I said." And he was gone.

"Guess I messed that one up," Susan remarked, feeling a bit bad.

"You did just want to help," countered Sativola. "I could feel that."

"But he couldn't. And all because the _guild_ won't let people study magic properly. It must be nice, being a witch, telling if people are being truthful or not."

"Sometimes, I guess. Other times I would rather not know. Like when either of you looks at me..." She broke off. "Anyway, guess I'll get to bed, too."

Susan reached for her arm as she got up, but then pulled back again. "I'm sorry, for that. I guess it must be pretty distracting."

"I'm kind of used to it. From men, anyway. It's okay."

But both girls knew, without witchcraft, that she was lying.

"You didn't pick up _Lecherous_ at some point without me realizing, did you?" asked Sparkle when she had gone.

"What? No, that would be way worse. I just think she's cute, that's all. I can't help it if she picks on up that, now can I? Usually I would get RESolve checks against her picking up that sort of thing, but it seems to work differently here, so, she'll just have to live with it."

"I guess you're right. Someone with _Lecherous_ would throw themselves at anyone they found attractive, I guess. But you do seem to do that, a bit. Yuffie. That general back in Louise's world."

"Uh, yeah, I'm seventeen. Not forty seven. And when I find Luna... well, okay, she wouldn't mind me looking I'm sure. I don't have to explain myself to you!"

"You do when I think it might be The Darkness making you act a certain way."

"What, this? Come on!"

"No, don't just 'come on' me. What if she does find out you've been trekking across worlds and getting a little on the side? Would she really be okay with it or would she be jealous? If she leaves for you it, your big anchor against The Darkness disappears, right? And maybe that's what it's hoping for."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," she said testily, even while knowing Sparkle could be right. _Do I really know Luna well enough to say how she would react, one way or the other? She couldn't be jealous of people that don't even exist in our reality though, could she? And I'm just looking, darn it, Sativola isn't interested. I'm not jumping into bed with every pretty girl I see on this journey._

"I hope you do, for her sake as well as yours."

Susan had to think a second, and remember Sparkle couldn't read her mind. _She was saying that about keeping it in mind, not about... yeah._

The next day the group, not speaking very much to each other, passed through Okkoa and continued east. The trouble was just as they reached their destination they ran into a brick wall... literally. They couldn't go any farther, as the kingdom had a defensive wall stretching as far as they could see in either direction.

"I suppose you would be against me just _Phasing_ through the wall and entering Reldamon that way?" Susan asked Kelder.

"I'm not sure what that means, but if you wish to enter the kingdom illegally, go right ahead. Just know that I will be putting that in my report."

"Ugh, fine. We'll find the actual road in. It must be close. Excuse me!" she called to a passerby. "Which way do we go to get over this wall?"

"Wall?" The man looked over at it. "Oh, that. Oh, can't get there from here. You'll have to go north, though Neya and Ptelaya. That's where the only road leading into or out of Reldamon is."

"What? Why?"

The man shrugged. "Wall just went up some time ago. Who knows what other kingdoms are thinking? Wall is a stupid idea, sure, troops would find it hard to get in if they wanted to invade, but they can't get out either if they wanted to invade us. So it helps us just as much as it does them."

"Why this Ptelaya or wherever?"

"Because Ptelaya is smaller then Reldamon, and every other kingdom on their border is larger, I guess?"

"Oh. Well, thanks."

"Sure."

"What did he say?" asked Kelder.

"We have to go around," replied Susan, sighing. "There's only one road in or out, and that's though this other kingdom. Come on."

So the group skirted the wall and headed into Ptelaya, where the gate was leading into Reldamon. Approaching it, she saw the break in the wall was covered by a thick iron grating which presumably would be moved aside to let people in or out. At the top, set in the center, was an ornate orb which seemed to be glowing brighter as they approached. The people on the other side had been mostly just standing around, but after one noticed the glow and pointed it out, they all leapt up and got their weapons out.

"What's all the commotion about?" yelled Susan through the bars.

"You're magic users?" demanded the man with the bare sword that walked up to them.

"Yeah. Two wizards and a witch. What's that got to do with anything?"

"What, just the three of you?" He looked back up at the sphere, which was now too bright to look at directly. "We don't allow magic users in our country. Go away."

"You... what? Look, I'm Susan the Wanderer, I go around helping people with my magic. We mean no harm."

"I don't care if you're the supreme wizard of the wizard's guild. We don't allow magic here, as is our right. Turn around and go away!"

Sativola touched her shoulder and pointed, and Susan saw soldiers manning the walls, bows drawn and ready to fire down at them.

"So that's how it is," she remarked.

"You understand now? Can your magic save you from that? We don't want you in our kingdom, so scram!"

Susan didn't bother replying that yes, yes it could. She didn't want to antagonize them. Yet. "Guess we'll be on our way, then," she said instead. "Nice talking to you."

"Just move along. And don't try sneaking in any other way, this is the only portal though the protection spells around our kingdom."

"Well, now you've just piqued my interest. Maybe I'll just fly over the wall someplace, how would you like that?"

The soldier smirked at her. "I invite you to try it," he said smugly.

"As long as I've gotten permission then." Susan spun on her heel and walked away, followed by laugher as the soldier passed the word she was going to try flying over.

 _Something odd here, what do they know that I don't?_

The group moved a little ways away, and Susan did a _Magic Sense_ on the wall, getting a ten on that and a twelve on _Magical Theory._ The _Sense_ check was one above what she needed, so she worked out the spell was some kind of analog to Sun magic dealing with protecting the town.

"That glowing ball must be a talisman of some kind," remarked Kelder. "Letting them know when people that can do magic approach."

"And they got pretty worked up," added Sativola. "I doubt they had ever seen it glow that brightly before."

"Come on, I want to try something." Susan and the others walked some distance away from the gate and she found a stone and picked it up. With her augmented STRength she was easily able to arc it over the wall, where it slammed into a magical barrier and bounced back at her. "Oh, that's what he meant."

"So now what?" asked Kelder. "This seems to lend credence to the theory something is going on inside the kingdom they don't want people to find out about."

"We go inside," replied Susan, matter-of-factly. "We didn't come all this way to get stopped by a wall."

"You aren't going to just smash your way through, are you?" asked Sparkle.

"Please, give me some credit. There's so many ways through this wall I can't even begin to count them all. It's just a question of how much effort to put in, and how noisy we want to be. Given your two natures though..." she looked between her companions. One didn't want to fight because she couldn't do so without feeling her opponent's pain. The other probably didn't have any combat training, and carried little in the way of supplies anyway. _Unless these people can make bottomless bags like they can back home?_ "I think as quiet as possible is the watchword." Susan opened a _Teleportal_ back to where they first had encountered the wall. "Come on, we'll head back to where we first saw it. They won't get word all the way back there for some time, so we can attack it at our leisure."

The group stepped through, and Susan regarded the structure. "I think the easiest way is just _Phase,"_ she decided. "Everyone join hands, sorry Sativola, and we'll make our way through that way."

Kelder gave her a funny look, like "why sorry?" but did as instructed. Sparkle jumped up on her shoulders and Susan cast _Phase,_ sticking her hand through through the wall to walk through it.

It didn't push through.

Susan had to admit she was impressed, they had even thought of that? "Okay, never mind, we'll try something else." She dropped the spell and considered. "I'll just fly up, take a quick peek, and _Teleportal_ us over there." She did, but _Teleportal_ fizzled when she tried to open it past the wall. "Now that's funny."

"You don't think it's a form of _Fortification,_ do you?" asked Sparkle, getting ten on _Magic Theory._

"Fortification we're going to Miami!" Susan joked. The two humans stared at her, uncomprehending. "Never mind. It's possible, I just hope it doesn't stop us from entering with hostile intent. Because we have that, if the king here really is a demon. Let's see what else I can come up with..." _I could try_ Transposition, _I didn't see any boxes or anything on the other side. But that's still a Mercury spell, and lower grade then_ Teleportal. Relocation _would work, the way is clear, but again, if it blocks one kind of teleport it will block them all._ Susan tried _Sculpt,_ but opening a hole just showed the same effect as trying to go over the wall did. A vague magical barrier that wouldn't let her put a hand through. _And I would have to target each brick, anyway. I thought maybe_ Magic Immunity _would work, but making a hole big enough, that's the problem. Can't shrink us down, we'll be immune to magic at that point. It has to be big enough to crawl through, and that's not going to happen trying to move each brick out of the way._

 _What about_ Elemental Travel? _Wait, could I have gotten through the spell I put on Ron's house just by walking through the wood or the glass? Probably not. Nor could I have stepped through from the astral, so that's out._

"Okay," Susan decided at last. "We'll wait until it starts getting dark. I'll need to read up on a spell, and this will seem totally out of character, but we're sneaking in."

"That is out of character," admitted Sparkle. "You think there's no way to get in through the wall, huh?"

Susan shook her head. "Not that I can think of. I thought maybe I could cancel out magic at the gate, but it can't be _Domination,_ that specifically says spells, not all magic. The orb would still light up. So it would have to be _Dead Magic,_ and then I couldn't unlock the gate if they recognized me. Nope, it's going to be up to you, Sparkle, to do the first part of our plan."

"Wow, sneaking and having a plan which involves me? I approve."

"Oh, quiet, you. Come on, let's find a place to sit down so I can read something over. Tonight we enter the kingdom of Reldamon."


	78. Chapter 78

78

Remembering to Save

Time: That evening, just after dark

Place: Outside the wall

"Ready, Sparkle?" Susan asked.

"Ready."

"Then let's go." She pulled two _Spell Papers_ from her pocket and activated the first, " _Save"_ and the second while the others were touching her. " _Unseen."_ Magic swirled around them all, with the _Time Anchor_ staying there on the ground and shimmering with magical energy. To her companions, everything but that seemed unchanged, but they were all now completely invisible to those without some supernatural power. Normal people would walk right by them, though they were fully visible to each other.

" _Somnolent Smog,"_ Sparkle cast, taking all the time she could and putting in extra energy. She got a dome forty eight meters across, due to the eleven _Spirit Manipulation_ check and presence of two moons in this world. With her thirty nine check there wasn't a thing anyone could do about it, and every person on the other side of the barrier fell over, asleep. The four waited a moment, making sure no one would stir when the spell was lifted, and Sparkle nodded that that the area was clear.

 _"Unlock."_ With that, the iron barrier was no trouble to lift and quietly move out of the way. Of course, the crystal at the top was blazing away, but no one was out at the border this time of night to notice it. (Susan hoped) With the group inside, Susan set the barrier back into place and looked around. It seemed that, not unlike most places she had seen in this world, this place might once have been fortified and grand, but now was rather run down and falling apart. The courtyard beyond the gate was mostly open space, but with high barricades at regular intervals in a half circle facing inward. They had slits in them, probably for shooting arrows out of, and Susan could also see the platforms the archers had been standing on when they threatened her earlier. The "kingdom" proper began somewhat off in the distance, difficult to judge in the near darkness.

"They're going to know something happened," remarked Kelder. "All of them falling asleep at once is pretty obvious."

"But when they do, we'll be long gone."

"Where?"

"What do you mean, where?"

"Getting into this town obviously isn't easy. Anyone coming in is going to be noticed. We're strangers here, and any inn we try to stay at is going to ask some uncomfortable questions as to how we got here. Everyone in this town probably knows everybody else, because there's next to no traffic in or out." He explained this like he was explaining something to a two year old, and Susan had to admit he was right. She probably should have thought a little more ahead.

"Hey, my plans are always one step a time, okay? We're in, now we figure out what to do next."

"Isn't that just another way of saying you have no clue what you're doing most of the time?"

"Guys!" hissed Sativola. "Someone's coming!"

"Probably someone outside the spell, coming to see what's up. If it's a soldier they'll raise the alarm," moaned Kelder. "Now what?"

"They can't see us, remember?" chided Susan. "Just don't go stealing his helmet or whatever and they'll walk right by us. Come on, let's look around for a place to stay, unless you want to try sneaking into the castle tonight? It's not that late, we probably should do that anyway, to not waste the spell." She started walking, and the others followed.

"Do you think we can make it to the castle soon?" asked Sativola. "We don't know where it is, after all."

"Probably the middle? That's where I'd put a castle. True, it's not like we can just ask someone. But we're in, we could just fly about and find it. Actually, don't you know where it is, Kelder? The wizard's guild should know, they sent me here after all!"

"Excuse me," said the man behind them.

"No, they didn't give me a complete map of the kingdom, it's not that large. And don't I recall you saying something about not needing any magical assistance from me?"

"A map isn't magical! Though they didn't tell me about the gate either, so maybe they're not big on small details?"

"Excuse me," the man repeated. "You're trying to get to the castle?"

"No, the guild worries about major threats, and big picture stuff. Keeping a bunch of magic users from killing each other isn't all that easy, you know? Especially with warlocks and demonologists running around. Plus making sure that old wizards aren't getting too senile to cast-"

" _Excuse me!"_ shouted the man, and the group whirled to look back at him, then froze. It was a soldier, but awful large for just a man. He wore the standard breastplate and helmet, sized up for him, that the unconscious soldiers they had passed wore. His eyes seemed to softly glowing red, and a large blade, much thicker and wider than normal hung at his side. Both sides stared at each other a moment, the night silent.

"Oh great, so much for your mighty magic," complained Kelder at last. "Look, he's looking right at us!"

"That... shouldn't be possible," protested Susan. "I know the spell is still working, I can feel it. That guy's a magic user!" She pointed dramatically. "In a kingdom that doesn't allow magic users! You're going to so get it when we tell the king on you, buster. You want to buy my silence, I require fine pastries, and lots of them."

"Something's wrong," Sativola said nervously, taking a step back. "He feels off."

The man looked over at her. "Oh, a witch, is it? And what about the other two, are you witches as well?"

"I represent the wizard's guild!" Kelder said haughtily. "You'll turn around and leave us in peace if you know what's good for you."

The man laughed, unconcerned. "I have no fear of wizards, especially here. And what about you, little one?" he asked Susan.

"You'd better do as he says," Susan replied, "Or you're gonna have a bad time."

"Oh, I don't think so. The witch first, she's the biggest danger, if she can be called even that," said the man, drawing his blade. A small sphere at the top of the hilt, just below the guard, began to glow. "You wizards will need to draw your knives at a minimum to cast any spells, I'll have her killed by then. I think I'll keep the other girl alive for questioning. Though the boy would probably break easier, he's not looking too good just from the sight of me. He's no warrior."

"Oh dear," said Susan, turning away from him. "He's gone and underestimated me. Plus he thinks a warlock needs to draw a knife to cast a spell!"

"The girl is touched in the head, she's no warlock," said the man, zipping his sword through the air as thought taking practice swings with a bat. "I can see her knife from here, and no self respecting warlock would dress to look like a wizard."

"We have to get away!" insisted Sativola. "Something is really, really, wrong here!"

"Believe me, I can take him. Just step back a little-"

" _We can all understand him, but what language is he speaking?"_

Susan paused. There _was_ something odd about his words, they didn't sound right, but Susan was used to hearing odd languages and knowing what they meant thanks to Inari. But this guy...

"Very good, little witch," said the man, giving a mocking bow. "Did you know, demons have their own language, which can be understood by all mortals? I managed to hang onto it when I fused with this man here. Not all can, you know. What we hold onto seems almost random, at times. Maybe one day we'll understand why."

"Shatra!" squeaked Sativola, nearly stumbling as she backpedaled.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Kelder, sounding if he was trying to convince himself more than anything. "They were all killed hundreds of years ago. He's just trying to scare us."

"Know that for a fact, do you?" asked the man, grinning a wide grin at him. "And of course no more could be made, right? Lost art, and all that?"

"Is that what the so called king here is doing?" asked Susan, watching the sword. "Making some kind of half-demon creature?"

"So called!?" the man said, clearly offended. "He took over this place fair and square. If you really want to know, I can introduce you to him and he can tell you himself."

"That would be ideal, thank you!"

"Certainly. Just let me kill your friends here, and, oh, of course you'll have to be in chains. I'd better blind you too, just to be sure. Won't take a second."

"I'd like to see you try. You two, get out of here. I'll meet up with you somewhere, after I've taken him out."

"No, you mustn't! It's a Shatra, you can't win!"

"I took down that fire demon, didn't I? In fact, shouldn't he be coming out about now?"

"He hasn't directly threatened me yet?"

"I guess. Look, just go. I'd rather he not take you hostage."

Sativola seemed torn between trying to make Susan understand, and running away as quickly as possible. Kelder took off, hardly bothering to notice where he was going, and as Sativola turned the man lunged at her with a speed Susan wouldn't have thought possible. She tried to get in his way, and Sparkle called out " _Deflection!"_ but neither was good enough and Sativola didn't even get a chance to cry out as the man's sword did eighteen damage to her body. This cut her in half quite effectively, and Kelder screamed in horror as he turned around after hearing the pieces of her hit the ground.

The man smiled. "Next?"

Susan, having failed her CONstitution check with a six to not vomit as her friend's entrails and viscera splashed everywhere did the only thing she could do.

She mentally triggered the _Time Anchor,_ and suddenly everything was as it had been moments before. Both her friends were alive, she was holding the _Spell Paper_ of _Unseen_ about to be triggered, and the night was silent. She didn't want to vomit anymore, and forced the memory of seeing her friend chopped up to the back of her head before she grossed herself out enough to have to make another check. _It never even happened. They're both right there, healthy and whole._

Healthy, whole, and screaming, that is. Sativola started to scream like she was being murdered (she just had been, after all) and Susan clamped a hand down over her mouth.

"Quiet!" she hissed. "You want to make things worse?" Her breath came rapidly, and her eyes were wide as they darted from place to place, trying to understand what was going on. "That was just a... dream. A practice run. We know now what not to do, that's all!"

 _Note to self, do not include companions in spell when saving. Alternatively, explain what spell is going to do beforehand. To do otherwise just makes things more complicated._

"What just happened?" asked Kelder, also looking around. "Where's that Shata? Did she just die? How did we get back out here again?"

"Not helping!" Susan hissed at him. "Calm down and I'll explain, all right?"

Eventually Sativola started breathing normally again, and Susan took her hand away. "It's called _Time Anchor,_ or saving on some worlds. Basically you choose a point in time and can go back to it if something bad happens. Some friends of mine showed me that their world had these points in space you could anchor yourself to, and my book analyzed them for me. Now I can do the same thing, but anywhere. Luckily I remembered this time, you looked pretty far gone when that thing hit you."

"Pretty far gone!" Sativola was still a bit hysterical. "I died, in case you didn't notice! I was dead. How can I have been dead, and now I'm not? No magic can bring back the dead!"

"I didn't, it's time, I just reset time. Look, you want to do this tomorrow? I can see it's shaken you up a bit-"

"Shaken me- Do this tomorrow- Are you stupid? There's a Shatra beyond those gates. If there's one, there are probably more. Didn't you see what happened?"

"I'm not just going to do the same thing as before, that would be dumb. Get a grip. I'll go in expecting a fight, and you guys hang back here until it's over."

"It killed me in one blow!"

"That wouldn't even scratch me, believe me."

"Wait a second," demanded Kelder. "You seriously have magic powerful enough to perform a bunch of actions, then decide if you got the best result or not, and if you didn't you just snap your fingers, _reset the entire universe_ and try again?"

"Pretty much. Don't you?"

"NO! By the gods, no wonder you're so unconcerned with the wizard's guild. What other spells do you- no, don't tell me, I don't want to know. But I'm with Sativola, we should just report back that there are Shata and let the guild handle it. Only one man has ever faced one and lived, according to stories. Kelder of the Enchanted Sword. No relation."

"Well, soon it's going to be one man and one woman. Me. They gave me a job, and I mean to see it through."

"You're nuts."

"I've been saying that for years," put in Sparkle. "But have a little faith, she does know what she's doing."

"Thank you. Now, you keep saying Shatra, Shatra, which honestly translates a little dirty in my mind. What is it? It just looked like a big guy to me."

"It's partly demon, partly man," Kelder explained.

 _Partly metal, partly real?_ asked The Darkness.

 _What?_

 _Eh, never mind. Before your time I guess, and they didn't remake that one. Odd, that, they remade everything else..._

 _Whatever you say._

"And somehow, better than both," continued Sativola. "You saw the size of the sword he was swinging, and how fast he moved. _When he killed me!"_

"You seem fine now, you don't have to harp on about it."

"Harp on about it? You mean that dying I did? When he chopped me up and it really hurt and stuff was flying out of me and then there was darkness and-"

"What's the big deal? It never happened, I tell you. If I hadn't included you in the magic you would never have known. I would have just reset things and explained we needed a new plan. Or just armored up and had you hang back from the start."

"Oh, that's even worse! Is my soul still in my body? Are the gods going to strike you down for messing with forces no mortal should consider?"

Susan shrugged. "They haven't yet. You wanted a story, and I did warn you about traveling with me. If you want out, I won't blame you." _I'll miss you, but I won't blame you. Ugh, traveling with just a guy? That doesn't sound very fun..._

They stared at each other, but Sativola let her breath out slowly and slumped her shoulders. "No. I have to see this through, I promised myself that. Just... warn me next time, okay? Time magic. Gods!"

"Deal. So can we get on with this?"

"You're really going back in there?" asked Kelder. "If 'back' is even the right word, as technically we haven't gone in once... this magic is confusing."

"I really am. With tons of magic activated this time, but still, I'm going all the same. We'll do the same plan, put everyone to sleep, get inside. You two follow the inside of the wall to the... left. I'll stand there with my big 'ol flaming sword and attract this half-demon's attention. When he's dead we'll move on. Simple as that."

"What happens if he kills you? Can you still trigger this time magic of yours?"

"Probably. If you want to be on the safe side, I'll give the _Paper_ to Sparkle, and she can trigger it. The thing won't go after a cat, after all."

They all looked down at her. "Fine with me," she said.

"Then let's begin part two," Susan said, getting out another _Spell Paper_ and setting it on the ground for Sparkle to step on. "I've got a half-demon to take out."

Susan watched as the pair disappeared into the darkness under the platform past the gate, and turned to walk boldly in the direction she figured the half-demon had come from. She was _Accelerated,_ had on _Augment Skill: Sword_ and of course with the sword out she was her usual _Avatar of War._ Sparkle waited several paces behind her, just in case it should go bad again, and Susan resisted the urge to shout a challenge to the creature no doubt lurking around nearby.

 _After all, I don't want to wake anyone from their nappy time. They would just get in the way here._

She waited.

 _How long until that guy found us last time, anyway? It was right past the gate, right?_

"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Sparkle, looking around.

"Here, Shatra, Shatra, Shatra! Come out and play... you monkey. Come on, I dare you. Where are you anyway? Hello?" She lowered her sword. "This stinks. You don't think he bravely ran away, away, do you?"

"Maybe to get some more of his half-demon buddies, or warn the king something that looked like you was strolling in past the front... what's that?"

Something came bouncing out of the darkness towards Susan, and thunked against her legs. She almost jumped away from it, but she was sure this kingdom hadn't developed gunpowder or anything like that without anyone noticing. She looked down at it...

It was Sativola's head.

"Oh, come on!" she shouted to the figure that stepped into her line of sight. He was holding another head, Kelder's, and had his sword drawn and ready. She gestured with a free hand, like she couldn't believe he had done that. "Seriously?"

"What?" said the Shatra. "You didn't expect me to just charge at you first, did you? Not even I'm that dumb. You should be thankful, you get to get ahead in life... twice in one night!" He started to laugh like he had told the best "that's what she said" joke ever.

Susan screamed in frustration as the magic took hold of her again, and once more her friends were standing there with her.

" _I died again?!"_ shrieked Sativola.

" _I got killed that time?!"_ shrieked Kelder right next to her. " _You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"_

Susan sighed. _This is going to be a long night._

 _Man,_ The Darkness said, wistful, _never have I so wished for hands as I have tonight. I can't figure out if I should do a slow clap or get some popcorn for the show._

 _Shut up!_


	79. Chapter 79

79

If at First you Don't Succeed...

Place: Still in front of the gate

Time: Still just about sunset

"Wait a second," reasoned Susan, looking at Sativola. "You got killed?"

"Yeah, we've been over this," replied Sativola.

"Hey demon, yeah, you in the talisman! Get out here!"

The stone in the talisman glowed, and Sativola lifted the chain so it was not under her blouse anymore.

"You called?" it asked, suddenly before them.

"Yeah, why didn't you protect her? She's your master, right, and protecting her is the whole point of your existence now. I'm getting that right, aren't I?"

"Protect her from what?" he asked honestly, looking around. "She hasn't been attacked. You've just been standing around here gibbering on about getting killed, but it never happened."

"You- But that's-"

"He wasn't included in the spell," remarked Sparkle. "He's technically just a piece of jewelry when he's not out."

"I guess you're right. Fine, go back again."

"What? I just got out! Isn't there something I can beat up before then? I'm bored!"

"You want to take the Shatra?"

"Shatra? There's one of those freaks still wandering around? I'll see you later." He was gone.

"Coward."

"Even true demons flee before them?" asked Kelder. "And I will be reporting a witch has a _sorcerous_ talisman that houses a _demonologists'_ workings."

"You won't, if you know what's good for you... apprentice."

"Are you threatening me?"

Susan slowly leaned over, eyes narrowed. He leaned back, a little scared. "Yes."

He swallowed. "Oh, right, I kind of thought so, just- just making sure. Uh, yes, carry on then. Man, having someone around that doesn't fear the guild is _hard."_

"Tough it out, big guy. Anyway, what happened? Think he just killed you too fast for the demon to react?"

"I don't know," insisted Sativola. "One minute I remember walking, the next I was dead, and then I was back here."

"Super. Well, you two are staying as far back as you can when that gate opens again. Getting you killed three times in one night would truly border on the excessive."

"Just the once was more than I cared to experience," she muttered.

Susan turned back to regard the gate. "We need a new plan. I may just have to bust in there as per my usual MO. Draw the thing out so he doesn't go looking for you two. Not that he knows you exist at the moment, of course. But he could have some weird senses, and that's why he knew you were around." She absentmindedly fingered her _Wizard Bracelet._ "I just wish there was some way I could be sure and not kill any of them!"

"Why not _Knockout?"_ suggested Sparkle.

"Yeah, I could do a _Burst_ or five, but that takes energy. It's bright, noisy, and if it doesn't hit them just right they could take multiple hits and still sound an alarm. I figure I better save my energy for these half-demon things running around."

"Please don't say you think there's more than one," Sativola breathed, aghast.

"Me, I'm the kind that plans for the worst," Susan explained. "I mean, it would be quite silly to think otherwise, am I right?"

"I guess."

"There is still one way," ventured Sparkle, looking thoughtful. "It's somewhat of a risk, but maybe we want an alarm raised in any case. Get as many soldiers here as they have, take them all out, and finish this quickly. Then you won't have to fight your way through the castle, or the streets. All the soldiers will have fallen here, at the gate."

"Go on, oh faithful _companion,"_ prompted Susan.

" _Elemental Weapon._ Wouldn't that be perfect for you? You can swing as hard as you want, use _Slash-All_ , and after you cast it you just have a weapon in your hand, so it's not bright or loud."

"And it can't carry over into lethal damage!" Susan exclaimed, having gotten her book out and opened to the spell. "That is perfect. I take out everyone near the border, then when Mr. Halfsy shows up, I drop that spell, pull out my blade 'o fire and doom and cut him to shreds. I like it."

"And it does double damage," Sparkle reminded her. "Yes, you lose one third in the end, but with your _Giant's Soul_ don't you do insane amounts even taking that into consideration?"

"That I do. Okay, give me a minute guys, I want to look something over, see if I'm spending 5 XP for a new spell right now _(she has six currently)_ or just losing some spells I don't use anymore."

She happily got out her character sheet and started looking her spells over, leaving the other two pondering where she pulled that from. (And indeed, what she was actually talking about anyway)

She was about to turn it over when she noticed something new in the "Notes" section on the front. Apparently, she had gained six "warlock energy" and the Calling would take place when she failed a RESolve check, difficulty 5 + 1/1000 of this energy total. _Hey, that makes sense. If a normal human became a warlock, they could easily fight off the compulsion at the ten level, and that's five thousand energy collected from warlocky. Even someone with a normal RESolve and a little energy can hit fifteen rather often, right? No wonder it takes twenty years for a warlock to be Called, they would have high RESolves because they don't want to be called, and thus raising that stat despite the expense. If it even works that way for them, but I suppose there must be some way to do. Anyway, guess I don't have to worry about not using it, it'll take a_ long _time to fail my 2d10 + 10 check!_

She flipped it over, now looking at the notes section on the "back page" where her spells were recorded.

 _Thinking about it now, my spell list is a little out of date. I've been focusing too much on physical combat, I guess. Like_ Alleviation. _I have the knife for that, what would I possibly spend ten minutes casting that for? Do I need both_ Light _and_ Darksight? _Sparkle knows_ Regeneration, _why would I need to know it? And then there's_ Autonomous Assistant. _I remember using that way back, to do chores around the house for me. Because magic! Would I need that spell on the road?_

 _I guess now that I think about it, having a person sized "ghost" I can call up from nowhere could be fun. Like I could send it to wreak havoc in the area beyond the gate, moving things around and making the solders believe the place was haunted. They couldn't attack it, after all. What to do..._

 _I only used_ Path Tracer _once, thought it would come in more handy. That I could do from the book, it's only grade three! And_ Scribe, _that's grade two and not useful now that I don't need to take notes anymore in class._

Susan quickly looked over her skill section. _Have to get rid of my pistol skill, I don't have that gun anymore! Wonder what else I can... anyway, first things first._

She willed _Scribe_ and _Path Tracer_ off her character sheet, effectively "forgetting" how to cast them, and now had 5 XP to learn another spell with. She spent a few minutes going over _Elemental Weapon,_ cast as a Neptune spell so it would be made of "solid" _Knockout._ That done, she cast the spell, boosting her skill to a ten so it could cut anything. _Not that I expect to run into anything it can't cut around here._ It took the form of an enormous sword, like the ones she saw Cloud swinging around. _After all, I've got the STRength to lift it, may as well go as gaudy and flashy as possible._

 _Not to mention ludicrous,_ put in The Darkness.

 _You're right, there was no need to mention it._

"All right. You two, hang back someplace way over there until I signal you." Susan waved her hand vaguely in the direction of the town. "Sparkle, you can handle the _Anchor_ again, but don't bother with _Smog._ This time these guys are going to _know_ they are under attack."

"Your call. I'll back you up if something tries to sneak up on you though. Even you aren't invincible. Oh, but I will put on _Acceleration._ Wait, let me activate this first, just in case something else goes wrong, we'll return to this point before we activated stuff. Save us the energy."

"Good point." Susan waited while she did, then said " _Augment Skill, Invulnerability,"_ as she activated two of her charms. " _Slash-All, Speed Up!"_ she also cried, activating her _Materia._ "That should do it."

Susan once again _Unlocked_ the gate, and this time met with cries of alarm as soldiers scrambled to keep it closed.

 _I don't think so, boys,_ she thought, getting a 32 on her STRength check and sending them all flying back. _Actually, now that I think about it, there were a lot of people put to sleep around here before. Is the border usually this well guarded, or did they increase the number of people around here because I tested the gate earlier and lit up their little detection sphere up there? Oh well, who cares now?_

Susan stepped past the gate, where the waiting soldiers squinted at her, unable to believe their eyes.

"What's the meaning of this!" demanded someone with a fancier breastplate, walking up to her.

"I'm declaring war on your kingdom," she told him. "Surrender or bring me to the person who can."

He stared at her a moment, then burst out laughing. "Okay, who put her up to this?" he called, turning around. "Kelder, was that you? Get out here you guys, I want to know who did this!"

 _Kelder again?_

He was still laughing and looking around when Susan flipped the grip on her sword so she was holding it overhanded rather than under. With it held up she made a called shot to his body and slammed the blade through his back. Her attack easily bypassed the +8 bonus the armor provided to keep him from being hit, sliding cleanly through his entire body. (The blade was huge, after all, no joke.) This did forty eight damage to him, and he didn't even whimper as the blade knocked him out. He crumpled, and every soldier there fully believed the somewhat cute girl everyone thought was a joke had somehow, impossibly, killed their captain. From behind, like a coward. In one attack, like a monster. Without remorse, also like a monster.

Reason went out the window.

They charged. (Well, most of them, he wasn't universally liked, of course. In fact he wasn't very well liked at all, but he was the captain so he should be avenged, right?)

Susan smiled, dropping into a crouch, as she again shifted her grip on the blade. As the soldiers got near she rolled _Initiative,_ and struck _._

As with the wolves in the world with Nita, she did a called shot to the body of each man, rolling an eighteen for the action. Of the six currently rushing her, two managed a complete dodge, which Susan had to admit was rather impressive. _Not that they should get one at all, given they've never seen anything like me, or this attack, before._ The others seemed to have a ghostly sword impact their armor, which hardly slowed them down. Of the six, only one went down, with just enough damage to render him unconscious.

 _Great, as it impacted their armor, and it's technically trying to target the spirit, they don't even have to make STRength checks to remain standing. As much damage as I would have done to the armor, had this been anything but_ Knockout, _probably would have blown it off. As this only damages people, they're all unhurt. And it didn't even feel like they were attacked, I bet._ She sighed. _And I really wanted to conserve energy..._

 _Ugh, I'm so stupid! I can pluck energy from their comatose bodies later, I don't need to conserve it._

Those still running got another step forward before Susan swung again, this time putting energy into COOrdination in order to hit better. A more pleasing twenty six was achieved this time, and again they tried to dodge. None managed it, and this time all but one man went sprawling, to his great surprise. He pulled up short and regarded her.

"So, is it your great speed that gives you the confidence to believe you can take over our entire kingdom?" he asked, keeping his sword up in a guard position.

"Speed? Oh, you think- not just that, no. Though I am pretty proud of my speed, why do you ask?"

"I just wondered if you could dodge arrows?"

"Arrows?"

That's when the rain of arrows hit her from behind, as the soldiers on the platforms above her opened fire.

Of course, with _Invulnerability_ going they bounced harmlessly off, leaving the swordsman's mouth hanging open.

"Why would I need to?" she asked, swinging her blade as she swung in a circle. As she did she noted the positions of the archers on the walls so the swing could target them, which it did. Another ten energy used, and she got a thirty two to hit them all in the body. (There were seven in range) Their maximum roll was a thirty three, and again only one was left standing, an archer at the limit of her range.

He gave a shriek of terror, flung his bow into the air, and did a runner out of sight along the platform.

More arrows struck her from the slits in the walls before her, and she wondered if just knowing someone was there was enough to target them with _Slash-All._ She shrugged, decided not to experiment at the moment, and sent a sixteen meter radius " _Elemental Burst: Knockout"_ starting at what she considered the middle of the barricade lines. (She got a fifteen _Magic Combat_ to get the distance right.)

No more arrows were sent her way, so she casually strolled over to the nearest fallen man and cast _Energy Drain_ on him. She got three actions worth of energy before the Shata casually stepped into her field of view again.

"They were right to station me here tonight, it seems," he remarked, looking the bodies over. "Odd though, they don't seem dead." He tossed the man he had been holding by the neck roughly to the ground, where he sprawled like bad rag doll physics in a first person shooter game. "What's the matter, can't handle a little blood?"

"Oh, I was saving the bloodletting for you," she replied, letting go of the sword and causing it to vanish.

"You're going to fight me with your bare hands?" it asked, amused.

"As much as I owe you a beating, no, I was just getting out my other sword."

"Do I know you? And what other sword, I see you carry no other. Though where did the one you dropped go?"

"Aren't you just a Curious George? I'll make you deal- I'll tell you if you win. _Blade."_

With that, her _Crystal Sword_ came into her waiting hand, and she charged the creature before it could register much surprise. With her current speed of twenty four it was going to take her one segment to reach him, which gave a being as fast as he was plenty of time to bring his blade up. This, again, had taken on an odd glow from the sphere set by the guard. (Her reach was greater, now being a plus one size modifier, so while he was five meters away, she only needed to be within two meters to hit him.) Her only real concern was that glowing orb.

 _Just a smaller version of the one on the gate, or does that give his sword special properties?_

She didn't want to take the time to do _Magic Sense,_ figuring she would just take whatever he dished out, and strike him back without bothering to dodge. That should cut him down, making the point moot.

They struck each other at the same time, both hitting as neither bothered to dodge. Susan felt his blade bite through her armor but didn't do more than nick her body, while her blade easily sliced through his left leg by doing fifty one damage. (This was only four more than the attack needed, so it was actually quite close) Amazingly, he remained conscious even as he screamed and went down.

"I'll kill you!" he promised.

"You don't even have a leg to stand... oh wait, you do. Shall I fix that for you?" She raised her sword again.

"I won't give you the satisfaction," he snarled, and plunged his sword into his own chest. "Die," he managed, ripping the blade through his body.

Susan stepped back, surprised.

"How am I going die when you've killed yourself?" she asked his corpse. She looked at him from both sides, wondering if he had another form he was going to take, but no, he was quite dead. She reached for his sword, wondering if it was better than her own, when she noticed a whine in the air, and the body started to glow.

 _Okay, that can't be-_

The world disappeared in fire, and Susan stumbled and fell as the ground beneath her feet slagged with an astonishing ninety one damage. In fact, everything up to seven meters out, including people, the walls, the ground, even the air took this much damage. Susan couldn't even make a _Gymnastics_ check as she fell 3.5 meters as the ground simply disappeared underneath her, the flame too intense to see through. It cleared in seconds, leaving her staring up at the sky and thankful she was immune to fire in this form.

"Susan!" came several voices a moment later, and she saw the heads of her friends peaking over the new hole in the ground. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she shouted back, getting up. "What's it look like up there?"

"You better see for yourself!"

Climbing back out, Susan did just that. The glowing sword was gone, she figured at least several people were dead, that one the Shatra had thrown down at the very least. _And after all those pains to keep them all alive._ "We'll have to reset, try something else," she said sadly. "Those people don't deserve to die just because I beat up a Shatra."

"You better do it fast," said Kelder, "I hear people coming to see what that explosion was."

"You sure?" asked Sparkle. "You'll have to do that all again."

Susan nodded. "We'll find some other way. Maybe I can just _Knockout_ him, too?"

"You got it, boss."

Without another word the night was as it had been a second after Sparkle had activated the spell.

"So what happened?" asked Kelder.

"I wish I knew. I sliced his leg off, he fell over, stabbed himself in the chest, and foom, fireball city."

"Never heard of Shata exploding like that. They were supposed to be expert fighters, and much faster than a man, but that's all they had going for them."

"We could ask a demonologist, I suppose," said Sativola. "Do you think it was the sword that made him do that?"

"He hit me with it, and I didn't burst into flames. Of course, I'm immune to fire so maybe that's it?"

The three looked at each other, none having any answers.

"Was he immune to fire though, that's the real question," posed Sparkle. "If it was the blade, and if hitting someone makes them explode like that, you have to imagine he would be."

"Right, it would be too dangerous to use otherwise. But man, he couldn't use it except when he was fighting alone, he would roast any allies!"

"He's a demon, you think he cares about allies?" asked Kelder.

"Oh, you've got a point. Look, let's call it a night. We can attack tomorrow or something, this just isn't working and we need to think of a new strategy."

"I'm sure we can find an inn somewhere," said Sativola. "Come on."

That night, Susan worked on remaking the few _Spell Papers_ she had used, and asked _Question_ if the sword of the Shatra she had fought hitting something caused it to burst into flames. She got back a "no" answer, and wondered exactly what _had_ caused the man to expire in such a dramatic fashion. With that done she stripped off her clothes and fell into bed.

"How goes it?" asked the wizard in her dream.


	80. Chapter 80

80

Not Expecting Her

Time: About an hour after Susan fell asleep

Place: Susan's Dream

Susan looked around, not understanding how she had come here. The room was unfurnished, uniformly lit without torches or lights, and didn't seem to be quite real. In a flash, she realized why.

"Dream magic," she said, looking over at the wizard. It was a man she had seen before, but of course she didn't know his name. He had been there during the talks in her _Dimension,_ which made sense. _He would need to have seen me to use the magic to get into my dreams, of course._

"Ah, you're familiar. Good, that saves some time. So, is everything all right?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Our wardings indicated some rather odd magic going on in your vicinity, but we couldn't trace it afterwards. So we figured we would ask, make sure nothing too serious was going on."

"Do you call Shata serious?"

"Shatra? What, there? Impossible!"

"Tell that to him. My two companions seem terrified of him, and whatever he is, he isn't human. Looks it though, so what else could he be?"

"Perhaps you better start at the beginning."

So Susan told him about the wall around the kingdom, and the barrier it was generating. Also how she had attacked the gate several times that night and lastly how he had killed himself rather than allow Susan to kill him, and exploded afterwards.

"I've never heard of a Shatra exploding in flame, especially one that burned hot enough to melt the ground that far out. Troubling, very troubling. Of course there's a lot we don't know about them, and why should we? They were all killed a long time ago and we thought the method for creating them had been lost."

"Apparently not. Unless this one has just been alive ever since then?"

"Possible, I suppose. We don't know how long they would have lived, either. Well, as far as him exploding upon death, did it happen immediately?"

Susan considered. "No, I would say there was maybe a two second delay? I was _Accelerated_ with magic at the time and I was out of combat time so it's tough to say."

"Combat... time? Anyway, the solution seems clear to me. Just fling the body skyward with your warlockly. You do have a warlock's magic, don't you?"

"I do, but I've been hesitant to use it. For obvious reasons."

"Still, using it for this won't be harmful to you."

"I guess. I'll have to try it beforehand, see if I can actually lift a man sized object with it. If not I can use my magic, I know a similar spell. Anyway, that's for me to plan."

"If you even wish to continue," he said, holding a palm up.

"Why wouldn't I? You guys did give me a mission, and I plan to see it through. I've not gotten anywhere close to the castle yet."

"But you've proven something is going on there, which is what we wanted. This barrier and a Shatra running around... both add up to one thing."

"But they won't let you into the kingdom, and they'll know you're coming because of that jewel thing at the gate. Sure, you could force the issue, but not as well as I can. And they obviously have wizards on their side, even if they aren't allowed inside, to maintain the wall."

"True. Well, if you're determined to see it through I won't stop you. Just stay safe."

"Of course."

"Let us know if the guild can help at all, you can get back to us easier than we can get back to you."

"True. I'll let you know."

"Good night."

In the morning, Susan and Sparkle talked strategy for what they wanted to try that day.

"Why not just use your favorite, the _Hypnotic Pattern?"_ asked Sparkle. "It seems to me that he probably exploded with a force equal to his energy total. If you just drained his energy, that explosion might not even happen!"

"True. I thought about it, but honestly, that feels cheap."

"Cheap? Whatever keeps you alive in combat, that's what you do, right?"

"Normally, yes. But the thing is, remember our goal- rescue my father. He's supposedly more powerful than me, right? I mean you traveled with him..."

"True. He had the staff, and other backgrounds you don't. He probably had roughly the same number of spells memorized, and he copied the book before he left it with you. So we can assume he's more powerful now than when I left him."

"So I need to be _better,_ rather than just more powerful, is my thinking. That means learning how to fight, and probably without magic. Given that if my father wasn't trapped in some dead magic zone, he would have already busted out."

"I can accept that. But doesn't that just mean raising your _Sword: Slashing_ skill?"

Susan shook her head. "That's how I _attack,_ not how I _fight._ I need to be in many different kinds of battles, so I have experience fighting, not the XP kind. Being in different situations, working through problems, that's what I need most right now. On my world I just powered through people because my magic was so superior to theirs. They didn't use weapons, and I could become immune to anything they threw at me. Out here there are more weird powers and different ways to attack me, I can't possibly anticipate them all. I mean exploding when you die- where did _that_ come from?"

 _Pokémon?_ asked The Darkness.

She scowled and ignored him. "Anyway, I didn't consider it and look what happened? I should have thrown him into the air just to be safe. But I didn't, I stood there with a dumb look on my face wondering what was going on. If I hadn't been immune to fire, or if he exploded with ice or something, that would have been the end of me. I need to get better at acting in the moment, and anticipating powers I've never encountered before."

Sparkle nodded. "You do well on the planning stuff, at least when you know what you're up against."

"And now I know. Let's think of a way to get rid of that guy and not have him explode a bunch of innocent townspeople."

"Is just throwing him in the air the solution?"

"There's no spell to seal him off, like a reverse _Shell._ That just makes a barrier centered on the caster. I need one with range M rather than range P. Probably grade seven though, forget it. Though a grade 2 version that can move, and be enough to keep off rain or snow..." She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "The point is, what do we know and have now, without learning anything new, that can work? Do I just hit him with _Knockout?"_

"We can't assume he won't explode just from going unconscious though, think of _Spell Trigger._ If he set something like that up, to explode his enemy when he couldn't fight anymore... heck, he could be immune to fire too, and never planned on dying in a one on one fight. That was just a precaution in case he got knocked out, and he just happened to use it that way!"

"Shoot, that actually makes a lot of sense. Oh, what if I _Phased_ him after he died?! I'm immune to fire, it would pass through everything without hurting it."

"That could work. I could also be flying overhead and you could just _Transpose_ me with him when he died."

"I'd get a better bonus doing it that way, from having _Acceleration_ up. I could cast it faster. Yeah, that's certainly an option."

"Here's another- _Elemental Line: Pluto (Ether)._ He can't succeed on a RESolve check if he's dead. So he's guaranteed to get shoved into insubstantiality when hit."

"That stuff ignores armor, too, doesn't it?"

Sparkle nodded. "Yup. It's only useful in a handful of situations, and I forget exactly why I picked that spell up in particular."

"Some sort of crowd control maybe? Cutting down on the number of enemies we might have to fight? It must have been before I got _Slash-All."_

"Yeah. Maybe when we go back to the Hub I'll take a good look at my spells, maybe rearrange them a bit."

"I was thinking that exact thing last night! Weird. Okay, do that. I'd rather not be next to him if I can help it, even if I am immune to fire. Seeing blast coming towards me was not fun. It went fast, so even _Accelerated_ it wasn't in slow motion or anything, but I knew it was going to hit me."

"Got it. So how are we getting in? Waiting until nightfall again?"

"No, let's just do this."

" _Overconfident,_ huh?"

Susan winked. "You know it."

So Susan used another _Time Anchor_ and the group went out to "sneak" into the kingdom again. This time, Susan had her flaming sword in her left hand, the sword of _Knockout_ in her right. She still had all the spells from the night before going, like _Invulnerability_ , and again there was a commotion at the gate.

"I am declaring war upon your kingdom," Susan repeated, having really liked the sound of it the night before. "Open this gate and defend it."

"But if we don't open it," called the captain from the other side, "we don't have to defend it. That's the whole point." The other soldiers nearby, and at the top of the wall, shouted their appreciation for this logic. They believed that even this giant of a creature couldn't breach their walls, and in security was confidence.

Susan had to admit that _was_ a good point. She couldn't batter the gate down, it was no doubt as resistant to attack as the stones in the wall. And her hands were full of swords, and it would look bad to drop one to open something as simple as an iron gate. But she hadn't used her warlock abilities in a while, so she looked the gate over.

 _Wait, is it really worth it?_ she asked herself. _Eh, it can't hurt, right?_

She could see, in a way she didn't really understand, the inner locking mechanism that secured the gate. _I wouldn't be able to do this with_ Telekinesis _magic,_ she thought, twisting it with warlocky. _I couldn't see it that way. But when I draw on this power, I can. How weird is that?_

With the lock twisted (and broken so it couldn't be relocked) the spikes that drove the gate into the ground retracted and Susan was able to shove it aside before the surprised guards could react. That was two uses of the power, and she was now up by two energy and feeling good. _But I can't start to rely on it in combat, as I'll only have it on this world._

 _Not necessarily,_ countered The Darkness.

 _What do you mean- no, never mind, I have these soldiers to take care of at the moment._

 _Suit yourself, just remember to ask me about it later._

 _Sure, sure._

Susan again easily tore through the regular soldiers, keeping an eye out for the big guy, but standing there draining energy from the downed men, he didn't appear.

 _Not on duty?_ she wondered.

"What's that?" asked Sparkle, and Susan looked to find her pointing with a paw. She looked down that way, and floating towards her was a curious looking woman. She was tiny and unarmored, in fact she wasn't wearing much of anything apart from rags. These rags didn't seem tied around her or secured in any way, but they clung to her body as though glued there. The only ornamentation she carried were two bracelets and a choker, the bracelets set with blue stones, the choker with green. Her eyes were also covered with a cloth, so Susan figured she was blind or saw though some other, magical means. Her long, white hair billowed out behind her, and she seemed to bob almost lazily towards where Susan had been fighting. She was almost the size of a child, as close to being a -1 size modifier as the big guy she had fought the night before was to being a +1. The area around her seemed to fall a bit quieter at her approach, and she stopped, hovering, a few meters from where Susan was standing.

She put her hand out and the sword came back into her grasp, becoming sheathed in fire again. "I expected the big guy," she said, "don't tell me they made woman Shatra as well?"

The figure put a finger to her lips as though inside a library, and said nothing.

"You are a Shata, right? Not just some weird, floating woman?"

Again, there was no reply.

"ANSWER ME!" Susan shouted, and was shocked to find the woman darting towards her much faster than she would have thought possible, hands catching her two hands so she couldn't easily swing her swords. Her legs went around her waist, locking together and the woman smiled, looking quite beautiful.

Susan tried to take a breath to say "Oh, you want to fight, huh?" but found to her amazement she couldn't breathe, and that was going to be a problem.

As she didn't have much air in her lungs, she was treated as suffocating immediately, meaning every five segments she took a nonlethal point of damage to the head. Not much concern in the short term, given her ENDurance of eight, but somewhat embarrassing if she needed to reset again because of it.

She rolled _Initiative_ and started her counterattack.

She couldn't exactly slam this woman into the ground with _Wrestling,_ she was still floating, Susan couldn't feel any weight on her despite the woman grabbing her. But she could rip her way free and dodge back again, get her breath back. _I'll just shove her like I did the pirates, that will break her hold on me and give me some 'breathing' room._ She contemptuously made a STRength check to tear away from the woman's hands, but was astonished when the gems in the woman's bracelets glowed brightly, and she failed to pull away.

 _I just failed a STRength check? Impossible!_

But it was possible, and Susan's delay went up by two for the action. _Fine,_ she thought, _I'll just do magic._ The woman did nothing but stare it her, that grin on her face which now seemed a little creepier.

"..." Susan said, trying to cast _Phase_ to get away. But no words came out, and as she hadn't tried to cast non-verbally the spell didn't even go off.

 _Fine, have it your way._

Sparkle, meanwhile, was waiting for her to do something, having a Paragon's awareness of the two actions she had taken. _I think something might seriously be wrong! Can't use_ Line _it might hit her, but there is something I can do._

She took to the sky, having cast _Flight_ on herself earlier as part of the "get the exploding guy away from the town" plan earlier. She came down on the woman's head, and she couldn't exactly dodge as she held onto Susan. "Elemental Touch: Kn-" Just as she went to touch the woman her voice got cut off, and the spell fizzled.

 _Oh, that's why! Crap!_

Susan took her first non-lethal to the head, an unpleasant experience, and decided to just throw energy into something, as usual. _After all, I have plenty of downed soldiers to pick from to get it back. In fact, that gives me an idea._

She wordlessly cast _Transposition,_ aiming at a nearby soldier, and putting in maximum energy. Even taking no time, her penalty of -2 for not saying the words still put her minimum result at a twelve, and her difficulty was an eleven. She was rather surprised when that didn't work either.

 _Now what? Oh, right, I need to gesture to do magic, too. It's so automatic I don't even think about it most of the time, I've never really done a physical spell while having both hands pinned. Expect for that one time I was pinned under those slabs of rock back with Nita. And I used_ Phase _for that. Guess it's_ Phase _after all._

Sparkle went at the same time, rising above the woman and shouting down " _Thrust,"_ intending to break her hold by driving her into the ground. The magic hit her with a twenty two result, but the gems simply glowed again and she held on doggedly.

 _Okay, what?_

Her next action, Susan got an eighteen on _Phase,_ and the woman dropped away from her. She took in a relieved breath, then shouted "Don't let her touch you!" up to Sparkle.

Sparkle cocked her head, it looked like Susan was saying something, but certainly she remembered that after using the _Phase_ spell, which she had obviously just used, no one else not _Phased_ could hear her.

In any case, the woman tried again and again to grab onto Susan, but simply passed through. She seemed to be silently screaming in rage.

Sparkle could now cast _Line_ without fear of hitting Susan, so she did. " _Elemental Line: Wind_ ," she cast, doing it instantly and relying on her bonus from _Acceleration_ to make up the difference.

The woman easily dodged it, flying up to grab Sparkle who had just screamed something at her.

Sparkle saw her coming, and outdistanced her, flying across the line again, hoping the woman would be stupid enough to follow her. The woman got a twenty one on her _perception_ check to see the line, and a seventeen to reason out it might not be a good idea to touch it, and started heading around.

(In her haste, Sparkle had completely forgotten that flying creatures were immune to the _Line_ anyway. Whoops!)

Susan dropped out of _Phase,_ nearly swung with her left hand to cut the woman down with her real sword, but made a REAson check of twenty to realize that might be The Darkness trying to influence her. She switched to the other, not wanting to kill this woman who, for all she knew, had been implanted with this demon against her will.

 _Really rather have_ Long Range _going for this, rather than_ Slash-All. _Oh well, it'll work out._

Except it didn't, she got a thirteen to hit while this was one from the woman's minimum to dodge, and she got a sixteen which was still a terrible result given her stats. _Shoot, she's a slippery one, isn't she? Putting more energy into COOrdination then? Check._

She went again, doing just that and getting a twenty seven. This time she connected, belatedly realizing she should have done a called shot, as usual. It didn't matter, in the end, as she hit the body for twenty six damage and the woman fell out of the sky without a sound. She didn't even thump as she impacted the dirt below, and Susan hastily called to Sparkle. "Get higher up!"

"Right!"

Susan waited a few segments, somewhat ironically holding her breath, then cast _Transposition_ again, switching the two.

She shaded her eyes, expecting an explosion. What she got was the poor woman's body going **splat** on the ground, again making no noise.

"Oh," said Susan, "I guess that's just when they die?"

"Don't look at me. What are we going to do with her now?"

Susan thought a moment. "Actually... I have an idea."


	81. Chapter 81

81

Blending In

Place: Just inside the gate

Time: Just then

"We have to move fast. You still have energy, right?" asked Susan.

"Yeah, some. What do you have in mind?"

"You'll see. Come on."Susandragged the unconscious woman with her using _Telekinesis_ as she backed out of the area. She had to get out of the kingdom so her _Teleportal_ magic would work again, which she did.

"I'll be right back," she said to Kelder and Sativola. "Stay out of sight but keep close, I think I can get us all inside when I get back!"

She opened a hole in the air, and stepped through. "Can I get a little help here?" she called, after dropping the transport spell. She dumped the body on the table and stuck her head into the hallway, where she told the young boy that was walking through with a book she needed to see Ithinia the Wizard, and that he would bring her here, no arguments!

The boy, conditioned to obey, hurried off to see what he could do, and moments later she appeared through the door.

"Who is that?" she asked, taking in the scene.

"A Shatra, I think," Susan replied.

"And you brought her here?" shrieked Ithinia, grabbing her knife out of its sheath. "Wait, her? There's no such thing as a... Who is this?" She lowered the knife, walking forward and looking the woman over.

"Well, she could float around, silence with a touch, and when she was holding onto me I couldn't breathe or get free. You know anything but one of your half-demon friends that can do all that?"

"But that's not a Shatra! A Shatra is a combat demon, a man!"

"Really?" asked Susan icily. "A woman can't be a fighter?"

She sputtered. "Maybe it's different where you come from-"

Susan waved that away. "Never mind that. Do you have any sort of holding cells for dangerous people? We need to stick her in one."

"What in the name of all the gods for?"

"A bunch of reasons, actually. First, I'm not just going to kill her in cold blood, I learned a non-lethal spell to not seriously hurt anyone there. Second, I'm taking her place, so she'll need to be gone from the area. Third, I thought perhaps you might like to, I don't know, see if the demon inside her can be removed and she can go back to being just a person again?"

The wizard shook her head. "As far as I know the process is irreversible."

"But you've not really studied it?"

"That's true. I suppose we should make some attempt. And you say you're going to replace her?"

"Yup. You want to hide in the ocean, you have to look like a fish!"

"I suppose. Come along then."

Susan hefted her with magic (just touching her, she had discovered, caused her to be unable to breathe) and followed. She floated her into the waiting cell, and gently lowered her to the ground. "Actually, she took a pretty nasty fall so she may need medical treatment. I didn't want to do any healing on her, because that would wake her up. Now, let's see here..." She did a _Magic Sense,_ getting a sixteen, enough to sense the magic in the choker and two bracelets. She took them off, carrying them with her out of the cell.

"You want to heal her now?" asked Ithinia. "I'd feel more comfortable with you around, if she gets out of hand. Plus, don't you want to ask her some questions about the place?"

Susan shook her head. "No time. Don't want to be gone too long, the soldiers will start waking up. Plus, she didn't make a single sound the whole time I was fighting her. I don't think we'll get much out of her. No, use whatever healing magic you have, and have a bunch of wizards with materials ready in case she tries to escape. I _think_ these bracelets had something to do with her STRength before, it felt like my own STRength was being reflected back at me. Without them, she shouldn't be nearly as strong." _I hope._

"Sorcery," said Ithinia with a grimace. "Who can say what sort of power they have? We'll get an expert in right away to take a look at them."

"Great. I'll be back as soon as I can, but I doubt she'll give you much trouble. I'm heading back, see you later."

One casting later, and Susan was again at the border of the kingdom of Reldamon.

"There's some commotion over there," said Sativola. "Whatever you're doing, you better do it quick."

"Don't worry." Susan put _Invisibility_ on herself, then dragged two soldiers out when no one was looking. She brought them back to the other's hiding spot, then drained their energy. "That's better," she sighed. "Now, you two, strip!" She started taking her clothes off as well.

"You like to get people's clothes off, don't you?" Sativola asked suspiciously.

Kelder was tightly closing his eyes.

"You better believe it. Now, if you want to come with me, you'll do as I say. You two are going to be _Shape-shifted_ into these two guards. You'll put on their clothes, and we'll march back in there. This way, no one should attack us anymore and we can get to the castle."

"Oh," said Sativola. "But, they're guys."

"So? Never been a guy before? It'll be a good experience for you. Now hurry up, we've been gone too long already!"

"Who are you going to be?"

"I'm going to be the Shatra, of course. Come on, come on!"

Reluctantly, the two stripped down and figured out how to take the armor off the two unconscious soldiers. While they did that, Susan reloaded the _Spell Symbols_ she had used, making sure the most useful spells for what she figured she would be facing next were loaded into her bracelet. That done, she had Sparkle cast _Shape-Shift_ on all of them, while they all held the image of what they wanted to turn into in their minds. Quickly donning the armor, Kelder and Sativola were now the spitting image of the two soldiers they had looted.

"Wait a minute, how come you get those rags but we had to put on these clothes?" protested Kelder, looking her over. "Couldn't we have just looked like them in armor?"

"I'm still technically naked," she explained. "I'm just in the shape of that woman, in rags. I figured you two would not want to walk about the kingdom naked, even if it looked like you were wearing something. And besides, the armor could come in handy. I'm not exactly happy with it myself-"

 _Liar._

"But no one should look twice at a Shatra, if they know what's good for them. Right?"

"Can we just get this over with?" asked Sativola.

"Okay." Susan shoved the whole ball of clothes into her _Pocket Dimension,_ then took to the sky with _Flight._

"I'll be nearby," said Sparkle, "just act natural, okay?"

"I don't know what's natural for a soldier in this kingdom!"

"Just look like you belong. And don't talk to me, I won't be able to make any nosies if I'm to stay in character. Ready? Come on."

The three went back through the gate, where fresh soldiers were trying to wake up the ones that had been taken out just moments ago by Susan. The two tried to walk with purpose, like they were looking for something, and gripped their weapons tightly. Susan floated along and tried to look uninterested.

The "kingdom" was the most run down place she had yet seen in this world, with hardly any green to be seen. There were a lot of run down looking places, people, and things, and no one gave her a second glance. _Meaning she's been floating around here long enough to not be a curiosity any more. That, or they know not to make trouble when there are "soldiers" around._ She saw many people that she assumed were living on the streets, they were dirty and basically wearing rags. _This kingdom hasn't done them any favors, and if the king is a demon, it's not hard to guess why._

She led them around in circles for some time, given her _No Sense of Direction_ weakness, but finally the castle came into view. She paused, found a place behind some houses that seemed deserted, and made her way over there. The others followed.

"I'm heading for the castle, and they'll probably let me in," she explained. "I'll see how far I can get before I get stopped, and see if I can't find out what's in the dungeon or wherever the king goes. I can make you _Unseen_ again, or you can stay here."

"What did we come this far for if not to go inside?" asked... whoever that was. Susan had lost track.

"I'm just making you the offer," she explained. "The Shatra can see you, and if he starts asking why you're there and others start saying he's talking to thin air..."

"That could cause an issue," the other agreed. "You can save right here, right?"

"Oh yeah, good point, we've made it this far, it's a great time to!" Susan did so. "So you're in?"

The two looked at each other and nodded. "We're in," they said.

"Just make sure not to bump into anyone," said Sparkle, coming up behind them. "It'll be hallways inside, not big open spaces like this. Don't forget and crash into somebody."

They both nodded, and Susan got out her book, putting _Unseen_ on all three. That done she put it away again and floated into the castle.

 _Why didn't you just go in_ Unseen? asked The Darkness.

 _I want to see how people in the castle react to me. Plus I may have to open guarded doors, and that would break the spell. Well, if they were standing right in front of it, anyway._

Upon entering the castle Susan received a great deal of deference, with soldiers, noblemen, girls that were probably princess, pretty much everyone stepping to the side when they saw her floating past. Conversations stopped, and began again much lower after she passed. _So they know what I- what she is. And apparently she's seen around the castle enough to not cause any undo comment._

Susan went down any set of stairs she come to, but worried that she would walk right past any door to the basement. _After all, you wouldn't guard this side of the door, would you? No, you would just lock this side, so as not to advertise to anyone walking past that there was something to be guarded just beyond._

She need not have worried, as one of the "guards" whispered "here!" to her, looking at a door like any other. She slowly turned, but no one was in this particular hallway.

"There's a strong magic on this door!"

 _Must be nice to sense magic like I currently do_ Spirit Energy. _I have to make checks in_ Magic Sense, _it seems she just kind of picks up on stuff._

Susan tried the handle, but it was locked, so glancing to make sure she was still "alone" she cast _Unlock_ and pushed it open. There was a set of stairs heading down, and torchlight beyond, so Susan didn't bother with _Light_ or _Darksight._ She slowly floated down, and the others followed, softly closing the door.

 _Wish I knew the_ Lock _spell now, but hopefully no one will try the door anytime soon. I don't have a LUCk of nine for nothing, after all._

The group went down.

They found a simple hallway, lit by torches, and Susan heard voices up ahead. Looking down the hall there were several doors, only one of which had soldiers in front of it. The others were unguarded, so she went forward and started opening them. The two soldiers perked up at this, but apart from looking at each other confused, didn't move.

The door on the left was abuzz with activity, it looked like people doing _Imbuing_ , or at least this world's version of it. Crystals, diagrams, charts, workbenches, all manner of things were being studied, looked at, worked on, or created by men in dark clothes.

"Talismans," said one of her friends, looking past her.

"Quiet, they can probably see and hear you," whispered Susan. "They have magic!"

She nodded her head, and crept past.

The next room was just storage, and the room past that was a barracks looking place, plain with rows of beds. That just left the room at the end, and as Susan approached she could hear screams coming from within. _Yeah, this must be the place._

The guards, still uncertain, blocked her path with their weapons.

"No one is allowed in... how did you get down here, anyway?" asked the one on the right.

Susan pointed to the door, knowing if she spoke it was probably all over.

"She got down here, the king must have let her, right?" the one on the left asked the one on the right.

"But what about our orders? He would have sent written orders down with her, right?"

"You want to try stopping her if she wants to go through this door? We're expendable!"

"I guess. Heh, it's not like she's going to go tell the king on us anyway!" snorted the man. "Are you?"

She stared at him, wondering how much her original interacted. She had a brilliant idea, and put a finger to her lips like she saw the original doing.

"Yeah, yeah. Go through then." The two stepped out of the way, and Susan tried the knob.

It was locked as well.

She looked between the men, who shrugged. "We can't open the door, you crazy?" asked the one on the left. "You hear all that screaming, don't you? I don't _want_ to know what's on the other side."

She looked to the other, who raised a palm, no help there.

Susan touched the door and silently cast _Unlock_ again, making the door glow with magic.

"Hey now, what are you doing?" asked the right guy, starting to bring his weapon up again.

Susan grabbed the knob again, easily twisting it and shoving the door open. The screaming noises got louder.

"Oh, uh, okay?" He seemed torn between wanting to see what was in the room and knowing he would probably be killed if he actually did, so he faced directly away from it again. "Didn't know you could do that."

Susan ignored him, shoving the door fully open so her friends could step inside.

What she saw horrified her beyond anything she had ever witnessed.

People, all kinds of people, strapped down and thrashing. Young people. Old people. Men. Women. Some looked to be totally maniac, at the sight of the door opening they went wild, straining against their bonds. Others didn't even notice, just kept screaming in agony. All were filthy, and the smell was beyond foul. Any clothes they had been wearing were torn off long ago, and some were deformed, as if demons had been implanted into them and started to physically change their bodies. But the changes weren't complete, and those changed had no sanity left in their eyes, if eyes they had. One had scales over one half his body, another woman had four extra arms and her head looked like a spider's. Those not in agony were looking at her like they wanted nothing more than to tear her apart, and were straining against chains, ropes, and other bonds to do so. At least one person had hope in their eyes, seeming to shout "kill me, please kill me!" above the din.

In one corner of the room there was a cleared section, where a symbol was painted on the floor. Black candles, burnt almost to stubs, encircled the symbol, and parts were covered with what could only be dried blood. Knives, gems, crystals, and even more odds and ends overflowed from a shelf nearby, possibly components for whatever demon needed to be summoned for the sick experiments carried out here.

Susan's anger at the scene flared white hot in an instant.

 _The rejects, unless I miss my guess,_ remarked The Darkness. _And listen to that choir! You even hear anything like that? Astonishing what you tiny beings can accomplish if you try, isn't it? It's like a human scientist trying to make a winged pig by splicing together-_

 _Shut. Up._

 _Just making convers-_

QUIET!

 _Okay, okay._

Susan turned, looking back at her friends. One "guard" had his hands at his temples, as if trying to block out psychic pain on a scale he had never experienced. The other just looked sick. Even though her anger, Susan had to sympathize. She couldn't begin to imagine the psychic pressure her witch friend was under right now. But she knew she still had a job to do.

"Get back," she said to them, shoving them towards the door. "Sparkle, shut them up."

"Right," said Sparkle, starting to cast.

"You can talk?" asked the guard on the right, having heard her. Susan's anger flared again, and she used maximum energy to cast _Elemental Weapon_ twice, once for each hand. The surprised guards didn't stand a chance as she spent an XP for an extra action and stabbed both of them in the chest at the same time. She still had _Augment Skill_ going, and easily pierced both, doing forty four and sixty two damage, dropping them both. She let go of the blades again, and they slumped over.

"Uh..." said one of her friends.

"Not now," she replied tightly.

The screaming cut off, and the two looked over to see the room blanketed in fog. Susan knew what was happening, she just bent down and started casting _Energy Drain_ on the two soldiers. She held it probably a little longer than was probably healthy on each, but at the moment she hardly cared.

That done, the fog cleared and the room was still.

"You two," she said, looking at her friends, "stay here. See what you can learn from them, I suggest you don't wake them up, though. If you think they can be saved, fine. I do know magic to expel one being possessing another. If you think it's not a form of possession, or they are too far gone,I'll put them out of their misery later. Unless you think you're up to it."

"You'll kill them?"

Susan gazed at him, eyes hard. "Would you want to exist like that? Or let them out into the world? Or try to care for them? Huh?"

"No, but... there must be another way!"

"Then figure it out. That's your job at the moment. Sparkle, same spell, that door." She pointed down the hall where the sorcerers were working. It was far enough away not to have heard the screams or the screams ending.

"Got it. I won't be of much use to you, I'm getting pretty low."

"Stay here with them. Safer that way. Just buff me. I'll have everything I'll need before I get up those stairs."

Sparkle looked to the energy drained soldiers now lying in a heap by the door.

"Don't go overboard. Remember Professor Umbrage."

"Even she wouldn't do something like this. The king here has."

"And killing him is the answer?"

"What, you want to put him on trail? He's making abominations! Look at them!"

Sparkle was silent a moment. "I saw. Okay, just don't lose yourself up there."

"I know what I'm doing."

"I hope so."

Sparkle went to put the sorcerers down the hall to sleep, and Susan stole their energy as well, draining them dry so they didn't wake up any time soon and provide magical support with whatever talismans they had working on down here. Susan wished she could identify, maybe use some against the king, but figured it was better to stick to her own magic anyway. There were six of them, and so Susan now had three hundred energy*, and Sparkle winced when she got near.

"Feels weird," she remarked, putting _Acceleration_ on Susan.

"Feels good," countered Susan. "Bet this is how experienced warlocks around here feel."

"Just remember what happens to them."

"Ha! I could take it. See you in a few minutes."

"Good luck."

"I've got all the luck I need, right here. _Blade."_

*as a note, using the rule that only one stat can be a ten, the maximum energy a normal human can have in the Demongate High setting with the _Spirit Well_ background is 360.


	82. Chapter 82

82

Fight in the castle

Time: A moment later

Place: The top of the stairs, leading into the castle proper.

As Susan mounted the stairs her anger grew again. _How can the king have sanctioned such a thing? Does he really think he can control these shatra? Or is he the victim, somehow? Did a shatra walk into his kingdom, demand access to resources... and then go on guard duty? But there could be more going on here. I need to learn the truth about what's going on here, and to do that I need the boss to come out._

 _And I can think of no better way of doing that than doing what I do best. Mayhem extrodinare._

She reached the door and smashed it down with the sword in her left hand, again holding both so she could attack both with lethal force and with non-lethal when the situation called for it. She did thirty three damage to the door, plus another seventeen fire damage, and smashed it to pieces without issue. A maid down the hall screamed and dropped her load of sheets she had been carrying as the hulking form of Susan, gleaming armor and swords ablaze, shouldered her way past the tattered remains of the door and stared at her.

"Where's the king?" she demanded.

The maid took off running and screaming down the hallway.

 _How rude!_ exclaimed The Darkness.

 _I know, I asked so nicely too. Well, if she ran that way, the king must be this way._

Susan moved through the castle, allowing arrows to bounce her off and sticking her sword into people that got too close. She wasn't too sure, but given the fact they didn't burn to a crisp despite both her swords technically being on fire, she believed the fire was simply doing extra non-lethal damage to anyone she hit with it.

 _After all, magic, at least my kind, does seem to have a mind of its own. I mean it's quick enough to go away after the "scene" is over, how could it know that without having some connection to me? It can see I'm using a weapon designed not to kill anyone, so it modifies the effect a little. Nice of it, really._

The castle wasn't that large, but of course all the corridors confused her, as she no longer had even Sparkle to guide her. But she knew not to go down hallways where unconscious soldiers slumped, so finally she came upon a large door guarded by ranks of soldiers.

"Ah, the throne room at last!" she sighed, relieved. "Step aside and you won't be hurt!"

"Defend the king!" cried someone in back, and at least one person in the front looked back with an "are you crazy?" look and no one moved.

Susan gripped her blades and prepared to rush them, but to her surprise the doors behind her opened. Towering over the helmets was the first shatra she had seen, Mr. Exploder.

 _Crap. I kill him in here, and I could kill the king by accident. Better keep_ Phase _on standby, no Sparkle to switch with him now._

"You obviously won't be able to stop her," he said. "So move. We'll protect the king."

The soldiers seemed all too happy to follow those orders, and the shatra bowed her into the room. "Welcome. I see you found your way here. Took your time slaughtering people inside the castle though. Was it good for you?"

"They'll recover. Move." She pointed her _Crystal Blade_ at him.

"Of course, right this way." He moved off to the side, and Susan cautiously stepped past him, into the room. It was the throne room, and the king sat upon his throne back against the far wall. Keeping an "eye" on the shatra at the door with _Spirit Sense,_ so she would know if he moved, she strode over to him. Beside his chair was a man in a colorful, patchwork outfit, currently balancing on one hand. He had a very lean look to him, and he started doing one handed pushups, straight up into the air. He didn't seem that strong, but he was probably just as tall as the shatra she had left behind, who was moving around to the other side of the chair. Susan's seventeen _perception_ check also allowed her to notice the large sickle nearby, within grabbing distance of the "jester." The king seemed to be a middle aged man, dark hair and beard, golden crown, the whole works. There was something off about him, but Susan couldn't be sure of what it was. Maybe the eyes?

 _Oh yeah, the fact he has no health level above his head. Just sort of taking that for granted now, aren't I? The other two, twenty two and thirty four- what is that guy's DTR anyway? Never mind, I took his leg off once I can do it to his head. But for the king to not have health I can see? That's got to be bad news... for me._

"You've been causing quite a stir in my kingdom," he said as she approached. "You could have just made an appointment like any other supplicant. What do you want, anyway? We're a poor kingdom, as you can see. If you're looking to ransom me or my family, or raid our treasury-"

"Who is in charge here?" Susan asked over him. "I take it that's you," she said to the shatra who was now standing by the king. His hand was on his sword, but he hadn't drawn it yet. He looked surprised, not sure why she was addressing him.

The king looked over at him. "Uh, hello? King? Right here?"

"Oh, so you're going to take responsibility for what I found in your basement?"

"What do you mean, what you found in my basement? You come here, attack my kingdom, and you want to know what's in my wine cellar?"

 _Wait, does he not- but the wizards said they saw him going there with scrying magic, right?_

"I'm talking about where the shatra come from!" she said, getting annoyed. "You know, that guy there?" She pointed with her blade. "And all the tortured, screaming people in your basement that have been experimented on. Turned partly into demons... ringing any bells?"

"Who, my bodyguard? Nonsense! Shatra, indeed. They've been extinct hundreds of years. Why, I'd claim you were one before I accused anyone here, have you looked at yourself lately? And there are certainly no dungeons as you describe them in _this_ castle."

"Fine. You want to do this the hard way, we'll take a little trip down there. You can see it for yourself."

"I'm not leaving this room, much less going anywhere with you."

"Oh really? I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist."

"Do you know what she's talking about?" he asked the man at his side.

"Personally she sounds a bit deranged. Do you want me to escort her out?"

"Escort her out? Kill her! You've heard the reports of what she's been doing in my kingdom!"

"I'll try, but you must feel the amount of inner energy she has. There's no way she's human, and those swords of hers-" He cut off, and both he and the king froze, eyes glued to Susan.

"You just slipped up," she said to the shatra. "Wait, why would the king be able to..." She made a _Spirit Sense_ check, getting a twelve. That was enough to tell the king had quite a bit more energy than she did, while the shatra she had been impressed with before seemed mundane in comparison. "What are you?" she demanded of the king. "You aren't human either, with that level of energy."

"Are you just guessing, or do you know?" asked the king, leaning forward.

"I know my energy total is between your and his. I'm not used to having this much, or I would have noticed it immediately when I came in. I stole most of this from your sorcerers, below."

"Are they dead?" he asked.

"No, I haven't killed anyone. And I would prefer not to, but once I saw those things you had done-"

"Oh, honestly. Do you have no appreciation for science?"

"One plus one equals two!" said the jester, now juggling some balls.

"Exactly!" said the king, nodding. "That's all I'm doing here. Making something that's better than either being was before. How is that so wrong?"

"So wrong? You don't find anything amiss in all those screaming people down there?"

"I admit, the procedure has only created a few successes. The old way of creating shatra worked well enough, I admit. But it was so boring! I mean they chose the simplest, least powerful demon to fuse with a man because even that was more than a match for regular soldiers at the time. But there are many types of demon, and I'm working to find a way to implant them all! I'm closer in some cases."

"You can seriously just sit there and calmly tell me you're experimenting with summoning _demons,_ and then shoving them inside people and claiming it's for _science?_ You're a monster! Wait, is that what you are? Is that why your _Spirit Energy_ is greater than mine? You did something to yourself, didn't you?"

"Me? No. I'm the way I've always been. I suppose you're going to die anyway, I might as well show you." The king stood up, and the jester started laughing and clapping his hands. "Give us a show, I don't need to be the one that does for once. Make her bleed, my lord. Crack open that shell, show us the meat inside."

 _Is it going to be two on one or three on one? The jester didn't seem to have much energy, hopefully I can safely ignore him, even if he does know what's going on._

"It's been too long since I had a worthy prey," the king admitted, taking his crown off and setting it behind him on the throne. "Let me introduce myself." In the blink of an eye the king was gone, but in his place was a large fox, as big as she was, with nine tails swishing the air in anticipation. "I'm the demon Yspaddaden. You've invaded my kingdom. Prepare to die."

With a cackle of laughter the jester grabbed up the sickle and the other guy drew his sword.

"Wait!" shouted Susan as the fox took a step forward.

"Oh, did I scare you?" asked the fox, now sounding female and sexy. "Don't worry, it'll be over in a flash."

"Actually, I just wanted to show you something," she replied. "You mentioned my sword before, I thought I might get rid of one of them." She held it out to the side and let it go, and the blade shimmered and disappeared.

"Are you mocking us?" the fox hissed, clearly displeased with the notion.

"Not at all. That sword would only knock you out, like I did to your soldiers outside. I want to see you _bleed. Pocket Dimension, Enhance Sword."_

Susan put max energy into the spell and pulled out her second blade, which grew to match the first and lit on fire.

"Fire doesn't scare us," the fox scoffed.

"It scares me a little," admitted the jester.

"Attack!" The fox and the big guy rushed forward, far faster than any human would have, and were upon her almost before she could blink, even _Accelerated_ as she was. The jester, surprisingly, vanished, and Susan wondered if he had teleported or what? But they were in her world now, and _initiative order_ was _initiative order._ She changed her stance to meet them.

 _So it's going to be three on one after all. Super. Oh well, at least it's easy to keep them from attacking all at once._

 _"Dazzle!"_ she cast, targeting both that she could see, and getting a twenty six total, accounting for the one segment penalty, two penalty for casting it twice, and thirteen energy thrown in. Both threw off the sudden dazzling light with sheer will, and kept coming.

 _Oh right, forgot that any spell that allows my opponents to will the magic away... will will the magic away. Will will? Good thing thinking about stuff is a free action. Maybe I should have mimicked that jester going invisible after all, or whatever he did._

The fox didn't move from the front of the throne, just raised two tails and shot fire across the intervening space. Susan didn't bother dodging, and they washed over her without causing any damage.

"Oh," it said, "I'm going to have to get creative to get you out of that armor, is that it? Wonderful! It's been too long since I was really challenged."

Susan responded by shooting a weak _Elemental Bolt: Fire_ back, and as expected, the fox also didn't dodge.

"Stalemate!" said the fox, somehow managing to grin. "You're a quick one though, aren't you?"

She was about to make a pithy comment back when she suddenly found the jester in her face, swinging his sickle at her, forcing her to parry it. The jester knew his stuff, and slipped in under the blade, heading for her chest. It clanged off her armor, and she took a swing with her off hand hoping to catch the man by surprise. She was the one that was surprised, the man disappeared when her blade was an inch from hitting him, reappearing several meters away to her left. With him that close, she realized he had just used a technique she had yet to learn- _Spirit Step._ Or at least some kind of local equivalent.

 _He used his spirit energy to propel himself away from me. But he didn't do that to reach me, I would have felt it. So he covered that distance from the throne to here as a_ free action? _He's freaking fast!_

The soldier lowered his blade and gave a mighty bellow, charging at Susan much faster than a normal man could have. In fact he reached her just as it was her action, and she had to knock his sword away to avoid being skewered. She didn't want to dodge, as she wanted to try the same thing, attacking reactively. She underestimated the man's strength though, and had to make a STRength check instead to not go flying backwards with the impact. She had put energy into COOrdination to fend off the blow, so she couldn't put any into STRength and was shoved back, stumbling. She managed to remain standing though.

"You're strong, girl!" said the soldier, impressed.

 _So are you, apparently. Does that mean stuff like_ Immobilize _won't work? Wait, here's something he might not expect. "Lubricate,"_ she cast, targeting the blade in his hand.

"Huh?"

The blade squirted out of his hand.

"Ha ha! Just another man that can't handle his blade."

"I'll kill you!"

"Not by impalement!"

The jester took off running around, blurring past her and coming up low from the side, but instead of dodging, she reactively cast _Lubricate_ again, because why change a winning strategy? Because casting it on a creature allows them a RESolve check, of course, which he beat by two and shrugged the spell off as he swung his blade. She had to make an off hand action to parry, and Susan couldn't even roll as high as he did. However, her armor saved her yet again, and the jester went "tisk" and jumped back a step.

"Thought you were getting her out of that?!" he yelled back to the fox.

"I'm not as fast as you two, give me a minute here!" The fox suddenly became a huge scorpion, front pincers clicking, though it still had nine tails.

 _That's a plus two size scorpion!_ Susan had to admit, she was a little impressed. Not intimidated, exactly, but a little impressed. (She was immune to fear effects due to the _Avatar_ spell going, after all) _Do I pull out my_ Legion? _I hate to make them do the fighting for me, I'm not learning anything that way. Well, it seems despite how fast these guys are, they still haven't pierced my armor. I'll give it a few more segments to decide. In fact, let's do the smart thing here..._

She had dropped _Lubricate_ immediately after the sword flew out of the solder's hands, and now she targeted it, rather than him. " _Thrust!"_ It couldn't make resistance checks, so she didn't bother throwing extra energy in, just relied on her bonus from _Acceleration._ It sailed away, scraping and bumping along the floor until it impacted the wall several meters away.

"Hey!" The soldier looked torn between just trying to punch Susan through her armor or run after his sword. This would have been quite undignified, so he wasn't really prepared to do so.

The jester shook his head, then vanished, reappearing near the blade.

"Oh, thanks!"

"Who said I was getting it for you?"

"You won't use it, why did you go over there, then?"

"You really have no sense of humor, do you?"

"Humor this," said Susan, swinging at him. He tried to dodge, but even with the called shot penalty, she beat his result and cut a deep fissure across his body. Amazingly, even doing thirty four damage he stayed up.

 _Needed to do one more,_ she thought, _glancing at the numbers above his head. One! Must be the fire did nothing to him._

Looking at him, the cut wasn't bleeding, and in fact as she pulled the blade away his insides looked more like rock than guts.

"I'll get you for that," he said, taking a step back.

The jester appeared behind him, touched his back, and somehow was away again in what seemed like a single action.

 _Can these things spend XP for extra actions?_

The two wound up behind the enormous bug barreling down on Susan, but Susan wasn't having any of that. She cast _Transposition_ reactively, targeting the soldier and throwing in as much energy as she could. With that, the bonus from _Acceleration,_ and the wound penalty the guy was now under he had no chance to survive, and Susan switched places with him as the claw came down to crush the life out of her.

She now had the jester touching her back, and was satisfied to hear the two claws crunching into the soldier.

"Wha?" the jester jerked his hand back, dropping the blade.

"I don't know how you did that, girl," said the fox/scorpion/king. "But you'll pay for it. You know how much effort a shatra takes to create?"

"Don't know, don't care." She swung at the jester, knowing he was much faster than then the scorpion. He dodged, twisting his lean and long body away from her blade at the last instant again, then vanished again. Susan was now at 216 energy.

 _Oh, I get it. If he gets killed by the demon, you don't have to feel guilty about killing him yourself. You're a piece of work, you know that?_

 _Haven't I told you to be quiet? I'm trying to concentrate here!_

 _You're doing fine._

Susan spun, noticing the jester was beside the scorpion now, who jumped and spun in the air, coming down to face her again.

"She can keep up with me," complained the jester.

"Maybe this will slow her down," the scorpion replied, hefting the body of the soldier.

"Speed up," intoned Susan, activating her _Speed Plus Materia._ She hadn't figured on needing it, and hadn't activated it on the way up here. _But if the jester can just blink around the room, I'm going to need the boost._ Her speed was now a twenty four, so she figured she could probably close the distance between them on her next action in two segments or so.

But as the scorpion brought the claw up with the soldier's body still in it, she knew what he was going to do.

 _And I guess you're right,_ she sent to The Darkness. Rather than moving, she made a quick _Spirit Manipulation_ check, increasing her next expenditure of energy by fourteen rather than four.

"Uh, you want to throw that, boss?" the jester asked, edging away from the now glowing and flashing body of the soldier.

"I know what I'm doing!" Her claw reached back to throw.

Susan cast _Hypnotic Field_ as strongly as she could, and their ten and fourteen results were far from the twenty nine she rolled because of it. The soldier exploded a segment later and the jester, the floor, part of the wall, and the floor under the scorpion were vaporized. This of course caused the scorpion to fall, knocking it out of the _Field,_ but her opponents had dropped to one.

"You've ruined everything!" shouted the king from below. "I don't care if I destroy this whole castle, I'm taking you out!" Screams of panic rose from below, and there was a curious buzzing sound coming from down there too.

 _Don't know if I like the sound of that._

Susan held her action, having no sort of "trap" spells or any way to cover the hole. Not that she would, that would just have increased the king's circle of destruction as it tried to get back here. What she saw crawl from the hole was even bigger than it had been, but still vaguely scorpion like. This creature, however, had wings. Once through the hole it took to the air, then almost drunkenly smashed headlong into one of the pillars, which it started smashing to pieces. It took only two blows against it to smash through, and stone and mortar rained down below. The king felt around with one huge claw, and satisfied it was in two pieces buzzed off in the direction of the next one.

 _Why is it acting like it's- oh._

As Susan looked, she saw the creature's eyes were closed. (It had gotten a twenty three on a REAson check to figure out the lights of the previous spell Susan had cast were what made them both freeze. So it was taking no chances now.)

 _I can't use Slash-All, even with my STRength it'll divide by three, then by... four? But I have to think of something! Even_ Burst _will hardly slow it down, is that all I've got? Wait, I know._

"Flight," she said, activating the corresponding charm on her bracelet. She then started casting _Teleportal,_ taking the full two seconds, as even throwing energy into it taking a ten penalty wasn't something she had in mind to do.

As she cast, the bug smashed into the second pillar, and it started swinging away. Two blows were not enough, and the bug brought her claw back for a third strike. This cracked the pillar down the center, and the king again went into the air to find the third.

"What's the matter?" it called down to her. "Where's all that speed you had before? Can't fly, can you?"

 _Actually, I can, we're just moving the battlefield._

As the bug darted for the next pillar, Susan let her _Teleportal_ go, and put the one end directly in front of the unseeing bug. It zipped through, and Susan took off after it, flying herself. The second she was through she let it go, and the two combatants were now high above the ocean, thousands of leagues away from the small kingdom they had left.

 _How did you know the king exempted his castle from the barrier against that kind of thing?_ The Darkness asked.

 _What? Oh, uh, because he was bringing demons in. Couldn't do that without dimension stuff working, right?_

 _You totally forgot, didn't you? Honestly, you should be glad that worked, you did try that spell to get into the kingdom, remember?_

 _I can't keep track of everything here!_

 _Uh huh. Nice job._

"What just happened?" demanded the king, spinning to face her. "You disappeared for a second, but there you are again."

"Open your eyes and find out."

"Oh no, I don't need my eyes to take you out. I should have hit the next pillar by now, too. Fine, I'll just attack you directly then."

But Susan acted first, flying under the king and trying to strike at the body. The king tried to dodge, but Susan's sword cut in as she put all the energy she could into her STRength.

 _After all, it can't see to dodge, right? Why put it into COOrdination?_

The two were evenly matched in speed, but the king figured if Susan was attacking, she wasn't casting spells, and risked a glance at her as she came up again. She caught the blade in one of her claws, twisting down and grabbing it as Susan struck.

"Opened your eyes, huh?"

"Yes. How did we get here?"

"Magic. Now let go of my sword!"

"No!"

Susan made a STRength check to tear it free, beat the king by six, and flew back out of her reach. But Susan was now of the defensive, as that was an action for her but not the king. A claw, the size of her whole body, shot straight for her and Susan didn't dare parry it, she shot straight up, trying to get out of reach. The claw closed on empty air, and Susan brought her sword down on it even as the king came at her again.

Susan won that one, the sword slicing across the king's claw for nine damage.

"Argh! What's it going to take to kill you!?"

 _More than you've got._

Susan still had the initiative thanks to her being just slightly faster, so she feinted towards the king's midsection again. But even as the king tried to block, she didn't strike, instead casting " _Hypnotic Field"_ again. It was twenty six to twenty one and the king went slack again, unable to complete the block... for the attack that never came.

Susan got ready to cast _Telekinesis_ in case the king started falling, but luckily the figure hung in the air unable to even stop its wings.

 _Finally. I suppose people caught in it don't fall over, they still keep their balance and hold onto things. It makes sense the king keeps beating his wings._

 _S_ he hovered in the king's face and said "Now, let's have a little chat."


	83. Chapter 83

83

Putting things where they belong

Time: Just then

Place: Somewhere out above the ocean

"Here's what we're going to do," Susan said to the entranced demon, still hovering where we left them last chapter, somewhere over the ocean. "I'm going to steal all that nice energy of yours, enough to knock you unconscious. Then I'll shrink you down and bring you to the wizard's guild where they can decide what to do with you. Won't that be fun? Of course it will. _Energy Drain."_

So Susan gathered the energy she had left, all four hundred and fifteen of it, giving her with a total of five hundred and eighty six. Of course, she went past her "zero" point, until she was knocked out and then went a bit further so she wouldn't wake up any time soon. Once knocked out, the enormous bug was suddenly a nine tailed fox again, and Susan had to grab her before she fell.

 _Guess that's your normal form?_

That done, she did a _Shrink_ and got her down to a more manageable size, then went back to the wizard's guild building.

"Oh, what a cute little baby fox!" said the first wizard she met. "Where did you ever find such a thing!"

"It's a demon," said Susan crossly. "If it was awake it would rip your face off without hesitation. Go find me someone in charge so I can figure out what to do with it."

"That's a..." He noticed the nine tails hanging limply from behind the fox. "I'll go right away."

And so a demonologist was summoned, and the demon was placed into a pentagram the man inscribed on the floor, which he said would hold it. He also said it would keep her honest, while not forcing her to tell the truth, if she answered it would be a true answer.

"Can you wake it up?" Ithinia asked.

"Wake it up? No, I've never seen a demon sleep before, how would I do that?"

"I can do it, just a second," said Susan, reading over and casting _Awaken._ The demon's eyes popped open.

And she tried to spring to her feet, but was too exhausted and sore, and slumped down again.

"Going to gloat?" she asked wearily. "Look, wizard. You think I'm dangerous? But that girl beat me, so should I really be the one inside this circle?"

"Never mind that! We want to know what you were doing in that kingdom!" demanded Ithinia.

"Ask her," said the fox, pointing with a tail tip. "She knows all my dirty little secrets."

"Making shatra. I destroyed two, and the one I brought before makes three. There are about a dozen incomplete ones though, back in the kingdom that we'll have to deal with."

"A dozen? Things were worse there than we thought. Was that all you made? Three complete ones?"

"Yes."

"Fine. But how did you remain undetected for so long?"

The fox looked at Susan.

"Never mind that, how do we fix those poor souls in your dungeon? Get the demon out of them?"

"Fix them? Their souls are one now. Unless you can climb inside their soul and drive the demon out, good luck."

 _I can do that, I did it with Harry and Tom. But is there a ghost around here that I can trust to put me inside and then take me back out again?_

"Fine, we'll do that then. As to your question, these foxes can change their shape. I assume you killed the real king some time ago and took his place?"

"That's right. He was quite... delicious."

"Did you have any kids?" the demonologist asked, fearful.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"We can deal with that later," said Ithinia. "For now we need to get there and bring order to that kingdom. I assume you didn't do things quietly?"

"He turned into a huge bug thing!" insisted Susan. "And there were two other shatra I had to take care of at the same time. You try it and see how quiet your battle is."

The demonologist's eyes were bugging out of his head, and his jaw was hanging loose as he heard Susan say this.

"She," said the demon.

"What?"

"I'm female. Don't let what I turn into fool you. Most of my kind are female, oddly."

"Fascinating," said Ithinia, not sounding interested in the least. "Can you send it back?"

"Of cour-"

"Do I have to go back?" whined the demon. "Do you know what it's like, living there? I could help you, use my power don't just throw me away!"

"How are you here in the first place?" asked the demonologist.

"Oh, uh, I broke out of a summoning circle and made a run for it. Should have seen the look on the little runt's face when I did."

"Ah, an apprentice. Still, you admitted to killing the king."

"Like he was worth the title."

"Still, I think sending you back rather than just killing you outright is the best we can do."

"Why not just kill it?" asked Ithinia.

"My good woman!" said the Demonologist. "I have to work with these creatures you know. If it get around that I killed one that was helpless like this, why, I'd lose my livelihood at the best, my life at the worst. The other nine tails would find out somehow, believe me. Demons may not share information with us readily, but among themselves, you can count on it. Or a demon would kill me to get a favor from them, or refuse to work with me, or raise their prices-"

"I get the idea. Fine. Be done with it, we have work to do."

The demon banished back to the underworld, Susan took the wizard's guild to Reldamon, though a _Teleportal_ into the castle's lower level.

"You're back!" her friends exclaimed, glad she was all right.

"Where did you get all that energy from?" Sparkle asked, wincing away from her. "You're buzzing like you drank an entire coffee crop."

"It's the demon's. I'll tell you the whole story of my twelve second combat later. For now, we need to get these poor souls out of here, secured, and figure out how to get my soul into theirs so we can cure them."

"Wait, you were serious?" asked Ithinia.

"Of course. I don't make a habit of leaving a job half done. Or not helping those I can. You can't detach your soul and float it over to do battle with some kind of demon, right?"

"Uh, no. You're saying you can?"

"I've done it before. But I think I'll have to modify the spell... anyway, I can secure them, can anyone float them?" The wizards showed their empty hands... no ingredients. "I am really coming to hate so called wizards. Fine, I'll do _everything._ As _usual."_

Susan opened a _Teleportal_ to where the shatra was, who was up and about and silently looking over the proceedings. They filled up the cells, and wizards were sent for ingredients so they could cast sleep spells themselves, and keep them all quiet for the night.

Susan stayed out of the guild explaining things to the royal family, about how the queen's husband had, for several years, been a female shape shifting fox demon. She fainted dead away at the news, but her youngest son just said "wicked" like it was the coolest thing he had ever heard.

She, meanwhile, was making _Spell Papers,_ and replacing the _Spell Symbol_ on her sword and bracelet charms.

 _After all, why just let this energy ebb away from me? I'll put it to a much better use than that demon did! Imagine having this much energy all the time!_

She even made a few new ones, from writings, like _Alternate Dimension_ in case she started fighting in a place she didn't want wrecked up.

That night, Susan and the others stayed in the guild building, and Susan talked over the battle with Sparkle.

"I realized something in my combat with the demon," she said.

"Okay."

"Trying to do damage to something is the least efficient means of ending a battle. On the one hand I need to learn to fight without magic for when I rescue my father. And the non-lethal sword I have is totally great. But I need to learn one spell, resisted by different stats, that can instantly end a fight. If you look at what I have, _Shrink_ is RES, _Immobilize_ is STR, _Hypnotic Field_ is REA. I need something resisted by CON. Is there something resisted by ENDurance?"

"Not that I recall. I think CON is about all you're going to get."

"We'll have to look. I need to cover all my bases, those things shrugged off my RESolve spells like _Dazzle,_ even here where there are two moons!"

"Wow. I can see why you would be concerned about that."

"I know, right? Good news is, I got ten XP for all that running about in the kingdom, so I'm ready for the next adventure."

The next day, Susan was pleased to see her book of spells had modified, as she had asked, the spell of _Soul Sever_ to be _Soul Projection._ A touch based spell, it could accomplish what it took Myrtle to do the last time just by casting it and touching someone. Their "inner soul" would be entered and explored as a sort of _Personal Dimension._ Susan tried it out on the first of the unconscious shatra rejects, and found with a little luck, the combined soul wasn't exactly hard to find. Basically because any soulscape that existed before had been destroyed by the botched fusing attempt. Most of what she found was withered trees, run down buildings, and two souls, totally out of it and only somewhat stuck together.

 _Basically Siamese twins,_ thought Susan, looking over the first pair. _But how do I separate them?_

The souls were too busy locked in combat with each other to notice Susan reading her book over, and she tried _Dismiss,_ which seemed to work immediately.

 _Wait, how can I read my book in here?_

 _It's part of you, isn't it?_ The Darkness answered. _It's on your character sheet, and that's basically who you are. Why wouldn't you be able to see the soul of the book just as you see the physical part of it out there?_

 _Oh._

Susan repeated this procedure several times, and each time the demon vanished as though it had never been. All of them complete she hit one with the _Alleviation_ knife and woke it up. The person was very confused and seemed barely coherent, but Sativola pronounced her thoughts free from the taint of demons. She suggested they be woken, one at a time, and a witch assigned to each one to help them come to terms with what they had experienced. Susan said that was an excellent idea, as her spell could give back lost stats, but not help them cope with the reality of having a demon inside their souls for any length of time.

"And who is going to pay all these witches?" asked Ithinia.

"The guild," she answered simply. "After all, the _wizard's_ guild is supposed to be keeping this very thing from happening, right? And let's be honest- three shatra and a full demon in one kingdom? With that wall and who knows what else set up there specifically to keep you wizards out? You wouldn't have managed it yourself, not without wizard casualties. Especially if that demon figured out how to reliably make shatra. By the time you learned about it, it would have been too late. This can be part of your... penance."

"Awfully smug for a mere witch," she grumbled, but sent someone to open the treasury and go hire some witches.

Sativola just smiled like like a child that has just gotten their way.

"And now for you," Susan said at last, as the only one left in the holding cells was the full shatra. "Somehow I don't think we can separate you quite as easily as the others. For one thing, my body will suffocate if I touch you, and I doubt your inner landscape will be as pleasant."

Oddly, the shatra hadn't really tried to escape during all this, just sort of floated there, looking only mildly interested in the proceedings.

"If only I could talk- Sativola, can you read her mind?"

She shook her head. "She thinks in demon language. I tried but there's no way I'm doing it again. Sorry."

"Ah well. Can you write?" The demon shook her head. "Ah, but you can answer! That's a start. If I were to let you out of here, would you just attack me again?" Shake of the head. "Would you attack anyone?" The demon nodded, sadly. "Why? Oh, wait, you can't exactly answer that. Uh, this is frustrating. Would you attack someone in particular?" Shake. "But you would attack someone, for some reason?" Nod. "You didn't like me shouting at you earlier, did you?" Shake. "Would you attack anyone who shouted at you?" Nod. "Ah, now we're getting somewhere. Is there something you might like to do, if we let you go free?" Shake. "Really? Then why did you hang around that kingdom? Did the demon promise you something?" Shake. "Did it threaten you?" Shake. "Did it have something you needed?" Shake. "Did you want to be there?" Blank look. "You didn't care one way or the other?" Nod. "Huh. Okay. What am I missing here? Can you get that demonologist back? Maybe he can figure out what kind of demon she was fused with and tell me what it wants."

"Oh, that seems like a silence demon," said the Demonologist, looking the woman over.

"A silence demon? I guess if I fought fire demons and speed demons, why not? So what does it want?"

"Who knows! They're useful because they don't try to rip your face off if you summon one, but they usually take the form of a piece of cloth. So they aren't good for much, so we don't typically summon them."

"What would you do if you _did_ summon one?"

"Uh, give it an order, I guess? They do what they're told. One of the only demons _to_ do as they're told, actually. Probably because they can't talk back, but maybe just for something to do. I mean what does a demon in the shape of a bed sheet do with its time?"

Susan had to admit, that was a good question. "That's what I'm missing," said Susan, snapping her fingers. "You were _ordered_ to stay there, weren't you." Nod. "So if someone ordered you to do something, you would do it?" Nod. "Right, that's why you didn't care about where you were. Okay," she turned back to the man. "In your professional opinion, what do we do with this poor woman? Is it safe to let her out?"

"Safe?" The Demonologist looked at the wizards around the room. "As long as no one shouts at her, she's harmless. But she would kill someone in that case, it's really the only warning we have when dealing with them. Stay calm and speak to them quietly."

"Would you take her off our hands?" Ithinia asked.

"A servant that won't talk back, and just wants to follow orders? I'm sure I could find a use for her. Having someone that can fly, and choke any unruly demon that happens to shout at me? Certainly!"

"If she kills someone, you'll be held responsible!" she cautioned.

"I realize that."

"Very well. Let's open the door, everybody get back."

"If you make trouble I'll just put you back there," Susan said to her as the door was unlocked. "You understand that, right?" Nod. "Okay. Go with this man, he's your master now." Nod.

The door opened, she floated over to him and waited for orders. "We'll take our leave," said the Demonologist, and Ithinia waved him away.

"Seems your first task is complete," she said to Susan. "Well done."

 _Yeah, you failed to kill me, so you know you're stuck with me. HAHA._

"Thanks. I've got an idea for the second, I saw it paging through my book last night. I made a few copies of the spell, we can try it out."

"But it has to be a _permanent_ benefit to wizardry!" she reminded Susan.

"Don't worry, this is just to know if it works. Let's go visit those fellows doing spell research."

On one of the upper floors, Susan was introduced to an old looking wizard with a variety of odd looking things in front of him.

"What spell I'm trying to create?" he asked, surprised. "You're really interested?"

"I sure am. What have you got for me?"

"Are you familiar with Galger's Singing Spell?"

"I can't say that I am. What's it do?"

"Basically, you enchant an object to sing a song. You tap it, and it turns on, and you tap it again and it turns off."

"Okay?" Susan wasn't sure what the point was, but maybe to record a famous performance? They didn't have any other means, she supposed.

"I was wondering if the same thing could be done for images as for sounds. In other words, prepare an object and cast the wizardry into it. When it's done, the object can play back everything that happened around it. What do you think?"

 _I think you want to invent film, it would be way easier._ "Sounds interesting. How far have you gotten?"

"Oh, I've been thinking about the problem for, oh, about a year now it has to be. I'm sure in another month or so I'll be ready for a trail or two."

Susan stared at him. _He's been working on this one spell for a year? I didn't know how good I had it with my book. Four background points or not!_

"A month? But you could try it now, you have the ingredients you need here?"

"Well, yes," hedged the wizard. "But it could be quite dangerous..."

She waved that away. "Not with me around. That's the whole point, using one of my already known spells to help you guys find previously unknown spells. Good deal, right? Now, this is a spell my book calls _Simulation._ Basically upon casting you explain to the spell what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it. The magic then shows you exactly what would happen should you attempt that action in real life. To avoid having to cast it now I've put in into this piece of paper, so if you have all the needed ingredients before you, I'll activate it and we can see if it'll work with your wizardry."

The wizard blinked. "Can you say that again?"

Susan carefully explained what she wanted the wizard to do, and he got assurances from Ithinia that this was all legitimate. After learning no harm could possibly come to him, as the spell wouldn't actually be cast, he didn't have to even touch his knife, he said he was game. Susan cast, he spoke the procedure for the spell while standing in the area lit by her magical circle, and the circle went out when he was done describing what he wanted.

"Oh dear," he said, rather concerned. "I died rather spectacularly, didn't I? I wonder what could have possibly gone wrong?"


	84. Chapter 84

84

What the Warlocks Have To Say

Place: Wizard Guild building

Time: Just after the first test of _Simulation_

"Do you have any more of them?" asked Ithinia, indicating Susan's _Spell Paper._

"Sure, I made a bunch last night when I had all that energy. Thought they might come in handy. Why?"

"Do you mind if I used one?"

"Not at all," Susan replied, wondering what she had in mind. Ithinia pulled the other wizard off to the side and had a whispered conversation with him. He pulled some things from the nearby shelves and set them on the table in front of her. She activated the _Spell Paper_ and started describing what she wanted to do. Evidently she was satisfied, as the spell dissipated and she nodded.

"We weren't tricking you, you know," said Sparkle disapprovingly.

"The thought didn't even cross my mind. I have no idea what you even mean."

"Sure."

And so Susan got to work making the spell into an object for each branch of the guild, found in the major cities in Ethshar. She placed the spell into a mirror, which seemed appropriate, and of course the wizards had no shortage of expensive components she could use up to make each one. She made them energy based, as it was only four energy to activate, figuring that would be a good limitation on someone just trying it hundreds of times a day. (Also it took less time, of course.) This way they just physically couldn't, and it would be more likely to be shared among research wizards rather than just hoarded by the people at the top. She also gave it a minor _Fabrication,_ just so it would last longer and not be destroyed in case some clumsy fool dropped it. Given her ability to raise her _Imbuing_ skill to superhuman levels, it didn't take long at all to make all three, and in the end, Ithinia had to admit she had more than fulfilled her part of the bargain.

"I've been watching you carefully, making those things," she said when Susan handed the last one over to be tested. "I feel like I could almost make one myself! It doesn't seem as complex as our most complex spells, though the fact you grabbed stuff almost at random is worrisome."

"Making your own is certainly possible," allowed Susan. "But keep in mind I make it look easy because my magic artificially increasing my skill at doing this. Nonetheless, I'll leave you the formula for the spell, as well as some minor formula for spells common to both our types of magic. A friend of mine tried to work out how to translate wanded magic and mine, but as smart as she is, she was still in school. Someone with fifty or more years of working with magic might have a better chance at it. Plus, you'll have the mirrors themselves to study, perhaps you can work out a method of making your own version."

"I hope so. I think they could really make our lives better, because no longer would a wizard have to risk their life or sanity trying to make new spells."

"I wish you luck. You can even use the mirrors to help you make more mirrors, because you can test out making one before you do it. But all that aside, you will now agree to help me save your world?"

She sighed. "Yes. I'm sorry for doubting you before, and making you go through all of this-"

Susan shrugged that off. "I'm used to it, and I helped that kingdom out a lot. I got directly rewarded in my own way, so don't worry about it. What's our next step?"

"Our _first_ step," she clarified, "is to go talk to someone on the warlock's council. That's found here, in Ethshar of the Spices."

"I wondered why you wanted the mirror for this place made last. I assume it's close by?"

"Quite. They should be waiting for us, so let's head over there."

Susan said her goodbyes to the wizards now excitedly exclaiming over the mirror, and to Kelder who was now free to go back to his studies. Sativola of course was nearby, and fell into step with the group along with Sparkle.

The chairman's house was rather large, and well maintained, which Susan thought was only natural for a bunch of magic users that only had to think about something and have it happen. There was a thick iron fence around the place, which Susan had to believe was there just for ornamentation given no one in their right mind would attack a place a dozen or more warlocks were bound to be hanging out in. As she neared the place a man looked up from the front step where he had been sitting, and waved to them to wait a moment as they got up to the gate. He stood up oddly, and Susan had to go back over what he had done in his mind before she realized he had actually used his magic to push himself up and off the stairs rather than his legs.

 _Which I would think was rather dangerous, given this Calling I've heard about._

"I've been expecting you," said the man, and Susan felt him using warlocky on the gate to unlock it. "Please, come in. I'll take you to the chairman."

The group was ushered inside and offered refreshments while the chairman was summoned, and it wasn't more than a moment before he was descending the stairs.

"Ah, Ithinia, how nice to see you again," he said. He was dressed in black, and a gold trimmed cape trailed behind him. He was fairly young looking, probably about twice Susan's age, which Susan figured was probably about right.

 _Warlocks don't last long, after all._

"Hello, Gorsedd," Ithinia said, cordially enough. "This is Susan, the girl I was telling you about."

"Ah yes, the girl that uses warlocky without being a warlock. And who says she's come to save the world from us!" He laughed. "I've been looking forward to meeting you." He held out a hand, and Susan shook it. "So," he said, sitting down. "What gives you the impression warlocky is so dangerous? I mean obviously it is, we get called. But Ithinia was saying something about you thinking there was more to it than that?"

"That's right. The voice I seem to hear that allows me to use the warlock power is the same voice I hear when a being I call The Darkness talks to me." She explained the bare minimum about what exactly that was.

"I see, I see. Forgive me, but would you mind demonstrating your use of warlocky? It's in poor taste I know, but one can never be too careful."

 _So I've observed._ "Not at all." Susan exerted her will on a small end table, gained an energy, and it rose into the air.

"Ah, that is indeed our magic!" Gorsedd exclaimed. "Now, one further test, won't take a second. I'm just going to peek inside your head for a moment, if that's okay with you?"

"Whatever you feel is needed."

"Very good. And let's see now..." He appeared to be looking through Susan, and she knew what he was doing. Using that odd "sense" she could access through that weird whisper in her head. "Nope, I don't see the brain structure that would allow you to access warlock magic. How extraordinary."

"So you believe me then?"

He hesitated. "I believe there's something odd about you..."

Sparkle looked over with as much of a "you wouldn't believe me if I told you" expression as a cat can muster.

"...but does that mean your voice and ours is the same? Or what it even means if that is the case? Do you even know?"

"Only that if it is The Darkness giving you this power, it's temporary and only furthers its own goals, not yours. We need to somehow determine where it's coming from and find what The Darkness has taken over. Then we have to put a stop to it before your world gets devoured."

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are you talking about ending warlocky?" He seemed a bit upset at the thought.

"Presumably whatever is making you warlocks would remain, it just wouldn't be under the control of a multi-dimensional being that sees you all as ants."

"I see," he answered slowly, not convinced. "What do you want from us?"

"Information, I suppose, to start. Maybe do a few spells of my own on you, or sense you out. Then figure out where the power is coming from."

"We know where it's coming from, we all end up flying there once we use too much power."

"Technically," corrected Susan, "after you fail a RESolve check, difficulty five plus one one-thousandth of the total warlock energy you've accumulated."

Everyone stared at her. "Uh, what?" asked Ithinia.

"That's what's been recorded on my character sheet," she said, having it appear and showing it to them. They crowded around to read it. "See, I was at eight before, now I'm at nine warlock energy gained because I lifted that table. Each time I activate the power, and every four seconds after that I get another. I would assume it's the same for you?"

"I have no idea how to... to... quantify the amount of energy I receive from using magic."

"Pity. Anyway, those that use the power more slowly, or have a stronger willpower will be able to hold out longer. But eventually even I would fail that check, and that would be it for me. Whatever gets you guys would get me, too."

"You can actually think in absolute terms like this?" asked Ithinia.

"I'm not the only one," she explained. "I met people on one other world that were similar. Different, but with a similar knowing of how injured they were, or how much magic power they had, or their exact strength. I miss those guys. Plus everyone on my father's world was this way."

"Naturally. Well, it seems we've all learned something about warlocks today. You can actually mathematically predict when a warlock will be called! Just based on the number of hours they've spent using their magic."

"So it seems," managed Gorsedd. "But that seems... just a moment." He glanced over at a desk, and a paper and pen floated over to him. He started writing some things down, asking Susan how much energy per hour she would gain, and about various other points. He shook his head. "It's too fast. If what you say is true, warlocks wouldn't last a day using their powers, much less a month. I've been chairman thirteen years, after all."

"It could be different for me. Tell you what, would you mind performing a little experiment?"

"Not at all, if it can help solve this mystery. And I did ask you to do things for me, after all."

"Exactly. Could you three go over there?" She pointed to the corner of the room. "I'm going to focus my senses on Gorsedd here. I want to see how quickly he gets energy when he uses warlocky. Your being nearby will muddle the waters, so to speak."

"You can tell?" asked Sativola.

"I hope so. If I tune out everything else, I think it'll work. I can at least try. Oh, and _Augment Skill: Spirit Sense."_

With the spell going, Susan had absolute mastery of her sense of spirit energy, and was able to determine that this warlock, at least, gained energy at a rate closer to one per minute than fifteen in that span. (She rolled a twenty six to tell this.)

"That's somewhat reassuring," said Gorsedd, coming back to the floor again from where he had been hovering. "But why do you get it so quickly?"

She shrugged. "Are there some warlocks that get powerful more quickly than others? It may be that you all gain energy at your own pace. Without sensing out many more warlocks and coming up with testable theories, anyway."

"Some warlocks were called before others, on the first night," he admitted. "And we discourage those that seem to gain strength too quickly from using their power freely."

"That's smart. Doesn't help at the moment, but I can see why you would do that. Okay. I want to keep sensing things out with you guys, is there a warlock I can watch work? I don't want to increase your own chances of being called, even if you gather this energy slower than I do."

"Ah, we can check. I don't follow the normal day to day work that warlocks perform. I'm just here so that warlocks have representation among magic users." His eyes flicked to the wizard.

"Tell me about it," muttered Sativola.

"Humm... You wizards do run things with an iron fist, don't you?" Susan remarked.

"By necessity," Ithinia answered.

"No doubt you think so. Anyway, let's find a warlock and see what's on the schedule for today!"

So the group traveled down "Wizard" street, looking for a warlock, and they found a girl several years older than Susan leaving her shop.

"Chairman!" she exclaimed. "How nice to see you."

"You too, Sloanne. You wouldn't be headed to a job now would you?" he asked hopefully.

"Why, yes, I am. Finnobarr son of Calder is sick, so they wanted me to see what I could do for him."

"Kelder?" asked Susan.

She laughed. "No, Calder. Apparently his parents wanted him to be unique, but not _that_ unique."

Susan laughed with her. "I guess so!"

"Good timing. Sloanne, this is Susan. Susan, Sloanne the Warlock. And this is Ithinia the wizard."

"Sativola the Witch... apprentice," Sativola introduced herself.

"A witch and a wizard? Is the world coming to an end?" She forced a laugh, but stopped when no one laughed with her. "Have I done something wrong?"

"What? No, no, nothing like that! No, Susan just wants to observe you as you work. She's also a war- a wizard?" Susan nodded. "Yes, a wizard. Of course. Some questions have been raised about our magic and she's an expert that's been called in to help. You just happened to be passing, it's nothing against you personally."

"Oh. Well, I guess that's okay. As long as Calder agrees."

"Would he refuse two wizards?" Ithinia asked icily.

"Uh, no, probably not."

"Then lead on."

 _Hey, she's like you,_ remarked The Darkness. _Using thinly veiled threats of violence to get her way._

 _Excuse me!? My threats of violence are made very, very plain, thank you very much._

 _I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but if you insist._

 _Wait, did I just... never mind._

And so with more than a little puzzlement, Calder allowed a bunch of random people in off the street who claimed to be wizards, the chairman of the warlock council, a witch, and a cat. (Actually anyone could see Sparkle was a cat. That wasn't really in question.)

Susan then watched Sloanne work, destroying viruses inside the child's body to make him well again. She had to switch over to "warlock sight" to see it, and gained another energy in the process. But that's exactly what she saw Sloanne doing, and mentioned the method to Sativola.

"Could you do that?" she asked.

She shook her head. "I can't work on that level. I can heal a break by forcing the body to accelerate the healing process. And if what you've said is true I could even take it further and regenerate limbs lost to fire and such. But healing like this is beyond my abilities."

"Huh."

She was actually rather torn. On the one hand, she could set this child to rights in one second, just by touching him with the knife. On the other, she needed to watch this lady work so she could figure out a little bit more about warlock power. Even if that led to her being called that much sooner.

Susan sighed and got down to work. She felt around with _Spirit Sense_ again, and timed out how quickly she felt Sloanne was getting energy. It was probably a little bit slower than the chairman, but that could be because of the work she was doing. Many more tests would be needed, but she filed it away.

Her next check was _Magic Sense,_ which gave her a very odd result indeed. If what Sloanne was doing was magic, it wasn't any she had sensed before. And really, she had been surprised how little magic was involved in witchcraft, while working with Sativola during the boat ride. But she did have the _Spark,_ while this woman before her clearly did not. _So how the heck can she be doing 'magic' without it? Unless they just call it magic, because they call anything without any immediate cause magic?_

Finally she took a look with _Dimension Sense,_ and this was even more interesting. She felt not that Sloanne was extra dimensional, but that her head _was._ Also the _power_ she was using felt like it didn't belong here, as she went about zapping viruses out of the boy. The boy had just the faintest sense of not belonging, which faded quickly as Sloanne moved to a new area of his body. Susan took another few warlock energy looking inside her head, and trying to narrow down what she was sensing.

"Must you?" asked Sloanne. "I'm trying to work here!"

"What? You can feel that? Sorry!"

"That's fine." she sighed, as it clearly wasn't. "I thought you were a wizard, anyway."

"It's complicated?"

"Right. Just let me work, please."

Susan went back to just her own skills, and realized there was a difference between the chairman and the warlock before her. Both should feel the same, but one was using the "magic" and one wasn't. The chairman didn't feel like he didn't belong here, but Sloanne almost did. Sort of like an echo or being very far away from the thing that didn't belong.

 _Which makes sense, if they really are drawing a power you're somehow giving them. This is the best proof you're behind this._

 _Me? I'm just along for the ride you know?_

 _Don't get cute. I know one of you is the same as any other of you._

 _Oh, you're an expert on multi-dimensional life forms now, are you?_

 _Are you denying it?_

 _What's the information worth to you?_

 _What could you possibly want from me that you could charge me for?_

 _You really have to ask?_

 _…_

 _…_

 _Are you playing 'questions only' with me or something?_

 _What if I am? It's boring, just watching you try and figure stuff out I already know. But I can't just tell you, we're enemies._ His tone changed to be more thoughtful. _But at the same time I'm a part of you, so am I really just fighting myself? The larger philosophical considerations-_

 _Oh, forget it!_

Susan looked over the _Reveal_ series of spells, but didn't find anything pertinent to cast. Having done everything she could think of she left the warlock and the family in peace and went back out into the street.

"This much I can tell you. The Darkness is responsible, I felt it in the power she was using. We have to find this source, protect me somehow from being called while I look it over, and figure out how to deal with it once and for all."

"Good luck with that," both the wizard and warlock said, then glared at each other.

 _Yeah, this one's going to be tough._


	85. Chapter 85

85

The End of the World

Place: Wizard's guild building

Time: About a half hour later, say 2:30 in the afternoon.

"But there must be some way of going about it!" protested Susan, speaking to the group of wizards that had been called to discuss their next steps.

"We lost half a dozen wizards trying to get close enough to see it when it first arrived," protested one. "You want to get near it, you're on your own."

Susan looked around the room, and everyone was nodding.

"Certainly _your_ magic, as superior as it is, would be better suited to this task anyway," suggested Ithinia smugly.

"It's not that easy. If it was magic, yes, I could put _Magic Immunity_ on and be set. But he's doing something physical to people that get to near- changing their brains. I don't think _Invulnerability_ would even protect me, because it's not damage. And any sort of scrying spell I use is useless because I haven't seen the place, or know even remotely what I'm looking for."

"What about that out of body stuff you were talking to me about?" asked Sativola. "Do you have a spell like that?"

"Sort of. There's _Clairvoyance,_ that can let me see things at a remote location. But I must 'know something of the location' and just knowing there's an object laying in some field someplace is not good enough. I can't ask to see "the place the object fell on the night of madness," only specific locations, like "beyond this door" or "The house of Illina the Quick." As far as leaving my body like an ESPer, there's _Projection,_ but that only works to places I can see, and I can't 'leave the general target location.' An ESPer would be able to just think themselves there, and look around as if with their own eyeballs."

"So your magic is not all powerful," remarked Ithinia.

"No," grumped Susan. "This sort of thing especially seems tailor made to annoy me. I mean it's magic, I should be able to just point to a map and ask my magic to show me that location in real time. But nooooo."

"Actually, why wouldn't that work?" asked Sparkle. "Do you really think that's not enough of knowing 'something' of the location?"

Susan pondered a moment. "I guess 'behind this door' and 'this spot on the map' would be equivalent, right?"

"That's what I'm thinking."

"The problem is we can't point to an area and conclusively say 'that's where the object is.' Our scrying magic doesn't work in that whole region," put in another wizard.

"Probably something The Darkness came up with," mused Susan.

"You don't suppose you're immune, do you?" asked a third wizard. "Being from another world, and all?"

"Wouldn't want to chance it."

"True."

"Why do you ask though? Is there a way you could get me to the general area?"

"That spell we used to get to that town where we first met," said Ithinia. "The transporting flute would work just fine. A warlock would go by every so often, you could just follow them. You can fly just as fast as they can, right?"

"Yes. Actually there is a spell to see through another's eyes. I could cast it on them as it went by, and be in no danger as the already called warlock got closer. I would go blind though, so that's a down side."

"And a further delay, while you waited for one. I would rather this whole thing was cleared up quickly."

 _You and me both._

 _Actually,_ said The Darkness, _I wouldn't mind guiding you there directly, if it'll help speed things along._

 _Really?_

 _Sure!_

 _You would help me out?_

 _It's more like helping myself out, honestly. Oh man, I wish I could see your face when you realize how hopeless your situation is. I guess I'll just have to enjoy it from in here._

"I don't like it," Susan said.

"Why shouldn't you like taking care of this quickly and moving on with your journey?"

"What? Oh, no, The Darkness was talking to me. I think I should stay away from that whole area, he's just about drooling with anticipation of me going there. Or something. It's... up to something, for lack of a better term. The piece I carry said it would lead me to the piece that's here, just to get things rolling. I get the idea it has some crazy spectacle in mind and is getting bored with waiting for me. I really don't want it coming to me across the whole of Ethshar though, so maybe I should get out there. I remember it burning villages when it took over the dragon. I don't want to see that again."

"Then we had best move quickly. You really have no ideas?"

"Do you have telescopes in this world? Binoculars at least?" She got blank looks. "I guess not."

"What about that spell you used to harass Professor Umbrage that one time?" asked Sparkle.

"Which one? I used quite a few, as you'll recall."

"Yes, I do. I was thinking about making a copy of yourself from mud. Go to the area with the flute spell as we've not seen it. Then let the thing lead you to itself. You'll be perfectly safe because your body will be back here."

 _"Plastic Proxy!_ Hey, that could work," Susan admitted. "And if I leave off the spell that lets me cast spells through it, the link will be even more tenuous. No way it could reach through and get me from where it is. Okay, let's give it a shot!"

"It will take several hours to prepare flutes for the way there and back. What do you need from us?"

"The same volume of mud as my body." More blank stares. "Enough mud that a person my size could conceivably rise from it," she amended.

The wizards got to work.

About five that evening, Susan's mud avatar with _Flight_ cast on it by Sparkle stepped from the tunnel created by wizardry.

"And you're sure about this?" asked Ithinia.

"There is no other precaution I can take. I'll see you back at in Ethhar when I've seen what I need to see here."

"Okay. Good luck."

Another moment, and Ithinia was gone.

 _So which direction?_

 _.._

 _Hello?_

..

 _Oh, for the love of-_

 _What's that? Oh, you're there. Sorry, I was in the bathroom. Yeah, let's go._

 _In the-_ She sighed. _And I suppose you've put a pool table in there somewhere, what with you being bored and whatnot?_

Susan heard the sounds of pool balls being bounced around.

 _What? I was concentrating on my shot._

 _Which way, darn it?_

 _Oh, right. Stick your finger out._

 _You mean this one?_ She held a specific finger up in front of her face.

 _Very funny. But meaningless to a being like myself. No, out in front of you, that's it. Now slowly turn to the right. Keep turning. Keep turning. Little more. Stop. Okay, that's not the direction you want to go in._

 _I thought you wanted to get on with this?_

 _Oh, but teasing you is so fun. Fine, it actually is that way._

 _I swear, if you are lying to me, I will find a way to crawl inside my own soul and choke the life out of you._

 _You really should see someone about all that anger you've got pent up in here. Oh wait, maybe that's my fault? Eh, who can tell anymore. Pip pip!_

 _I'll pip pip you..._

Susan Clone rose into the air and started flying in the direction The Darkness said to go.

She passed many a ruined house, broken down roads, and finally a forest. According to the wizards, whole villages had been emptied when this first happened, and the whole area had been deserted since. In thirty years, that meant a lot of plant life had opportunity to thrive, and thriving it was.

The sun was setting at her left, causing long shadows to form that made the silence and emptiness of the area that much more creepy.

 _Close now. So close! You should just be able to see it._

 _What? Where?_

 _There! You can't miss it!_

 _What? That dark spot?_

 _Just keep going._

From her vantage point high above it was difficult to tell what that dark spot on the landscape was, but judging from the shadow it was casting along the ground it was pretty tall. Flying as fast as she did, it didn't take long to get close and she landed at the edge of the mound, then walked around it to get a better look without the sun in her eyes. As she came around the side, she realized the mound wasn't earth, or stone, but rather people.

People as still as the grave.

"Warlocks," she breathed, trying to estimate how many were here.

 _That's right. Every called warlock in the world. They've all gathered here, at my insistence._

 _But why? Did you kill them?_

 _Kill them? My loyal soldiers? Perish the thought, Susan. No, I need them to destroy this world for me, only then will they die and relinquish the energy I have... loaned. Would you like to see me now?_

 _Not especially._

 _Too bad._

Susan wasn't sure how, but she knew The Darkness was happy. Every eye suddenly opened, and the mass of bodies started to rise and expand, and Susan took a nervous step back. Then another. Then another, until she rose into the air again and skimmed backwards, as more and more warlocks silently floated from the pit. They didn't look around. They didn't speak. All they did was stare at her. And still more emerged.

The warlocks had arranged themselves in a kind of grid, extending in three dimensions with about a meter and a half between them. In the setting sun the faces of only those that were closest were visible, and they all seemed happy. Suddenly, something bright was rising from the pit, and the warlocks flowed around the thing. It seemed to be a drop of food coloring moving through clear water, but up rather than down. As it passed, the warlocks that had moved out of the way went back, all silently, never out of place. The object was vaguely round, with what looked like tentacles and other odd protuberances sticking out all over it. It floated to the center of the mass of warlocks, and suddenly each said a single word.

"Susan."

Susan had never really felt that much fear in her life up to that point. Oh, she was somewhat concerned about certain things, certainly. And anger over various happenings was only natural, but this? Susan hung in the air, confronted by warlocks in numbers she couldn't begin to estimate, and knew there was no way even her considerable magic could take that many.

"Susan," they repeated again. The voices, molded together and speaking with perfect timing reverberated across the landscape.

"Yes?" she squeaked.

"How nice to see you. Tell me, does this form please you more than mighty dragons or those who would be gods? Is this more fitting then one winged angels or a simple darkness inside a soul? Here, I am legion. Tell me, do you see your death in my army of warlocks? I cultivated them quite carefully, in case a so called hero or two came to this world, seeking to save it from me. How delightful it was you, my newest thorn, that I now get to snap off. We shall see just how powerless you are against me. Quake and fear, for there is nowhere on this world you can run that will be safe!"

In the back of her mind, even through all the fear, Susan noticed that even this part of him liked to talk.

"I do not seek safety," she threw back at him. "Only a world free of you."

The mass of people laughed, chilling her further. "Bold. Always so bold. Well, things will not go so well for you this time, I fear." Every arm came up, pointing behind her. "Behold the merest fraction of my power!"

Susan risked a quick look behind her, and saw the reason for that shadow that had been coming up behind her this whole time. An enormous block of stone, pulled out of the ground so silently she hadn't even noticed, and now moving faster than a jet plane, slammed into her.

 _Cra-_

Her mud form burst and she gasped, sitting up in the bed she had been laying in back at the wizard's guild building.

"What happened?" demanded Sparkle. "Are you all right?"

"Warlocks!" Susan gasped, the shock of being dispersed not doing her any favors.

"What? What did you see?" asked Ithinia.

"Warlocks," she repeated. "All of them. All the called warlocks are still alive. They've gone under the control of The Darkness." She grabbed Ithinia's robes. "You have to spread the word! No one can use warlock power any more. To do so just makes the army grow." She felt something happening to her, _everything at once!_ and grabbed out her _character sheet._ She stared in horror as the description of the calling was now ten times easier to succumb to, being now divided by only a hundred, rather than a thousand.

 _Yes, I was hoping you would use it a bit more. Play with it like a new toy, but you were not obliging in the least. I would have loved to have added your magic to my abilities, traveled worlds with you helping me take them over, rather than fighting me. As it was intended! Ah well, you're dead, which is my second choice._

"They're all going to be called!"

"Slow down!" demanded the wizard. "What are you babbling about?"

"Warlocks!" she shrieked. "What do you think? They didn't die, they've just been waiting. For someone like me to show up. The Darkness took over that thing that fell from the sky, some kind of space faring creature. Now _it's_ taken over all the warlocks in the world, or at least most of them. We have to get ready!"

"Do you... do you even know what this means?" Ithinia was pale.

"War," Susan replied simply. "And one that can-"

"Susan!" The voice came from outside, and the roof of the place started to collapse, then be blown outward to show a man hovering in the air above the place.

Sparkle reacted. "Accelerate _Magic!"_ she cast, getting it instantly.

Susan realized what she wanted her to do. " _Hypnotic Field!"_ she cast, now able to cut the time to nothing without suffering as much of a penalty. She also threw in maximum energy, getting a nineteen, more than the warlock could hope for on a REAson check. The attack stopped- at least the man's attack, anyway. Susan wasted no time getting out her _Elemental Weapon_ and Sparkle put _Flight_ on her, allowing her to slam the warlock through the chest with the blade, knocking him out with sixty two non-lethal damage. She looked around, and it looked like other black clothed forms were flying towards her, as specks could be seen in the distance.

"What is going on?" asked Ithina as Susan tossed the limp warlock to the bed. She took a moment to steal his energy so hers would be replenished, but didn't know exactly how much to take because of how they got energy from The Darkness. _How soon will he wake up from all this? It could be life or death for the people here if I'm not around._ She took forty to be on the safe side, then debated casting _Repair_ on the roof. It was pretty much gone, so the difficulty would be pretty high, and The Darkness knew where she was anyway. She left it.

"I have to get out of here, or at least prepare. You need to prepare too. Put every warlock in the city to sleep, then start putting up barrier spells so the rest can't get in. I don't know how long it'll take them to fly here, but they will. Maybe they'll stop to destroy towns on the way in, maybe not. I can't say. I may be their first target, so if you can hold them off-"

"Stop! Hold on here. You're leaving? You give me some raving explanation about warlocks, get attacked, kill this man, and now you're talking about leaving?"

"I don't have time. Why didn't I _save_ before I went over there? Not that it would have mattered, he could have emerged at any time."

"Time!" shouted Sparkle. "Use _Time Suspension!"_

"Good idea!" Susan hastily got out her book of magic and started paging through.

"Now what are you doing?"

"Buying us some time to explain. Good thing I've read this book over a million times. Ah, here."

Susan cast, taking the extra 4 segments, which negated the plus four difficulty from casting from writings. She put in some energy, but not max, and got enough to cast the spell. That done she breathed a sigh of relief and snapped the book shut. She set it down in midair but before taking her hand off it, thought better of it and put it back in her sub-space pocket.

 _If I let it go, I won't be able to pick it back up again, it'll go outside time just like everything else is now._

"Okay, we can talk now. Can't believe I never put _that_ one into a _Spell Paper._ Maybe I'll do that... when I get the _time."_

"Is now really the-" Sparkle didn't finish her thought. Susan gave her a little grin like "go on, say it!"

"Can you please explain what is going on?" asked Ithinia.

"Now I can," replied Susan. She told her what she had seen, and about how warlocks were now being controlled against their will. "And for the record, I didn't kill this guy. That sword is specifically made for knocking people out."

"But if you're right, he'll stop at nothing to kill you! Every warlock will."

"And that means I should just kill them? Like I said, they aren't doing this on their own. They wouldn't do this on their own. Take out The Darkness, and they'll all return to normal. Without powers, even. It's win-win, right?"

"But The Darkness is now protected by thousands of warlocks, and all of them are as strong as warlocks can possibly be because they were all called."

"I didn't say it would be easy!"

"It isn't even hard, it's impossible!"

"I admit, the thought of battling through that line I saw, even with _Slash-All,_ seems a bit daunting. But I can guarantee you, The Darkness is already on the move. We have no time to prepare anything if we're to protect your world. You need to get every magic user possible together and to the edge of Ethshar. Put up what barriers you can, and somehow support me while I... kill that innocent space creature... Dang."

"Seems he's set this up pretty well," remarked Sparkle.

"You have no idea. It's not magic, so I can't just use _Dead Magic_ or _Destroy Magic_ and turn people like this guy into non-warlocks again. My book could probably come up with a spell if I could somehow put a warlock on top of it for hours, but good luck with that. Plus if I was around the creature, he could probably shut my magic down like he did before. Oh dad, why did you have to get caught?!"

"Lament things later. Right now we need to think of first steps, and how to contain this magical war that's coming. We've already had one great war, we didn't need a second. That one set every discipline, from magic to candle making, back hundreds of years. And there were no warlocks then, so I can't imagine what this war is going to be like."

 _Brief,_ smugly put in The Darkness.

 _This is why you were so excited to be here. You knew what I was facing here._

 _Correct. I'll make you deal. Leave. Go back to Silverstreak or whatever he's calling himself now and stop your journey. I'll give you the coordinates for the world Luna landed on, and heck, I'll even throw in your father, if he agrees to settle down. Go get Luna, head back to your world, and stay there. That's what you want, isn't it? You don't care about these people, why should you die for them?_

 _You... know where Luna is?_

 _Susan, Susan, Susan. I'm spread across the multi-verse right now, remember? Time may run differently between worlds but what is time to me? Of course I know where she is. Duh. She's around a lot of people that like to wave swords about at this very moment. Hope she doesn't get cut to ribbons, some of them look pretty deranged. And what's with all those black kimonos those guys are wearing? And check out the boobs on that one, even I'm impressed! And I don't have human physiology!_

 _Shu- Shut up! You're lying!_

 _Am I?_

"Susan?"

"Just a second!"

 _Look, I "appreciate" it at all, but take your deal and shove it. My father started journeying to stop you. Now I'm doing the same. I won't just turn my back on these people. Even if that means... sacrificing Luna. Though I doubt you're even telling the truth, you just want to rattle me, keep me from thinking clearly._

 _Believe what you want. I figured you wouldn't, but I had to ask. The offer stays open, if you get scared when three thousand warlocks start tearing you to pieces. I'll call them off, all you have to do is say 'yes' to me. Make me believe it, of course. Give up, in other words. I'll know, you can't fool yourself._

 _Never._

 _You always were a stubborn one._

"Sorry, The Darkness was trying to bribe me into leaving. I turned him down."

"Which means there's a chance?" Sparkle asked.

"There must be. He wouldn't bother to try taking me away from here if I was totally useless. No, there must be something I can do."

"But what?" asked Sativola.

Susan shook her head sadly. "At the moment, I really have no idea."


	86. Chapter 86

86

Slice... to Wound

Time: Subjectively, twenty minutes later

Place: Bubble of stopped time, wizard guild building

"Why not this spell?" asked Ithinia, making a general "around here" gesture. She and Susan had been looking through her book to see what spells might help in this situation, as well as making plans for what to do when _Time Suspension_ ended. "Stopping time like this seems pretty convenient. Why not just go back there, stop time, and set something up to happen when it starts again?"

"Like I said, The Darkness, the main body not just one of these warlocks it's controlling, can negate my magic. It's something it learned how to do from my father, who also had that gift."

"So if it sees you cast any spell it just sends specific magical energies at you, which negate it?"

"Yes."

"Harsh. But you could protect this city with it?"

"I suppose. But honestly it's just faster to beat up whatever comes looking for me. Those warlocks I saw in the distance will be here shortly, and I can't be inside this spell when I face them. I mean I could put up _Hypnotic Field_ inside here, but they would get the same resistance check against it as they normally would once time starts again. Better just to cast it from the start."

"Even if they throw, say, a house at you?"

"Just how much weight can warlocks lift?"

"A lot. Especially if they work together. Now, these local ones won't be as strong as ones who have been called, but they're dangerous all the same."

"Which is why you better think of ways to deal with them, because I can't be everywhere at once. Anyplace I'm not is going to be under attack, and that means all across Ethshar at the least, everyone is in danger."

"We do have a high concentration of warlocks here, it's only natural. The money is here. But getting the word out..."

"Yes, I still can't believe you have no magic for quickly spreading information. Even just among wizards, to think you'll have to send people to knock on doors and such. I just can't believe you didn't plan for something like this."

"That warlocks would go insane and start attacking us? No, didn't really cross our minds once they started getting called. I mean it was always a possibility, but no one ever really took any responsibility to plan for such an event."

"I can see that. Not every world gets an Albus Dumbledore, I guess. And even he missed a lot. Okay, let's figure out the next... hour or so. This spell drops and time resumes. What happens?"

"I'll go start spreading the word about warlocks being controlled. I'll get all the wizards together and see what spells might be useful in this situation. Don't get your hopes up, there probably won't be many."

"But what about this magical war everyone's always talking about?"

"That was still fought mostly with soldiers. Sure, wizards contributed, and spells had terrible effects on the land. But a lot of those sorts of spells were lost, or they targeted too wide an area. Those wizards had hours, days even, to prepare storms or curses or earthquakes against enemy _territory._ We need to take down just a few individuals and in a very short time, while leaving everything else standing. Plus, that was a war- we were trying to kill the enemy. You want these warlocks taken alive so hopefully they can be released when you get rid of this darkness thing."

"I'm glad you've not fighting me on that one."

"For now. If the situation becomes desperate, I can't tell other wizards not to defend themselves."

"I know. Sativola?"

"I'll go down Wizard Street and gather any magic user I think will be helpful. Tell them to come here. Any warlocks not far enough gone to still be themselves I'll tell to not do any more magic, and maybe to come here too?" She looked over at Ithinia, who nodded.

"Better safe than sorry. We'll have to keep an eye on them."

"I just hope I can convince them."

"If their fellow warlocks start tearing the place up, I think they'll be convinced pretty quickly," said Susan.

"Is there a danger of that?"

"Sure. The Darkness would want to eliminate the people that can best resist first. That means magic users."

"Oh."

"Problem is," said Sparkle, "even with all the magic users in the world at our side, we're still basically alone. None of them have what we call battle magic. Wizardry takes too long. Witchcraft can't really compare to warlocks. Demons would be useful, but they would want to kill, so that's probably out. I don't know much about what gods you have around here, if they might help."

Ithinia shook her head. "They don't even see warlocks any more. Probably a side effect of being changed by the darkness. It's from outside the world, so they have no way of perceiving it."

"That raises a good point, what would have happened if The Darkness hadn't come here? I mean that dragon would have busted out and Louise and her friends might have been able to deal with it. That's what void magic was for. Aerith would have died, but Cloud and the rest could have taken Sephiroth, heck, they basically did, I couldn't damage him directly. And Balor of the Ugly Face wasn't even a part of it, so that would have been handled just fine. If I wasn't here, if The Darkness hadn't taken over all warlocks, what would have happened instead?" The witch and wizard shared a confused look. "I mean we know what it is now, a big space monster creature thing. Maybe it wouldn't even have even come here?"

"We may never know," remarked Sativola.

"It is odd, if it really is a thinking creature, why it would have landed here in the first place," agreed Ithinia. "But speculation is pointless. We have work to do. How far can we get before we leave this bubble of stopped time?"

"Not far. Get as far as you can and when you see things moving again, assume I am too. I'll head to the three Ethshar cities I've been to and see if I can't knock down any warlocks making trouble. That done I'll drain them, bring them back here, and you guys can hopefully lock them up somewhere."

"I'll see what I can come up with," promised Ithinia.

"By then I should be brimming with energy again, maybe I can just _Phase_ my way close to The Darkness and... do something to him. Maybe _knockout_ would work? I hate to kill the alien."

"First things first," cautioned Sparkle. "We have to protect the city. We can stop time again if we have to before taking him on. And we'll have more magic by then, wizard magic, that we can throw at it too. Just because you can't effect the world, doesn't mean they couldn't prepare a bunch of spells in the no-time zone. They could do wizardry of hours in a subjective second!"

"True. And maybe you can use your _Colossus_ again, distract him? Yeah, no."

"Good luck to us all, then."

The four nodded, and the two women scampered out of the room about their tasks.

 _And now for mine._

Susan began activating her _Spell Papers_ and _Materia,_ but left _Slash-All_ off for the moment. The Darkness knew about that, so they would probably stay out of range. She would have to hit them with _Elemental Burst_ and hope for the best. That didn't stop her getting out her _Knockout_ sword though. She used one of her _Spell Papers_ for _Avatar,_ rather than getting out her _Crystal Blade._

 _I don't want to kill one, even by accident. Not if I don't have to. Even if it's just for the selfish reason of taking their energy when they're down._

Sparkle took one with _Invulnerability_ on it, figuring up to that point no one had attacked a "mere" cat. But The Darkness knew what she could do, so it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. "I won't be much help though," she reminded Susan. "Most of what I know is _Line,_ or _Touch,_ so that's pretty useless. Plus I'll be maintaining your stuff, like _Flight_ and _Acceleration._ "

"You could stay here, you don't have to risk it, _companion_ or not."

"I'll stick close. I'll be maintaining _Accelerate Magic,_ just to give you that much more of an edge."

"I appreciate it." Susan looked up through the hole. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Let's get going then. _Save."_ Susan dropped the last _Spell Paper_ to the ground and the two took to the sky. As they passed beyond the initial radius of the _Time Suspension_ spell it broke, and events went into motion again.

From what she could tell, several warlocks were causing havoc in the streets, hovering above and just telekinetically smashing everything they saw. Susan couldn't hear any screams yet, but she was sure there were people down there dying. Another group was heading towards her, and she met them halfway, desperate to take them down quickly and stop those others. They spread out, as The Darkness knew she wanted to use _Burst_ on them even as she had thought it. So these warlocks knew, too.

Susan wanted to shout to them, "you're being controlled, fight it!" but she knew that she was too far away, and that it would do little good. The Darkness had invaded these people's brains, and changed them in some way to leave them totally under its control. She was sure nothing less would do for the creature.

 _Correct,_ said The Darkness. _I am all of them now, and I wonder what your_ Invulnerability _will make of this?_

Each warlock snapped open a hand which started to arc with electricity, a strange red power that lit up their faces like being awash in blood.

 _You've got to be kiddi-_

Susan didn't even get to finish the thought as the warlocks didn't even gesture, didn't give any sign of attacking whatsoever, but the lighting in their hands struck forth with a fury. Susan was concerned for an instant that he had somehow granted them some magical power, and only her _Giant's Soul_ would save her now, but she found there was no pain. She was stunned, having the equivalent of several bolts of lighting stabbing into your eyes at once will do that, magical resistance to physical damage or not.

The warlocks were fast. They could be, because The Darkness didn't mind sending them energy to cut their _delay,_ and Susan found herself being hurled out of the sky at a frightening speed. She crashed through a roof as the house she had struck imploded around her, pinning her inside. She felt the pressure continue, and realized line of sight meant nothing to these people- _warlocky can see inside things._

 _And even if it couldn't,_ put in The Darkness, _I know where you are._

 _You know, you're really starting to annoy me._

 _Then you know how I feel about you. Anyway, what'cha gonna do about it?_

"This. _Phase."_ She didn't have to move for that one, and could take the full time because she really couldn't go anywhere anyway. Sparkle was too far away to help with the _Magic Acceleration,_ but that didn't matter in this case. The pressure fell away, and Susan went straight up, passing through the house on her way to the nearest warlock.

Dropping a spell was a reactive action, meaning it could be done at any time just by not concentrating on the spell anymore. Honestly, doing what Susan was about to do was probably against a strict reading of the rules, but with _Acceleration_ having a one delay was hardly noticeable. (Besides, delay "happens" after you take the action, so this could work either way.) As Susan swung at the warlock she didn't drop _Phase,_ not until the blade was already inside the guy. That was the plan, anyway. It worked, she got a twenty six (with eight energy expended and accounting for penalties for _Phase_ ) while her opponent got a twenty four (with five energy expended) to dodge. As the blade passed through Susan dropped the spell, doing more than forty damage to him as the blade tore out the other side of him. It also spat the sword out of his body, doing eight lethal damage to him as the two objects tried to occupy the same space. He started dropping.

 _Oh, crap, he'll die if he hits the ground from this high up. I declare the use of card 23, my_ Personal Stake _in this is making sure none of them die._

She dove after him, but the second and third warlocks cared little for her concern, and sent a piece of rubble at her despite knowing it couldn't actually hurt her.

 _They're just trying to keep me from reaching him. They can't go for physical pain so they go for emotional?_

 _Hey, I take what I can get._

Susan smashed through the debris with the sword hilt, figuring that no amount on non-lethal damage would chop through it. As clocking someone in the temple with the hilt would probably still be considered using the _Sword_ skill, the narrator allowed her to roll that, at least smashing it out of the way. With her off hand she grabbed for the guy, this time using unarmed and putting energy into it. She got an eight, exactly enough to grab his hand and arrest his fall. She was still falling, trying to get out of range, when number four shot lighting at her again. She was going to try grabbing the guy up and protecting him with her body but Sparkle had been holding for just such an occurrence.

 _"Deflection,"_ she cast, missing it by one. She hesitated- she had card twenty, _Missed Me,_ but the bolt was aimed at Susan, so it would be fine, right?

The bolt struck, and the electricity surged through them both, causing the warlock to open his eyes and scream in agony before dropping unconscious again.

Looking down at him, Susan saw that he was now two into _gone,_ his life hanging by a thread. He could take four more damage before he died, and he was bleeding from the sword wound so it wouldn't take long to lose that much.

"Heal him!" she shouted to Sparkle, who flew up, beginning to apologize.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Just regenerate him enough that he doesn't die."

"Okay."

She set him down as gently as she could, and Sparkle started casting _Regeneration._

Susan turned, catching another two lightning bolts as she tried to cover the man, and now that she wasn't touching him they dissipated harmlessly. She tried to rise again, and had to make a STRength check to bust through the force that was trying to keep her rooted to the spot. This she did easily, bursting forth from the ground towards the nearest one that had just thrown lighting, figuring he would be unable to act by the time she got there.

She wasn't _Phased_ at the moment, but figured that would be fine. She swung, but this time rather than dodging, the blade was deflected by a burst of force she couldn't get through, and she had to make a STRength check just to hold onto the weapon. All three smiled at her.

 _Oh great, they worked together for that one. But at least they all took the reactive delay for it._

Susan was still up, and decided to " _Phase,"_ spending just enough energy to guarantee success on her check as she did it instantly.

Sparkle's spell went off, and the wounded warlock started to heal. In another ten segments he would heal one damage, so it was going to take a few turns to see him safe.

Susan took another swing, and the warlocks, taking no chances, yanked their companion back even as she dodged in the air. She stayed with her, timing her attack to just impact her body when she dropped _Phase_ so she wouldn't be as wounded as the first guy was. She did forty one damage to her body, and this time used her off hand action to grab her _before_ she started falling. That worked, and Susan hoped she would get to act again before they did. (She was pretty sure she would, even with them just reacting defensively.)

Now she had a new problem, though. She had a sword in one hand, and the woman in the other. This would be fine if she could lower her gently to the ground, but Susan was in a bit of a hurry given she knew the other two would start shooting again. She reluctantly dropped the blade, making it vanish, and selected some debris she could cast _Transposition_ on. Having a sword in your hand doesn't make for the quick movements Mercury spells required, though she could probably have taken a penalty or put more energy in.

The woman suddenly jerked, and Susan almost lost her grip in surprise, but realized it wasn't the warlock herself moving about, the ones she was facing were trying to yank her away. Rather than make a STRength check to pull her back and potentially break her arm, (or at the very least, dislocate her shoulder) Susan let herself be dragged along. Unfortunately, the direction they were headed was down.

 _I can't just let her impact off of me, I'm armored up, that would probably be_ worse _than the ground. How can I cushion her fall? Oh, I don't have to._

 _"Phase!"_ she cast, again putting energy in. They slipped through the ground, contact cut off now that they could no longer be touched physically. Susan could take her movement as part of the action, and popped up again, looking for a safe place to drop the warlock off.

With her twenty five LUCk check she found an overturned wagon and slipped behind it, out of sight.

 _Of course, they know right where I am because of that warlock sense they have. Still, it should keep this one out of the line of fire._

It burst apart, pieces flying everywhere, and Susan was exposed again, ducking down under the dirt in the street again.

 _You just have to be difficult, don't you?_

 _How can I be otherwise? I can't hurt you with these guys, it seems. I'll have to think about that. You could have taken them easily if you didn't care about them splattering to the ground when they fell unconscious. And the longer this takes you, the more time the others have to wreak havoc over there._

The Darkness was right. _I need to finish this quickly. There's only two now, so they aren't as spread apart. I'll have to try getting them both._

Susan, having no other place to put the body at this point, opened up her _Pocket Dimension_ and shoved the lady through. "Don't touch any of my stuff," she joked, and poked her head out again to see where the two were. They were still drifting some meters from each other, but Susan was pretty sure she could get it between them and catch them both. _But I'll have to be within planet + stat meters, and I'm probably like ten away at this point. Good thing Neptune spells are REAson, which for me is an eight._

Susan still didn't to let them know something was up, though they probably already did, and rather than casting for longer she made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check. That gave her twenty one extra energy to spend, in addition to her normal ten, so she popped up, dropped _Phase_ , cast instantly, and threw thirty energy into the spell. This made the radius thirty six meters, and her check result a forty two.

The warlocks seemed unimpressed, and in fact the one was merrily throwing more lighting around, probably just to show he could. The other was staring off into space with a purpose, but not slack jawed as people normally are when hit with that amount of hypnotic force.

 _Okay, what?_

 _You do know that I know that's one of your favorite spells, right?_

 _So? They couldn't have reacted fast enough, and they didn't go dodging out of that area, I can see they're still in it._

 _Why would they need to. Oh Susan, you just don't get it, do you? Anyone with their eyes closed is immune to the spell!_

 _… They've been fighting me with their eyes closed._

 _That's right! Give that girl a... well, not a cigar, smoking is bad for you. Maybe a bubblegum one? Ah, live a little, have one. Maybe a glass of whisky as well. Might mellow you out a little._

 _So they're using the warlock sight to see me, in anticipation of that spell. Bravo._

 _Thanks. And you can't just knock them out with_ Burst, _because then they would fall and splat. I suppose you could try and catch both at the same time..._

 _Or I could just do this._

Susan strode over to a piece of wood, a beam from a house that had been smashed to pieces. Part of it was on fire, but that didn't matter to her. She smacked it into the ground so it stood up and let _Field_ go, making the warlock shooting lightning turn his attention back onto her. The other was still doing his own thing.

 _Now what?_

 _Watch and learn, fool._

Susan first got her _Knockout_ blade back, then took extra time, casting _Transposition_ on the beam and on the warlock. She didn't release it yet, as a spell can be held and released later just fine. Instead she aimed for where she figured the warlock's body would be with the sword, bringing it up like a bat. The warlock, meanwhile, was dodging this way and that, trying to get the magical circle under his feet to go away, but the magic paced him. When everything was ready she let the spell go, and the beam became a surprised warlock.

A surprised warlock still trying to dodge the magic by flying at high speed. In her haste, Susan had forgotten that momentum was preserved with teleport style spells, and this one was no exception.

Susan made another LUCk check, a twelve, and yes, he was flying right towards her. She got a thirteen on her REFlexes check to see if she could get out of the way, but even with _Acceleration_ going the two collided. Susan made a STRength check out of shear reflex to not be knocked over, getting a thirty five. In hindsight, this was a pretty terrible idea. The warlock, made of meat and bone like any other creature crashed into the pillar of magical metal that surrounded Susan, _Giant's Soul_ and all. His head and body shattered against her, spattering her with blood as he almost died instantly. He too was hanging by a thread, and Susan, horrified, dropped her sword for the second time.

 _Oh, fabulously done. Imagine the damage you could be doing if you were actually trying to kill these guys. As it is you've near killed half of them and that's without even trying._ The Darkness dissolved into giggles.

Instead of replying she grabbed up her knife, hesitated a moment because this would possibly wake him up, and touched it to him. Now usually she just held it there until everything was fine again, but this time she pulled it away immediately. It healed "as much Lethal damage as twice her Sun rating" as it was designed to do. This turned out to be eight, so while still covered in blood and possibly some brain matter, he was no longer in any danger of dying.

Susan noticed a dark shadow passing over her, and risked a glance up. From somewhere, possibly a nearby well, a ball of water was hovering over her.

"You've got to be kidding."

 _Well, it worked with me last time, didn't it? I'm just giving you a taste of how it was back then. You can't be_ damaged, _true enough, but you still have to breathe._

As the ball descended Susan spent her _Extra Action_ card, number 9, to throw this warlock into her _Pocket Dimension_ as well, then put on _Breathe Water._

It crashed into her and the surroundings with lethal force, crushing the nearby structures and hammering into her.

 _I really hope Sparkle wasn't in range of that._

 _"Elemental Weapon,"_ she cast, realizing it might be best to make that into some sort of _Imbuing_ if she was going to keep turning it on and off like a light bulb. _"Telesummon"_ was her next spell, cast with the extra time and extra energy, though she only had thirty left now. (She had used _Transposition_ before because of the bonus from _Acceleration,_ she didn't have to put as much energy in to still have it work.) It was twenty four to twenty three, winner Susan, and she cleaved through the man as he tried to not drown, figure out why he was now inside the ball of water, push the water away, and dodge all at the same time. The water released its shape and splashed down around her, washing away some of the blood from her armor, at least.

"That's over," she sighed.

 _You aren't forgetting those warlocks over there, are you?_

Susan wearily raised her eyes to the warlocks in the distance, heading straight for her.

 _Going to be one of those days._


	87. Chapter 87

87

Defending the Town

Time: Moments later

Place: Ethshar of the Spices

Susan wasted no time. She hastily drew forty energy from the waterlogged warlock before her, then tumbled the other two from her _Pocket Dimension._ She stole forty from each of them, raising her total from thirty two up to a hundred and fifty two. Then she stopped dead as a thought struck her.

 _Draining energy causes non-lethal damage, right? Each point a person loses past negative their ENDurance becomes a point of non-lethal damage to the body. But here,_ she touched her knife, _I have a knife that heals all non-lethal damage with a touch. Can I shove this knife into someone, leave it there, and then drain unlimited energies from them? Huh._

She was somewhat tempted to try it, but that could have some kind of lasting, detrimental effect on whoever she did it to. _Besides, I have more important things to be doing. Like finding Sparkle._

That, sadly, was going to be a problem, as Susan had no idea really which way she had gone after leaving her side. The force of the ball of water had washed away any markers she might have used, and with the nearby houses and such blasted to pieces there was no way for her to know which way to go. _I could have used that extra energy, too. Oh well. Stay safe, Sparkle._

As she looked around, she now noticed a fair number of dead, and shook her head at the waste. _But really this is only the beginning. One opponent at a time, Susan._

She rose into the air, daring the next group of warlocks to come to her. She figured this area was already wrecked up, and anyone there would have fled by now. So why put some other street in danger as well?

Susan regarded the five warlocks that she could now see _clearly_ coming towards her. This time it was three women and two men, and she wondered if that was significant somehow. One of them was the chairman she had seen earlier, but he showed no signs of recognizing her. In fact, his eyes were also now closed, so Susan's best spell for ending this quickly was again denied her.

 _Cheaters._

 _Tell that to all the people you've beaten up over the years. You think Severus didn't feel exactly the way you do when you were smashing up his lab after Luna had been given that truth serum?_

 _He had it coming._

 _So do you._

The warlocks broke formation and encircled her, staying out of easy reach as they did so. She estimated they were about four meters from her. Looking them over she noticed each carried a knife for some reason, gripped tightly and ready to strike.

Susan called out her _Elemental Weapon,_ not worried at the moment about the energy loss. She had plenty to spare for _this_ combat, at least. She slowly spun in the air, wondering which one would be the first to strike. Obviously she would have the highest _Initative,_ right?

Warlock "four" surprised her, acting first and ripping her cloak off, then tossing it in her direction. Susan easily dodged it, wondering what they were up to. Then warlock "one" did the same thing, but off to the side so she was at a flanking penalty for trying to avoid it. This didn't matter, Susan figured her _Acceleration_ would be more than equal to the task of getting out of the way of a _cloak,_ and put no energy into her dodge. She rolled quite low in comparison, and was surprised to find the cloak wrapping itself around her head.

 _I can still tell where they are with_ Spirit Sense, _blinding me doesn't make sense. They're getting desperate now, or are they really up to something? I'll just tear this off next action._

But Susan's dodges, even at one segment delay, caused warlock "two" the opportunity to strike first, which he did. Susan felt him coming, but had no training in _Blind Fighting,_ so just swung her sword and hoped her _Augmented Skill_ would compensate. She underestimated her opponent. The Darkness didn't care about these people, it had thousands more just days away. This... was about payback.

The woman didn't dodge, and Susan's blade smashed into her left leg for one hundred damage. Of course it could only take twenty one non-lethal, and had she been standing on the ground she might have been concerned. As it was she was flying, and being controlled by The Darkness in any case. She couldn't have been concerned if she tried.

What she did instead of dodging was drive the dagger into Susan's head, doing an astonishing fifteen damage to her "no unusual effect." Susan couldn't see it, but the woman smirked as she sped past, and Susan was now at a minus five to everything. Normally this would have been enough to kill her instantly, and four more besides. Only having _Avatar_ up saved her, as she had twenty extra health.

Susan was in shock. And because of her _Low Pain Tolerance,_ in quite a bit of pain. She couldn't ever remember being wounded like this- _never!_

 _How did they penetrate my armor so easily? Why didn't my_ Giant's Soul _divide the damage? And how does a simple dagger bypass my_ Invulnerability? _This is nuts!_

 _Hey, looks like they found a weapon that can hurt you,_ gloated The Darkness. _Guess their next attack will end it._

Susan felt them move with _Spirit Sense,_ two at once this time from the front. She had to do something drastic, but what?

With only an instant to choose between _Burst_ and _Phase,_ she decided. _If this doesn't work, I can always "reload" from my "save."_

She spent an XP for an extra action, making a _Spirit Manipulation_ check, and got a fifteen after accounting for her penalties. Then she made her real action.

 _"Elemental Burst: Knockout!"_

The burst was centered on her, and she knew it would probably hurt, but was the only way to get all of them at once. With twenty four energy thrown in, the radius was thirty meters across and everyone took 5d12 damage fifteen times. In essence, damage was rolled fifteen times and wherever a body location took the most damage, that was kept. Of course, being _Knockout_ whatever damage done was doubled.

The warlocks fell out of the sky.

This damage was superficial to Susan, who did divide that all by fourteen, but her entire body was very sore when she hovered near the ground to check on the warlocks. It looked like they were all still alive, but some just barely.

"Susan," someone called, and she sagged a little more. _Am I going to get attacked again?_

But it was just Sparkle, flying over to her. "What happened to you? That blast reached _past_ me, it's a good thing I was still _Phased_ from that water attack or I would have been hit too! Who knows who else you hit with it?"

"Sorry," she said wearily. "Had to, might have died otherwise."

"Died? You? Impos- Your face! They got through your armor? Stand still, I'll put _Regeneration_ on you."

"Thanks."

Susan waited, the seconds ticking by as her body healed itself with magic, and finally she could pull herself straight and stand on the ground again. She was fearful that this was the best time for an ambush, so if there were any more warlocks in the area she was pretty much helpless if they sprang out now. But none did. Healed enough to move without falling over, Susan drained energy from these warlocks and touched them with the knife to make sure they wouldn't die.

"I still have two more cities to clean out, too," she complained. "Forget getting experience in how to fight though, I'm taking them out from hiding, as quickly as I can. If they can actually hurt me through _Invulnerability..."_ She bent to pick up one of the knives that had fallen and did a _Magic Sense_ on it. "Oh, I should have known."

"What?"

"It's one of those knives the wizards swish around instead of wands. Probably the only magical weapon produced in quantity in the world. I should have realized. They weren't just destroying things for the fun of it, they were looking for wizards so they could steal their knives. Let me see if I can find them all, then we'll take these people in."

Susan spent a moment looking around, gathering up all the knives where they had fallen near the knocked out warlocks. That done, she piled their unconscious bodies up and opened a _Teleportal_ back to the wizard's building. "Secure these warlocks," she shouted to the first person she saw, who called for help and started hauling them through.

"They've really gone mad?" asked one young wizard, waiting for a turn to go through the portal and help.

"I'm afraid so. Hope you've been studying hard, because today is a surprise quiz."

The boy looked confused. "I'm not even sure what those words mean."

"I mean today your skills will really be tested, and you didn't expect it."

"Oh."

With the prisoners secure, Susan opened a portal to the next large town in Ethshar, and stepped through with Sparkle. She hadn't seen very much of it, just the wizard's street really, which was quite thoroughly on fire.

"Tore this place up pretty good," Sparkle remarked. "Do you hear that?"

"What?"

Sparkle raced off, but didn't go far when she stopped in front of a ruined house that had been demolished. "I think there's someone inside!"

"Great." Susan tossed wood and stone aside, wading into what was left of the structure until she found a trapped boy calling for help. She cracked the beam just by smacking it, then lifted the rest off of him. The boy looked up at her in awe.

"Let me guess, the warlocks went nuts."

He shook himself. "Yeah, my master just got up, blew the place apart, and flew off. From what I could tell other warlocks were fighting them-"

"Fighting them? Oh no!" Susan took to the air, scanning the skies around the town and there still seemed to be a warlock or two fighting against others. She came back down. "They did," she said to Sparkle. "You know what that means!"

She nodded. "They got taken all the faster, and then stopped putting up any resistance."

"Are you a warlock?" asked the kid.

"Are you?" Susan shot back.

"I'm an apprentice."

"Oh." She regretted her sharp tone. "Well, find a new line of work."

"I can't! I'm too old!"

"Too- what? Look, warlocky is over. It's done. You keep using it today and you'll wind up like your master. Freaking insane. With a little luck I'll destroy the source by tonight before they kill every living thing on this world. Either way, you'll need to find a new vocation."

"What's vocation?"

"Just don't do any more warlocky, okay? You have a family?"

"Yeah?"

"That didn't sound promising. If you can get back to them, fine, do it. Protect them using _minimal_ magic. If you can't, just hide out someplace until this all blows over."

"I can't get to them, not without using my magic. Have you seen what's going on around here? I should help!"

"Help?" Susan stopped short. "At least that I can understand. All right." She tried to think of something he could actually _do._ "Uh, okay, round up all the magic users that are still alive around here, and have them grab any unsmashed wizardry stuff. We're going to need it before this is over. Find someplace fortified and get up whatever defenses they can. We're only going to win against warlocks if we combine our magics and everyone does their part. The wizard's guild will be along shortly to more directly take charge, so keep that in mind. Got all that?" He nodded. "Then get going, and stay safe."

"I'll be fine!" He started to rise off the ground.

"And no magic! You want to go mad?"

"It's just so _easy_ now," he complained. "Fine." He stopped and ran out, heading down the street.

"Come on," she said to Sparkle. "There's about a dozen warlocks over there, and we need to somehow take care of them."

"Any idea as to how?"

"No. It would be so much easier if they weren't flying about. But knock them out and there's every chance they'll crack their heads open when they fall."

"Too bad you don't have _Elemental Creation: Pudding Pit."_

Susan laughed softly. "Yeah, I should have my book work on that one. Or like, _Bouncy Castle,_ turns the area up to M range into the humorously inflated version of itself."

"Seriously, what are we going to do?"

"I really don't know. Against that many, and we have to move fast... maybe _Mass Domination?_ It's kind of like the _imperius curse_ though, not that the laws at home really apply to this situation."

"Aren't they already being controlled? You go up and throw that at them, you might have to beat whatever The Darkness has done. You think you can do that... with a spell you'll be casting from writings?"

"Ah, yes, there is that. And if it doesn't work, I'm up there with a bunch of warlocks who want me dead. But we have to do something!"

" _Grounding?"_

"Only works on one person. But yeah, a spell to make an area where people can't fly, that would have been a nice one to have."

" _Telesummon_ from miles away? Do it in the air and they won't crash into anything, and you can take them one at a time."

"Trouble is I don't actually 'know' any of those people. I can't uniquely identify them, and asking for a signed, group photo, probably isn't going to work."

"Then I've got nothing."

"Yeah, me too. The Darkness will throw them at me without regard for their safety, and destroy any that I knock out just to spite me. But I can't just leave and let them destroy this whole town."

"You don't have to convince me. Just think of something!"

So she did, as the seconds ticked by even with her _Acceleration_ going. Suddenly she got out her book and ex

citedly started paging through it.

"Okay, I think I've got a way. It's going to take a few spells, but see what you think of this. You can drop _Flight_ and even _Acceleration_ from us. Instead give me _Energetic Accumulation._ I'm going to drop enough energy into _Alternate Dimension_ that they can't resist even with putting energy into it."

"But that's no-"

"Hear me out. Yes, it says they return to their exact positions, that's true. But what if they couldn't? What if they were all in my _Pocket Dimension?"_

"I guess that would work. But what about them not dying when they hit the ground?"

"That's the best part. The _Dimension_ is as I will it. So I just make the ground be a nice, soft, cushiony substance. Your _Pudding Pit_ spell gave me the idea. The ground doesn't have to be dirt, after all, just be the same position relative to the ground here. I'll be _Invisible_ so they don't spot me. I'll grab them up, then gather energy again for another _Burst._ Drain them after they fall, shove them in the _Pocket,_ and end the spell. Easy!"

"Yeah, easy. It just takes, what, five spells?"

"It's better than trying to take them all down individually. What do you think?"

"I guess it could work."

"Of course, now come on, let's get it ready."

So Susan got out a _Spell Paper_ with _Invisibility_ on it, ready to activate with her _off hand_ when casting _Alternate Dimension._ She couldn't use one of those _spell papers_ , because she wanted to pump extra energy into it. Which she did. From her current three hundred and forty seven energy she put in forty, making the range enormous and keeping them from resisting. All the warlocks were surprised to find themselves in a well lit, endless plain of what amounted to the softest mattress ever created. They knew she must be around, but even their warlock sight couldn't penetrate her _Invisibility,_ as that needed a _perception check_ no matter how you were looking for the person.

Plus she only needed four actions to put in more than fifty energy, which for her worked out to be about six seconds. She released _Elemental Burst_ and all eleven of the warlocks dropped.

Of course, they were dropping already. If she hadn't been so hasty, she might have noticed the warlocks being more confused than anything else. The reason they didn't even bother looking for her was that being shoved into the _Alternate Dimension_ cut off the influence of The Darkness, so they would have been quite lucid, had she actually spoken to them. But she didn't. She did wonder why there all so low to the ground when her spell went off, but figured they were just coming down to see where she was. She didn't realize that with the warlock energy from The Darkness cut off, they weren't actually warlocks anymore. But none of them died, and that's something, right?

Susan ended the spell after taking their energy and buttoning them up, then reappeared in the city. She didn't stick around, but went to the third major area she had seen in this world and took out the warlocks there using a combination of whacking them, _Alternate Dimension,_ and stealth. As the disappearance of a dozen warlocks from one city alerted The Darkness to that tactic, they were more spread out when she reached the next one, forcing her to be similarly creative. It didn't bother her, she was _thrilling_ with energy, (or possibly brimming or even fit to bursting) so she had it to throw around.

When she got back to Ethshar of the Spices she went directly to the dungeon area and was horrified to find it empty.

 _Oh no, they broke out! But wait, the place isn't smashed up..._

She ran up the stairs and found someone, and was hastily assured they were now someplace more secure, and Susan followed the wizard she saw into a room where a large tapestry hung.

The scene was of a similar bent to her own _Personal Dimension,_ just with more farmhouses rather than just a single cabin. There was a shining sun, a stream, hills in the distance, it was all very nice.

"They're in there," explained the wizard. "Of course, a wizard had to go there to drag their unconscious bodies out of the frame so each one could be passed through, but he volunteered so that was that."

"Where is that? Just moving them won't help. Once they're awake they'll just fly back here!"

The wizard laughed. "No, no, they can't escape from there. This scene isn't in this world at all. The tapestry that's inside leads back to the warlock house, and a chair has been placed in the room it empties out in. Until that chair is moved, they're effectively stuck there, forever. It was made some time ago by a warlock, thinking they could avoid the calling if they went in there. We just dug it out of storage because it didn't work. He came out and immediately flew off. But for our purposes now, it's ideal."

"Oh. Well, I have a bunch to 'deposit,' so I hope they're standing by!"

Susan dumped out two dozen or so warlocks, (she hoped she remembered everybody) (that was a joke) and spent the next few minutes carefully touching them to the tapestry while avoiding touching it herself. She thought she might be able to free herself with something like _Dimension Gate_ or at the very least calling Silverstreak and asking to be put back, but why make the effort if she didn't need it?

Finally they were all through, and she went to meet with Ithinia when she returned.

"I think we're safe for the moment," she said. "How goes the preparation for Ethshar's defense?"

"It's been, what, a half an hour? We've hardly reached half the people we'll need to."

"Oh, right. Sorry, being _Accelerated,_ especially for as long as I was, really messes with your sense of time."

"It'll take some time. Glad to hear you could take care of the warlocks in other places. We've been bringing any here that weren't yet called, just to be safe. They went through the tapestry too, though most weren't exactly happy about it."

"I can imagine they wouldn't be."

"What's your next move?"

"Not sure, do you have something in mind?"

"I do!" shouted a voice, and Sativola came running up the stairs. "After I started getting practitioners together, I did a quick reading of the future, just in case. You need to look upon the resting place of The Darkness, something important is happening there you need to see. I came back to tell you!"

"Well," said Susan, not one to ignore vague warnings of the future from the nearest thing this world had to ESPers. "Let's see what old sourpuss is up to."

 _Who says sourpuss anymore?_

 _Don't you sass me, boy, I've got more energy than Pinkie Pie and I will use it._

 _On the being inside your own soul. Good luck with that._

 _Grrr._

 _"Teleportal!"_


	88. Chapter 88

88

End of the road in sight?

Place: Wizard's Guild building

Time: A moment later

"Now isn't that interesting?" Susan was looking through the fist sized hole she had created with _Teleportal,_ in order to "scry" on the location she last saw The Darkness. She believed she would see a bunch of warlocks and that blobby thing heading away at high speed, or perhaps an empty field they had already left.

 _Did you just call me "blobby?"_

She wasn't sure how fast it could move in atmosphere, or how fast warlocks could fly using their power. It hadn't been all _that_ long, so she figured she could at least catch a glimpse of them as she had positioned the gateway high enough, and there were enough of them, so she could easily pick them out. I mean you couldn't mistake thousands of warlocks and a rotund space critter for anything else, could you?

 _You just did it again! Do you know how cold space is? I have a layer of blubber to keep my body warm in the vacuum._

What she actually saw was quite different.

About fifty warlocks had remained behind and were busy floating huge chunks of rock around to make a sort of fortress that covered the hole she had seen Mr. Too Many Hamburgers floating out of.

 _That's SIR Too Many Hamburgers to you, missy._

"What do you see?" asked Sparkle. "And don't tell me it's a big empty field and you're going to play it up for dramatic effect and when someone looks through it and says 'it's a big empty field' and you're all like 'I know, who would have thought' or some nonsense like that."

"Please, Sparkle, this is no time for jokes. I just don't know what's gotten into her," she said to Ithinia.

"Just tell us what you see already," she sighed.

"Oh, right. A bunch of them are still there, and they're building a big stone box around the impact site." She watched as another set of walls was being dropped into place around the walls that were already there. "Okay, a big stone box inside a big stone box. Which for all I know is inside an even smaller big stone box. And they're doing something, can't quite see from this angle." She ended that _Teleportal_ and made another one lower down. Squinting through the hole she found she still couldn't get a good look at what they were doing, so used _Temporary Tool_ to make an old fashioned spyglass and looked through that. "They're carving something on the stone, and it's glowing. Say, did like, witches and wizards and such get turned into warlocks? Or... demonologists, maybe?"

"They did, why?"

"That's just super. Because I see things that are clearly not warlocks patrolling the area and I bet whatever those symbols are is some kind of warding."

"Let me see," said Sativola, and Susan handed over the tool.

"This is amazing, what sort of magic is this?" she asked, looking through it. "It's like I'm standing right next to them!"

"That's not magic, just lenses."

"Lenses?"

"Ground down glass, one at each end in a certain shape. You have glass, I've seen it."

"Of course we have _glass,"_ scoffed Ithinia. "Who doesn't know what glass is? Grinding it into shapes though, that sounds like something you should talk to scientists about."

Susan looked over at her incredulously. "You have scientists?"

"Of course. A minor branch of magic, I admit, but perhaps one day it could be useful."

"Hardly!" scoffed Sativola.

Susan shook her head. "You people have no idea what you're talking about. Yes, when this is over, remind me to advance your civilization a thousand years or more by giving some scientists some ideas. Honestly."

"The runes?" asked Ithinia, trying to get the conversation back on topic.

"Oh, right. Yes, they're for protection and readiness. Basically they would alert someone if something got too near, and make the stone harder to destroy."

"Wonderful. I get to worry about all branches of magic, and getting fried by demons, when I go there to face The Darkness. Trying to take just warlocks out without killing them was bad enough. These can throw other spells at me? And if they're witches, they probably knew when I'd arrive before I've even decided I wanted to go!"

"Probably," agreed Sativola. "What are you going to do?"

"Plan and scheme like I have never before. I have to assault them before this wonderful, wonderful energy goes away... in about twenty seven hours."

"And before they erect even more defenses against you, I would think," Ithinia said dryly.

"Sure, that too."

"It doesn't make sense though," protested Sativola, still looking though the hole at various angles. "The creature can make anyone that gets near it into a warlock right? That's why people that investigated on foot never came back."

"Actually," said Ithinia, "that's only speculation. They may not have come back because the thing killed anyone that got too close. But it must have made warlocks in the beginning, how else did we get them? So I guess you're right?"

"So wouldn't the logical course of action to be to sweep over the countryside, gathering up new forces? I mean if he can really control people through the warlock power, and I can't believe he's at any sort of limit for the number of people he can control given what you've said he is, Susan, why isn't he? Wouldn't that be easier than destroying us one at a time, even with thirty years of called warlocks to fight for him? We have days before his main force arrives, who knows what defenses wizardry could put up in that time? Why chance it?"

"She has a good point," agreed Sparkle. "I can't believe the creature is unable to move, especially if it normally flies around space. It could have warlocks just carry it around. Why is it there?"

"You make a better point than you know," Susan agreed after a moment. "Why land all the way out in the sticks like that? If The Darkness had smashed into a population center like this one all those years ago, there would be warlocks aplenty right now. The fight would have been over before it even began."

"That would have been a disaster." Ithinia's eyes were wide.

"So we have two choices. Either The Darkness came later, after the creature was here, or there is something about that spot it needs. What's in that area, exactly? Metals? Minerals? What does a space creature eat exactly?"

"Not much mining done in that part of the world, even before the fall. I couldn't really tell you, though."

"The hole wasn't that deep, and it wasn't eating the people that I know of. A creature that size must need something substantial."

 _Again with the jabs at my size! Maybe I'll find a petite princess somewhere, possess her awhile. Would that satisfy you?_

 _It would, actually. There must be some around here someplace._

 _Oh, no, I meant on other worlds. This one is mine. Sorry, didn't mean to get your hopes up there._

 _Jerk._

"What about sunlight?" asked Sparkle. "Is it more like a plant, and it just needs photons hitting it?"

"What are photons?" asked the natives.

"Wait a second," said Susan, holding up a hand. "When I used that power I got _spirit energy._ That energy must have come from somewhere."

"Yeah, the creature."

"Yes, the creature," Susan said, looking down at Sparkle. "But where did it get the energy from? If I'm tuning in to WRLK FM he's acting as a transmitter. The thing in warlock's brains is acting as a receiver. He's transmitting energy along with telekinetic force and instructions I bet. I even have an idea as to know how."

Susan closed the _Teleportal_ again and opened a new one, to the area her _Plastic Proxy_ duplicate had been left by Ithinia. She looked through, making sure no warlocks were in evidence, and stepped through. She shooed the others back and opened up her senses, her _Spirit Senses._ With no other real animal life for miles her fourteen (maximum) result told her all she needed to know. The area here was rich in ley line energy. She nodded her head and stepped back though, closing the hole behind her.

"I bet there's a huge convergence there," she said to Sparkle, who nodded.

"That would stand to reason. And maybe something we can exploit?"

"Like even it only has so much energy to send to warlocks? So it can only effectively control a small group of them?"

"What are you two talking about?" demanded Ithinia.

"Lines of energy that cross the planet," explained Susan. "I can tap into them, but usually I'm on the move and honestly I have so much energy naturally it hardly seems worth it. But I probably should, it would make my magic- anyway. The Darkness landed there to latch onto those energy conduits, and that may be what it's eating. But it's definitely what's providing the warlocks with power. Maybe they're hooking onto lines without even knowing it, and that's why the energy rate between us was so different? The closer to a line you are, the more energy you get? Again, I'd have to do more experiments and that's too risky at this point."

"Wait," said Sativola. "You mean there's energy just flowing about like a river that I could have tapped into at any time? You do remember that witchcraft depends on my body's own energy, right?"

Susan raised her hands in defense. "Like I said, I've got a lot to think about, even I can't consider all things all the time. Plus, they're densest in forested areas, or places with a lot of plant life and life energy in general. Farms, where lots of things are born and grow, that sort of thing. That's why it landed out there, way more plant life, so better _ley lines._ And in thirty years the plant life there must be even greater because there were no humans to cut it, pull weeds, chop wood, etc. Here in a city... well, how many trees do you see walking about?"

"I don't think I've ever seen a walking tree."

"I mean _while_ walking about. How many trees, while walking about, have you seen?"

"Oh. Still, it might have been nice to know about."

"Another thing to consider when this crisis is over. If you can even learn to sense and tap them. I got this knowledge and ability from the being that sent me here. If it was possible here, I'm sure you would have already figured it out. The Darkness knows because it's also from outside the world, and it wants all things energy. Because it's a glutton."

 _I'm not even going to respond anymore. See how you like that. Yup, silent treatment for the win. Starting now. Not going to say another word. Not. One. Word. More._

 _You mean now?_

 _That's right. Right now._

 _Except for then?_

 _Right. Starting... now._

"Like we figured out what you showed me?"

"What exactly _did_ you show her?" Ithinia asked suspiciously.

"Just witchcraft stuff, nothing for wizards to concern themselves with," sniffed Sativola. "I see your point, but if there are witchcraft things we can do that we don't know about, why not this energy stuff? Of course if your theory is correct, that makes the warlocks there even more of a danger, because they are so close to these lines."

"You had to go and make it worse, didn't you?"

"I think it already was, I just want to make sure you're prepared."

"I'll never be prepared. Okay, let me see what I can come up with this time, I'll _save_ and storm the castle."

"You don't want any of our support?" asked Ithinia. "Wizards and other magic users should be coming along at any moment."

"I've never been comfortable mixing magic. Any spells you cast on me might interfere with ones I have going. Best to stick with what I know. Unless you know of a spell that can make the ground softer, so if I was to knock warlocks out of the sky they wouldn't get as hurt when they fell."

"I can ask about that."

"Please do. What I'm most concerned with is those demons though, I had a hard enough time taking just one down. And who knows what they can do!"

"We could ask a demonologist."

"We'll have to. If you think you can stand being on a battlefield, or there are some witches with skill in battle magic, I'll welcome them as backup."

Sativola shook her head. "I'm not unique in that regard, no witch would want to fight directly."

"That figures. Wizardry is too slow, witches can't fight, Theurgy is no help, I wouldn't trust demons to fight demons anyway... am I missing anything?"

"Sorcery," replied Ithinia. "There could be talismans that would be useful in a fight. But finding any Sorcerers to go with you and fight warlocks? That's the tricky part."

"And you're still willing to go fight those warlocks?" asked Sativola.

"Who else is there to go? I'll have to think of something else though, I'm not sure if The Darkness can shut down my magic from where it is, but for all I know it could. I'm going to have to rely on magic cast before I even arrive there."

"Just _Phase_ though the place and run to the center," suggested Sparkle.

"Oh, that reminds me. What exactly am I going to do once I get there? Am I going to have to kill that space creature?"

"Not necessarily. Remember how you beat Tom. This must be a similar situation, if you enter the soul of that thing maybe you can fight off The Darkness from within."

"You remember what happened in there! I'm not going to have any understanding of that alien's mind. I was able to piece Harry back together because I knew him. How am I going to piece back together something that won't even think like I do?"

"What other choice do you have?"

Susan shook her head. "They'll both be alien to me. Tom, at least, was human, so I could separate him from The Darkness pretty easily. But yeah, you're right, I have no other choice. I'll make a _Spell Paper_ with _Soul Projection_ in it, and put tons of this energy in."

"And get out the book, let's see what we can put on you in case this all goes bad."

So Susan prepared. She got some parchment from the wizards and made _Spell Papers_ with Sparkle's help. As there was really no limit to the number of _Spell Symbols_ one could have active at once, Susan created some for _Acceleration, Accelerate Magic_ and _Energetic Accumulation._ She also got _Augment STRength,_ because why the heck not? This way Sparkle would not have to carry the penalty for all that, and be freed up to fight. Susan also read over _Energy Gift_ and pumped her full of energy too.

"I feel all tingly," she complained at two hundred energy.

"Don't worry, you'll be burning it off soon enough."

She also made several _Magical Ally: Major Spell Papers,_ ready to activate as a distraction and to fight demons. Her _Legion_ she would call up on site. She debated _Barrier Against Weapons_ but figured there couldn't have been that many wizards there, she could handle a knife or two now that she knew they could hurt her. Sparkle got _Elemental Body: Knockout_ so Susan could use her _Burst_ without worrying about hitting her, with the added benefit that she was now basically impossible to kill. Susan didn't get the same because her damage was _far_ higher as she was, and that was going to be key if they had to actually fight their way through.

Susan also attached a _Colossus Paper_ to Sparkle's collar, just in case.

During this time, Ithinia looked into a ground softening spell, and the promised other types of magic users started arriving. Susan had a brief chat with the demonologists, who said there were many types of demons, and each basically had a specialty.

"Like energy demons, they can drain your energy and leave you helpless."

"Or wind demons, that are almost too fast to even catch a glimpse of."

"Or corruption demons, that can make you sick with a touch."

"Or demons of darkness, that can steal the very light from wherever they are."

"Or cleanliness demons, that can clean anything with one swipe of their tongues."

Everyone looked over at him.

"What? They keep my shop clean."

"But I don't think that's really relevant here, do you? Of all types of dangerous demons, I think the ones that eat dirt are pretty low on the list, yes?"

"Oh. Sorry."

"In other words, expect the worst?" asked Susan. "Because basically, they could probably do just about anything between them."

"Pretty much," they agreed.

She sighed.

And finally there were no more checks to make, no more prep to do. Susan had more STRength, magic, and energy than she ever dreamed possible, and she was still very worried about going into battle against these warlocks. She didn't want to kill any of them, while the demons she didn't mind sending back where they came from. (Which is what the demonologists said would happen, if they were killed.)

 _Is it really possible to fight off all of them myself? And I'm going to have to, if that area isn't secure how can I possibly engage The Darkness in spiritual combat? My body would be totally vulnerable. With luck, I can_ Phase _though the walls and reach it before anyone realizes I'm even there. Ha, maybe I should have gone with_ Augment Stat: LUCk _rather than STRength. Oh well, I can take them!_

 _Wondered where that_ Overconfident _weakness was lately._

 _Oh, are you back talking to me again? Your so called silent treatment didn't last long. I'm not stupid you know, and I played a card to keep them alive at the end of the fight._

 _Still, thinking about creeping around, wondering if you'll get through. Did that knife to the head shake your confidence, perhaps?_

 _The only thing shaking around here should be you. I'm coming for you, and make no mistake. I'll kick you off this world just like I did the others._

 _If you say so. You do realize how much it's going to suck, being up against a whole army of warlocks?_

 _I once said my powers made me an army. It's time to see if that statement really was true or not._

 _And of course you can try again and again if you flub it, thanks to that time spell of yours._

 _True. Are you going to let me get on with this, or what?_

 _Oh, sorry, are these last few minutes of life really so unimportant you can spend them jiving with me? No words of comfort to your companion, about to follow you into battle? No encouraging word for Sparkle, who is going to try watching your back through all of this?_

 _She's unkillable now, this planet doesn't have_ Knockout _magic. And even if it did, I'll have_ Magic Domination _going, so no other magic but mine will work._

 _Okay. I hope you're right._

"Ready?" she asked.

"Ready."

"Then once again into the breach. _Teleportal."_


	89. Chapter 89

89

The Ninja Uses His Environment

Time: Seconds later

Place: Near the resting point of The Darkness' body

Susan barreled through the opening she had made in space towards the stone boxes, hoping she had judged the distance correctly. She wanted to be far enough away to activate what she needed to, but not be so far away that the shock of seeing her wore off and the demons and such reacted. Of course, The Darkness would react instantly, but as she cleared the portal she shouted _"Phase"_ so nothing the warlocks could do would touch her.

 _"For Sacrifices Made!"_ she called, as Sparkle started activating her _Magical Ally: Major_ spells contained in _Spell Symbol._ Susan's _Legion_ appeared, and Susan ran past them shouting and pointing. "Attack anything that doesn't look human around here!" she called, and they looked over at the surprised demons. Not being human they didn't shrug or call into question these orders, simply readied their blades and charged off. Sparkle shouted similar orders to her _Allies_.

Susan's speed was tremendous thanks her to greater STRength, longer stride, and _Acceleration,_ but she managed to get her _Allies_ going as well, and they leapt into battle with whatever came close.

 _They'll not serve as much more than a distraction, given what they're up against. But hopefully that's all that will be needed._

At full speed, Susan gave a little wave as she passed a group of warlocks that tried to grab her, and gathered herself for a mighty leap, sure to clear most if not all of the "solid" stone barricades in front of her. Up she went, Sparkle following as best she was able, getting closer and closer to the wall...

That she smashed headlong into with a mighty clatter of metal upon stone, and thwomped into the ground in shock with a mighty crash.

 _You do know, I know that you know that spell, right?_

 _But... but..._ Phase!

 _But... but... greater understanding of magic and energy than you will ever have. The magic here might be minor compared to yours, but used correctly even something as simple as a minor ward can keep you out of where I don't want you. They might not have known such a thing was possible, but I did. A witches' magic did the rest._

 _So I'll just smash it down!_

 _You'll have to drop_ Phase _to do that._

 _I can take it down, smash a wall, and put it back up again, no problem._

 _Really? You've got that kind of time? Better watch out._

 _Better not cry! Better not pout- wait a second..._ "Ack!"

Susan saw the shadow of the huge block of stone that was coming towards her and whirled. If it had the same rune on it that the walls did, and she had to assume it would, that much stone would crush her like a grape. And if it counted as a "magic weapon" it would do so even though her _Invulnerability._ She _could_ use _Transposition_ to stick a warlock where she was, but she wanted to keep them all alive. With a sigh she dropped _Phase_ and shouted "I punch it!" while she punched it.

 _What kind of attack name is that?_

Susan, with every conceivable bonus to her STRength that could possibly be placed on her by magic now rolled a value off the table in the rules. This left her rolling the maximum she could, then a lesser amount to make up the difference. She ended up doing sixty seven damage to the stone block, a "normal" stone block having the capacity to take thirty damage before it was destroyed. As there are no rules for accounting for the thickness of an object the damage shall be calculated as if this were a creature, so it divided that damage by three. This is twenty two damage, not enough to shatter it so the remains pushed her back and squashed her against the wall.

"This is another fine mess you've gotten us into," remarked Sparkle, trying to shift around and shove the block a little bit before it pinned her too much to even breathe. Even being made of _Knockout,_ and regenerating any damage instantly, she still had to do that.

"Hey, I'm working on it. Don't see you doing anything."

"I thought you had it!"

"I... thought I did too. Guess I should have put energy into it?"

"You didn't?"

"Do you even know what kind of damage I do now? Honestly I thought it would be fine."

"Just get it off!"

"Okay, okay!"

Susan couldn't move because she was pinned against the wall, but she could move her arms about. Enough to cast _"Thrust"_ on the block and get a seventeen. (Again, counting the block as four size 0 creatures, thus giving her a penalty of -4 to her planet rating) It went sliding away seven meters, giving her a good look at the demons who were now standing to the side of her.

"Uh, what happened to my fire soldiers?" she asked, looking them over.

One of the demons, a tallish looking man dressed in fine robes and seemingly riding a wave snapped his... snake at her. The many heads of the snake hissed and made biting motions.

"I took care of them," he said disdainfully. "One sweep of water and they burst like so many soap bubbles."

 _Great, there would have to be a water demon among them._

 _You do realize-_

 _Oh, shut up, I realize that you know that I know a spell that causes flame soldiers to appear and that water can take them out. I know!_

 _Just asking._

"The other creatures were also easily handled, it's a wonder you bothered to call upon such weak forces at all. I hope you turn out to be more worthy of direct combat with me than your so called army."

Susan looked over the demons arrayed before her. One was even bigger than she was, twice as tall to be exact. It had three heads, six arms, and rather than legs it just had a mass of tentacles writhing beneath it.

The third was hovering, and looked like a giant badger. It seemed eager for combat. As did the four legged creature standing off to the side. The skin of the creature looked like metal, and it had a tail with a spiked ball at the end of it. Behind them were five floating warlocks, several meters back, but Susan thought they were still within range of her _Slash-All._ (Seventeen on _Magic Combat)_

"Consider the question back in Hell," replied Susan. _"Blade."_

As the sword dropped into Susan's waiting hand the creature swung that odd tail and several spikes shot off, right towards her. They hit, but bounced harmlessly off her armor and Susan got the feeling it wasn't by much, either.

"Pathetic," snarled the badger, "let me show you how it's done." He raised a hand and a lightning bolt shot out, too fast for Susan to even dodge it. Her LUCk saved her, however, as she was still moving from dodging the spikes, her _Passive Dodge_ came into play. The creature got a thirteen to hit, and Susan's difficulty to be hit was exactly a thirteen. (Accounting for her current size, of course.) Ties go to the defender, and the wall behind her took ten damage. (Divided by the same three the chuck of rock did, so it was purely superficial.)

"Oh, really?" asked the metallic demon.

"Shut up, it's hard to control _bolts of actual lightning coming out of your hands._ I'm just getting a feel for the angle..."

"Sure, sure, keep telling yourself that."

At this point, a ton of stuff happened at once. Susan tried to strike at the demons with the sword in her right hand, for the moment not seeing the warlocks behind them as her enemies. Thus, _Slash-All_ ignored them. The big thing started forward, three warlocks tried something, the guy standing on water waved his hands dramatically and sent a cascade of water at Susan, and Sparkle sent _Elemental Line: Wind_ into the two demons she knew she could hit, those on the ground.

In order, then, Susan got a 36 to hit the demons in the body, more than enough even given that the warlocks were trying to get the sword away from her at the time. Even though three of them were pulling on it with their magic, the second their power touched Susan it began to work on her not as three separate attempts but rather one attempt, bolstered by one for every five added by the other two. This was a total of twenty one, versus her STRength check of seventy seven. She hardly even noticed.

She did notice the wall of water slamming into her, but the result of sixteen on the part of the demon wasn't enough to bypass her _passive dodge_ and armor rating. Sparkle, meanwhile, got a twenty nine to hit, and the two ground based demons were smashed with air for even more damage. Three of the four demons vanished, leaving only the huge one who was now clutching his chest and backing away.

 _Honestly, why do I even try? They didn't even last one attack! Haven't you heard of moderation?_

 _Not really. I have to do massive amounts of damage and guarantee the hit, especially given how many things I'm trying to fight here at once. Damage for magic is usually my rating, which is limited even with the amount of energy I could pour into it. There seems to be no limit to how strong I can be though, so why not end the fight with the thing that has the highest chance? Plus I have to burn off this energy somehow so I threw extra into COOrdination so they couldn't dodge it. I don't dare do too much magic this close to your other self, it'll start getting shut down. So I go with what else I've got, and that means swords._

The Darkness seemed to sigh. _I suppose they were little more than a distraction, just like your_ Legion. _Anything you can mow though, you will, that's why I took warlocks over in the first place. I'll find something you can't just neutralize on one of these worlds, just you wait. Then you'll be mine!_

 _You do what you gotta do, man. Can I get back to this now?_

 _Whatever._

Warlock "three" had a bright idea, _let's do something she can't negate with a check, or even dodge because it's invisible._ To that end, he simply created a vacuum around Susan by yanking all the air away from her. As with the shatra from before she started to suffocate, and wondered what was up with depriving her of air all of a sudden.

 _You do what works, I do what works._

The flame on her swords went out, not that the extra fire damage was really all that much. She and Sparkle now went, and Susan trusted her companion to take out the big guy, and flew sideways trying to get out of the vacuum. She was faster than his ability to move the air out of the way, and her flames were back. She still wasn't exactly sure what her next move was going to be, she had to get all of them into her "battle dimension" but only these five were near her. The others were carefully staying out of range at the other side of the cube.

Sparkle shot another _Line_ at the arm guy, which he tried to dodge, but Sparkle had wrapped it around him, making that impossible. Even as he dodged he went over another part of it, and fell over unconscious. He vanished a second later.

 _And we come back to the original problem. How to take these guys out without killing them. I have one idea, but how does a grade four spell come to have a fifteen_ turn _casting time?_ (That's a minute for those of you keeping score at home.) _Here goes._

Susan made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check, throwing energy into RESolve to hopefully get a better result. She got a thirty four, so that was pretty good.

Sparkle held her action, wondering what Susan was going to do.

Four of the five warlocks seemed to be concentrating on something, so Susan took advantage of it and cast _Autonomous Assistant_ instantly, throwing thirty three energy into the spell and casting it a total of six times at once. She couldn't fail, and felt six invisible helpers come into being in front of her. She dropped to below a thousand energy.

"Anything drops out of the sky," she shouted to them, "you catch it without fail and lower it to the ground."

She didn't know how, but the invisible forces she had conjured indicated they had understood these orders. Susan took a deep breath, she now had six man sized helpers the warlocks couldn't see to target, and couldn't really be struck in combat anyway. They had physical stats of forty, giving them a speed just above forty, so she was pretty sure they could catch up to six guys falling out of the sky at once. They couldn't fight, but they didn't need to.

Susan looked up to see the Warlocks still concentrating, but it had only been a fraction of a second so she wondered what the heck they were up to. She started to rise into the air to give the helpers time to get under them, but felt something pushing her down.

"Behind!" shouted Sparkle, and Susan turned her head to see ten more warlocks concentrating on her.

 _Great, I can only attack six at once if I want them to be caught._ _"Phase!"_ she cast, throwing in the needed energy.

 _Not so fast,_ she felt in her mind, and her spell popped.

 _Oh, come on! You didn't shut down my_ Assistants!

 _Because they aren't going to help you escape, and they give you a penalty to actions as long as they're around. You can have all the penalties you want._

 _Thank you so very much._

Susan tried an attack, making a STRength check she couldn't possibly fail, but to her dismay all the warlocks were now exactly out of her range, and they all smiled down at her.

 _Hey, it's ready!_

 _What's "ready?"_

 _This._

Magma shot out of the ground in four gouts, slamming into Susan from different directions and leaving her no route of escape.

 _But I can't be harmed by this,_ she protested, feeling the hot rock around her. _What's the point?_

 _If I can't harm you, I'll go for the next best thing, of course._

Warlock "4" had been holding for this very occurrence, and yanked the heat out of the stone, instantly solidifying it and locking Susan into place.

 _Oh._

If she hadn't been immune to fear, she might have started feeling a little bit of it, as she was now totally encased in rock, unable to see or (and she was getting a little miffed about it) breathe.

 _I can still get out of this!_

 _Good luck with that._

 _Phase!_ she cast without words, but again her spell was denied.

 _No fair, you can't even see me in here!_

 _But they can, and right now they are my eyes._

 _You'll be sorry._

While she did this, Sparkle cast _Destruction,_ and blew an eighty five kilogram chunk of the rock into powder. A good sized chunk to be sure, but not enough to free Susan.

 _Crap, I can't shut both of you down when you cast at the same time._

 _Ha ha._

 _I'll just have to keep her distracted otherwise then, won't I?_

Susan heard more rocks crashing about outside her stony prison, and winced knowing their delay was no longer in sync.

She strained, her magically enhanced STRength and size doing their job and cracking the stone, but she had almost no leverage. Also this stone divided her damage by three, so while it cracked, it didn't crumble.

Sparkle tried _Destruction_ again but this time it was negated, and she growled in frustration.

 _Wait, she did a reactive to dodge something, I heard that much. That means we're only one segment apart!_

Susan waited one segment, and The Darkness had to choose between her and Sparkle for what spell to negate, and chose her.

Susan expected more of the stone to be blown off, perhaps even enough to free her with the damage she had done from inside. Sadly, Sparkle rolled minimum, an eleven, and needed a twelve to get the spell off. She considered using her "success" card but decided against it. Another .2 seconds wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

Both tried again, and this time she succeeded, blowing another eighty five kilograms of stone off Susan's body. She made an _off hand_ action to twist and force more stone away from her, and succeeded in freeing her upper body. Rock exploded away from her, and she was now free to chop her legs free of the hardened stone. She took no chances.

"I declare the use of card eight, _extra action,"_ she said to no one, and card eight vanished from her character sheet. The stone wasn't going anywhere, so she swung with all her might using the real sword in her right hand. That was enough, the stone shattered around her.

"Oh yeah!" she shouted as the swords in her hand relit. "Who's the girl... who's the woman? Huh, that doesn't work quite as well as 'who's the man.' Odd."

 _"Thrust!"_ cast Sparkle, and Susan wondered for an instant who she was aiming at. She briefly saw the circle under her own feet before The Darkness canceled it out, and figured maybe Sparkle had a good reason for wanting her to move. Technically, even done by an ally it allowed her a chance for a reactive action, and she flew sideways as though she had been hit by the spell.

And a good thing she did, it gave her a bonus to dodging the second burst of lava that shot out of the ground under the direction of the four warlocks. It missed, splashing harmlessly against the already hardened rock Susan had left behind. She and Sparkle took to the air before the warlocks could get another lock on her with their power, and decided it was time to start whittling these forces down somehow.

Warlock "3" and the ones behind her now acted, pinning her in place in the air again. Sparkle touched her, knowing it would do some _Knockout_ damage but figuring if she didn't make an "attack" it wouldn't get through the armor in any case.

 _We should be in sync, I don't need to move to do what I want to do next. Take this, warlocks!_

Both cast.


	90. Chapter 90

90

Driving Away The Darkness?

Place: Mid air

Time: Mid battle

Having been given a critical piece of information by The Darkness, Susan and Sparkle now realized that for any spell to succeed, the other one must also cast a spell equally devastating. In this way, at least one would get through and progress would be made. Thus, as Susan and Sparkle took to the air together after breaking free of the hardened lava Susan cast _"Elemental Burst: Knockout!"_ while Sparkle cast _"Phase!"_ on Susan.

The Darkness figured Susan was more dangerous, and negated her spell, while Sparkle's went though and the physical force keeping Susan from flying vanished.

"Come on," she said, flying towards the Warlocks for her free 1/10 movement that action. With her speed of seventy five that was nearly eight meters, so she was now hovering directly in the middle of them. They tried to scatter, taking their 1/10 movement as they dodged her left handed strike with _Slash-All_ going, but none could achieve a dodge of thirty three (she rolled a thirty five, but took one off for maintaining the spell and one for the called shot), so they all got hit in the body. She dropped _Phase_ just as the attack "activated" and all of them went down.

They each now made personal LUCk checks not to splatter on the ground as they fell, and all but one was caught by the roving _Autonomous Assistant_ spells going on. He took some damage to both arms, so he'll be fine, just fine.

 _Five down, how many more to go? Still, if we keep this up I don't know what The Darkness can do about it._

And apparently, it didn't know either. If it negated Sparkle's spell then _Phase_ didn't go off, but the warlocks got hit with _Elemental Burst._ Susan even started delaying one action between castings to make _Spirit Manipulation_ checks, further increasing her damage. That tended to take out whatever warlocks were trying to pin her, making _Phase_ unnecessary anyway. She was careful to position the center of the blast so no more than six fell at a time, but shortly half the warlock forces were down and the other half had used her beating them down to get well out of range and spread out from each other.

 _Don't make me hunt each one down individually. I will you know._

 _I'll do what I like._

 _You can't win, you must see that._

"Enough!" shouted all the warlocks. "Do what you're going to do, then. These warlocks will not interfere."

"Oh, like I can trust that!" Susan called back.

"I will remove them, then."

The conscious warlocks suddenly shot into the air, heading straight up and disappearing out of sight. Susan looked around suspiciously, but nothing moved.

"Let's crack those walls before it changes its mind, at least," suggested Sparkle.

"Sounds like a plan. Tell you what though, I'm going to smash the wards first, there's no telling what he's got them programmed to do."

"Wait, I'll take them out with _Destruction._ If any of them explode when they're disturbed, that could be counted as magical damage and go through _Invulnerability."_

"True, he would have figured I would use that spell. There could be ones on the other side, though."

"I can wiggle in and take a look."

"Sounds like a plan."

So Sparkle blew holes in the wall, and Susan put _Darksight_ on her, letting her slip through into the space between them to take a look. She blew more holes in the "roof," then let Susan smash it down with her _Crystal Blade._ She then flipped the top off the outer one, which hadn't yet been melted together by the warlocks. They repeated this, smashing one stone barrier after another, until finally Susan stood before the odd looking creature laying in the hole it had caused by crashing into the ground.

"What kind of DTR does a creature have to have to not die, having fallen from _space?"_ she asked, looking it over.

"For all we know, it's _Invulnerable_ itself."

"Ah, true."

Susan got out the _Spell Paper_ with the _Soul Projection_ spell on it, and touched both herself and the creature. "Watch my back."

"Wait, it'll just negate it!"

"No, this spell has already been cast, right? I'm just activating it right now. It couldn't negate it any more than I can undigest a meal three hours later."

"Thank you for that lovely imagery. Good luck in there."

"Thanks. Just give me a shove if they come back, that should harmlessly break the spell."

"Got it."

"Here goes. _Soul Projection."_

Susan once again found herself standing in darkness, but to her surprise, a dark shape was before her. She went to cast _Elemental Bolt: Fire_ but the figure held up its hands.

"Peace, you've won. As always. I was so sure I could work something out to stop you. Even if hurting you directly was impossible, given they weren't all that magical. I should have kept the rest of the warlocks around, fifty might have been no problem but even you wouldn't have the energy to take on a couple thousand of them. What wizards were called didn't have those knives, and I saw inside their minds the guild made them break them if they got warlock powers. You should really talk to them about that whole 'only one magic thing.' If only I had more of them, I bet this would have gone differently."

"Honestly it was the _Assistant_ that let me beat them. If I thought they were going to die I don't know what I would have done. And you couldn't have gotten close with the knives, not after I knew what they were."

"Humm, maybe. Oh, yeah, that reminds me." The Darkness seemed to snap his fingers. "They're still going to die."

"What?!"

"Where do you think they are right now?"

Susan froze, she knew exactly where they were. She had seen them zoom straight into the air, and had no illusions that the other warlocks, even as far away as they now where, had done the same. "You would, wouldn't you?"

"They're nothing to me. Besides, there's countless more of them in nearby realities. Not as strongly, of course, probability waves being what they are. That's why I attack only one reality in a branch. The one with the greatest potential falls, the rest fall in short order. So who cares about this lot?"

"I won't let you destroy this world. Better a few thousand warlocks than the entire population here. I realize now why you let me in here so easily. If I take you out, it's still my fault they fell so even though you didn't 'win' you still caused me to set aside my morals to stop you."

"And thus making the next time a little easier, and the time after that easier still. I can wait, Susan, there's a lot of realities and I'm immortal. Little by little you'll get worn down, and then one day, without you even realizing it, you'll be mine. Or you'll eventually see the futility of your task and give up. Either way is fine with me. Or you'll die, that would be fine too, if you wanted to take that option. Anyway, that's not what this particular situation is about. Oh, the other would be nice, I agree, but for now I'll settle for your attention."

"You want something from me?"

"In exchange for their lives, you're going to do something for me."

"This should be good. You've already lumped me into the 'ant' category, I just happen to know what's going on and have access to powerful magic. What the heck can I do for you that you can't do for yourself?"

The Darkness chuckled. "It's a few steps, but nothing too difficult. The first is to go where I direct you for your next world. It's not on your list, but Silverstreak will know it. My... alter ego there can give you the number to tell him. I'm waving to that part of you, by the way."

He waved.

 _Tell him I said Hi._

 _Tell him yourself._

 _Hi!_

Susan rolled her eyes. "One world is much like another. Silverstreak said these on the list may be ones Luna landed in, but I realize it's not guaranteed. I'll be happy to kick you off another world. After all, Aerith's world wasn't on the list, and that turned out fine, just fine. I love you, sweet _Materia._ " She started stroking her bracelet in a way that left even The Darkness a little uncomfortable. He pressed on.

"You can certainly try, of course. You might find it a bit more difficult than on this one, but again, that's not the point."

"There's more?"

"As I said, there's a few steps. Silverstreak will want to know why you chose this world, how you even knew about. Tell him nothing of your true purpose, only that I mentioned it in passing."

"What is my true purpose?"

"A gemstone is mined there, a very unique gemstone indeed. Those that mine it don't even know what it can do, lacking the supernatural awareness necessary to discover its properties. But I do. Basically, it can hold energy. A chunk of it the size of your head can hold ten thousand energy or more, and you're going to fill one up for me."

"That would take forever!"

"Oh, hardly a year, let's not be melodramatic. I figure forty energy a night, average, before you go to bed, and it should be full in no time. You will then give it to me, and I will draw the energy out of it. Thus will our deal be completed."

"With that much energy you could probably conquer whatever world you were on easily."

"Perhaps. But there's always the chance you would still win afterwards, and it would all be lost. You could put twenty thousand in, draw off ten, and we would be equal again. It's what I would do."

"Yes..." Susan paused. She was still feeling the rush of having ten times her usual energy. To have _ten times that much again?_

"No, I would have to willingly leave that world to have it remain with me when I left, and Silverstreak would slam the door shut behind me. No, I wouldn't risk it, especially after all your hard work gathering all that energy for me."

"So, wait... I give you this chunk of crystal with ten thousand energy, and it's a 'get out of jail free card' for a world? You just leave, no questions asked?"

"Correct. These warlocks and an entire world- saved. Because of your selfless devotion to the task I have set. Of course, you could say no, try and get rid of me the old fashioned way. We could duel here, inside this soul, but good luck dropping _trains_ on me like you did with _him._ This being doesn't know what a train is, you see. The most you could count on would be large rocks, I suppose."

"Bet he knows what a star is though." She left the threat hanging and started pacing back and forth, thinking. "See you shrug that off." It seemed a pretty good deal, which is why she was so suspicious of it. The energy would be hers, true, but there was no special link between herself and the energy that she knew of. And even if there was, would ten be any different than ten thousand? And she wouldn't have to hand it over right away, if she ran into a world she was really having trouble with... it could come in handy to have a bargaining chip. "What about this world? It's not, like, made of razors, and the razors are on fire, and they can fly, and all they do is quote Monty Python... badly."

It laughed. "Nothing like that. It would be a challenge for you, I don't dispute that. But doesn't each world have its own special challenge? Silverstreak can give you all the details, he loves hearing himself talk."

"I suppose I have no choice, given I don't want the blood of thousands of people on my hands. Is there any sort of time limit on this deal?"

"No. Like I said, I have time. As long as you present it to me before you retire, I'll be satisfied."

"What if I die in the meantime?"

"I'll have a little party and invite all my friends to join me."

"You have friends?"

"Susan, I'm hurt. Just because you perceive me as some monster of evil, that doesn't mean I don't have friends."

"Whatever. What happens if I change my mind later? Like I ask Silverstreak about it and he says 'oh, no, you don't want to do that fo reasons."

The Darkness shook its head. "Then I would reluctantly be forced to kill a number of innocents, equal to the number of warlocks I now command, on some other world. Really Susan, I thought you were a woman of your word."

"I haven't given it yet! I'm just trying to think of every way this could go wrong."

"But it's so simple a task! Use your _Energy Gift_ spell to give the crystal energy, and keep track of how much. Then give it to me. In exchange, many lives are spared. What's even to think about?"

"Too many things to list. All right, I'll get your stupid crystal."

"Excellent! Then allow me to lower the warlocks to the ground and take my leave."

"You'll just leave here too?"

"Oh, I know when I'm beaten. You can have this creature back, though honestly the one it was originally calling for should be here shortly to pick it up. Let's see now..." The Darkness gestured, and in the air hung various scenes that Susan looked over. One was obviously directly outside, as she could see the remains of the fort getting bigger. Others must have been various locations where warlocks had made it to since leaving here. She made sure to study them, they would probably be very confused once The Darkness let them go.

"And that's all the groups of them? These scenes are from their eyes?"

It made a show of looking them over. "I think so, it's hard to tell with all these tiny minds." She glared at him. "Yes, yes, learn to take a joke, Susan. I wouldn't not tell if I was going to kill a bunch of people you wanted alive. You wouldn't suffer, and so there would be no point. Of course, it could still be hilarious, letting you think you saved them all..."

"I'm sure your friends would laugh and laugh and snort whatever beverages they drink right out of their multi-dimensional noses."

"Oh, you've met them!? Or did I tell you the squirting story at some point? Really, I could tell you again if you wanted, it's just the funniest... no?"

She continued glaring.

"And there we are!" it announced, and Susan saw that all the warlocks were now standing rigidly on the ground. "I suppose you'll want to go collect them so they don't starve and such out in the wilderness?"

"You suppose correctly."

"Fine, fine. Probably be a big effort, moving so many people. Even with your magic, you'll have to explain things, get them settled, involve the wizard's guild..."

"What do you care? I thought you were immortal. This rock isn't going anywhere, is it?"

"Just wanted to be sure you wanted to bother. I could just kill them off, save you the trouble. It's no bother, really."

"Just leave."

"If you're sure you won't change your mind. I'll see you later, then."

The Darkness shimmered and was gone.

Susan felt the immense mind of the space creature now reasserting itself, and wondered if being here was really the best place to be. Augmented by The Darkness it might have been, it nevertheless had powered all the warlocks in the world, and who knew what abilities it had by itself. Waking up like this, it was just as likely to lash out as be confused, or even apologetic, she had no idea the level of intelligence it possessed.

She tried to send it calming thoughts and what The Darkness said, about whatever it was waiting for being nearby, and broke the connection.

As she opened her eyes she truly knew the battle was over as all her magic vanished, and a bunch of confused looking warlocks were getting up and looking around.

"You won?" asked Sparkle.

"I'll call it a tie. It left, but I had to agree to get some crystal for it on another world. I'll explain later."

"It might be best if we move, something is coming this way."

"What sort of something?"

Sparkle indicated straight up with a paw, and Susan saw something streaking across the sky straight towards them. She had the warlocks get back as far as they could before it arrived, and to her dismay it was a larger version of the creature she was looking at. Without even trying to communicate with her or ask what was going on, the smaller one lifted out of the ground and both blasted into space, leaving the warlocks standing and gaping at what they had just seen.

The silence stretched, and no one moved or spoke. Susan was struck by how easy it had been to get rid of The Darkness here, and without blowing anything up, even. _There has to be a catch, something about the world it wants me to go or this crystal it wants me to find. Some other property or function, and I'll have to study it quite closely before I put even a smidgen of energy into it. What's that?_

Susan turned, and everyone else did to, toward the man who was screaming in terror and pointing at Susan. She looked around, confused, thinking maybe he was pointing at something directly behind her? She turned, but nothing was there.

"What's his problem?" she asked Sparkle.

"Dunno."

"It's her!" the man shouted at last, trying something and almost falling over in the process. He backed away. "That's the girl that was attacking us a minute ago. I remember that now!"

Others started moving away, also muttering that yes, she did look familiar somehow, maybe they shouldn't just be standing here? Still others were trying to figure out what exactly they were doing standing around near this hole, and still others were looking over the unconscious warlocks or exclaiming they couldn't do magic anymore.

Needless to say, it became a panic rather quickly. Those that remembered Susan's attack tried to flee, but swiftly found they couldn't fly anymore. They went tripping and bumbling behind what was left of the stone enclosure and Susan let them. She moved instead to the warlocks that had been knocked out and started pressing her knife to their bodies, healing them and waking them up. Then they got into the act and ran screaming from her to join the ones behind the wall.

Susan and Sparkle looked at each other, wondering what to do.

"I'd treat them like a stray cat," suggested Sparkle. "And not just because I am one."

"I don't think I can build a non-lethal trap using the available materials," Susan remarked, looking around. "What would I use for bait? These people haven't invented pizza yet, another thing I'm going to have to remedy before I leave."

"What? No, I mean let them come to you. If you chase after them they'll just be more scared and run away faster."

"Oh."

So Susan plopped down in the grass and waited, and Sparkle's sensitive ears turned to hear what they were saying.

"She woke up the unconscious ones, she can't be that bad."

"Then go out and see what she wants. Maybe she can tell us what we're all doing here?"

"You go."

"You're the one sticking up for her."

"I'm not sticking up for her, I don't even know her! I just think based on her actions-"

"She attacked us!"

"What are you people saying? Speak Sardironese would you?"

"What did he say?"

"I don't know."

"Did she attack us? I mean she was flying and she swung her sword, that much I recall. But how did we fall, I don't recall her being close to us."

"Why was she attacking us? We were building something, right? I just can't remember what."

Several people agreed, if the woman had wanted them dead, they probably would have been. But they had no idea how they were still alive.

This went on for a few minutes more until finally they decided she was just sitting there, not making any threatening moves, maybe someone should go out there and talk to her. A witch volunteered, and she was pushed to the front nervously, finally coming to a stop in front of Susan, who was currently pretending to be asleep.

"Um, hello?"


	91. Chapter 91

91

Sorting it All Out

Time: Five second later

Place: Still in the field

"And so I said to her, that's not a fish, that's my wife!" Susan suddenly said, pretending to wake up.

"What?" the woman gave a little jump and took a step back.

"Oh, sorry, fell asleep there. Someone finally decided to come see me, huh?"

"Yes... um, what's going on?"

"Whew boy, where to start. How much do you remember?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure I was called as a warlock, and then suddenly I had the desire to do the strangest things, like build walls and you were there, then all of a sudden I was standing here and those things went into the sky and now we're not warlocks anymore."

"Yup, that's exactly what happened. What do you need me for?"

"Uh, what?"

"Look, can you just go tell those people I'm nice? I've got a lot of work to do today rescuing your fellow warlocks from various places, and I need to get started. The sun will be going down pretty soon and I'd like to be in a city somewhere, not out in the open for this. Also I'd like to explain this a maximum of one time, to everybody. Not piecemeal to all thousands of you."

"There's thousands of us? Where?"

"A day's flight from here in various directions."

"We'll never catch up! Plus none of us can fly anymore..."

"Don't worry about it, they can't either. Just tell them I'm not going to attack you anymore now that the space creature is gone."

"What's a... you mean that thing we all saw?"

"Exactly. The sooner we get going, the sooner all this can be straightened out."

"Get going where? I'm still not clear on what happened, even though you say what I vaguely recall is what happened. I can tell you're telling the truth, and you're anxious about something, and that your subconscious is trying to tell you something important but you're too upset to listen to it."

"Wait, you can tell that?"

"I've been a witch most of my life. I look younger than I am because warlocks could do that."

"Oh. Makes sense. So what about my subconscious?"

"You're thinking something someone said recently means one thing, but it really means another. I can't tell you more than that."

"I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, tell your fellow warlocks there that I'm going to bring them to another group of them until you're all together again, and then figure out what our next step is."

"Okay."

While she relayed this, and tried to get the ones that spoke other languages to understand, Susan opened a _Teleportal_ to the first location she saw inside the space creature's mental landscape. Peeking through she saw a couple hundred ex-warlocks milling about, totally confused.

 _Oh boy, it's going to be a long day. But at least seeing it through the eyes of the warlocks was good enough for the spell._

Susan could hardly disguise the fact that another fifty or so people suddenly poured out of thin air, but at least they were all in the same boat. Confused, keyed up, and looking for answers.

"Spread the word!" she called to the original group as they went past her, looking at the _Teleportal_ in wonder. "I'm going to bring the other warlocks here, so just have everybody be patient and I'll explain everything when everyone's together. You got all that?"

They all indicated they did, which surprised several of the brighter ones who realized everyone understood her. That was a minor mystery compared to everything else, so they went through and started trying to calm everyone here down. Susan then used _Spell Papers_ to open several more _Teleportals_ to the other locations. It wasn't that she didn't have the energy, this was a grade ten spell, and so each one put her at a negative four to everything. Even she would be nervous casting a spell at that much of a penalty. She marched through, got the attention of the people on the other side, and herded them though the holes. It took two hours, and the sun was setting as the last few people trickled in, insisting they were the last. Susan took one quick look, scanning about for stragglers with some _Temporary Tool_ binoculars and a quick casting of _Question_ to ask "Is this all the ex-warlocks." To which she got a _yes_ answer. She closed the portal, then used _Amplify_ to great effect as it was a moon spell, so the power of it was doubled.

"I'm sure you're all wondering how you came to be here!" she called, the ones in the front wincing a little at the volume. "I'm going to tell you. After that, if you have questions come up to the front and I'll answer them. First off, you're not warlocks anymore. I figure you probably know that by now, I'm just making it plain. The thing that was calling you has left, so you are once again powerless. Unless you were a witch or something before. Sorry about that. Not about you being a witch before... you know what I mean! You were being controlled by that being, and made to do things against your will. Luckily, I happened along and stopped it before you did the horrible things you no doubt would have. If you can remember any of the horrible things you _wanted_ to do, try not to focus on that, those were not your thoughts. I repeat, the creature is gone, never to return. You are safe. Now, from what I've heard many of you have been, ah, missing for almost thirty five years. This is because the creature knew I was coming and wanted to use you against me. So it did something to you, I guess. I don't even know, as it woke up and attacked me when I got near it. The creature wanted me dead, it tried, it failed, I won, end of story. Your homes and family... may be gone. There's nothing I can do about that. What I can do is take you, through one of the holes in the air you have already seen, to one of the major cities of Ethshar. With luck, we can be there and through in less than three hours. What you do after that... is really up to you. I'll be talking to my wizard guild contact in Ethshar of the Spices. She may have some ideas. If you want me to go through first and see what she says, fine.

"Yes, you're uncertain. This may be further in the future than you thought you would ever see, and your old lives are gone. But there are many of you, and if you work together I'm sure you'll all get through this. Now, I'm going to open three holes in the air. The one to my right, this way," she gestured wildly to her right, "is going to go to Ethshar of the Sands. Sands, this way. Behind me will be Ethshar of the Rocks. Then to my left will be Ethshar of the Spices. Sands, Rocks, Spices. Got that? Pass it back if the ones in back can't hear you. Any questions?"

"Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm Susan. Susan the Wanderer in your language. Your next question is probably how can I do all this? It's complicated. Just accept, for the moment, that I can do a lot of magic you may not have seen before."

"Can you get us our magic back?"

"Ah." Susan considered. She knew that warlocks had their brains modified to be able to do what they could do. Basically turning them into a kind of ESPer that specialized in _Telekinesis_.But they had been sent _Spirit Energy_ from The Darkness to power that ability. If she could teach them to hook into _ley lines_ themselves, could they do warlocky still without The Darkness being around? "I'll try my best. It may not be exactly the same, and you may be more limited because you will no longer have the creature sending you energy. I will have to test out certain things, and right now my priority is getting you back to civilization. I don't want to spend the night out here, do you?"

There was a general agreement, but many people still wanted to try getting their powers back, as that would let them survive out here.

"But if we take the time now, and I'm wrong, we'll be in worse shape than ever. It's going to take a lot of trial and error, and some training if what I think will bring your powers back even works. Get through now, experiment later."

They grumbled about it, but there really wasn't anything they could do.

"I don't want to go to any place in Ethshar, my home is far to the north of there!" protested a bunch of people, pushing to the front.

"Right now that's all I can offer you. Once there, seek out the wizard's guild, they know something's up, they've been notified. By tomorrow they should have the full story as well. Hopefully they can get you closer to where you want to be. At the very least they can give you some money to hire a ship or something. Just tell them the woman that made the mirror sent you."

There were more questions, but Susan held up a hand and created the three _Teleportals_ to where she said she would. "If you don't have questions, start moving through. It's going to be a rough couple of days, I realize that, but keep calm, we'll figure this out, I promise."

It didn't take long for the guilds to realize ex-warlocks were pouring into each city, and Susan was pleased to see they had pulled together to start defending the place had she failed to repel the attack. This cooperation continued as they guided people at least to where they could spend the night, and money was pooled to basically buy out an inn or two for those that had nowhere to go. Sativola finally found Susan, giving her a big hug and saying she was so glad to see her again, and even Ithinia came through and seemed pleased.

"It might have been easier if they had been killed," she quietly remarked, after being told the story of the battle and subsequent "defeat" of The Darkness. "What are we going to do with all these people?"

"Hopefully they can be warlocks again, if I can train a few. I don't know if they'll be as powerful, or if it'll be as convenient, but it's a start. They can train others, and the discipline of warlocky can continue."

"You really think you can?"

"We'll have to see. In theory it should work. Worst comes to worst, move them back out here, rebuild the villages that got destroyed when The Darkness fell, they can all be miserable together."

"Miserable? We have to get the warlocks out of the tapestry! They won't be a danger anymore. Excuse me." She rushed back through, leaving Susan chuckling.

"Something tells me that's going to be one busy lady for the next few days."

Susan stayed several more hours, making sure the _Teleportals_ stayed open, and answering what questions she could. Wizards went back and forth between the three cities relaying messages and such, and all exclaimed how convenient this magic was. Susan promised several the formula for the spell in case they could somehow translate it, and several witches also stood and felt around the edges of the magic too.

"You think my being here will spark a revolution of sorts, maybe rekindle an interest in magic?" she asked Sparkle.

"They have said they had better magic before the war. Maybe showing them those stories were probably true, what magic can do, will give them the passion to start really experiment again. And the mirrors will make it safer, so yeah, I could see it."

"Cool."

By the time everyone was through Susan had lost a fair chunk of her energy, and wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep for a while. As the refugees had taken anywhere nearby they could get, she was invited to the guild building for the night, and she accepted. A simple but filling meal later and she was happily asleep.

Until someone was shaking her awake.

"Huh? What? That's not my wife, it's a fish."

"What?"

Susan opened her eyes.

"Oh, you're not dead. Good. There's a bunch of people at our door saying you thought they could be warlocks again. Sort it out."

"Good morning to you too," Susan testily replied as the wizard left again. "At least she brought me something to eat."

Twenty minutes later Susan was wandering the halls trying to find the ex-warlocks, only taking two wrong turns and getting completely lost. She finally made it. Waiting for her were six people, four men and two woman, who introduced themselves. Gorsedd, the current chairman, was among them.

"I heard it said you might be able to restore our magic?" he asked hopefully.

"Let's clear up a few things," suggested Susan. "First, it's not magic like wizardry is magic. It was an ability given a select few on the Night of Madness, and the thing that gave it to you allowed you to make more so his army grew. But it's more supernatural than magic. Maybe you don't appreciate the distinction, but I can sense both so believe me when I say it's not magical. It would have been _way_ easier if it was, that battle would have taken all of one second.

"Second, you had the might of that space creature behind you before. I don't know how much of what you could do was taken from it directly, and how much was taken from the creature that took it over versus how much was yours alone. You may be disappointed with your abilities even if I can teach you how to use them again."

"Trading the calling for a lesser amount of magic... or whatever you want to call it? Sounds like a good trade to me."

"Fair enough. I can teach you, or at least get you all started. I can't teach every ex-warlock because I have to leave. If you can pass this technique along, I'll have your promise that you do. In fact, just a second." Susan got out her book of magic and looked for a spell in the newer section. "Ah yes, the verbal _Contract,_ or _Binding Word._ A moment, if you please." Susan read over the spell and cast it, telling them what it was going to do. "I want you to promise, right now, that if successful you will do your best to teach anyone who asks who used to be a warlock, and take apprentices as normal for those that were not. I'm not teaching this to you just so you can hog it for yourselves. You will not hide the fact you have the power, and teach at least someone else this before... oh, say two weeks is up. That seems fair."

They swore, and Susan was satisfied that if warlocks could come back to the world, they would. "Very well. Let's head out and I'll see what I can do for you."

She opened a _Teleportal_ back to the forest where she had felt all those _ley lines_ before, and they all stepped through, confused. "The energy the creature was sending you came from invisible conduits of power that encircle the earth. They are strongest here, in places like this, with a lot of plant life. So for now I'll have you practice here where there are a bunch of them. I'm going to cast a few more spells, specifically, I have a spell that can give you the skill I have in doing something. That something is sensing and drawing power directly from these lines. With luck, that should power your abilities and let you do warlocky again."

"And if not?" the chairman asked.

"Then there's nothing else I can do. I'm not sure you'll even be able to learn these skills, but it's all I can do for you. It can't hurt, if you can't learn them, you can't learn them. But the power is there, and your body is used to receiving it from the creature, so chances are good you'll be able to do it."

"Then what are waiting for?"

"I have to warn you, I'm not great at it myself. Believe it or not, my cat is better at it than I am."

They all looked down at Sparkle, who waved at them.

"Did that cat-"

"Just wave? Yes. Anyway, I'm not terrible, I'm just saying if this works, you can practice the technique and get better. If you can sense energy better you can find weaker _Ley Lines._ If you can draw more power from them, your warlocky will be stronger. Clear?"

Everyone nodded.

"Great. Let's get started."

The spell of _Unlock Potential_ took a minute and a half from writings, but there was really no hurry. It was only grade four, and the difficulty wasn't that much either, so Susan tried giving the chairman _Spirit Manipulation_ and _Spirit Sense_ at her rating of four. She hooked into a nearby _line_ herself, figuring she may as well take advantage of being a _Spirit Mage_ for once _._ With that done, he looked around, a strange smile on his face. He closed his eyes and peered around the forest, then opened them again. "I can feel you. Even with my eyes closed, I could point right at you."

"Oh, sorry. I've still got a ton of energy from before the battle, it hasn't all gone away yet. That's going to throw your senses way out of whack. Try it again after I move over there."

He did, and he said yes, he could feel the energy of the others there, and gave Susan a rough idea of who had more than the others.

"Seems it worked then. Now, you'll be able to draw upon more of your natural reserves, and from _Ley Lines._ My imparting of the skill should have given you this knowledge instinctively."

"I do feel something like that. And there's a line just here, isn't there? Where you were standing?"

"That's right. Try drawing power from it and lifting that branch over there."

"Seems like that shouldn't be too hard." He went over and stood where the _line_ was, then took a second to try out his new skill of drawing from it.

 _Wonder what he does, as he can't just 'make a check' like I do. I would be fascinated to know exactly what's going on in his brain right now..._

The branch rose into the air, to the startled gasps of the ex-warlocks nearby.

"I'm a warlock again," he exclaimed. "I can _see_ again, using the warlock sight. Susan, you've done it!"

"I'm glad that worked."

"As I am. I'm really a warlock again. This is amazing." He turned to them, eyes wide. "And now the world is mine!" He threw back his head and laugh dramatically.

 _I just screwed up, didn't I?_


	92. Chapter 92

92

Moving On To The Next World... Right?

Place: Out in the woods somewhere

Time: Seconds after

The group stared at the man, still dramatically laughing, which quickly changed into a more normal expression of hilarity.

"Wow, the looks on your faces," he finally said, wiping away a tear. "That was worth it."

"Are you finished then?" asked Susan dryly.

"Sorry about that. I was just rather pleased to find all was not lost in terms of our abilities."

"Fair enough. Come on, let's get you others trained up and I can see what next crisis comes up I need to deal with."

So Susan repeated the procedure with the other four people, leaving the last man bitter and angry that shear chance and Susan's whimsy had denied him the chance to become a warlock again. In reality, the chairman requested it, and the other four tried coaching him through the procedure to make sure they could. Susan thought that was actually an excellent idea, and Sparkle added a few things she had observed, having a slightly higher rating and all. As he practiced, Susan put _Augment Skill_ on the chairman and had him repeat the procedure with the stick, then went and dragged a large chunk of rock from the battlefield for him to try lifting. He said with greater skill at _Spirit Manipulation_ he had an easier time lifting the branch, and could almost get the rock lifted by himself. All four working together easily lifted it.

"It looks like we'll have to rediscover what we can and can't do," he said, watching the others experiment with setting the branch on fire and making ice and such. "And start mapping where the best _Ley Lines_ are to be found."

Susan agreed with a nod. "This actually brings the ability more in line with other schools of magic, if you look at it that way. It seems magic here, or more accurately now powers here have some tremendous down side to balance them out. Needing to be basically stationary while you perform warlocky seems about right, given what this power put you through before."

"I agree. It's not the most convenient thing, but it works."

"Chairman," one of the woman said, "do you think the overlord of the city would mind if we started planting trees and things all over?"

"Humm, you did say plant life helps _ley lines_ to flourish, didn't you?" Susan nodded. "I don't see why not, it's not like they're high maintenance or expensive or anything. And increasing the number of _lines_ in an area makes warlocks, which the city has somewhat come to depend on, more useful. I think he could be persuaded."

"We'll be pretty busy from now on, won't we?"

"That we will. Training people back up, working out if we can do anything differently now that this power is exclusively our own. Mapping the world for _lines._ Planting and maintaining trees, plus whatever jobs we can do as warlocks so we can keep food on the table. And we owe it all to you, Susan. You've freed us from the calling, while giving warlocks a chance to really become respected members of the magical community. Oh, don't look at me like that, Yseult, you know wizards resented us because our powers came from the calling rather than study. Well, now our powers will come from study as well. I think it'll make us more accepted in their eyes."

"You're probably right," she reluctantly agreed.

"I feel it! Look, look!" said the other woman. She was lifting a pebble, and everyone grinned at her. "I feel like an apprentice again, if this is all I can lift now!" She laughed.

"We all are," huffed Gorsedd. "But somehow I don't find I mind it as much as I otherwise might have. In fact I'm pretty excited about it, actually."

The others agreed.

That duty fulfilled, Susan took them back to the city so they could start calming down warlocks that came around, and they in fact requested to be sent to the other major areas of Ethshar so it didn't seem like only warlocks near The Spices were benefiting. Susan was happy to comply, and as further crowds of ex-warlocks were led off from the entrance to the wizard guild building by the chairman with promises of lessons for all, she explained what she had done to Ithinia.

"I better put up a sign," she said, thoughtful. "Then I won't have to explain where to go a million times. Wish you had asked first, though."

"Why? Warlocks are useful, and their powers are greatly reduced from what I saw. They won't be zipping around the city, sure, but mending bones? Repairing things? Heck just the act of planting trees will have positive impacts everywhere."

"I don't deny all that. The problem is, you say it's not magic. What if they get it into their heads that maybe a witch with the warlock ability to draw energy from the earth wouldn't be so bad? Or maybe a demonologist figures out some way to use warlock energy to help in summoning demons? If it's not really magic, can the guild really deny them?"

"Why would it? If it's not magic then wizards can just as easily pick it up too, right? Imagine a world where _everybody_ was a warlock. No calling, so no danger of disappearing like they used to. And no danger of them taking over, all you have to do is knock somebody out of the _ley line_ they're attached to and their power falls away from them. Plus it's more like witchcraft now, there's only so much power one person can pull from a _line_ at once. Sure, they could find a convergence somewhere, like the one The Darkness was sitting on, but like it, they would be stuck on that spot!"

"Okay, okay, I get the point. I just would have liked the consideration, that's all."

"We're working on that," put in Sparkle. "Getting Susan to consider other viewpoints apart from her own, I mean."

Susan stuck her tongue out at her.

All that day Susan helped ex-warlocks out as best she could. She performed _Question_ magic to find relatives for those displaced the longest in time, or to what they should do now that they were back. Many had been taken on the Night of Madness, so really had no idea they were warlocks, but their old shops and contacts were long gone. Susan suggested the wizard's guild loan them money to reopen places if they wanted, which Ithinia was initially dead set against. Then Susan took her aside and explained the concept of "interest" to her, which changed her tune quite quickly.

 _Did I just invent the banking industry here?_

She did mention they might want to see about becoming full warlocks, despite their protests about being "too old to be an apprentice again."

"That seems to be more cultural than anything else," countered Susan. "Really, you should never stop learning and improving your arts just because you reach a certain age. You have a whole new life waiting for you now, and even if you only study to became a passible warlock, I'm sure it can be of use for your old profession as well. If you give it a chance. Plus, can you really not train for a new profession? You become a baker, then twenty years of baking later you decide you want to be a painter. Are you telling me no painter will train you, for money, for a few hours a week? I mean that seems dumb to me."

Most of the older people looked quite sullen, but again there was nothing else for them, because Susan was right. Standing around whining about it wasn't going to help, and the wizard's guild promised whatever aid they could lend in getting people back on their feet (for a small fee later, of course, Ithinia learned fast). At the end of the day Susan took her shopping down at the market, buying some ingredients and meeting the "scientists" in the city for dinner.

"Why are we here?" asked one of the scientists as Susan took over a bread shop, having them slice and chop and pound dough with the promise of a new dish they could sell to customers.

"I'm showing you that all these ingredients were right under your nose, but you never combined them in this way. After we eat I'm going to give you some ideas for more things that are under your nose that you never considered. I know wizards here, like Ithinia, consider science to be beneath them. I'm here to tell you entire worlds are built upon nothing but science. I'll give you a nudge, show you the path. It's up to you to do something with it."

Finally the pizza came out of the baker's oven, and Susan closed her eyes, enjoying the first bite. "Now that's magic. Don't be shy, come on, dig in!"

The others agreed this was a fine dish, and Susan gave the bakers some other ideas. Like bagels and offering sandwiches rather than just bread.

 _Did I just invent Brueggers?_

The owners seemed unconvinced that people would want to pay them to make food they could make cheaper at home, but Susan assured them with a wink it would work out.

 _Wait, did I just invent the obesity epidemic?_

That done, Susan went back to a "workshop" where the scientists all crowded around her as she sketched out various ideas for them.

Like using wizardry to create an intense, but controlled flame, and fill a bag with hot air to make it rise off the ground.

Or enchant a propeller with animation spells, allowing planes to take off using the wing design she sketched out.

Or magnets and copper to create electricity with water wheels, rather than just crushing grain or whatever they used them for.

She told them about the relationship between food and chemistry, gravity and physics. She explained about the benefits of the railroad, and the explosive power of gunpowder.

"For too long the disciplines have stood apart, each going their own way. If you really want to advance, to get your civilization back- no even better than before the war, you all have to work together. Share ideas. You have so much potential here because wizardry can replace a lot of the mistakes I know my world made. You don't have to worry about pulling oil out of the ground to make a piston go up and down, you can do that with magic. You don't need to send tons of smoke into the air to move a train from one end of the world to the other, build it along a _ley line_ and have warlocks move it. This world has such potential- all you have to do is pick it up!"

 _Wait, did I just invent steam punk?_

"This is all a radical departure from the way things have been done here. Have we really learned the lessons well enough from the last war to not have another?" mused Ithinia. "I wonder."

"But the possibilities!" breathed one of the scientists. "We never dreamed!"

"I know. Well, I'll talk to the guild, and see how far they're willing to go. Some of what Susan has told us about doesn't need wizardry, or at least that would only make it work a little better or easier. Start on that sort of thing if you must. Susan mentioned mistakes their culture made in acquiring this kind of power, let's think carefully though any invention to make sure we don't make similar ones. Too much change, too rapidly, may not be for the best."

"You know your people better than I do," Susan admitted. "I'm just telling you that many things are possible, and not to give up looking for them. I made you those mirrors, right? And I gave Sativola some ideas for witchcraft that she's promised to share. Can I do less for science?"

She gave a low chuckle, shaking her head. "Given what I've seen of you, no, you couldn't. Will you stay the night again? Do you have more miracles to dispense tomorrow?"

"I think that's about all, but I'll happily stay the night. See if there's any clean up left to do in the morning, then be on my way to my next adventure."

 _Which will be the crystal world, something I'm not looking forward to, given what The Darkness said._

"Very well." She rose. "I bid you all good night."

"Thank you, Susan," said the scientists as she left. "We won't squander what you've given us. I'm not talking about just this," he pointed to the scattered pictures Susan had sketched up. "I'm talking about hope, that one day our science will be looked at on par with wizardry, rather than laughed at and scorned."

"Good luck. And never stop dreaming."

The next morning was much less hectic, word had gotten out and now pretty much everyone knew what had happened with warlocks. Susan even heard reports that many more people were interested in the "magic" now that the threat of being called was gone. Susan felt that was fine, just fine, giving an entire world a new kind of "magic" seemed to fit with her quite well. She made her goodbyes to Sativola, Ithinia, and even went back to see how Illinia was doing, in the Village of Dawn. She was doing fine, and Susan spent half a day there telling stories and news of Ethshar.

Finally she was alone, and triggered her communication program with Silverstreak from the watch.

"Susan," said an agent formally. "What can I do for you?"

"Ready to come back!" she replied, chipper. "Another world saved, another job well done."

"Uh?"

"Hum?"

"Humm..."

"Ah?"

"Uhh, just a second."

"What?"

The agent moved off, and Silverstreak took her place. "Susan?"

"Yeah? What's going on?"

"You say you want to come back?"

"Yeah, The Darkness is gone. Saw it disappear with my own soul windows, why?"

He looked off to the side, then back again. "My instruments haven't registered a withdraw event. Are you _sure_ you took care of it?"

"Well, yeah. I went into the soul of the creature and... everything..."

"Maybe you better start at the beginning."

So Susan told of her battle, and how it ended, mentioning she had found it suspicious The Darkness gave up so easily.

"It's because it didn't," explained Silverstreak. "You didn't kill the host, you let it slip out into someone else. It's still there."

"It can do that?" Susan's blood turned to ice.

"Under certain circumstances, yes. You _must_ kill the thing it's taken over. I mean, yes, it _could_ leave if it wanted to, but why would it? I thought you understood."

Susan shook her head. "No, I've never killed it, not myself. The dragon and Sephiroth were group efforts. Others have blown themselves up. I really have to kill whatever it takes over? Why?"

"Killing it forces it out of the world. In order to come back it would have to select a new host and enter it from outside like it did the first time. That's the only opportunity I have to put the protections in place so it can't. Very few times have Wanderers actually convinced it to leave a world. I mean I could count them on one hand. If it seemed to give up, it's because whatever it was doing wasn't the real plan. It was a ruse, and whatever it's been doing since then is the real plan."

"Which we have no idea about, like location or who it even is now. I'll have to start over."

The Darkness inside Susan started laughing hysterically. _You really fell for it. My goodness, did you think I couldn't crush even you with thousands of warlocks? Oh, setting that up was really the right thing to do, I'm so glad I thought of it. You walked right into it, and you've given me days of freedom. Oh Susan, you can be really dumb sometimes._

 _Shut it!_

"Not necessarily. Think. There must be something there it wants. Something it can only do with a couple of days freedom, when you weren't actively pursuing it."

"I have no idea what that could be. I have to get back to see the wizards, maybe they'll know?"

"Whatever you have to do. Just be quick about it, The Darkness has a huge lead on you now."

"I know that!" she snapped, starting to cast. _"Teleportal!_ I'll be in touch."

"Good luck." The image winked out.

Susan threw herself through the hole, then demanded to know where Ithinia was. Minutes ticked by as she was summoned, and finally came in the room looking concerned.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It tricked me! The Darkness is still here somewhere."

"What?"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I thought it was gone. But when I went to leave, the being that sent me here said it was still around. We need to call another meeting, figure out what its actual goal was. There might not be much time!"

"I'll see who's here, but most everyone is gone with the warlock situation. Go to the conference room, I'll be there shortly."

Susan let Sparkle lead her there, and paced, unable to sit still and wait. The taunts of The Darkness rang in her mind, it was having fun gloating. Susan tried to ignore it.

 _By the way, how did it you know it wasn't her?_

 _What?_

 _How did you know I wasn't in her, and you just let her leave?_

 _I guess I didn't. You just want to make me paranoid and start checking everyone and everything, don't you?_

 _It would slow you down a little, and be hilarious, so yeah._

Several wizards rushed in, followed by Ithinia. "This is everyone I could find. What do you need from us?"

"Information. You know this world, why would The Darkness go to all the trouble of taking over warlocks, making like it was going to attack the city, _pretend to leave,_ but really stay. Is there something, left over from the war maybe, that can wipe out the world?"

"Seething Death?" asked one wizard.

"But only one wizard knows that spell that we know of," countered another.

"You!" Ithinia pointed to a young wizard that had come with the others. "Run and find where Tobas the Wizard was last seen. If he's acting strangely or doing wizardry, have him stopped at all costs! Detain him and have his athame removed. Not broken, just removed. He's not under arrest, this is just a precaution. You understand?"

"Yes, guildmaster!" said the student, running off.

"Okay, what else? Keep the ideas coming!" demanded Ithinia.

The others looked at each other helplessly.

"The Darkness had a connection to warlocks," Sparkle put in. "And S. said it could only move in certain situations, right? What if it moved along that connection?"

"Maybe there was one warlock that didn't lose their powers?" suggested Susan.

"It's a possibility."

"Vond!" spat Ithinia. "If it's any warlock, it's him."

"Oh no!" The others seemed to recognize that name.

"Who?"

"A warlock, unique in the world. He figured out a different source of power for warlocky. He was ultimately called, so I didn't think of him again. But yeah, that would make sense. I should have asked where he was, with everything else going on it totally slipped my mind!"

"Different source? You mean he figured out _ley lines_ by himself or something? Drew power directly rather than being given it by The Darkness?"

"No, it's... oh, why not, you know everything else. It's the Towers of Lumeth. When most warlocks go near them they complain of headaches and getting sick. He did too, but then got the bright idea to draw power from the buzzing in his head like he used to from the whisper. In his case it worked. He united- no he conquered several of the small kingdoms and created the Empire of Vond. Alone. In like a week. He could have done it in a day, but by all reports he was sort of lazy. He was the most powerful warlock ever known, and now he's the last one left. Of the old warlocks, anyway. It fits."

"But these towers, what part do they play? How can they give him that kind of energy that's compatible with his way of doing warlocky? Are they near where the creature crashed? I mean to draw power from any kind of distance..."

Ithinia put her head in her hands. "They're Talismans. Old Talismans. The oldest, actually. They keep the air of the world pure and they were made by the gods. That's why their power radiates so widely, it has to or our air would turn unbreathable."

 _All those times suffocating me, you were actually hinting it, weren't you?_

 _Yup, a little taste, just for you. You didn't know about the towers, and I couldn't just tell you outright, of course. I figured no one would mention it, there was no reason to! It was fun dangling it in front of you the whole time, so it wasn't a complete loss._

"He's going to destroy them!" Susan exclaimed, eyes wide. "We have to get out there. NOW!"


	93. Chapter 93

93

Pushed to the Utmost

Time: A moment later

Place: Wizard's Guild building

The wizards looked at each other helplessly. They had two types of travel magic that could get somewhere in a hurry. The tapestry, that took a year to weave, or the flute, that took hours to prepare. A delay of even a moment could cost them everything, sending poisonous fumes rushing across the landscape, killing the world in moments. All had visions of the most powerful warlock crushing the Towers with massive pieces of stone, or flinging them high into space, or just willing it and bursting them apart. One wizard sat down heavily, muttering how it as all over.

"It's not all over!" insisted Susan. "Something made by the gods isn't easy to destroy, is it? And he had to travel there, right?"

"Why?" asked the wizard. "Maybe he's powerful enough now just to bend space and will himself there."

Susan shook her head emphatically. "I don't think so. We would already be dead if that was the case. No, he's on the move, yes, but maybe we can still get there in time. Where are the towers? Is it someplace I've been near?"

"The small kingdoms," said Ithinia quietly. "But you've only been north, and they're far to the south."

"I can get my flying speed up pretty high. If someone can come and point them out to me, keep me on track towards them, we'll leave now."

"Wait," commanded Sparkle. "Has there been anyone around here that's seen these towers?"

The wizards all looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Even if they did... oh, they could use a _Spell Paper_ and open the _Teleportal_ for us. That's great thinking, Sparkle. I forget other people can use my magic like that."

"Start asking around!" demanded Ithinia. "Go!" The wizards scattered.

Tense moments followed as Susan cursed her magic for not being able to take her someplace she hadn't seen with her own eyes. _I know I want to go to the Towers. There's only one Towers in the world. How hard could be it be to magically take me there?_

Finally one of the wizards rushed back in, and said he found someone who should be along shortly. Sparkle put _Acceleration_ on them, as usual, while they waited.

"We should make you a maintaining focus for that spell," remarked Susan. "You use it all the time, and it would only be six XP."

"It would save me the minus two, I'll think about it."

"What are you going to do?" asked Ithinia.

"If he's there, he'll have to die," replied Susan. "I don't like the idea, so don't look at me like that, but apparently that's what must be done. If he's not, you all can come through and start setting up wizardry and anything else we can throw around the thing to protect it. So it depends on what I see when I get there."

An old man tottered up the stairs and came into the room, looking around. "What's all this fuss about? Can't you leave an old man in peace?"

"You've seen the Towers of Lumeth?" Susan demanded to know.

"Many years ago, yes. I toured the world taking in many sights-"

"Yes, that's just great. Look, hold this piece and imagine them in your mind, all right?"

"Paper? What's this? Ithinia, what is this all about?"

"Just do what she says, please."

"Oh very well. You young people, always leaping about, never explaining yourselves. Is showing your elders a little respect so difficult as all that?"

"You have no idea," muttered Susan.

"What was that?"

"I said now that you're holding it, say _Teleportal,_ and focus on the Towers. Please, just do it."

"All right, I said I would already, didn't I? What is this world coming to, I don't know. What was that word again? Telenortal?"

" _Teleportal!"_

"No need to shout. _Teleportal._ My goodness!"

There in the air was a view of three towers, two whole, one broken. The unbroken ones were simple gray cylinders, while the broken one looked chopped off at the top. Further detail at this distance was impossible. "He's already broken one," moaned Susan. "Look!"

"No, that's been broken since before I was born. Maybe he isn't... there!" She pointed. In the air near the towers was a floating figure, next to a huge chunk of stone that picked up speed and smashed into the columns. Seconds later they heard the crash, but the stone was pulled back and the towers held.

"We're not too late. I'll let you know if I win. You'll know soon enough if I lose."

"Wait, save first!" reminded Sparkle as she went to step through.

"Oh yeah! Thanks." Susan pulled out a _Spell Paper_ and activated it, then stepped through. Sparkle followed.

"Good luck," called Ithinia.

"Thanks. Close it."

"How?" asked the man, trying to find the edge of the thing.

"Just decide you don't need it any more. Get your head out of it first!"

"You mean like-"

The portal closed.

"Let's go, Sparkle. One more battle and this world is finished. He has nowhere to run."

"Just be careful, who knows what other tricks it has up this warlock's sleeves."

"I will. _Blade."_

Susan also activated her redone _Spell Symbols_ on the bracelet, _Invulnerability, Augment Skill, Flight. Flight_ she had originally cast to be on both herself and Sparkle, so as Susan left the ground, Sparkle followed, pacing her. Vond turned around as she got near and held up a hand.

"That's far enough," he boomed, voice augmented. "I know about your _Slash-All_ range, so stay well back if you want this one to live."

 _This one?_

He gestured, and high above several babies were lowered from above a cloud, screaming and crying.

"Hiding behind babies now? That's a new low for you."

"Just a bit of insurance. I didn't know how long it would take you to figure out I wasn't gone."

"Guess you're not getting that crystal full of energy, huh?"

"What do you mean? Did the warlocks die or something? Ex-warlocks, I mean. I lowered them to the ground, I was sure I did! I didn't miss any, did I?"

"No, it's not that."

"Then what's the problem? My bargain was for their lives. Not me leaving the world, because I never said that. I was just leaving that body. I can't help it if you misunderstood, now can I?"

"Guess I should have gotten some tips from demonologists on how to look for holes in contracts, huh?"

"I suppose." Vond pulled out two knives, and gestured to the block of stone still floating in the air next to him. Two small chunks broke off and started floating towards him.

"I don't think they'll reach this far," remarked Susan, pointing to the knives. "And those little pieces of rock won't even pierce my armor. Unless I can come attack you now? Or are you planning on further showing your cowardly nature and just float them about?"

"You can attack all you want, but those babies are now scattered to random clouds. Can you kill me and still catch them, when they fall?"

Susan looked, and yes, the babies were gone. He had used the knives as a distraction, and who knew where they were now? "Better a few babies than the whole planet."

"Good!" Vond seemed impressed. "That's a big step for you. Are you finally ready to do more than knock people out? To kill, when needed? To sacrifice the few for the greater number?"

"I'm certain I'm fast enough to catch them before they fall."

"Actually," Sparkle said to her looking up at the clouds, "leave them to me."

Susan nodded and she flew off, but Vond went on.

" _Overconfident_ to the last. That's fine. To answer your other question, I'm not going to float these about, I can't."

"No?"

"The same property that allows them to chop through your armor makes it impossible for me to manipulate them with warlocky. The wizards would tell you they reject magic, but we know warlocky isn't magic, now don't we? They don't suspect the real reason why."

"Which is?"

Vond looked at her as if to say "You really think I would tell you?" and jammed the two knives, hilt first, into the stones he had floating there. They stayed floating. "Luckily I can manipulate stone, and the knives can't do anything about that." The two floated to the side of him, and two more took their place in his hands.

"How many of those do you have?"

"Enough, I think. They were fairly rare on my journey up here, but a few wizards didn't mind giving me theirs before I left the main group. Ah well." He repeated the procedure, then pulled a firth which he held in his hand.

"There. All set for our final battle. Any last words?" Susan shook her head and brought her sword up. "Very well."

The air around Susan erupted into flames, once again sucking her air away but more importantly in the short term obscuring her vision. She shot left, taking her free movement for this action and clearing the flame, but found as she emerged she no longer had a target, Vond was missing. She saw his floating blades, so she knew he couldn't have gone far, and the floating chunk of rock was the only thing in range he had to hide behind.

 _Fine. "Shrink."_ Being a rock it couldn't really resist, and Susan threw enough energy in to get it instantly but rather than turning into a pebble, The Darkness negated the spell.

 _Aarg, it's like it doesn't even make checks against me, it just succeeds._

 _Frustrating, isn't it?_

 _Yeah, enough to make me do this._

Susan took her next action, flying through the burning air to just reach the rock with her free action and tried to smash it to pieces. She didn't expect one of the knives to shoot towards her as she was connecting with the stone, and couldn't dodge because her action was to attack the rock. Her speed and LUCk saved her, as she received a bonus of one per every five speed, meaning a fourteen, plus one, a fifteen. With her _passive dodge_ of fourteen, his roll of twenty three (minus two for doing it as a reactive action) was not enough, and the knife whizzed past her.

She cracked the stone with her blade, doing about a third of the damage she would need to in order to split it apart.

 _Knew I should have taken more_ Augment Stat: STR. _Oh well._

"Temper, temper!" shouted Vond from behind it. "What did that rock ever do to you?"

"Offended me on so many levels!" she shouted back, raising her sword for another blow. This, however, was a feint. She figured that knife, currently hovering nearby, would probably make another pass when she swung the sword. _And I don't have my bonus from speed this time..._

So instead of chopping straight down she swung to the side, making a called shot to the rock surrounding the blade that allowed Vond to manipulate it. She didn't want to smash the knife, some poor wizard was presumably even now lamenting its loss and would like it back. She didn't figure Vond had killed the owner, that would have made the knife useless because the soul shard powering it would disappear.

 _Odd, that on my world Tom made Soul Shards to try and gain immortality. These people have to make one just to become wizards and it doesn't protect them in that way at all. That I know of, anyway._

The blade, as expected, slashed towards her with a sixteen result, but Susan's skill won out with a twenty eight. She did forty eight damage, base, to the rock, and as it was actually smaller than a size zero creature it took more damage than normal. So that rock was smashed apart and the knife fell harmlessly to the ground.

"I see how it is," snarled Vond.

"Come out from behind there if you're so upset about it."

"Pass."

"Okay."

She raised the blade again, wondering if she should give up trying to get at him for the moment. She didn't really want to be near those blades, but isn't it better to disarm your opponent if you can? She decided that was probably the case, and flew towards them instead, aiming for the nearest one. She had to turn her attack into a parry at the last instant, as all three animated suddenly and flew towards her as well. She put energy into COOrdination and took a minus three penalty to knock them all away in one sweep of her sword. (It's huge, remember, Cloud gave it to her, and it could basically be used as a shield in this instance)

She managed it.

"Hey, time out!" she called. "You're already holding up the rock, all those babies, and yourself. How you can animate three knives as well?"

"I controlled thousands of warlocks at the same time," Vond scoffed. "You think I can't multitask to this extent?"

"Oh, right."

 _Great, so if I try to take one out, the other two slam into me. Am I going to have to risk it?_

The flames were gone, so Susan chose to speed back away from the rock, put a little distance between them and maybe spread the knives out a bit more. They followed, spreading out as she intended. She realized her mistake as soon as she completed her free movement. They were now in front and to either side, making it even harder to dodge or keep track of them because now she was being flanked by at least one. _I wonder if_ Slash-All _will even work on nonliving targets? Maybe?_ She didn't want to take the time to activate it, she knew the knives would attack as she did. So she kept moving backwards, taking a few segments to move and sped away from the towers. The knives slowed and hung in the air, probably at the range of Vond's power.

At that point, Sparkle (remember her) reached the first baby (remember them) and started casting _Phase_ on herself while she touched the child. She knew this would break Vond's hold and the tiny human would begin to fall. But she had a plan, and even figured it had a decent chance of working. _Because if it doesn't, Susan is going to be pretty bummed out. She did save though, and we can go back to make another plan now that we know._

Susan also cast _Phase,_ on herself. _I'll just speed through the rock, pop out swinging, and when I'm about to hit him I'll release_ Phase _and that will be that. Easy!_

She took the full time so she didn't have to put as much energy in, and flew forwards again. Vond was now fifteen meters away, meaning it would take her two segments to get there. When she was half way there the knives moved to intercept, and she was torn between wanting to avoid them completely or take more caution in case they could negate _Phase_ as well. She trusted her speed and LUCk, deciding to bust through and not worry about it.

This proved to be a mistake.

The random hit location table indicated head and seven damage, making Susan cry out as a knife once again raked across her "no unusual effect." She shot to the side away from the other knife and again, all three stopped and waited like angry humming birds.

Sparkle finished casting, and as predicted, the baby started plummeting to the ground. Sparkle was totally off on her estimate as to how high they were, but that didn't matter so much. She paced the child for one segment, then cast _Entangle_ as the child neared the ground. As she hoped, plant life sprang from the ground and wrapped around the kid, cushioning the fall. _Now I just have to do that three more times,_ she thought, looking upwards. _Fun._

Susan moved out of range again, dropping _Phase_ and wondering what went wrong.

 _Are Vond or The Darkness spending XP against me or something? I could have sworn my difficulty to be hit there was a twenty nine, and he can't be that good with a blade, especially from this distance. I have to take those daggers out. I wonder._

 _"Retrieval!"_

Susan hoped that by casting the spell from this range, Vond couldn't negate it, but countering a spell can be performed on the target of the spell, and she felt her magical energies disrupted.

 _Oh, but wait, there's more!_

Susan tried again, this time throwing maximum energy in and taking the five segments to cast. She was going to cast on all three blades, but a REAson check (at a minus two for being rushed) of ten total made her decide to cast on the _rocks_ instead. _After all, if they negate magic or whatever, they'll resist my magic too._

Vond could only counter one of the simultaneous spells she cast, and another two daggers dropped away. She was about to drop the two rocks that were now in her hand with a smirk, but then got another clever idea.

 _I can certainly handle one knife,_ Susan thought. _I think these might come in useful for saving those babies._

Susan sped towards Vond, keeping the remaining dagger in sight as she did so. For this she needed to be closer, and was counting on him to protect that last line of defense rather then the kids. She tossed the rocks down as she got close, and saw the dagger wasn't fast enough to intercept her coming from the side as she was. It seemed Vond wanted to keep the last mobile weapon between the rock and herself so she couldn't smash it again, which was fine, that wasn't her target. She made a _Spirit Sense_ check on the move, getting minimum because that's how the universe works. Sparkle somehow knew her plan despite no communication between them, and spent her card 7, _Success,_ so that action succeeded. Susan now knew where all three babies were from the position of the weak energy signatures in the sky. She cast again, but _Transposition_ this time, meaning to switch a baby with a rock, a baby with a rock, her sword with a baby, and Vond with the stone wrapped around the knife.

This one, of course, Vond negated, as she planned. But the others, with energy and Susan's bonus from _Acceleration,_ all went flawlessly with a total check result of eighteen. Two babies appeared where the rocks were on the ground, while the rocks now started to fall. Her sword became the third child, which she grabbed and cradled in her arm. This left her sword hanging in midair, but she put her hand out and willed it to her, trusting the _Material Link_ spell to guide it back to her waiting hand.

"You think you're so clever, don't you?" called Vond.

"Pretty much," replied Susan.

"You think now you can attack me with impunity, because my hostages are gone. Fine. I'm through playing around with you. Know despair and weep, this is what I'm going to do to you the next time we meet."

And Vond rose from behind the stone, and looked directly at the child in Susan's arms.

With a cold certainty, Susan knew what he was going to do.

 _He was going to kill the child, knowing she was helpless to prevent it._

"I declare card forty two, _WTF!"_ called Susan. _Please, let this work to allow me to save this kid!_

"I declare card thirty three, _Lucky Break!"_ called Sparkle, again knowing the exact right thing to do despite being some distance away at the time.

Susan's _Mimic Materia_ started to glow, and Susan realized she had a chance. The cards had made this possible, and even as power lashed out to try and tear the child apart in her arms, Susan sent that same power back at him by shouting _"Mimic!"_ Time slowed even further than Susan was used to under _Acceleration,_ and she watched in horror as Vond's features contorted as agony tore through him. The attack, with all Vond's might now struck him a split second before it could fully impact the child, and there was nothing he could do about it.

A second later it was over. The child hardly felt anything, now looking up a Susan with wonder, as the pieces of Vond the warlock rained down upon the ground near the towers.

All was still, as if even the babies on the ground knew what had happened, and were silently judging Susan's actions.

In the new stillness her watch beeped.

"Susan? Susan, are you there? I just registered a withdraw event and the barrier around that world is now _active_. Nicely done, you did it! Susan? Susan, are you hurt? I'm looking at your vitals here and you don't seem to be. Do you need me to open the gateway for some other reason? I can have a medical team there in seconds.

...

...

Susan?"


	94. Chapter 94

94

Putting it Behind You

Time: Twenty minutes later

Place: Wizard's Guild building

Susan had finally answered Silverstreak, saying she was fine, and she would need some time yet before opening the portal back. He said to take all the time she needed, and she set about making sure the babies were all right.

"And you used _Entangle_ to catch one?" she asked, amazed.

"It's all I could think of. I don't have _Telekinesis_ and anything else is just attack related. This seemed the best bet, I saw how dense the plant life that spell makes."

"It worked, that's all that matters. Well done."

"Thanks."

With the babies safe, Susan went and picked up the knives, then made her way back to the wizards who were nervously pacing the room she had left.

"Where did you get all those babies?" Ithinia asked, startled.

"Didn't think I was gone that long, huh?" she tried to joke, but the shock of seeing Vond tear himself apart (as she insisted on categorizing the event) made her shaky and pale. "I always wanted a big family."

The other wizards rushed to help her, and she put down the knives as they were fussed over.

"But seriously, Vond had them hostage. One of them almost didn't make it."

"What do you mean?"

So Susan told how she had rescued the kids, and the wizards shared a look. "I knew Vond was dangerous," said one, "but not that dangerous."

"He wasn't in control," insisted Susan. "Baby killing is all The Darkness, I assure you."

"So he's dead, then?"

"Quite. Your world is safe."

"You're sure? This Darkness creature isn't still lurking around?"

Susan shook her head. "S. says he's gone, and I can leave at any time. I just needed to come back here and make sure these little angels were taken care of. And these, of course."

"Stolen from wizards?"

"Stolen from wizards. I can use _Question_ to figure out where they all belong, babies and knives both."

Ithinia grabbed her hand as she started to make the MANipulation check needed to pull her book of spells from the sub-space pocket. "It's okay," she said gently. "I'll get a Theurgist to ask the gods, you've done more than enough for us. I give you my word, all these children will be back with their parents by the time the sun sets."

Susan drew a deep breath. "Thank you."

"I'm... sorry you had to see what you did. It's obviously shaken you."

"Shaken, not stirred."

"Uh?"

"Sorry, bad joke. It's not just that, Vond united a bunch of the small kingdoms you said, I doubt that happened without bloodshed. So he probably wasn't the nicest guy. It's The Darkness. I think it's getting a bit worried, or a bit angry, or both, to do something like that. I'm just worried about the next time I meet him. Will he just do something like that straight off? Just to spite me? I mean can a being like that even know about holding a grudge? There's just so much I don't know about my opponent, short of it wanting to destroy the world with the least amount of effort possible."

"I can't help you there."

"I know. I'm just going to have to take it as it comes, I guess. Look, I should go. You have more important things to be doing right now."

"I have people for that, stay as long as you like." She gave a thin smile.

"Thanks, but I think leaving is probably the best thing now. Use what I've given you wisely, okay?"

"Okay. And thanks again, for everything."

"It's what I do. Come on, Sparkle, we're heading back."

"Right boss."

And so Susan returned to the Hub, where Silverstreak didn't ask why she wanted to be alone for a few hours. He just said to come find him whenever she was ready, and opened the door to the room she used when staying there. She flopped down on the bed, unsure what she should really be feeling. Pity? Despair? Revulsion? She knew she needed to kill Vond, and The Darkness knew she knew. Before it had killed itself in frustration, or somewhat by accident, but now it was going to avoid that because it knew how deeply it affected her.

 _Want to talk about it?_

 _With you? Uh, no, I don't think so. By the way, how did that warlock plan work out for you? Huh? Not so great in the end._

 _You don't have to rub it in. Good thing you had those cards though, what would you have done if you hadn't had those exact two?_

 _Loaded the save and gone after the babies before Vond even knew I was there. Attached helium balloons to them or something._

 _I... would that even work?_

 _I don't know. I would have done something._

 _No doubt. Still, you know you can't take me by surprise, right? As soon as I knew you were near the babies plan- anyway, all the past now. Don't worry so much. Your next world will feature robots, predominantly. I've taken over an AI, and I'm building millions of killer robots to wipe out organic life on the planet._

 _Seriously?_

 _Really! I figure that's way easier than flesh beings, so I thought I would give it a try. Plus it saves me some energy, I can just program them to do whatever I want, and I don't have to micromanage them. But enough about my problems. You can now truthfully tell Silverstreak I mentioned it to you. And it ties in nicely about wanting to beat up something not alive for a change. Sure, Luna is nowhere near there, but you deserve a break, right?_

 _I was going anyway, you didn't need to tell me that. I'll keep my promise to you. If it's even true about the robots._

 _Oh, but I did. You think he can't tell if you're lying? Ha! Silly Susan, you don't even have_ Deception _at more than a one. This makes it nice and legit._

 _I'm not saying thank you, or anything._

 _Suit yourself._

Susan spent the rest of the day restless, then got a good night's rest and went looking for Silverstreak in the morning.

"Hey Susan, are you feeling better this morning?"

"A little, I guess. Do you want my report on the last world?"

"Sure thing, if you think it'll help you to talk about it."

So she repeated the story, adding in the beginning bits about helping the world out, which as she told him started to get the sense that maybe she shouldn't go around polluting worlds with knowledge from other worlds. He laughed it off when he sensed her hesitating and asked about it.

"Don't worry about it. You wouldn't believe the stuff that naturally falls through the cracks and ends up different places. And tech stuff, well, they would have thought of it eventually. As far as warlocks, hey, you were just giving them a little power back, nothing wrong with that. I mean sure, don't leave schematics for a nuke on a completely magical world, but improving quality of life? Telling them about _hot air balloons?"_ He laughed again. "Don't even worry about that!"

"Oh. Whew, thanks."

"As far as Vond, well, that's somewhat my fault. I should have made it more clear to you, given you a little more time to get used to the idea. So I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean for you to take it so hard."

"I think that's the first person I really killed, who stayed dead, anyway..." She remembered shooting Tom, but he was fine after that, so it really didn't count.

"What you do isn't easy, from the moment you step into a world to the moment you step out. You risk everything, because you never know what weird powers or tech you might run into. Plus with Darkvoid mucking the picture up, and needing to kill him... that's why I usually send groups. They can support each other. If you want someone else to look for Luna, and leave this behind, I'll understand. I'll assign another team-"

"No," Susan cut in. "I know the stakes, and running now would shame my father so much he would burn his gaudy purple robe and disown me. I didn't start this, but if killing the host is what needs to be done... I'm prepared to do that." _I hope._

"Okay. If you change your mind..." He let that hang in the air a moment. "Now, I assume you'll want to spend your XP, so you know where the training room are, right?"

"Actually, if you have a minute, I'd like to talk to you about something, sort of related to all this."

"Oh?"

"The... Darkvoid mentioned to me a world where he's taken over a bunch of robots? I thought, maybe I should kind of ease into this whole 'killing the host' thing. I mean I doubt it'll get any easier, but if I could take a little break from killing people and just smash up a bunch of machines, could be somewhat... cathartic."

"It did, did it? What's the number, there's lots of worlds with robots running around." Susan rattled off the number The Darkness told her to say. "I was afraid of that. You _really_ don't want to go there."

"Oh?"

"Really. Come on, I'll show you." He took her back up to the control room and sat down, accessing the computers and bringing up an image of a patchwork world. "This is the world you want to go to."

"Looks messed up. What happened to it?"

"We aren't exactly sure," he replied sadly. "What we do know is that multiple realities have clashed together there for some reason. To use my earlier tree analogy, it's as if many leaves smashed together and made one leaf that had the characteristics of all of them. And the worst part? It's still going on. One day you might visit an area that had a mountain, the next day, mountain gone- lake there instead. Or a small village just appears out of nowhere, or a section of city is replaced by lava, the missing people never to be seen again. It's not pretty."

"So you're worried that could happen and carry off whoever you send?"

"Not exactly. There's enough warning, usually, as lightning and other energies are released on the spot. No, the trouble is magic, and why I wouldn't recommend you going there. You, especially and specifically."

"Is magic messed up too?"

"To be honest, there isn't much. That branch is mostly technology based, which wouldn't be much of a problem for you normally, because you're _Natural_ not _Scholar_.The problem is, and I think you've experienced this, right, is dimensional warping. You may be in a section of the world that doesn't have a 'connection' so to speak with any of the planets!"

Susan's face fell. "And so my magic would be useless, I couldn't cast anything. Like I couldn't cast Pluto spells with Louise."

"Exactly. There are only rare times when the dimensional energies that shroud the planet would open up enough to give you access to all your planets. Heck, planes can't even fly very high it's so bad. They get ripped apart by the stresses."

"So you want a team to go there that doesn't rely on magic at all, right?"

"That would be best. But most have one spell caster, of one type or another, just because I like diverse groups. You have diverse magic, so it works out."

"And me," reminded Sparkle.

"And you."

"What about my _Imbued_ items? I mean if there's no magic, there's none to use against me, right? Couldn't I get along with just my items?"

"I suppose... You're really dead set on going, aren't you?"

"It sounds like a real challenge, and someone has to clean it out, right?" Susan was actually a little excited, it _would_ be a challenge. First to find The Darkness, and get this crystal it wanted, all with very little magic.

"You don't have to prove yourself, Susan. I know how good you are, and you saved that world even if you did have to kill Vond."

"Maybe I don't have to prove myself to you..."

"I see." He tapped a finger on his chin thoughtfully. "There is a way. It's not the most convenient method, but it would work in a pinch. Come with me to the lab."

She followed him through the door that again closed and opened immediately, and everyone greeted Silverstreak as he walked through. He started rummaging around and seemed pleased when he pulled a strange looking cube off a shelf full of weird looking devices.

"We'll need two though," he remarked, looking the shelf over. "There must be another one around here... Ah!" He found another, then went to a bench and started fiddling with them, popping open a panel on the top of each and fitting them together into one larger device. "Now, you have a backpack or something? You'll have to carry it with you everywhere."

"But what is it?"

"Dimensional stabilizer. This will punch a hole through any interference and allow you to use... one planet. Each."

Susan and Sparkle traded a look. "I guess that's more than nothing?"

"All I can offer you. Unless you want to lug twenty of these suckers around. No? Didn't think so. And even then, it's not the most reliable thing in the worlds. It's like GPS, it takes a minute or two to lock on, and if you want to change it'll take time to switch. If it even can, really high interference areas exist, and even this can only do so much. But if you're dead set on going, I'll lend it to you. Along with some advice."

"I'll take what I can get. I need to do this." _For various reasons._

"Okay. Do you have a backpack?"

"I think so, bumping around my _Dimensions_ somewhere."

"Fine. I'll attune it to the watch before you go, so you can control it through there. Oh, and if you both use the same planet it'll lock on twice as fast. I can give you the full manual later."

"I'll look it over. What's the advice?"

"Focus on the _Spirit_ part of _Spirit Mage_ before you leave. Take points from your planets if you must, you can always put them back afterwards. In a world where you can't rely on magic, you're going to have to rely on the skills having a ten in _Spirit Manipulation_ will get you. Oh, and keep your _pistol_ skill, at least at some rating, it should come in handy."

"That all sounds reasonable. Looks like I better hit the gym, rather than the wizard's area."

Silverstreak answered with a nod, and dropped the now completed device into her waiting hands. "Let me know when you're ready to leave."

So by taking _Inscribing_ down to a one from a three and spending all her XP, she was able to get her skill group that included _Spirit Manipulation_ to a seven rating. Dropping all her school skills, like _Herbology_ to a one got her enough to bring them to an eight. She forgot how to cast _Alleviation_ as she planned, getting ten back, and also _Magic Immunity,_ again, for nine. She transferred all of her stuff from her _Pocket Dimension_ to her now expanded sub-space pocket, as her rating increased in that she was able to store larger things and it was faster, with no energy cost, so that gave her another six. Taking one magical skill group to a five from a six netted her quite a bit, and she pulled a little from _riding_ to finally bring that up to a ten.

With that done she put some points into skills like _Spirit Step_ and _Aura Reading,_ but only a couple at that point so she didn't drain her magical skillstoo much. Most everything in that category of skills was based on RESolve anyway, so even a low rating was more than enough to get a good result. (With a little energy thrown in, of course) And she could easily raise them while she was there, if she got a bit of time.

Sparkle also shuffled a few things around, losing _Armor of Magic_ and _Elemental Line: Ether._ She broke her _Spirit Mage Skill Group,_ deciding that she probably didn't need to be better than average at things like _Dimension Sense_ and _Spirit Sense_ if Susan was going have tens in them anyway. She got her _Spirit Manipulation_ up to a ten which let her get a few of the spirit skills as well, specifically _Spirit Step, Aura Reading,_ and _Spirit Aura._

 _It does't really make sense, spending all that XP to get so few skills._ Spirit Step _just seems so useful, but_ Manipulation, _for someone like me, just doesn't seem worth it. I don't have Susan's energy, after all. If I spent my maximum it would be gone in two actions!_

While Susan was off doing things, she spoke to Silverstreak about it, who said if she saved up some XP, he could get her a background that increased her energy totals.

"It's expensive," he cautioned, "so make sure it's worth it before you decide. You can't exactly take a background back."

"Got it. Anything else useful I could start to learn now that it is a ten?"

He considered. "I suppose there is one thing. Never thought I would be teaching it to a _cat_ though."

"What's that?"

"It's a martial art. It's called Ryūdō."

"A what? How can a cat learn a martial art?"

He laughed. "Like I said, it sounds weird but it's actually prefect for you. Purr-fect? I kill me!"

Sparkle rolled her eyes.

"Sorry. Ahem, this one is different. Basically you shove energy into someone as you tap them, like so." He tapped her. "The more energy you put in, the greater your potential damage. So it doesn't depend on strength, and you do, what, 1d2 damage if you actually tried to scratch someone?"

"True, any more damage would be better than that. But like everything else we do, if we roll poorly our effort is wasted."

He shrugged. "Can't do anything about that."

"I get it. I suppose I could at least get it to a low rating, try it out. If it works out I could get that energy related background and make it worthwhile."

He nodded. "You would have to. Go down to the gym, ask someone to show it to you."

"I will. Thanks."

Silverstreak also took that opportunity to attach a small gizmo to her collar, in the shape of a sphere.

"What's this?"

"The targeting point for the dimensional stabilizer. Susan doesn't need one, the watch can be used and she'll have it with her most of the time anyway. But you'll need one, so here it is."

"Oh. How does it work? Some kind of radio signal or something? I ask just to make sure I know what can block it."

"Block it? My technology? Ha! No, it's a micro-wormhole, basically a shortcut through space. You can't block it, short of her coming back here and leaving you behind."

"Got it. Thanks."

Finally she dropped the ratings on a few of the planets she hardly ever used and had Susan make her a _Maintaining Focus_ for _Acceleration,_ not that she believed she would use it on the next world. It was just a little clip that went around her collar, basically just a band of metal you would hardly notice if you didn't know to look for it.

Accomplishing all that took some time, but Susan didn't feel rushed given how slow time ran here in relation to pretty much everywhere else. She also got a tutorial on how to use the dimensional stabilizer, which amounted to tapping an icon on the watch and telling it what planet she wanted to use for herself and Sparkle. It could also display how long until it locked in, and if there was a stable channel for more than one planet where she currently was. When she was finally ready she told Silverstreak and he gave her one final warning.

"This gateway is going to be pretty unstable, because of all the dimensional warpage there," he explained. "So prepare yourself. Usually I can get it pretty close to where the action is going to be, but I can't say where you're going to end up. The world has a very diverse set of people, living the spectrum from horses and stone clubs to higher technology than your world enjoyed. Find out what caused this phenomenon if you can, but remember your goal is the AI. If Darkvoid is even telling you the truth. If we can fix the worlds, bring them apart again, that would be great. So keep that in mind as just a secondary objective.

"I should also mention a couple of others difficulties. Your skill in _Dimensional Sense_ is going to be useless there, first of all. Mainly because nothing belongs in that mishmash of dimensions, so everything will set it off. Don't trust it. Rely more on the behavior of whatever you meet than your feelings of them. Though _Aura Reading_ should be helpful, now that I think about it. Anyway, something is trying to destroy the world? That's probably your guy. Second, your link back here will be sketchy at best. We probably won't be able to talk, if you signal me I'll just figure you want the portal open. I'll monitor the place as best I can for Darkvoid leaving though. I'll figure you'll want it opened soon after. If you do come back here, don't figure you'll be returned to the same spot, either."

"Got it. Wish me luck."

"Or in your case, a good LUCk check, amiright?" Both chuckled, and Silverstreak activated the portal to step through. Susan put her hand through, but the portal resisted and the machinery started whining in protest.

"Just push through it," Silverstreak shouted. "This is the most stable portal I can get you!" Energy crackled around the edges, and Susan felt a tingle as she tried to get through it.

"Okay! Come on, Sparkle!"

Both pushed through, Susan closing her eyes and forcing her way through, where she was thrown through the other side and impacted something hard before thudding to the ground. Her head was spinning, ears ringing, and for several moments she just lay there, trying to clear her vision. Finally she decided she better sit up, and looked around.

She was in a forested area, seemingly alone, as Sparkle was nowhere to be found.

"Sparkle?" she called softly. "You make it through?"

Nothing answered.

"Sparkle!" she called, louder. "Where are you? Sparkle?" She got up, looking around and wondering if she should start the procedure for locking in a planet, and fire up _Question_ to try and find her. _But she must be around here somewhere, right?_ "Sparkle!"

"Told you there was somebody out here!" a voice behind Susan said, and she whirled around.

"Guess you were right. It's a girl."

"I can see that, you idiot!"

"My sensors are still going crazy though." Both slowly brought up pistols pointing in her direction, and no one moved. Susan took a good look at them, they were obviously soldiers. They had some kind of weird rank sticker on their foreheads, matching uniforms, and the one that was currently talking was holding up something on his wrist and pointing it at Susan. "Mind telling me who you are, miss?"

 _Oh, this is just great._


	95. Chapter 95

95

What Happened To Sparkle

Place: ?

Time: ?

Sparkle came to slowly, looking around and blinking the blurriness out of her eyes. Then she remembered she was a cat, and had the _Poor Sense: Vision_ weakness. This meant the trees that were some distance away were going to be blurry for her no matter what.

 _Trees? We ended up in a forest? And my goodness, it's hot here!_ She looked around, but she _was_ in the shade, and struggled to get up. _Not exactly fur coat weather. Wonder if I can ask Susan to have the book whip me up a spell to shed some of my under fur out of season. Oh well. First order of business, get Susan up_. _Seems I got knocked out, and she's going to be down for the count without the_ Awaken _spell... that I can't cast without Susan attuning the dimensional stabilizer. Great._

"Susan?" she called, looking around. "You around here?"

There was no response.

 _Forest is kind of thick here, too. Darn it, I really hope we didn't get that separated._

Looking around, she found a sturdy looking tree nearby that had some good branches, and made some _Climbing_ checks to get a higher vantage point. She sniffed the air and swiveled her ears, making _Perception_ checks to see if she could spot anything. Her seventeen (she got a plus four to hearing) revealed some faint noises off in _that_ direction, but no young woman calling her name. She also didn't see any prone forms, and started to get a bit worried that Susan might be lost.

Giving her collar orb a bat, Sparkle wondered if there was any indication of the thing being active, and if so, how she could tell what planet Susan had selected for her. _That would at least tell me she was up and fiddling with it._ But she hadn't planned on being separated from her friend, so she had never asked. _Am I going to have to cast a bunch of grade zero spells to just see? And will they backfire or just not work? Will they still cost energy, or can I not put energy into a skill that technically doesn't work here?_

"Don't suppose you can tell me?" she asked hopefully, giving the sphere another bop.

The sphere either didn't know what she was talking about because it wasn't a mind reader and so kept quiet, or had no capability to answer her.

"Figures. Now what?"

The sphere rendered no opinion on this topic either.

"Susan!" she called, but a cat's lungs can only produce so much volume, and Susan was hard of hearing, besides. There wasn't much chance of her being heard, much less waking Susan up if she was still unconscious.

 _Well, she's the one with the fancy magic. Once she does wake up, she can come find me more easily than I can find her. I'll head towards that noise, I guess, see what sort of area I wound up in._

That decided, she basically rolled off the branch and twisted in midair, landing lightly on her feet. She took one final look around and trudged off in the direction of the sounds she had heard, already wishing she had a more efficient cooling system or half the fur she currently did.

She came to a small village, with airy houses on what appeared to be stilts, all in a row.

 _Probably for better air flow._ Ahead she heard some sort of a commotion, and peaked around a corner to see what was up. About six meters away was a green military jeep, driven by a blond haired guy wearing a vest. Standing next to the jeep was a dark haired man in some kind of one piece uniform, white, red boots, and a blue stripe going down the sides. He had long sleeves, which were black and red. Next to him was a more sensibly dressed young girl, in a cute pink dress, white boots to mid thigh, and light hair, which was probably blue or some variant thereof.

 _Obviously the men on this world are insane, does that guy really need that vest on? It must be close to million degrees out here... or at least in the nineties. Weird. And what are they arguing about, anyway?_

As she stood and listened, the guy in the uniform was going on about where he got the truck from, and the man said he got it repaired by some people he called the "Emarns." As they were talking, two men wearing a different kind of uniform came around the house and looked startled, pressing themselves back against the wall to not be seen. These two had rifles over their shoulders, where the man by the truck was unarmed.

 _Interesting._

The man climbed into the jeep and demanded to be taken to "the market" and ordered the little girl to climb in back. She started to, and Sparkle had a decision to make. Stick with the gunmen, or see where the guy the gunmen were obviously concerned about went.

 _What would Susan do? Probably something violent. Grabbing them and demanding to know what they were doing walking around a village with guns. Who knows._

She didn't want to get involved with soldiers, so she did a quick _Spirit Step_ and then hopped up into the back of the jeep, opposite the girl. It took off.

"Kitty!" said the girl, and the dark haired guy looked back at her.

"Your cat?" he asked.

"Never seen it before," said the light haired guy.

"Maybe it wants to go to the market too!" said the girl.

The two men laughed.

"Well, it could," she huffed, crossing her arms.

Sparkle looked back, and the soldiers had come out of hiding, and were watching the jeep pull away. _That can't be good._

Turning back to the men, the child was trying to get Sparkle to come closer, and she allowed herself to be petted, to her delight. That's when Sparkle noticed something strange. She made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check to be sure, but there was no doubt. The two men had totally normal energy as far as she could tell. The girl however did not. In fact Sparkle would have said she was dead, had she not been scratching under her chin. She started to purr quite against her will.

"What's your name little kitty?" the girl asked. Sparkle wondered if she should answer, but for the moment chose the path of the orb and keep her silence. "I'll call you Starburst!"

"Don't go adopting any cats!" yelled the dark haired man. "Mimsy threw a big enough fit when I asked her to buy you. I don't need her even more angry at me."

 _Bought? What's this?_ Sparkle's eyes narrowed.

"But master, she's so friendly!"

"He belongs here," the man said firmly. "Look at that collar, he's owned by someone. And he's not starving, you can tell that."

 _The girl assigns me her gender, the man, his. I guess I shouldn't be surprised._

"Master!"

"No! And I told you to call me Kei."

She put her hands over her mouth. "Sorry, my programming slipped back already."

 _Programming? A robot, of course! Oh crap, is this a Darkness robot or something uninvolved?_ Sparkle took a quick _Dimension Sense_ but like Silverstreak had said, basically everything around here radiated that it shouldn't be there.

 _Everything but the jeep... and this loser._ She studied the man more closely, but he seemed unremarkable. _Guess I know who I'm sticking close to. Susan will be along one way or the other, if soldiers and one of the original inhabitants are involved._

The jeep didn't travel for long before rolling into "the marketplace" which looked like a cross between a farmer's market and an episode of Star Trek. Stuff was piled all over the place, and tons of people were wandering around, bartering for it. The man, Kei, shouted over to a woman named Mimsy, and a woman in a red? dress tried to get out of doing so. He insisted, and she stomped over in a huff. She had the high boots on too, but white leggings, and her dress reached only halfway to her knee. Her hair was about shoulder length, and she had a wide belt on.

He went on about the jeep being from "his" Earth, so that must mean the planet was his. She said her people called the earth "Emar" while the Chirams called it "Chira." She went on to explain the dimensional shifting that made all this possible, and Sparkle listened for any hint of what had actually caused all this. He asked, but by that time she was annoyed with the explanation and tried to walk away.

 _Darn it! That would have been perfect! And who is this guy, that's obviously a native here but doesn't know all this? Something odd here._

Kei tried to get her to make the guy an offer on the jeep, which Sparkle thought was a bit short sighted. If what she had heard was right, the driver had owned it for years and would certainly not sell it.

The girl noticed her watching all this.

"They sure do fight a lot, don't they, Starburst? Even you could tell, couldn't you? You're such a smart kitty. I wonder why people have to fight all the time, anyway."

 _You have no idea, kid._

"Hey, did you just call me junk again? I'm not a piece of junk!" she insisted to the woman.

 _See, there you go._

The woman stormed off, and both jumped off the jeep, which pulled away.

Sparkle felt something... it was the two soldiers!

"Meow!" she yowled, hissing, and Kei whirled around to see what was going on. The soldier, looking ready to throw a punch, now hesitated and Kei jumped back. He put his hand down.

"You aren't an Emarn," said the soldier, while the other covered him with his rifle. "And you're not an Atlantian. Which unit did you desert from?"

They went back and forth, and from what Sparkle could tell, all people that looked like they did served some kind of military service. He was going to be taken back somewhere so they could find out who he was when a device at the guy's belt started beeping. He pointed it at Kei and exclaimed he was the one they had been "told about." This made them want to take him even more, and the one drew his pistol with the other hand.

The three went into a whirlwind of motion, and Sparkle had to admit Kei was a pretty good fighter. He knocked their guns away, and only took a few hits himself as he tossed the two soldiers around. Why one just didn't shoot him while the other one distracted him she didn't know, but there it was. She cursed her lack of magical power at the moment, though in front of all these people, a cat doing magic might cause even more of an uproar than two soldiers grabbing someone in broad daylight. Not that there was much uproar, people were just sort of standing around watching. Kei drove them off, sending them running, then started bragging about his training that made it possible.

"I guess that's that," he said. "Let's walk around a bit, cool off."

"Stay here, master," said the girl, "I'll be right back." She ran off.

"What's gotten into her?" asked Kei. "What are you still doing, hanging around? Shoo!"

Sparkle realized this was directed at her, and looked up at him coldly. _You're welcome for the warning, hero._

She tagged after him, and he seemed to even forget the attack, making Sparkle think maybe this guy had a few screws loose, when the people around him shouted and pointed. Two red monstrosities were flying down out of the sky, and Kei started to panic. "It's them!" he cried uselessly, and everyone started scattering.

 _Wait, are they really going to attack this place with their equivalent of tanks? Just for this one guy? What the heck?_

He started running around trying to get away from them, and the girl proved to have greater foresight as she flew up in some kind of hovering vehicle. _So that's what she was going to get. Nicely done, little girl!_

He jumped on, and Sparkle followed with another _Spirit Step_ and leap. _Okay, maybe that skill is going to come in more handy than I first believed. I'm still bitter about the prereq though._ Her claws sunk into the seat as they took to the air, heading for some ship floating off in the distance.

"What the?" exclaimed Kei. "Get off, stupid cat!"

"I don't think so," she answered.

Kei gaped at her, but shook his head and turned around again. "No, couldn't be."

Sparkle chuckled.

As the ship came into view, Sparkle saw a humanoid shape hanging in the center of it, and Sparkle got the idea that around here, they were big on what Susan would probably call "mecha" from her watching of anime and such.

She did a double take, that ship looked a little familiar. She had _Photographic Memory,_ and so recalled seeing that very ship very briefly somewhere.

 _Something Susan was looking at on the web, no doubt. But, we couldn't have gone... there, could we? Please don't tell me the first place we come to that I recognize, that I might actually have foreknowledge of that could help is a place Susan totally ignored because it was ancient. I mean that would just figure, wouldn't it? I really, really hope she doesn't remember anything about this place, because that would be awkward on so many levels to explain. Please, if the Narrator favors me at all, don't make this the world I have to tell Susan the truth about her existence on. Make it the next one,_ any _one but this one. Please!_

If her "prayer" was heard, Sparkle didn't know, but Kei jumped off the flyer and started warming up his mech.

"Don't take that out, it's not finished!" yelled an older guy as the girl parked the vehicle. Both jumped out, and the girl exclaimed over Starburst following them.

"You really like me, don't you?"

 _Something like that._

The ship blasted off, and the guy was screaming about it not even being loaded with ammunition yet.

 _Oh, what a surprise._

The girl looked at the mech speeding off, then jumped back aboard the vehicle and blasted off after it. Sparkle bid her a silent farewell, believing she would never been seen again. Without magic, there was nothing she could do, and so she watched helplessly as the two soldiers tried to disable the craft without destroying it.

 _Of course, they wanted the man, and killing him would probably be troublesome for them._

Somehow, the little girl robot made a difference, ditching the vehicle and doing something to the side of the mech. Suddenly it started moving better, and Kei was able to smash the other two out of the sky. They landed safely back in the city, and Sparkle thought she might take this opportunity to look around. The two men that had tried to stop Kei walked off, and Sparkle followed them into the main corridors of the ship.

The ship was spacious, with plenty of rooms, and seemed pretty luxurious for what it looked like. (Which was a floating battle station bristling with guns.) Most everyone, it seemed, was out. Either that or not many people lived here. It was walking around, keeping out of sight and looking the inhabitants over that Sparkle realized these beings had some kind of tentacle growing out the back of their heads; Two for women and one for men. _A literal third hand?_

Sparkle didn't have much time to look around, and was sure Susan would have loved the engine room as it seemed much higher tech than anything on her world. _After all, it works both ways. If she can bring the principles that keep this ship in the air back to our world, think of what that could mean Anything strictly science based should work anywhere, right?._ All too soon the ship felt like it was taking off, and Sparkle heard voices, meaning the crew had returned and they were leaving.

 _Probably to avoid more trouble with those soldiers, unless I miss my guess._ She stayed out of sight for some time, to make sure it wouldn't be convenient to "take her back home" and walked into the dining room while everyone was talking about what they should rename the "Bronco II" to. Every eye turned to stare at her, and she started washing her face unconcerned.

"Starburst!" said the little girl, jumping up from the table and sweeping her up into a hug. "You are still here! Yay!"

"Ah no, how did he get here?" groaned Kei. "Oh right, he was riding the flyer, I don't believe it."

"What's this?" asked Mimsy.

"It followed me here, honest. One second it wasn't there, the next it was. I've never seen anything move that fast."

"Can we keep her?" pleaded the girl.

"Looks like a snack to me," said the enormous _creature_ sitting at the table. Sparkle froze, eyes going up and up. _That thing's a plus one at least, look at the size of it._

"You scared her!" chided the girl. "Talking about eating her, she knows what you're saying. She's smart!"

"Just a little joke," assured the creature. "I would never eat you. My name is Jayviet, what's yours?"

"Sp-"

"Her name is Starburst, and she's the bestist kitty in the whole world. Can I keep her? Oh can I?"

 _I can talk for myself kid... but it could be fun to see how long I can make them think I'm a regular cat. Hummmm. Could come in handy in various ways, maybe?_

"There are mice aboard, and they get into our food stocks. I suppose she could live in the cargo bay," said one lady.

 _Ugh, have you ever had mouse, lady? They don't taste like chicken, let me tell you. There's a reason there isn't mouse flavored cat food, no cat would eat it. Not when meowing plaintively will get you a new can opened that might have something better._

"But what about the owner," protested another. "Won't they be sad? You basically stole their cat!"

"Not a very good owner, if she followed us. She even flew with us, and rode in the jeep, and warned my master that the soldiers were behind him! She wanted to come with us, I could tell."

 _Of course, if this robot is part of the DarknessAI, it would want to keep me around so it could keep an eye on me. Maybe coming here wasn't the best plan, but on the other hand, I feel Kei is important somehow. Aarg!_

"Is that true, Kei?" asked Mimsy.

He had the decency to look embarrassed. "Well, yeah, I guess so. I mean she meowed, but that could have been a coincidence."

"She'll be your responsibility," cautioned the lady that radiated "boss." "If she chews up wiring or something you'll have to repair it."

 _Ugh, you ever had wiring, lady? I'd rather have the mouse._

"Yay!" She turned Sparkle around and looked at her. "I'm Mome, let's go down to the cargo hold and find you bed, Starburst!"

 _But I don't want to!_

But Sparkle had no choice, as Mome skipped off with her in her arms, opening a door to the outside walkway that must lead into the cargo hold.

Mome froze.

They had just interrupted two men trying to steal the Bronco II.


	96. Chapter 96

96

Making a Good First Impression

Who: Susan

Place: ?

Time: Seconds after being asked

Susan had been asked who she was, and figured there were two way to play this.

 _The first, and my usual inclination, would be to rush these two creeps, disarm them, break their spirit because they got beat up by a girl, and make them answer_ my _questions instead. Problem; I don't have any magic to back me up apart from, admittedly, my awesome_ Imbued _items. No_ Acceleration, _thanks to the missing Sparkle, how does one even lose their_ Companion _anyway? Of course if I need magic to take these two out, I should just retire right now._

 _The second thing I could do is play up the damsel in distress trope, and see where that gets me. I have to find Sparkle, and that will mean magic. Magic will mean needing a quiet spot to adjust the equipment and read, and that means playing along until I can slip away. Actually, won't this be good practice for rescuing my father? Not relying on magic, that will probably be locked down wherever he is? Man, I totally should have thought of that earlier, Silverstreak would have eaten it up, right? Oh, they're staring at me._

"Oh, thank goodness you showed up," Susan gushed. "My name is Susan. I've been wandering around in these blasted woods for I don't know how long." _Could be thirty seconds, could be forty five. It's still true._ "I've lost my cat, and quite honestly I don't know how there came to be woods here in the first place! Where am I? What happened?"

"Probably some kind of dimension shift, it would explain these readings. I think?"

"Eh, I don't know," said the other. "I'm no expert, and they gave us like, what, ten minutes training with the things. They're just supposed to flash and beep and show numbers we show to smarter guys."

"Yeah, tell me about it. Look, your cart is probably lost-"

"Cat."

"Cat? Oh, right, cat, sorry. Your _cat_ is probably lost so I'd just forget it if I were you. We can take you back to our base, get you sorted out."

"Oh, but my poor darling, Sparkle. She'll be so scared on her own. She won't be able to do a thing without me, poor dear. And what did you say, a dimension shift? What are you talking about?"

The soldiers put their guns back. "You've probably come here from another world, it's a bit difficult to explain. I doubt you'll be able to get back. I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, it happens around here a lot. You'll meet a lot of people in your same situation."

"Oh that's terrible! Another world, you say? I suppose I've never seen uniforms like those before, I thought maybe you were shooting a movie or something." She laughed, willing them to believe she was not as smart as she was.

"No, we're Chiram soldiers, on patrol. Our sensors picked up some dimensional disturbance, so we checked it out."

 _My goodness, these people actually have dimensional sensors? I suppose necessity is the fertile spawning ground of invention, but that seems extreme. I mean they might want warning if the area is going to fade into another reality, but to actually make progress in detecting it! Plus they could pick up Silverstreak's gateway that brought me here? That's... well, either astonishing or Silverstreak's stuff isn't as good as I thought._

"Wait a second," said the other, taking a step back. "You must have just arrived, because the dimensional shift just happened according to our instruments. But you said you had been wandering in the forest for some time."

 _Aw crap, they would have picked up on that._ "Well, it felt like forever," Susan assured him. "And I may have exaggerated a little bit. You can't blame a girl for wanting to make her rescuers feel better about rescuing her, can you? I get rescued, you feel good, I want to thank you more... intimately, later on. You accept my gratitude..." She ran a finger down both of their chests and looked down shyly.

Both looked at the other and grinned, winking.

 _Oh, I hate myself right now. Is the bashing option still on the table?_

 _Don't hold back on my account,_ answered The Darkness. _I can't believe they bought that. Did you even make a_ Seduction _check?_

 _Against soldiers that probably haven't even seen a civilian woman in weeks? Ha!_

 _I guess. They could just as easily be seeing right through your transparent attempt at manipulating them, and just want you to come quietly._

 _Either way gets me out of this forest._

"Let's head back, we need to finish our patrol and get you back to base," said the one.

"You should ride with me," said the other, "I'm the better pilot."

"I outrank you, she's riding with me."

"We're the same rank!"

"I enlisted a week before you did."

"One week, you always have to bring that up!"

"Boys!" shouted Susan. "There's no need to argue. No matter which of you brings me back, I'm still equally grateful to the both of you." She poked them in the chest with a finger. "Not to worry, I'll be thanking you both later."

And so they shut up... and played rock-paper-scissors to find out who she would fly with.

 _This has got to be a bad dream. Please, tell me I'm still back at the Hub, dreaming all this._

 _Nope! You are seeing this, live and in color!_

And so Susan climbed into the large red mech that the soldier called an Ishkick.

"What a fantastic machine!" gushed Susan, to the obvious pleasure of the soldier.

"I keep it in good condition," he bragged.

 _Whatever. I wonder if it would fit in my sub-space pocket. I mean, why do I have a ten if I'm not able to shove something like this in?_

Susan then figured out why bringing her back was so hotly contested between the two, it was a single seat vehicle.

"Hop in," said the soldier, patting his lap. "Oh, I'm Tony by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Tony," she said, sliding into the cockpit (no pun intended) and tried to get comfortable.

"Hold on now!" Tony flipped switches and pressed buttons, and Susan was delighted to realize she knew without doubt what each control in the thing did.

 _I think I just found out what my_ Adaptive Skill _is in this world. Interacting with futuristic technology._

Tony was a perfect gentleman on the way back, as the two soldiers finished their patrol of the area and flew their ships to an encampment on the edge of the woods. There were rows of Ishkicks standing there, the only vehicle she saw on the ground, and she wondered if they didn't use any other form of transportation, even trucks.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" asked Tony.

"It sure is!" Susan agreed, though really, it wasn't all _that_ impressive.

They landed, and both soldiers escorted her to a tent, where a (presumably) higher in command person sat behind a desk. Soldiers were everywhere, cleaning guns, doing maintenance, carrying stuff around. Most were men, but Susan saw some women as well, and was relieved to know this race had women. Everybody stared as she went by, and she shyly waved at them all. Most smiled at her, or nodded, and Susan looked at an _aura_ or two, just to see what she was dealing with. She got an eleven, a nine, and a thirteen, which was her maximum. It was only after getting that result she realized she couldn't actually roll high enough to get the information she wanted, if they were "good" or "evil." That required a fifteen. But at least their emotional state was more amusement than hostility, and the two above a ten were in good "spiritual health."

"Reporting in, sir!" snapped Tony, as both men went to attention and saluted. The man saluted back, and looked Susan over.

"Report," he demanded.

The two gave a report including handing over the hand held unit the man had been scanning with, to which the higher up remarked "astonishing!" when he looked it over. As they had been making their report, another person slipped in behind them, which Susan could tell because she felt their _spirit energy_ enter the tent. She didn't look, she wanted to see what they had in mind.

"That's what we thought, sir."

"But she's a girl."

"Exactly as we said, sir. Imagine our surprise."

"I see. Well, Susan, was it?"

"Yes," she replied.

"These readings here, they're quite unique. Do you know what that means?"

"I'm afraid I don't."

"That's too bad, neither do I. But I bet we can find out."

"Through the power of love and friend-"

That's when she got tasered in the back from behind. There was a taser noise and the guy at the desk grinned in triumph.

 _As if taking an unarmed girl from behind is really something you should be proud of. Is this a military organization or just a group of thugs in costume?_

Whoever was holding it there really held it there, and Susan made the appropriate checks against it. As it only did 1d8 damage and she still divided damage by fourteen, and she got a plus thirteen to CONstitution checks, it couldn't actually hurt her at all. And they could drain the battery of the thing before it rendered her unconscious.

"Could you stop that please," she asked, half turning around to look at her attacker. "It sort of tickles."

He didn't.

"Fine," she said, whirling and making a _Pushback_ check. He wasn't dodging because he was still trying to taser her, so her result of seven was enough, and there was no way he could succeed on a STRength check against her. He went flying out the tent flap, landing six meters away.

"Now perhaps we can have a civilized conversation?" Susan asked.

"What are you, some kind of robot?" demanded the guy behind the desk. The two soldiers fumbled their guns out again.

"No, I'm-"

At that instant, sirens started going off and explosions could be heard outside the tent.

"Now what?" demanded the man.

"We're under attack!" shouted a man, running into the tent. "Mu forces advancing from the east!"

"Did you think you could catch us by surprise," the man sneered at Susan. "Watch her. Scramble everyone." He ran out of the room with the other man.

Susan shook her head as the two backed away from her, covering her with their guns. "I'm disappointed, fellows. You could have had my generosity. Instead you have my animosity."

"We were just following orders!" protested Tony. "We don't know what you are-"

"And the decision of your superior was to try and knock me unconscious, probably to run some kind of tests on me without my consent. Correct?"

Both nodded.

"I shouldn't be surprised. Military is military, after all. Sadly, I'm compelled to help you, so I can't just stand around here."

"Don't move!" they said, bringing their guns up a little higher.

"You're both an embarrassment to your uniform." She _Spirit Stepped_ out of the tent, from the perspective of the two men simply vanishing. She covered the distance, of course, which tore the flap off of the tent, and _technically_ she was supposed to suffer damage from hitting an object. But in reality it was cloth, not a stone wall, so it sort of came along for the ride and Susan shrugged it off and looked around, taking in the situation. Soldiers were scrambling to get into their Ishkicks and several were firing from behind boxes into a line of robotic forms that were coming closer. They were firing back, and Susan _Spirit Stepped_ over the line as explosions from missiles went off all around her.

"These Mu things don't mess around, do they?" she yelled to the man beside her, grabbing up two pistols that were lying there. She started putting shots into the robots.

"Use a rifle, pistols won't be enough!" said the confused man, glancing at her and going back to firing.

"I'm only trained in pistol!" she protested, tossing one away. She squared her stance, then started aiming. _Called shot for damage, that little circle bit there on the chest. Minus four to hit, what cards do I have? Ah, Bonus, Love Interest, and Mutiny. So... what, I fall in love with a robot, leave these guys to their fate, and get six XP?_

 _Do it! s_ houted The Darkness to her. _That would be AMAZing._

 _No. Just... no. Aiming. It's a robot, so it has no LUCk, right? Easy-peasy._

Susan took her maximum bonus of five, threw maximum energy into COOrdination (now a total of twenty for those keeping score at home) and took a minus ten penalty for damage. She got a seventeen (total) to hit, and pulled the trigger four times. The robot exploded as her bullets slammed into it.

 _I love being a_ Paragon.

"How did you- Keep shooting!"

 _Of course there is that downside._

All that aiming and called shots and penalties for damage massively increased Susan's delay, so she was stuck standing there gaping like a fish out of water until it cleared. Sadly, this allowed the robot next to the one she had exploded to reach their position. The soldier next to her "fell back" to use a military term, what most people might call "turning tail and running." Susan made a check she couldn't fail to get her _Enhance Sword_ out. It was the same delay as activating her other blade, but turning into an armored battle monster _here_ probably wasn't the best idea. A sword that no one could find after the fact was possibly somewhat easier to explain. Plus, it was just the one.

"Ah, already?!" the robot asked her. "I didn't expect to find you so soon."

"Baby killer!" she shouted back. _I guess The Darkness wasn't lying about taking over an AI. How about that?_

"Yes, you'll pay for that one. I've already killed about a dozen people here, and you've killed... one robot? Well done. Don't forget to find my crystal, now."

"Two."

"Two crystals? I suppose two with five thousand-"

"No, two robots. I've killed two robots."

"You haven't killed-"

Susan lunged forward, putting a bit of energy into COOrdination again and slashing the robot, hoping to chop it in half. It dodged, but didn't manage it, and Susan chopped through it almost like it wasn't even there. (She did forty damage and it could take thirty six.)

"Two," she repeated. She looked around, and most of the ground robots were damaged or down, so she ran for Tony's Ishkick and let herself inside. Of course, she slipped her sword back into her sub-space pocket as she did. The mecha didn't need any sort of password to fire up, which Susan "tisk"ed over, because that was just poor security any way you looked at it. She took to the air and discovered she was a far better pilot than anyone here, despite this being her first time controlling one of these machines. _Ten rating for the win._

She easily blew several robots away, wondering if there was such a thing as _Mecha Combat_ for delay reduction while in one of these things, and finally it seemed there were no more targets. She had protected a few of her "fellow" pilots, so she was feeling pretty good that-

 _You've shown yourself to be better than them? They try to electrocute you, you turn around and do them good deeds. You think that'll make a difference? They'll go right back to trying to knock you out and see what those readings mean._

 _Perhaps._

Susan landed her Ishkick and jumped out, then grinned and looked for the tent she had left behind. The grin faded as she realized the robots had done a significant amount of damage to the area, and wounded were being treated. Everyone she looked at had someone nearby, so she wasn't sure if she could get the knife out without being noticed.

 _Oh, but don't you have a moral obligation to help the wounded?_

 _Maybe. But they are getting medical attention, and this is obviously a dangerous place and these are soldiers. They won't be able to duplicate my knife, so trying to explain that it's magic to them isn't going to get me anywhere. Also healing someone now just means they get to see more action. If I healed someone that later died and they wouldn't because they got sent home because of an injury here..._

 _That's a pretty philosophy. Repeat it to yourself endlessly and maybe you'll sleep well tonight._

She didn't see the tent, as most of the tents here were now missing, but she did see an overturned desk that she recognized. She made her way over there and hefted it right side up again, then started putting the pens and things back on top of it.

 _Who puts a desk like this in a tent, anyway?_

After she got that done she found a chair and plopped down in it, planting her feet on the desk and leaning back. The two soldiers, Tony and X came running back, guns covering her.

"Oh, give it up," she said to them, when the stopped on the other side of the desk. "What is it going to take to convince you people I can help you, and shouldn't be on the wrong end of those things. They won't even slow me down anyway, you must see that, at least."

"We have our orders," Tony rationalized.

"Fine, fine," she said, waving him off. "We can wait until your SO gets back."

Looking at the chaos around her, that was probably going to be a few minutes, so Susan thought about what planet to set her dimensional stabilizer to for her.

 _Pluto has_ Phase, _but not much else useful for her, here. Sun? That has healing and_ Deflection. _Mercury has a bunch of useful ones, but she's not really going into combat, I hope. I guess it's between that and Neptune, for_ Invisibility _and_ Illusion. _Still, two spells versus five for mercury? Still, she'll want to do the same as me, right? Hide her magic, sneak around, gather information. Mercury is not the subtle planet... Neptune it is! S_ he touched her watch and opened up the interface for the dimensional stabilizer. "Please prepare Neptune for Sparkle, Sun for myself." _If The Darkness sends more robots now that it knows were I am, or the big-bad army guy doesn't want to play ball, I want_ Invulnerability, _STAT._

"Locking on," the watch replied. "Time estimation available in thirty seconds."

"Quite the watch," said the man, coming over to her. "And can you get your feet off my desk?"

"My desk at the moment," Susan replied. "I found it on a battlefield. Spoil of war, and all that."

"I don't think you can... Anyway, I saw you helping to defend our camp. May I ask why?"

"Because I didn't want to be blown away by robots today, simple as that. Your men were there to help, so I accepted their assistance."

"Really? I also saw you jump into an Ishkick and fly circles around my men. Where did you learn to fly like that? You're not just some random girl out wandering the forest. The reading we got off you show that much, so don't bother denying it."

"I won't deny it, it's true. And if you saw me fight, then you already know what I am. Your best hope against the robot army trying desperately to destroy you."

The man looked her over, then gestured to the two soldiers still covering her with guns. They saluted again and went to go find something to do, which wouldn't be hard at that point.

"Okay," he said, leaning on the desk. "You've got my attention. Who or what are you?"


	97. Chapter 97

97

A Daring Rescue

Who: Sparkle

Time: Just after dinner

Place: Walkway in the center of the Glomar

Mome, carrying Sparkle, and the two men currently trying to detach the Bronco II looked at each other, the scene frozen.

"Hey!" shouted Mome, pointing at the men. "You aren't supposed to be there!"

The older man, sitting on top of the ship, hissed at the younger one in the cockpit to hurry up and get the thing released. Sparkle wiggled out of Mome's grasp and estimated the distance between the walkway and the top of the Bronco II. It wasn't that far, so with a resigned sigh, and a _Susan, this one's for you,_ Sparkle _Spirit Step Leapt_ up to where the man was sitting on the ship. This reduced the delay for her movement from a seven to a five, and she spent four energy to drop it further to a three.

This was a slight savings as the jump itself would have been an active action with no hope of reducing the delay (except by more energy), but at the moment she was going more for shock value, as the old man was clearly not expecting to see a cat materialize in front of him. He drew back, then leaned forward. "What in the world?"

Sparkle tapped his face with her paw, and made her first "real" Ryūdō check, putting in five energy. (She got back two with _Energy Boost.)_ This did eight points of damage to him in the "twelve" or eye, and caused a flash as it impacted. He screamed and let go of the metal launch beam the Bronco was connected to, clutching at it. This unbalanced him enough that he fell several meters to the ground below, landing with a thump on the soft earth below.

"You little..." the younger man exclaimed, going to grab her. She activated _Spirit Aura_ reactively, and a barrier of light sprang up around her. This was done at a minus two penalty and had the delay of an active action, but the man sprang back as his hands were pushed away from her.

An aura of energy now crackled around Sparkle, and because of her poor roll she could now spend three less energy than before. _Like I care about spending fourteen energy in the next few seconds. At least this skill doesn't have an absolute minimum to activate, so even someone as bad at it as myself can turn it on._ If she had rolled above her RESolve, she would have been able to spend _more_ energy than normal with the aura active, but given her ten in _Spirit Manipulation,_ she wasn't worried.

This guy, however, took one look at the cat, glowing to make Goku himself proud, and decided maybe it wasn't worth stealing this piece of machinery after all. But he really couldn't scramble out of the cockpit fast enough when Sparkle turned and clearly said "Leave, or die." and he too fell to the ground below. Both were rapidly left behind, and Sparkle turned off the aura and jumped back to the platform that allowed access to the cockpit.

She looked around, but the walkway was empty.

There was a clatter of running footsteps, and all the people she saw from the dining room tried to shove their way out of the doorway. Kei picked himself up and rapidly looked around the area.

"There's no one here," he remarked. "Are you sure you saw someone?"

"Of course I did, master!" insisted Mome. "Maybe they jumped off when they saw me running to get you?"

The leader woman pressed a control next to the door, and ordered the Glomar stopped, and the landscape stopped rolling beneath them. "If they did, they might be hurt. We better go see."

 _And put a freaking passkey or something on your equipment,_ thought Sparkle, shaking her head. _Or put it away at least._

Several flyers were dispatched, and two shaky people brought back for questioning. (And medical treatment for an eye injury and bruising from the fall) They were raving about some spirit cat that drove them off, and Sparkle tried to look nonchalant as she bent over to lick some fur back into place.

"This cat?" said the leader, who had identified herself as Shaya, pointing to Sparkle.

"I guess," he replied, "it was dark and I didn't get a good look before almost being _murdered."_

"There is a bruise there," said Mome, who it seemed was programmed with medical knowledge. She was examining both, expertly cleaning any wounds and rubbing a salve on their bruises. "But it's not exactly what I would expect from an impact or a burn, though it seems to have characteristics of both."

"I'm telling you that cat tried to murder me! It batted my face and there was a flash and it knocked me backwards!"

"Murder?" asked Shaya. "I think maybe it was just dark, and you frightened her, and when she lashed out, that caused you to fall. Then you hit your head on the way down and made up some story to try and confuse us."

"I don't know," said Kei suspiciously. "That cat does seem to appear and disappear an awful lot."

"And what about the glow?" asked the younger man. "I saw a glow, and my hands were forced away from her when I went to grab her! And I swear it said something to me, I heard it plain as day."

"Maybe you shouldn't have been grabbing my cat," Mome said icily. "You're really going to tell me a cat beat you up? Really?!"

"She's right. I think you're just trying to distract from the fact you got caught trying to steal the 'Nebulard,'" said Kei. "Cat or no cat, that fact doesn't change. I want to know why."

"I thought we had decided on Gammon," said the bald guy with the chin hugging beard.

"Name aside," said Shaya, "answer the question. Why were you trying to steal our mecha?"

"We're trying to get our people back," the older one explained. "You know those soldiers that were giving you trouble earlier today? They've been grabbing people and imprisoning them for no reason, and everyone is scared of being next. That's why no one came to your aid today."

"So, for example, they weren't caught, to pick a random crime, stealing?" asked Kei sarcastically.

"No, it's just an intimidation tactic! Chiram soldiers are the worst, I mean they just came blasting into our town with mecha, trying to catch you. So you can't say that isn't true."

Kei looked over at Shaya, who nodded. "We try to avoid them whenever we can, they just make trouble for us. They need our trade, but at the same time they have little patience with us. Cowing a whole town by abdicating people... it doesn't seem that farfetched."

Kei turned back to the men. "So your plan was, what? Steal a piece of equipment you know nothing about and... get shot to pieces trying to get these people back? Or did you make a deal with them, and promise the Nebulard for the hostages?"

"We hoped it would work out, somehow." He looked at the floor.

"Oh, well planned."

"I have to do something! My granddaughter is one of those who was taken. Look!" He pulled a picture from beneath his tattered shirt and shoved it into Kei's face. He grabbed it away from the man, and took a look.

"Well, well," he said appreciatively. "This is your granddaughter?"

"That's right. She's eighteen, a beautiful flower in bloom."

"I'll do whatever I can to help save her," Kei announced.

Sparkle overbalanced and fell over with a cry, and heads turned to look at her. "Uh, meow," she offered.

 _Stupid, Sparkle. But at least I have a good excuse. Who is this guy that just up and decides to help because a pretty girl happens to be there? Susan would have heard the words "get our people back" and that would have been that. Jerk._ She paused. _Though I suppose pretty girls would have made her that much more interested to go._

"Something odd about... anyway, Kei, are you sure about this? You're already known to the Chiram, and attacking a military encampment is just going to fuel that particular fire."

"I just wish I knew _why_ they were after me," he mused. "But I can't just do nothing."

"If you do, I'm afraid you're on your own," cautioned Shaya.

"Shaya!" exclaimed Mimsy. "You can't be serious!"

"I'm afraid I am. It's called plausible deniability. Those soldiers in town, they saw you two talking, didn't they? We know they have sensors to pick up his presence in an area. If he attacks that camp, win or lose, they'll come looking for revenge on wherever he came from. And if that soldier remembers you, and decides to come asking around here..."

"Shaya, that is the most illogical chain of events I've ever heard from you! Are you just going to turn your back now that you know innocent people are being held in that camp?"

She grimaced. "How many Ishkicks do they have? You should know that if you've been studying the place."

"Half a dozen."

"All right then, let me think. We need to come up with a plan that doesn't involve the yet unnamed ship."

An hour later, Sparkle and Kei crept towards the enemy camp as quietly as possible. Sparkle had, in desperation, left the room while Shaya was thinking and found a nearby spot she could still hear them from, but still be alone. She tried her planets in order, and discovered she couldn't summon so much as a magical glow from any planet but Neptune.

 _At least I know she's alive. But why hasn't she come looking for me yet? Was she captured or something? Or does the dimensional distortions here prevent things like_ Question _from working? Because I can't see her sitting still in a cell someplace, and even being taken by surprise (not likely) someone would have to basically nuke her to take her out. It doesn't make sense. Were we thrown that far apart she can't fly to me in a day? That's a scary thought._

 _And what's she trying to tell me? I have only two Neptune spells, Invisibility_ _and_ Illusion. _Stay hidden? Be subtle? I guess I'm just going to have to make the best of it._

The plan was simple. Kei was going to sneak into the camp and steal an Ishkick. He was confident he could fly it, given they used the same anti-gravity controls as his Starburst. Sparkle was still embarrassed about that name, when Shaya decreed she was naming the newly rebuilt mecha after the Glomar's new "mascot," her.

"After all," she said, "the cat did something to defend it, even if we'll never know exactly what. I think she deserves to have it named after her."

Mome approved wholeheartedly.

Kei, having stolen one, would strafe the camp and get the others to follow him. This would create an opening for the others to break into the place in the confusion and rescue the prisoners. This way the townspeople could honestly they they didn't know who staged the breakout, and the Glomar would be in the clear because any mecha associated with it wouldn't be seen. The ship was parked nearby, about a half an hour away, and Sparkle made it clear she wanted to stay with Kei by following him down the ramp and into the forest. She kept her senses alert, both her excellent night vision, and _Spirit Sense._

Kei seemed adept at sneaking around, or maybe the soldiers were just really lax. _He probably got a lot of practice sneaking into and out of girls' houses,_ Sparkle thought disgustedly. He managed to get close to one and Sparkle jumped up on his shoulders so he could climb the ladder up to the cockpit.

"And how did you know that's what we were going to do?" asked Kei softly, looking over the controls.

Sparkle said nothing. Not that she would have, as making an _Adaptive Skill_ check, (KNOledge based, eleven result) she discovered to her shock she could make sense of the controls in here. She couldn't fly it, as she had no thumbs, but as Kei was staring at the control panel wondering how to turn it on, she casually pressed the start button while making it look like she was just getting a better view out the cockpit window.

"Careful!" chided Kei. "Oh, wait, that was the on switch. How did- never mind, they heard it starting up!"

Kei roared out of there, swinging around and launching missiles at the stationary Ishkick. He left the targeting computer off, or didn't know how to activate it, which made sense as he wanted them to follow. Couldn't do that with broken equipment, now could they? Plus it made more sense for the "non-expert managed to fly one" defense. He then strafed the camp, shooting boxes and barrels and setting fires with a few well placed missiles. "Time to go!" he said, noticing the other ships taking off.

Now, Sparkle decided she should get busy doing what she came along for, and spent the extra time creating an _Illusion_ without gestures or words. The magical circle appeared beneath the Ishkick, so Kei didn't notice it, being too focused on getting out of there. What it did was rather clever. It covered the mecha with the illusion that the Ishkick was about six meters to the left side of where it actually was, effectively "cloaking" the real deal. She looked out the cockpit window, concentrating on keeping it going, but as Kei was taking all the actions in this combat, that worked out just fine. Missiles and projectile fire went wide, as none of the soldiers could pierce her check result of nineteen. She made it loop and spin and fire, just as Kei was doing to maintain the illusion, and soon the other mecha were down in flames.

"Am I even better than I expected, or were those guys terrible?" Kei asked no one.

 _Are you bragging to a cat? It's too bad though, Susan probably could have rescued them without bloodshed, even with reduced powers. Probably just smashed through the back and ran interference while they escaped. Kei ended more than one story tonight._

Kei then zipped the Ishkick back to the Glomar and stuck it under the ship so it couldn't be seen from the air. Both hopped out and ran for the control room, where Kei burst in on Shaya.

"Quick!" he said, panting. "Can you do a radio sweep around here? I want to make sure that mecha doesn't have some kind of homing signal coming from it!"

"Good idea," she replied, and bent over the controls. After several minutes of looking over the screens she announced it seemed to be clean, and Kei relaxed. "But why bring it back here? I thought you were going to dump it."

"I figured I would have to dump it, because it would be damaged. But it didn't so much as get scratched. Maybe Starburst is a lucky cat after all!" They both laughed. "But now we have a Chiram mecha to play with. I thought maybe you guys would like to study it, see if there are any exploitable weaknesses. Or if we need to move through enemy territory, now we can look like we belong there. At least we can get their military frequencies from the onboard computers. With a little luck, their encryption protocols as well."

"All good ideas. I'll have some people look into squishing it into one of our bays, hopefully it's flexible enough. We can't exactly fly around with it attached to the ship."

He shrugged. "That's your problem. I did my part by stealing the thing. Any news from Mimsy and the others?"

She shook her head, tentacles waving in distress. "Nothing yet."

"Maybe I should head back out."

She put her hand on his arm. "I trust my people. I hope you can learn to trust them, too."

"It's your call."

Less than an hour later, the crew of the Glomar returned, smiling and laughing.

"You really hit them hard!" Mimsy said, flushed with excitement. "We managed to slip the girls out, and a bunch of military hardware too!"

"Well done!" exclaimed Kei.

A man with long hair came up behind Mimsy and put his arm around her shoulder. "As if he was in any danger," he sneered. "We were the ones that did most of the work."

"Oh, stop it Srei, he was in just as much danger as we were."

"Was he? We didn't have mecha to ride in, we had to break in on foot. We- you could have been shot at any time."

"And if a missile had hit Kei, he would have exploded. Do you really think he-"

"Not the time!" shouted Shaya. "We have to get the stolen Ishkick aboard and get out of here before they put their camp back together and send out patrols. Where are the girls?"

 _Seems to be some friction there. Am I sensing that Mimsy likes the new guy better than she likes her old guy? That could cause some problems later on. Not my business, I guess._

"They went back to town, with some of the guns we picked up," said another man Sparkle didn't know the name of. "If the Chiram try any tricks like that again, they'll regret it."

Shaya looked concerned. "I hope we didn't just start a rebellion they can never win. Well, that's for them, not for us. I want to be on the move in ten minutes, get going!"

The ship became a flurry of activity, as sensors scanned for incoming reinforcements from the camp and guns were readied in case the worst happened. Several people swarmed over the Ishkick, which turned out could fold almost in half so they managed to get it inside a bay and took off. They headed away from the camp, as low as they possibly could over the trees, and breathed a sigh of relief an hour later when nothing was in pursuit.

"Good job, everyone," congratulated Shaya. "Get some sleep, we'll head to the next major population center and do more trading in the morning."

"With what?" asked Srei. "We had to give most of our merchandise away because of him." He pointed at Kei.

 _What's this? Did I miss something?_

"It was the right thing to do," explained Shaya. "We did put the town in danger, so making reparations is only fair."

" _He_ put the town in danger. _He_ wants to go rescue people. Maybe _he_ can find us some new trade goods we can use. Oh, wait, we have nothing to trade for them, so he'll have to conjure them out of thin air!"

"But I did," Kei said with a laugh. "The Chiram have enemies, don't they? How much would those enemies pay for the data we can strip out of that Ishkick?"

"That's... No one would... It's too dangerous..." he sputtered.

"That's enough, both of you. It's late, and we're all tired. Tomorrow things will look much better, I promise."

Srei grunted something and stalked off, but Kei grinned at her. "Thanks, Shaya."

"Don't get the wrong idea," she said, holding up a finger. "You did cost us a lot. I'm not sure the Ishkick will be useful enough to replace it, despite your good ideas for it. It's nice to have, but those are more long term plans than short. Be more careful from now on. They can detect you from a distance, so keep that in mind if you want to go wandering around when we do our trading."

She too walked out of the room, leaving Kei confused.

 _I suppose he thought he would be hailed as a hero, especially for bringing in enemy hardware. Instead he got yelled at, poor guy._

"What do you think of all this?" Kei asked her. Sparkle tapped just the tip of her tail against the floor. "Just that much, huh? Guess I'll see you in the morning."

He walked out, leaving Sparkle alone with her thoughts. _You know, I kind of like that Shaya, she does seem to be a good leader. I'll be glad to get back to Susan, but maybe I've been holding myself back a little when she's around. This whole situation proves I can take care of myself, and even help out. All without them even knowing I'm doing it. Susan would never take that route._ She chuckled. _Well, I've got some naps to catch up on, I'm off to bed._

And the Glomar flew on.


	98. Chapter 98

98

When You Meet a Brand New Friend

Who: Susan

Time: Just after the Mu attack

Place: Ruined camp

Susan wondered how much to tell this man, who had already once tried to have her stunned into unconsciousness and dragged off to a lab somewhere. She finally decided a version of the truth was best, because honestly she needed some help on this world and having an entire military organization on her side raised some interesting possibilities.

She stifled a giggle.

"My name is Susan, and unlike most people here, I came by choice. My objectives are three fold. First, to attain a quantity of crystal I've promised someone. Second to defeat the Mu. Third to do something that puts the world to rights and stops all this ridiculous dimension shifting."

"But what are you? A robot?"

"Robot? No, I'm as human as you are. Oh, the appearing and disappearing and throwing people around. I just have special training that lets me do those things. I mean the number of worlds you have jammed together here, there aren't some where the people can do weird stuff?"

"Not really."

"Oh. Well, believe me, that's why I'm here. I mean you and your organization no harm, if you don't try anything like you did again."

The man stood up, looking around. He dragged a chair over and sat down heavily. "What's this crystal you're after?"

…

 _Hey, dude, he asked us a question, and you've never told me the name._

 _What? Oh, right. It's called Hyperlarcovite. Around here, anyway._

"Hyperlarcovite," she repeated.

"That figures. Well, if you want any quantity of that, you'll have to fulfill your third objective first."

"Why's that?"

"Hyperlarcovite is what we use in our dimensional scanners." He indicated the hand held unit at his belt. "All that we've dug up goes into them."

"What, does it resonate with dimensional changes or something?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea. Ask a scientist."

 _I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I know my iPad has 'lithium-ion batteries,' but not exactly what that means. Still, I guess I hoped I could just buy some, or something. Getting some away from these people isn't going to be easy._

 _Keep in mind you'll need a piece the size of your head. Those units are small. Either they break the crystal up or it's like diamonds, only occurring naturally as small masses._

 _I can stitch a bunch together with magic later, so tiny ones is fine if I can get a thousand of them._

 _True._

"I see. Well, I better get started then. Any information about why this world ended up like this would be helpful. You already know I just got here."

"Who sent you here doesn't know what? I mean it's common knowledge."

"Not from where he is. Consider his world to be... next to yours. And yours shifting all the time is like loud music when you're trying to sleep. He doesn't know what kind of radio is playing the music, but he can hear it."

The man tried to make sense of this. "Whatever. Look, I've got cleanup to do and as far as I'm concerned, you helped blow up Mu so for the moment I'll take your word for it. I'll assign you a guard, for lack of a better term, but I think we both know he'll be there to keep an eye on you. She, actually, you'll have to sleep in the women's barracks. If we still have a barracks at the moment. So you'll be sticking with her until I can get word to my superiors and have them sort you out."

"That's fine. I'll go straight to the top if I have to."

"That's for people above me to decide. Can I see if something is still in my desk now?"

"Oh, sure!" Susan dropped her feet and stood up, and the man came around the desk to rummage around in the drawers.

"Here." He handed her a triangular patch, similar to the one he had on his forehead but a solid color. "This will at least show you're in the camp legitimately."

She took it and stared at it. The back was sticky, and Susan looked up from it.

"Here, stick it here," he said, pointing to his own forehead.

Susan gave him a dirty look and pressed it into the front of her shirt. He looked down at it, then at her. He touched his own forehead, then looked down at his shirt. He looked back at her.

"Lady, you just blew my mind."

"How about that escort?"

"Just a second." He pulled something akin to a mobile phone out of his pocket and spoke into it, and a moment later a woman hurried over.

"This is Susan," he said to her. "Susan, Jennifer. Jennifer, you'll be keeping an eye on our guest here until I get further orders regarding her. Which I'll warn you may be a while because the tent with our long range transmitter got hit in the attack. So it may need to be repaired."

"I suppose being robots they have scanners for that sort of thing," mused Susan. "Naturally they would target that first so you couldn't call for backup."

"Naturally," the man agreed. "Dismissed."

"Yes, sir," said Jennifer, obviously not happy with the idea. She turned to go, and Susan followed.

She looked Jennifer over, she was a bit taller than Susan, probably mid twenties. Hair nearly shaved off, though it seemed that wasn't a requirement around here. She had a hooked nose, looked vaguely asian, and annoyed. On her head perched a pair of aviation goggles, which Susan wondered about because the cockpits on the mecha were enclosed.

"Sorry about this," Susan told her. "I'll try not to get in the way."

"I'll do as I'm ordered."

"I'm not really part of your military. You don't have to act like I'm going to report you or anything."

"Look, I'm not-" Her face softened. "I lost a friend in the attack. So I'm a little pissed right now."

"I'm sorry. He didn't even ask, just ordered you around. What a jerk!"

"You mean the captain?" She gave a quick laugh. "I guess. But we are soldiers."

"Sure, but I've lost people to enemy action, too. She wasn't a friend, we had just recently met, but we shared the same name. I remember what I felt at that time. So I can sympathize."

"What happened?"

Susan sighed. "Our school was attacked by... creatures. Possibly from another world, we never found out. We fought, and while I was at the front lines trying to keep the place from being demolished by the things, she was defending some younger kids on another floor. Apparently she and the creature took each other out... her body was never found. We only had the kid's report of what happened, and her name got put on a monument outside the school later. But me? I never even got to say goodbye, and she seemed like a really great person, too."

Jennifer had stopped, and looked at Susan, who was blinking back a tear or two, remembering how terrible she had felt after that attack. _How many were dead? Twenty? I still think I was more to blame than anything._

"You have seen combat, haven't you?" she asked seriously.

"More than you would possibly believe. Feels like I've been fighting my entire life."

"I should think so, if your _school_ was attacked. Did you go to some kind of military academy?"

"It wasn't billed like that, but yeah, it sort of was. A lot of crazy things happened there."

"What was the name of it?"

Susan considered, but figuring she was _literally_ worlds away, telling her wouldn't hurt. "Hogwarts."

Jennifer's mouth dropped open. "You mean like, _the_ Hogwarts? The..." She glanced around. "The magic school?"

Now it was Susan's turn to be stunned. "How could you _possibly_ know that?" she managed.

"Come over here!" Jennifer dragged her by the hand away from the tents, looking to make sure she wasn't seen leaving the camp, but everyone was busy with their tasks. Finally she was satisfied with how far out they were and came to a stop. She looked around, then closed her eyes. "Okay," she nodded, "there's no one else around. You really went to Hogwarts?"

"And I ask again, how could you possibly know that?"

"Prove it," said Jennifer, eyes narrowing. "And I'll tell you everything."

"Fine." She got out her watch. "Is my planet loaded yet?"

"Affirmative," the watch replied. "Silence mode was activated when non-authorized personnel were in range of auditory alert."

"So Jennifer is authorized?"

"You reveled the presence of out of world technology, thus she has been added to the authorized list through your actions."

"Oh."

"That's some fancy tech!" exclaimed Jennifer. "But I asked about proving you went to Hogwarts."

"I'm getting there, sheesh. Give me a second. _Light."_ Susan held a ball of light in her hand, and made it swirl around her.

"Okay, that's magic if anything is. Oh my goodness, someone who can do _magic._ Someone from another dimension who _knows the score._ Someone I might actually be _able_ _to talk to._ Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" Susan found herself swept up a hug by a laughing, crying, nice smelling woman who was acting like she just won the lottery.

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay." Susan stroked her hair and returned her hug. "Not that this isn't nice, but maybe a little bit of an explanation now?"

"Sorry!" said Jennifer, backing off a little. "I was just so excited-"

"I noticed that."

"Sorry!" she said again, wiping her eyes. "Do you know how hard it is to find people that can even comprehend what I am? That I don't have to be guarded with, like, 'oh crap that's right people here don't know _spirit sense_ or something."

"Oh, that's what you were doing. I did wonder."

"You see!" she squeed. "You must be the best thing to happen to me in, well, ages!"

Jennifer was all smiles now, and her eyes were shining.

"I'm happy to hear it," Susan said honestly. "So is your name really Jennifer?"

"Yup! But my friends call me Jenny. And that's what you should call me," she beeped Susan's nose. "Jenny Everywhere- _The Shifter_." She started patting her pockets. "I know I must have one. They always turn up, no matter what."

"Have one what?"

"Ah, here we are!" She pulled out what looked like a business card, and handed it over. "I'm compelled to give this to you, don't ask why until you read it."

"Okay?" Susan took it, then gave it a glance. Then a longer look. Then she stared. She looked back at Jenny, who nodded, grinning widely. Susan looked back, and read the card again.

 _The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by_

 _anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be_

 _included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere,_

 _that others might use this property as they_ _wish._

 _All rights reversed._

"I'm not sure I understand," she said, handing the card back.

"Oh. Look, how... aware are you, about stuff?"

"Stuff? I don't-"

"Like how much 'behind the scenes' stuff are you in on?"

"I have a character sheet, is that what you mean?"

"Really?! One of those, huh?" She winked.

"One of what? I'm sorry, can you start from the beginning?"

Jenny crossed her arms. "Maybe you better start at the beginning. I promise, I'll tell you what I can," she put her hands up, "but some things are better if you find out about them on your own. Trust me."

"Okay. The short version is my father was a Paragon who left his world to fight The Darkness, or Darkvoid, if you know that name."

Jenny scowled, a low growl escaping from her lips. It seemed she did.

 _And she is really sexy._

Susan shook herself. "Anyway, that sort of makes me half Paragon, and after I defeated The Darkness on my world, I went after him. A girl called Luna came with me, but we got separated so now I'm on her trail, too."

"Half Paragon?" mused Jenny. "How about that? I've met Paragons, maybe I've even been to your father's world. Hard to remember all the places I've been, I've been _shifting_ a long time."

"Are you an agent of Silverstreak? Or Inari?"

She shook her head. "I've heard the names, but I'm a special case. Basically I can move around worlds on my own. I call it _shifting._ I've been lots of places, and had lots of adventures, but the downside is I can't really remember where my home dimension is to get back to it!"

"That's awful!"

"I guess. To be totally honest, I'm not sure I ever had one. I don't know. The point is, I got stuck here, I couldn't _shift_ out, so I joined this army in hopes of getting some answers. I'm still just a grunt though."

"The dimensional distortions. They gave me some trouble on the way in, so I hear you. I got separated from my _Companion_ , so I need to find her and put this world to rights. I bet if I fix this world, you'll be able to leave, too."

"Is that why you're here? I thought maybe you just got trapped here too. Well, I'm glad to know something's being done. If I can help, at all, just say the word."

"Oh, you're sticking with me, that's for sure," Susan said happily, swinging around and taking her arm.

"Is that how it is?" Jenny asked with a smile. "Still, we better get back before we're missed. Are you really willing to help clean up the camp?"

"Of course. You can tell me some stories about the worlds you've seen, and I can tell you some of mine!"

"Deal!"

So the two swapped stories, and chatted, and felt like they had known each other forever. Susan did the heavy lifting, impressing everyone, and soon the camp was restored to some semblance of order. The girls went to eat, still chatting, and Susan got filled in on the events that led to the current situation.

"A bomb," Jenny said simply.

"Some kind of dimensional bomb? Who builds something like that?"

"A very desperate people. We don't know if it went off too soon, or they just got the calculations wrong, or what. But the point is, it went off and instead of shifting the space elevator they were trying to destroy into the next dimension, it shattered this one."

"But in reality didn't it shatter, like, the whole stack of them? I mean if a mountain gets switched with a lake, that mountain went someplace. It went where the lake was. So that world is experiencing something similar to this one."

"That makes sense."

"So how do we know this world is the original? It could just as easily be one of these side ones, and the bomb was never anywhere near here. Maybe the one the bomb went off on was totally destroyed, and we were just nearby. So it hit us hard. Or maybe the bomb went off and that world is even worse than this one!"

Jenny looked nervous. "That's a scary idea. I never thought of that."

"And how am I supposed to fix this? I can't go back that far in time and make the bomb not go off. The paradox that would create!" She shivered.

"There is some hope, according to our superiors. That's why we're all given these." She got out her scanner. "We're all supposed to look for something called Singularity. I guess it's a person."

"No wonder those guys were so intent on bringing me here. Maybe they thought I was this Singularity?"

Jenny activated her sensor and it went a bit nuts picking up Susan. "Something about you it doesn't like," she remarked, turning it off. "What this Singularity is supposed to do, I have no idea. But we're looking."

"I'll take that as a positive sign. I guess I'll just have to see, hopefully get bumped up the chain of command to someone that can give me those answers."

"I just hope it isn't some big distraction, that they really have no answers and they're just hoping something comes up. All these Mu attacks, the heat, they can't do anything about it but tough it out. What's this Singularity going to do about that?"

"Heat?"

"Yeah, it's getting worse. See those mountains in the distance?"

"With the tops cut off?"

"They're cut off with dimensional distortion. The planet is surrounded by it, and it's acting like a lens. Focusing the sun and keeping the heat in. We won't last many more years before we're cooked."

"That's a problem that goes away automatically though, once the distortion stops. One thing I can tell you is how to deal with the Mu. Attack their central AI, the one taken over by The Darkness. That should put them in a better mood."

"Can't put them in a worse one. Soon as we find it, I'm sure they'll let some civilian they've never heard of take care of it."

"I can be pretty persuasive. But I agree, that's for another day. For now, I better check on Sparkle. Is there a place I can do some magic that won't get these military types salivating even more to dissect me?"

"Sure, come on."

So Susan changed her planet to use _Question,_ but was blocked by the answers she got all being "unknown."

"Probably the dimensional interface," she said glumly. She looked over at Jenny who was looking at her sympathetically. _Or did I just trade one_ Companion _for another?_

"I'll see what I can do to add her to the watch list," promised Jenny. "There probably won't be any automatic flags raised about a cat."

"Don't get into any trouble because of me!"

"Trouble? Didn't I say, that's my middle name. Jenny Trouble Everywhere."

The girls laughed.

By this time the sun was going down, and as her new orders were to watch Susan, Jenny didn't have to do her normal soldier duties, and they sat up talking. As they were about to head to the tent with the cots, Susan got called to see the captain again.

"We're heading out in the morning," he explained. "Apparently I'm to take command of a platoon stationed several hours from here. Turns out whoever was in change there was locking up townsfolk in order to pacify the place. The higher ups found out because an Ishkick was stolen and shot the place up. That must have been an interesting report to read. I wouldn't want to be that guy right now. With their losses and ours, we'll get the platoon back to the right number by combining both into one. Plus they now have no mecha support, and if the Mu attack... Anyway, Captain Robert will be here by then to escort you to see General Wright. He'll decide what to do with you."

 _Passed around like a slab of meat. I say you leave tonight, under cover of darkness._

 _No, I need to find out what's going on, and what their plan is. If I can find this Singularity for them-_

 _You can't. You can't even find your own_ Companion.

 _Oh, true. Well, I still need to find out what their plan is. If they'll tell me. Just observing their operations might prove useful._

 _If you need to blow them up later._

 _Yeah, let's go with that one. And I can't just leave Jenny!_

 _You could. You just choose not to. There's a difference._

"You got it, captain," Susan replied. "Good luck with the townspeople."

"Yeah, thanks. That's a mess and a half right there. Why someone thought it would be a good idea to lock up a bunch of girls... anyway, good night."

"Night."

Susan told Jenny what has happening, and warned her she could be hard to wake up.

"I'll keep that in mind!"

The girls went to bed, and Susan never suspected that Jenny had plans of her own.


	99. Chapter 99

99

Walking Into a Building Can be Hard to do

Who: Susan

Time: The Next Day

Place: Remains of the army encampment.

"Wake up, wake up!"

"Whatzat?"

"You really are hard to wake up."

"Ugh?"

Finally, Susan came fully awake and squinted at Jenny, who had one hand on her hip and was looking down at her.

"Ah, finally with us," she said.

"Told you," said Susan, rubbing her eyes. "Just consider it one of my cute little flaws."

"Oh, and how many cute little flaws do you have, anyway?"

"Eight," she replied unthinkingly, stretching and yawning. "Of varying degree of severity."

"I forgot, you can actually point to them." Jenny shook her head. "Come on, let's get you in the shower and dressed. I don't know when Robert will arrive but you should be ready."

"Shower?" Susan swung her legs off the side of the bed and stood up.

"Yes, shower. Are you sure you're awake? You don't have some spell to move your body around and make conversation while you actually stay asleep, do you?"

Susan's face lit up. "What a fantastic idea for a spell!"

"Come on." Jenny started dragging her away.

 _Showers, right. And, shoot, I'm going to have to start washing my clothes and whatnot. Usually Sparkle just wakes me up with_ Awaken, _I get dressed and she hits us both with_ Hygiene, _and we're ready for the day. Ugh, I'll have to start brushing my teeth as well. What a hassle._

But there was some compensation. These were hastily constructed military encampment facilities, so privacy wasn't chief among the concerns. While there weren't as many women as men, (they had separate facilities), Susan did get to peep at the mostly or fully naked women getting ready for the day along side her. She had the foresight to pack things like a toothbrush in case she went to a world without magic, so dug them out of her luggage when no one was looking. (At least, she hoped, and no one commented on where that suitcase had come from so she figured she was in the clear.) The water was cold, and Susan was unpracticed at such basics as brushing her hair, but she managed to get through it.

 _How do people manage this every day?_

 _It's only been a day and already you're whining about not having your full magical diversity?_

 _Uh, yeah? Magic has been part of my life since as long as I can remember. It's like another limb that's now been cut off. And it has- losing a three point companion you've relied on all your life is basically just that. She knew useful spells. And getting out my spellbook would really call attention to me. Plus my magic is more limited here, and I have Sun loaded and I would need Venus. It's whine worthy, right?_

 _Hardly. You need to toughen up, soldier, or you'll never defeat... me. Wait, where I was going with this?_

 _You're asking me?_

Susan joined the rest of the company for breakfast, and they were issued orders to pack up the camp and get ready to move out. An hour or so later several transport ships arrived, and gear was loaded onto them. Susan was called to a smaller one, and Jenny guided her to the bridge.

"I should be out chasing down the Singularity!" someone was shouting as she opened the door. "Not ferrying around some unimportant girl who appeared out of nowhere."

Susan grabbed her _Enhance Sword_ out of sub-space and thrust it forward, missing his neck but ruffling his hair from the force of the wind the slash generated. "Hey," she said conversationally, "I'm Susan, that girl that appeared out of nowhere. If you think I'm unimportant I guess you consider your life worthless _."_

Immediately every soldier on the bridge went for their guns, drawing and pointing them at Susan. "Drop the... sword!" one of them shouted.

"Please," Susan said with a sneer. "You can't hurt me with those."

"Let's all just calm down!" insisted Jenny, grabbing Susan's arm and moving the sword away. "I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it, Susan."

The man turned to look at her, and he was past middle age. Clean shaven, military haircut, lined face, with a receding hairline.

"You're finally here, we can get on with this," he said, giving her not much more than a glance. "Then I can get back to what's important."

Jenny's muscles tightened against Susan, who really, really wanted to just sweep her sword up and take this guy's head off.

"What's important is following orders," said the captain. _Never did get his name, did I?_ "And they are to take this girl- oh, for the love of- put that sword away, will you? And the rest of you, stand down."

Susan reluctantly slipped the blade back into sub-space, which made the other soldiers there rub their eyes and look questionably at each other. But they finally put their guns back as well. Robert hadn't seen, he had already turned away from her.

"Take this girl and see how much of her story we can verify, and have the general decide what to-" He paused. "How best to utilize her unique gifts."

 _Nice recovery._

"But it's the Singularity that will fix this world, not her. My men and I were closing in on that Emaan ship, we could have taken them!"

"That can wait a day or two. Look, you're probably right, but we have our orders."

"I know." The man lapsed into sudden silence.

"Very well. Jennifer, you're relieved of watching her, and will accompany us to the new base."

Jenny drew herself up. "With your permission, sir, I would like your leave to remain with Susan until she accomplishes her objectives here."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Several reasons sir, foremost what you've just witnessed. She whipped her sword out at the smallest slight, and that may be culturally appropriate where she comes from. She needs someone to watch over her, make sure she doesn't commit a more serious offense as it relates to our culture."

 _Dang it all!_ The voice of the Darkness rang in Susan's head. _Why can't I get you away from people bent on keeping me in check? I thought with Luna gone, and finally that annoying cat gone missing, I would have a decent shot on this world. But no... along comes some other flea. Is Silverstreak manipulating things even this closely? Aarg!_

 _That was you, that made me get the sword out and threaten the captain! I should have known. I let my guard down for one second and look what happens?_

 _Not like it was hard._

"You may have a point there," agreed the captain. "Though I would hate to lose you, you're our best shot and pilot. Is there another reason?"

Jenny looked over at Susan, then back to him. She motioned him away from her on the bridge and spoke to him in a low voice. Susan thought she caught "trust" and "take her out" as she told him whatever he wanted to hear.

"Very well," he allowed, "you may accompany her."

"Thank you, Sir," she said with a salute.

"I'll notify command of your new orders... and your concerns. Captain." He saluted the other man and left the bridge.

"Great, now there's two of them," remarked Robert. "Well, don't just sit there," he shouted to the bridge crew. "Get this ship moving!"

"Yes Sir!" they all shouted, and started punching stuff into consoles. Moments later they were on their way.

"So, you're after the Singularity," Susan said, stepping up beside him. He didn't turn, just kept gazing out the front windows. "Must be tough, having all kinds of military assets at your disposal and being unable to catch one man."

His lip quivered. "Private, why don't you take our... guest down to the lounge area. That way you won't be underfoot on _my bridge!"_

"Yes, Sir," answered Jenny, and pulled Susan with her. "Come on."

"Nice to have met you!" Susan called over her shoulder.

"Do you always try to antagonize every person you meet?" Jenny asked, plopping down on a couch sort of thing in the lounge.

Susan waited for Sparkle to say something like "you have no idea" or "she was actually being pleasant to the man," but when she looked down, Sparkle wasn't there.

 _Oh, right._

"Susan?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, that's just when Sparkle would make some snarky comment. Sorry about that, I should have warned you I'm my own worst enemy."

"I see that. I'm glad my CO let me come with you. Maybe I can get away from terrorizing people and such now, and with your help actually start making a difference here."

"I thought you mainly blew up Mu units? What's this about terrorizing people?"

She shook her head. "That incident with the abdicated girls you heard about yesterday? Let's just say that's about par for the course with these people." She waved a finger about, indicating the ship. "They treat everyone, even the Emaan who are at least as technologically sophisticated as they are, as inferiors. I've had to play along, but I haven't liked it. And I've tried to restrain others where I can, but it doesn't work very often. They are who they are."

"I see. But they are trying their best to save the world."

She sighed. "They are trying their best to save the world."

"Then for now, that's who I have to stick to."

The trip was uneventful, and over any open areas the ship accelerated greatly, as obviously Robert wanted this "mission" to be over and to get on with what he believed was more important. By mid-afternoon the ship landed on the outskirts of town and he basically threw Jenny and Susan off the ship.

"But this isn't anywhere near headquarters!" protested Jenny. "Sir."

"So? She's your responsibility, isn't she? I'm sure you can get her there, or are you telling me such a simple task is beyond you?"

"No, sir. It's just we could have flown there in half an hour-"

"A half an hour the Singularity gets further away. You are dismissed!"

The ramp closed and the ship silently rose into the air, then spun with thrusters and pulled away.

"Charming man," remarked Susan. "Remind me to send him a Christmas card. Do you have Christmas? Do _they_ have Christmas?"

"I think they did, at one time. Come on, we've got to find a cab."

It took another three hours for the pair to work their way through the city and make it to the headquarters building, and both were a bit cranky and short tempered after the trip. Susan marveled at how militarized the culture here was, with just rows of buildings without spark of imagination or style.

"They could be whisked away at any moment," Jenny explained when she mentioned it. "So they've come to build strictly for function."

After they pulled up in front of a large gate, Jenny's identity was confirmed and her orders checked. They were allowed past, but once up the stairs and into the building Susan ran into another problem.

Their version of the TSA.

"Please deposit any items you are carrying into the bin," said a bored looking guard at the door. "And you'll need to put that backpack through the scanner."

 _I hope Silverstreak built it to withstand x-rays or whatever they use._

Susan reluctantly took the watch off and put it in the bin, somehow knowing her limited command of Sun magic had just been cut off. Taking off her _Wizard Bracelet_ required a RESolve check, which she got a sixteen on. That even more reluctantly went into the bin, and she felt heavier and more sluggish as she did. Unstrapping the knife caused the guard to perk up a bit.

"You can't take a weapon in here!" he said, staring at it.

"Uh, she's got a pistol right there!" Susan protested, pointing at Jenny's sidearm.

"She's not a civilian, you are."

"It's a knife, someone would just shoot me if I threatened someone with it." _Which I can't, because it would only heal them. But try explaining that to this guy._

"Rules are rules. There are some lockers over there if-"

Susan shoved it into her sub-space pocket. "There, it's gone. Happy?"

"What did you just do?!" The guard jumped up from his seat, and at that moment alarms starting going off as Susan's backpack hit the center of the machine it was passing through.

"Now what?" she moaned, eyes darting around as other security personnel ran over, guns drawn.

 _Oh crap, if I get hit with one of those now..._ She made a grab for the bracelet (using ten energy, a sixteen) but the guard pulled it away from her (using five energy, a seventeen) and Susan began to panic.

"It's okay," shouted Jenny over the siren. Susan wasn't sure if this was directed at her or the guards, but she stepped between them and her. "It's nothing dangerous, I'll vouch for her."

"It's some kind of bomb!" insisted the guard, "and she tried to get these back. Arrest her!"

"She's here by invitation of the general!" insisted Jenny. "She's just... uh... bringing some tech for the scientists to look over, that's all."

But the soldiers there weren't listening. They advanced on Susan, shouting for her to get down on the floor, and "one" was getting out handcuffs. Guard "two" was reaching for her, and Susan reacted, making a _Spirit Aura_ check and getting an eight. As with Sparkle this reduced her ability to use energy, though again as with Sparkle she probably wasn't going to be throwing twenty energy into any one action any time soon. The guard stopped reaching for her as energy billowed out, covering her body. Nearby, papers and dust blew away from her.

 _If my_ Spirit _skills are all I have, then that's what I'll use._

"Wha- what's going on?" asked the man fearfully.

"Shoot her! Shoot her!" gibbered number "three" as he backed away a step. Guard two brought his gun up, ready to fire. Susan was right there in front of him though, and now had a difficult choice to make. Jenny was right behind her, so even if she did dodge his shot, which she could attempt thanks to Ninjutsu _,_ chances were good it would just hit her, instead.

 _Especially because my LUCk is down, thanks to that guard taking my bracelet. This is-_

 _Wonderful!_ broke in The Darkness. _I wish I had known this was going to happen, I'd have made popcorn._

So she tried a disarm instead, spending energy on COOrdination. She was at a minus six to this action, a minus two for the _Aura,_ a minus three for the called shot, and a further minus one for wanting to have control of the gun at the end. (If she manages it, she gets the gun before he can shoot. If she doesn't, she gets shot.) She spent fifteen energy, and what do you know, she probably would have spent twenty if she could.

It wouldn't have helped.

The round impacted into Susan, through her _Aura_ and did seven damage to her body. She staggered back, in shock. Three more damage and she would be unconscious. Another hit like that and she would be dead. Nearby, people screamed and started running in all directions which they didn't get to do very often and so were relishing the opportunity.

 _I am never taking that bracelet off again._

Guard "four" drew his pistol, throwing the basket of stuff down, while "three" held his action to see what Susan would do next. "Cuff her, cuff her!" number "one" was shouting, "Don't shoot her!" But in the confined space of the opening he couldn't get to her. It was now number "two" going again, and Susan made a _Close Combat_ check, getting an eleven to see where she was in the initiative order. She missed it, the soldier got a thirteen, so Susan spent two XP for extra actions to make sure she got them off before they could act, and pulled the knife out of her sub-space pocket again. She jammed it into her own side, where it healed her completely. She left it there, the only magic she had at her disposal.

"You shot me," she said, enraged, "I'll kill you for that."

The guard looked at her like she was crazy, and went to pull the trigger again. So again, Susan tried disarming him, with a much better result of a twenty this time. This made sure their rolls were reversed (get it) as he only got a thirteen. Susan yanked the gun away from him, to his surprise.

"Okay, shoot her, shoot her!" yelled "one" as he started backing away again.

Guard "three" and "four" now took a shot, at a penalty because Susan had cover from the doorframe and wall. The bullet from "three" passed through the wall and bounced off her _Aura,_ ricocheting wildly away _._ "Four" missed totally.

"Don't shoot her, don't shoot her!" yelled "one," unable to make up his mind.

Susan now did a _Gymnastics_ flip over the conveyer belt and made a grab for her bracelet in midair. She got a thirteen on the flip, a three on the grab, but spent her _Bonus_ card for a plus two, grabbing it. As she landed she made another _Gymnastics_ check to roll behind the machine and get cover again. She got an eight on that one, so she was under cover but not yet up. Jenny could now move up, and stood in the doorway wondering what to do. She didn't want to use powers that would tip them off to her extra dimensional status, but she didn't want Susan to get shot, either. On the "gripping hand" pulling her sidearm and shooting at the guards would probably get her shot, or court marshaled or something, and then she couldn't help Susan. Of course if she did get shot, Susan would probably go even more berserk, so her safest bet was probably to do nothing.

The guards now moved, trying to see past the machine and get a shot at Susan, who didn't yet bother to stand up. She just dropped the gun and shoved the bracelet back on her arm, feeling strength flow back into her as her spirit once again became that of a giant.

Number "one" leapt atop her, trying to get her hands behind her back so he could slap the cuffs on. He made a STRength check to do so, Susan easily beat him with her _Wrestling_ check of twenty six, and hurled him into guard four, slamming them both against the wall and stunning them.

"Two" now got out his handcuffs, because his gun had been taken away, and strode forward himself. Guard "three" stepped around him and took a shot at Susan, allowing her a reactive action to try standing up again. She got nearly maximum, and was up as the guard pulled the trigger. He got a fifteen to hit, but her passive dodge was once again a fourteen. With the bonus AR from the _Aura_ the bullet hit that and smacked off.

"Four" had not gone down like "three" had, and moved so that if he missed shooting Susan in the back, he wouldn't hit "three," which you had to admit was quite thoughtful of him, given the circumstances. He fired, getting an eighteen, but he needed a twenty two to pierce the _Aura_ so again it bounced off. "Two" now arrived, and made his grab for Susan. She now had both hands free (the gun having tumbled to the ground) so she allowed him to grab her, then made another reactive _Ninjutsu_ action to get the cuffs away from him as he did his _off hand_ action of slapping them on. It was fourteen to twelve, and Susan had a pair of cuffs in her hand.

Guard "three" fired a third time, and again it bounced off the _Aura._

 _I could probably shut that down, they couldn't really hurt me in any case, but I guess for the "wow" factor I'll leave it._

She could now take an active action, and slammed the cuff onto the arm of the guard that was still trying to move her arm. There was no "handcuffing" skill so she just rolled an unarmed attack with them, getting a ten. He let go, and she missed. "Four" held, as "two" was too close for comfort.

"One" was now up, and rushed Susan, intending to do a _tackling maneuver._ He charged her, trying to drag her to the floor. She didn't bother dodging, and went nowhere with her twenty six check verses his fifteen. Guard "three" tried bashing her in the head with the butt of his pistol, and as Susan wasn't dodging, and this wasn't ranged, his difficultly to hit was a thirteen. He got a twenty, and even did his maximum damage, which caused Susan to just glare at him.

"One at a time," she chided. "Honestly, there's enough of me to go around, boys."

It was finally delay forty, and roughly ten seconds had passed since this all started.

"What's going on down here?" roared the general, skidding to a stop from around the hallway where his office was located. "Stop that at once!"


	100. Chapter 100

100

What Can You Do With a General

Who: Susan

Place: Government building

Time: Just then

"Sir!" yelled number "two" to the general from he was standing and trying to drag Susan to the ground. "She tried to sneak in a bomb!"

"A bomb?" he asked, looking over at the backpack, now sitting forgotten on the end of the conveyer belt. "Great job getting it out of the building, then. Or calling a bomb disposal squad, or really anything useful apart from endangering innocents in the area."

"Oh. Uh..."

"And she put it through the detector, right? That's what made the alarm go off. So she wasn't exactly sneaking it in, was she?"

"Sir, she did have a knife," put in "one" pointing at it. "See, right there!"

"Yes, she seems to have stuck it into herself, unless one of you got it away from her?" He waited, but all three shook their heads. "I see. So we've gone from a bomb to a knife, which still doesn't explain her glow, opening fire in a location where civilians are present, or the fact that she was accompanied by private Everywhere who could have given you the authorization code for her being here."

"Authorization code?" both girls said.

"Didn't Robert give you the- for crying out loud, where's Larry, I personally handed him a copy of the orders."

"He was relieved an hour ago," said "four," the one that had been at the door. "I replaced him."

The general put his head in his hands. "I guess I expected you earlier, so didn't think to tell him to pass those orders on to his replacement, should you have been delayed. Why were you delayed, exactly?"

"Sir," spoke up Jenny, "Captain Swicher dropped us off on the edge of town, so we had to make our way here by car."

"He did, did he? Typical. I want someone here at great speed, he does the minimal- did he immediately take off after the Singularity again?"

"I believe so, sir. That is what he said to us."

"Idiot! Oh, will you let her go already? And get a medic down here, that knife wound will have to be looked at, even if it was self inflicted for some reason."

"Sir, there's still the matter of the bomb."

"You've all shot at her _how_ many times? Do you really think she would need a bomb? Very well, Susan, is it?"

"Nice to meet you, sir!" she called over to him.

"What's this?" He pointed to the dimensional stabilizer.

"It's a dimensional stabilizer," she answered.

He looked thoughtful and walked over to the screen, where there was a frozen image of the inside of the device. Then he grabbed that dimensional scanner everyone seemed to carry and pointed it at the thing. "There are odd readings coming from that," he remarked. "You!" he shouted, pointing to another person arriving. "Go down to level sixteen and bring Phillip up here. Tell him I said to come."

"Yes sir!" He saluted and punched the button for the elevator.

"In the meantime..." He walked over to Susan. "You seem to be having trouble holding onto her," he remarked. He was right, all three were unable to get a good grip on Susan because of the _Aura_ she was putting off, and kept trying to grab her better.

"Yes sir, there's some kind of force pushing us back," said "two."

"What would you have done next, had I not arrived as I did?" he asked her.

"Thrown them off, maybe threatened one to get someone to listen to what I was trying to say."

"Thrown off how?" he asked, interested.

"You really want me to demonstrate?"

"I'm curious to know."

"I can't be held responsible if they get hurt," she cautioned.

"We have a competent medical staff here, it's fine."

"Sir!" the all protested, shocked.

"Very well." Susan made some sort of flashy martial arts move, combined with a _pushback_ that sent them all flying.

"As I thought," he remarked as they all staggered to their feet again. "Would you mind turning that glow off for the moment?"

"Sure." Susan dropped it.

"Ah, thank you. Now I can see what you look like. As that object is supposedly the cause of all this trouble, why exactly do you need a dimensional stabilizer?"

Susan wondered how much to tell him. "It's your messed up planet, certain abilities of mine require a more stable dimension than it provides. I was sent here with it so I could use at least some of my powers."

"Powers? Like that glowing energy? That wasn't some kind of force field?"

"It was, but it was generated by me, not some technological device. If that's what you're asking."

"Pity. We could use something like that against our enemies the Mu."

Susan noticed Jenny looking sour, and wondered if maybe she had picked one up in her travels she hadn't shared.

He continued. "Still, you seemed to do well enough separated from it. Or does it have a radius you have to stay in?"

"Actually it targets my watch, which was also taken. I wasn't using any ability I needed it for."

"And you still couldn't take her down?" he asked the soldiers, now standing nearby. "One young girl against the four of you. I'm ashamed. No wonder the Mu are pressing us so hard."

The looked down, angry, but the elevator opened and a guy in a lab coat stepped out.

"You wanted to see me, general?" he asked.

"Yes. Can you identify this object?"

"I can try." He looked it over. "Strange," he said. "It looks almost like a scaled down version of what we're building downstairs."

"That's good enough for me. You're dismissed," he said to the soldiers, who cast a nasty glance at Susan and started walking off.

"Take your items back, and please accept my apologies," he said. "I'm General Wright, but please, call me Jeffrey."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Susan Felton." Susan went and got her watch back, then hefted her backpack.

"Ah, are you sure you should be lifting that with your injury? I can take you down to the infirmary immediately."

"Injury?" Susan wondered what he was talking about. "Oh, the knife!" she exclaimed, pulling it out finally. "Totally forgot about it. No worries, it's fine." She looked around for some tissues as it was bloody and the general handed her a handkerchief.

"Ah, thank you," she said, wiping it off. Then she had a new problem. "I'm going to have to get this back to you later," she said, looking at it. "Forgive me, but giving you my blood to study... that's probably not a good idea."

Jenny nodded her head.

"I understand, that wasn't my intent," the general said. She put the knife back in her leg holster and the handkerchief in her _pocket_.

"So, is there a place we can talk?"

"My office is this way, please, come with me."

Susan and Jenny entered behind him, and Susan sat down in the chair in front of his desk. Jenny remained standing at attention and the general looked between them. "You did nothing during all that. Why?" he asked her.

"Because I knew it wasn't a bomb, but didn't know how to get them to believe me."

"In part thanks to Robert, but why trust her? By all accounts you were assigned to her and then requested to come with her. Why?"

"We... share a common interest. Seeing the Mu destroyed," she hurried to say. "I saw her fight and I think she's the person for the job."

"I see."

"Plus bullets were flying everywhere and me rushing in there might have been misinterpreted."

He chuckled. "Good point. Oh, sit down, you're a veteran of several skirmishes, you don't need any more military discipline. Besides, it doesn't look like it agrees with you."

"No sir. Thank you sir." She sat down.

"So, Susan! You've come to save us from the Mu, is that right?"

"That's right. They're being programmed to wipe you out by something I've tangled with elsewhere. But I have to wonder, now that you know the other Singularity is out there, shouldn't you just divert all your resources to bringing them in rather than fight the Mu?"

"Oh, why's that?"

"If the dimensions split apart again, your Mu problem is solved."

"True." He looked thoughtful. "Would you help us with that?"

Susan shook her head. "The Mu comes first, for me. I know you have no reason to believe me, but I think the intelligence behind the Mu is somehow responsible for this whole mess you're in."

It was the generals turn to shake his head. "No, it's clear it was the uncalibrated space/time bomb that was going to destroy the space elevator."

"That was the catalyst, perhaps, but what hand pushed the big red 'do not push' button that made it blow up? For lack of a better term, the intelligence now running the Mu can posses people, as well. It could have made someone tamper with the bomb or otherwise sabotage it to bring this situation about."

"But that was before the event. Was it something native to the world before? And just what are we talking about here that can 'possess' people? Some kind of... ghost?" He clearly thought the idea was ridiculous.

"No, it's from outside the whole mishmash of worlds you find yourself with. Just like me. And just like me being able to do things you can't, it can do things I can't, and one of those things is control people it's taken over. That's why you need someone like me, who also comes from outside and is equipped to deal with it."

"I see. Well, you're basically on your own then, but working alongside us, at least we won't get in your way. As you say, our finding the other Singularity is our priority. We don't know where the Mu base is, how they teleport around to attack us, nothing. If you can find out anything relating to that, we'll help you bomb the place to ash. But short of very good intel, it takes most of our resources to protect the major cities of the world from Mu attack. We have precious few soldiers to send out after the Singularity, and the ones we did seem to be developing some kind of fixation on the task."

"We noticed." Susan glanced over at Jenny, who nodded.

"I guess Roberts are just passionate about their work?" ventured Jenny.

"They're something. So, I ask again, given we can't help you find the Mu, will you help us find the Singularity, at least in the short term? Or do you have ways of tracking them down? That dimensional stabilizer, perhaps?"

"No," she answered glumly. "In fact, I was separated from someone when I arrived, and haven't been able to locate them thanks to all this dimensional interference. So I'm not sure how to track down the Mu either."

"Pity."

"You have no idea, but in reality something is bound to come up. It'll come after me and let something slip, or I'll have an idea later. At least that's what has happened in the past."

"Then I suppose I should assign you some rooms here, while you figure out your next move." He went to press a button on his desk.

"Actually, I had a question, if you have a few more minutes?"

"Ask it."

"What exactly do you need the Singularity for? Jenny- ahem Jennifer here didn't exactly know, only her general orders that everyone got, to scan for him."

"Ah." He leaned back in his chair uncomfortably. "We don't actually know that either."

"Then why-"

He threw up his hands. "What else do we have? We know the space/time bomb did this. It created that weird energy pocket in the sky that orbits the planet. We found one Singularity already and now we know there is at least one more. The first one, Olson, told us his wingman Kei was the only other person near the blast when it went off. Olson registers to our instruments as being dimensionally linked to that thing in the sky. By experimenting on him, with his permission, we developed the idea that somehow he and his partner could somehow fix this. Perhaps just getting them together with the anomaly will be enough. Our scientists have a lot of theories and mathematical models and whatnot, but not many hard answers. We're... still experimenting with the best way to fix the world. I can't say more at this time, any specifics are top secret."

"And likely not to interest me in any case. Very well."

"Whichever way it goes, having _more_ options rather than _less_ is the better situation to be in."

"I can get behind that. So, is this Kei person refusing to work with you? I mean you must have sent his old wingman, Olson, to get him on board, as soon as it was discovered he was around, right?"

The general looked disgusted. "The whole thing was botched from the start, mostly due to Robert's incompetence. He arrived not long ago and was picked up by an Emaan trading vessel. Our sensors picked him up, and as per orders our troops moved in. A little too aggressively, the Emaan didn't want to give up something as valuable as a Singularity so they actually started shooting at them! One thing I should tell you about Emaan- they're shrewd negotiators. Good at science, building and repairing systems, but pretty greedy."

"They wouldn't, like, hold Kei hostage or something, would they? I mean they're holding the world hostage, is more like it!"

"Exactly. That's exactly what they're doing. Who knows what they've told Kei, if they've even told him what he is I would be surprised, but given their response to our first request to sit down and talk we can expect more of the same. They'll probably head to their territory where they'll hold his existence over us until we accede to their demands."

"But they're in the same boat you are!" protested Susan. "Greenhouse effect, Mu attacks..."

"Don't underestimate their greed, or their desire to 'get even' with us for incidents between our two nations in the past. We're not good neighbors, let's put it that way."

"Even with the Mu breathing, so to speak, down your necks?"

"Even so."

"Huh. But taking him by force is no better, is it? He'll be against you on principal. If he makes friends among the Emaan who get killed it'll make the situation even more grim."

"That's why we want to get to him soon enough so he isn't taken in by their lies. And we have Olsen, he understands his duty to the world, and can explain it to his old partner. If Kei it is, we have no evidence it's him. For all we know there was someone nearby in a foxhole that got swept up in the blast just like Olsen did, and we still have to wait for a third Singularity to appear!"

"I guess things are tough all around."

"We're doing our best, but resources are limited because of the shifting world. Crops don't grow well in the heat. Water supplies are limited because lakes tend to disappear and be replaced. It's a mess. And there's another thing to consider."

"What's that?"

"The only way to reach the energy pocket is the space elevator that started this whole mess. But that's Mu territory and our intelligence reports that area is receiving the bulk of Mu forces. Even if we did have both, we would still have to fight our way through to actually use the place. And it's been under their control for years, does it even work? How much repair does it need and can we even do the repairs? Just getting near the thing is only the start of what we need to do. Then we need to hold it while we work out if it's still usable or not. It's all rather depressing, to tell you the truth. Please don't go spreading that around, I mean morale is bad enough and anyone can see the logical steps, but bringing it up... that would be poor form."

"I get it. Wait, don't you have that weird ceiling that wrecks stuff? How does the elevator get past it?"

"That was ground zero, the dimensional distortion radiates away from it, but doesn't completely cover the area."

 _I bet that means my magic would fully work there! Excellent._

"Okay, that's good news. Still, if they were going to topple it they would have by now."

"That's our thinking as well. Perhaps they're hoping to get the two Singularities themselves, and somehow use them against us."

"Oh. Actually, that's a good point. You don't know what to do with them apart from bring them together with the energy pocket and hope something good happens. What if instead it makes something _bad_ happen? Like, they know it's a bad idea, are making a token effort at 'defending' the elevator so you think that's a solution, but in the end are just going to let you walk up to it?"

"I've seen pictures of the number of units they have. That force is no joke."

"You've seen pictures of robots," she protested. "What evidence do you have they are fighting machines and not shells just mindlessly wandering around to fool you?"

"You mean like putting men made of straw on a castle wall at night to fool invaders into thinking there's more forces than there really are?" Susan nodded. "Okay, I concede the point, I don't have evidence."

"After all, their resources aren't limitless either. They need tons of metal and silicon and plastic and oil and whatever to build one fighting unit. Plus they aren't just swarming you, teleporting in a million robots to one place, razing it to the ground, and then teleporting to the next place. So they have limited capability or power generation facilities."

"They seem bent on our destruction," he mused. "So you're right, a machine wouldn't hesitate to overwhelm us if it could. It doesn't have a life to loose, or a survival instinct. Yet the AI doesn't do as you've suggested. Why?"

Susan shrugged.

"Seems you've given me some things to think about. For now, let's wait until Robert reports back in. If he catches the Singularity tonight, fine. If he doesn't we'll have to come up with another plan."

"Maybe I could go in alone," suggested Susan. "They see a bunch of war machines coming at them, of course they're going to respond with force. Maybe a single, unarmed machine could get close and we could at least demand their demands for opening some kind of negotiation. The more you throw force at him, the less he'll want to work with you guys even if he's getting accurate information from the Emaan. He'll see you as just bullies, throwing force around to get what you want without regards to the consequences."

"It's true, we are a military culture, so we tend to think only in terms of military power. I'll let you know tomorrow what happened and we can make our plans then. Are you sure you're willing to go alone?"

"Jenny will come with me. We can fit two people in an Ishkick, if they're friendly enough."

Jenny reddened.

"I suppose," conceded the general. "But you could be captured..." Susan gave him an "are you kidding?" look. "Well, yes, perhaps not. Certainly an odd situation we've found ourselves in with your arrival, but we'll welcome your assistance. Please let us know if we can provide you with anything."

"Deal."

So the two were assigned quarters, and hung out until the next day, when they received the _worst. Possible. News._


	101. Chapter 101

101

Showing What They Least Wanted to See

Who: Sparkle

Where: The Glomar

Time: Second day on the planet

The next day the crew of the Glomar had a discussion about where next to go, and what they should do when they got there. Shaya wanted to hold another market, but the crew reminded her that they had little to trade with.

"I don't think we should immediately break that military hardware out either," said Srei. "It's too soon. If any Chiram soldiers in the area got word of the heist, they might start asking some very uncomfortable questions about where it came from."

"I agree," said Shaya. "But there must be something left we can trade with."

"Could we go hunting?" asked Jaby, the dinosaur. "Sell the meat? Or even just catch things and sell them live." Sparkle looked at him angrily. "Or not... wait, am I being intimidated by a cat? Why is she staring at me? Shaya, make her stop!"

 _Thing could stomp me flat, but he's a total crybaby!_

"Come on, Starburst, even you have to eat."

Sparkle looked away.

"That cat is too smart," said Jaby, studying her as she lay down and half closed her eyes. "I'm heading up on deck to think."

"I'll come with you," said Kei, also springing up.

Once he was gone, Srei stared after him. "It's his fault we're in this situation to begin with. He should be helping us think of things to do, too."

"But he doesn't know our ways, or what we can do," countered Shaya. "And he does protect the Glomar."

"Which we wouldn't need if he wasn't around."

"True. But we can't give him up, so you better get used to the idea of him being around."

"Just so long as he stays away from Mimsy," he grumbled.

"This again?" asked Mimsy, who was of course right there. "You don't own me, Srei, not even if we do get married. You want to show him up, you think of something."

"Maybe I will!"

"I'm starting to think allowing romantic relationships onboard was a mistake," muttered Shaya.

They spent maybe fifteen minutes discussing other options when Jaby came pounding down the corridor shouting they should stop, he could smell grapes. He got them convinced and the ship set down outside a mountain range.

"Here?" asked Reeg, the ship's engineer. He had poofy brown hair and was probably about thirty. He had come with the others, dragging some kind of device with him, to the edge of the cliffs the ship was parked next to.

Jaby nodded excitedly, and was practically bouncing on his heels as Reeg set the machine down and activated it. It started smashing through the stone with some whirling arm cutters, and Sparkle was impressed how swiftly it cut through. Moments later the wall gave way and a hole opened up, large enough to walk through. Just as Jaby had said, Sparkle saw the largest grapes she had ever seen beyond the wall.

"What did I tell you?" asked Jaby. "You can't fool my nose."

"Looks like we'll have something to trade after all," said Shaya. "Everyone start gathering."

 _Right, because in no way could this be owned by someone, and we've just broken in through their back door. It seems too haphazard to be a farm, but why plan a farm when they could disappear at any moment? Though I haven't yet seen one of these switching dimensional areas for myself..._

The crew of the Glomar got to work, and in a businesslike fashion started demolishing the grape crop that was growing here. Kei "helped" but as most of the others rode those weird floating bikes they had and zipped back and forth with full baskets of grapes, he fooled around by climbing trees and dropping them for Mome to catch. Jaby was more interested in eating them rather than gathering them for later. Mimsy yelled at Kei a few times for not helping properly, but he ignored her.

 _Isn't he interested in her? Wouldn't he be better served by striving to impress her rather then just making her angry? I guess he lives by the credo "be yourself?"_

After a time, Kei got bored of dropping them and just sat on a large branch, looking thoughtful.

"And now you've dropped even the pretense of helping," chided Srei. "Great job, Kei, way to contribute to the team effort you see here." He swept his hand out, indicating the others still hard at work.

"No, something is wrong," he said, looking around. "I keep feeling like at any moment we're going to be attacked. Someone is still on the Glomar watching the scanners, right?"

"Of course, do you think we're all amateurs?"

"I was just asking."

Sparkle was wondering if Kei could be some kind of sensitive to those _echo_ things from back home when her _Dimension Sense_ went off in a big way. She winced as a wave of dimensional energy washed over her.

 _What was that?_ she thought, looking around after it passed. _I've not felt anything like that before. And I have to make checks in that, right? It isn't like_ Spirit Sense, _that's always basically active. How large a disturbance in 'the force' did there have to be to- what's he yelling about?_

He, in this case, was Jaby, shouting at Shaya that a dimensional shift was going to happen in that area very soon, and they should pack up at once and leave. Sparkle got up from the tree branch she was lying on and stared at him. She tried an _Aura Reading_ on a whim, and got a... three, her lowest. Possible. Roll. So she tried again, and got her maximum, and was able to tell by his aura that he was terrified. He was a bit far away but she also thought he was pointing at his tail which was vibrating like mad.

 _Does he have some kind of extra senses as well? I suppose there's nothing stopping him from having an ability like that, even if he didn't know it. Before all this happened he would have had no way to train or even know about such an ability. Looks like they're going to listen to him, even though they've only gotten a portion of the grapes here. Time to go._

She dropped out of the tree and went with the others, who breathlessly waited outside the rocky area for something to happen. And just moments later, it did, the grapes being transformed into a sort of grassy hill populated by some kind of monkey.

"Still want to go hunting?" joked Kei, miming a rifle and shooting at them.

"No, I just want to leave this place," Jaby replied sadly, and the crew agreed. They lifted off and everyone quietly went about packing the grapes into whatever containers they could find. Kei kept trying to talk Mimsy into leaving it and relaxing on deck with him, but she just coldly stared it him until he went away.

 _Seems there's a slight difference in the way these people handle that sort of event. What happened to Jaby to make him so sensitive, and so terrified, of that? Maybe he came here through one of those? And the others, they are probably thinking what might have happened to them if Jaby hadn't been around. He's proven his worth to the crew- Kei not so much. Especially asking her to slack off her duties, what was he thinking?_

The rest of the day passed normally, and the Glomar flew on towards their homeland, that Shaya had informed the crew was vital now that they had a Singularity on board. They accepted this without question, and it wasn't lost on Sparkle that she had waited until after Kei had left for his room to tell the crew this.

The next day was also eventful, as late in the day the Chiram attacked again.

Sparkle was napping next to cartons of grapes in the hold when an explosion sound woke her up, tail bristling and eyes wide.

 _I don't have_ Deep Sleeper _you know, I have_ Light Sleeper. _There's no need to go overboard if you want me to- what's going on?_

The guns on the Glomar were firing, and the ship was banking over water and accelerating, trying to escape something.

 _Crap, and I bet Kei is already out there, without my magic to help him. I hope he's as good as he thinks he is._ _Probably just rushed out there, too. Who else do I know that would do something so crazy as to take on dozens of enemy forces by themselves? Oh right, my wayward_ Paragon, _Susan. But at least she didn't have any choice when she went up against those warlocks, she was the only one who could handle the situation._

Sparkle heard crying nearby, and looked around a box. There were the supposed "twins" who looked nothing alike. One had long blue hair and tentacles, blue eyes and was slightly taller. The other wore glasses, had short brown hair and tentacles. Both had their tentacles wrapped around the other's as they huddled together, each trying to get the other to be the first to agree to go out and help Kei. She wasn't sure if they were fraternal twins or lovers who just called themselves twins or what, but she let them be.

 _Okay, maybe he is exactly like Susan, and he really is the only one that can help in this situation. I wouldn't want to go up against superior numbers and firepower if I was them. They aren't military trained, after all, and I guess this is what you get when you don't have_ Mecha Combat _and fail a RESolve check to fight anyway._

 _Honestly, if Kei and Susan meet they'll either hate each other on sight because they're too similar, or Kei will try hitting on her and get smacked in the face._

 _By Mimsy._

She raced to the upper level to get a view of the battle, but winced every time something exploded nearby. _I have good hearing too, no need to shout._

When she got to the upper level she saw the Glomar was heading for some cliffs near the coast, and missiles were exploding all around the ship. _They're really trying to destroy this craft! Wait, no, they're trying to knock the Starburst out of the sky!_ Kei's ship was picking off craft one by one, flying nearby, and Sparkle shook her head, ears ringing, as another explosion went off.

 _That was close! Is he coming back because he was damaged or something?_

The Starburst had pulled into the underside of the ship, which went to maximum thrust as more missiles exploded nearby. _It's just 'fire unlimited missiles' with these guys, isn't it? Aren't they afraid of collateral damage? Wait a second, that gives me an idea._

Looking around to make sure she was alone, Sparkle made a _Spirit Aura_ check, getting a twelve and raising her energy expenditure by five. She then made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check, getting an eighteen (twenty total, minus the two for the _Aura.)_ She then put twenty five energy into her Venus check, getting a thirty five and making two areas covered by _Illusion_ that were thirty meters across. This just exactly covered the Glomar, and allowed her to leave an _Illusion_ "behind" that seemed to be hit by missiles and explode while the real one slid between the cliffs. Her other casting she used to cover the ship with the illusion it had shrunk to a minuscule size, but only when looked at from the back. This insured no one in the ship itself realized anything was happening, but to the Chiram soldier's horror, the illusion Glomar blew completely apart and sank into the water. As Sparkle moved out of visual range of that one it stopped, but she had made the bits that survived sink pretty quickly, so the Chiram ships now zipping over that area vainly tried to see something they couldn't. But as the other illusion was an unmoving image of "being small" she could maintain it until the end of the scene and hopefully allow them to get away. They wouldn't be able to visually see the tiny ship from that distance, and if their instruments told them otherwise, she was sure they would believe their eyes because of her amazing Venus result.

 _I guess I can see Susan's point of putting gobs of energy into everything. I may be close to having no energy now, but the enemy is gone and I can recover at my leisure. Maybe I will save up for that energy related background..._

The Glomar hid among the rocks, and an hour later the crew decided they had given up and went back to their duties. That ended the scene, and Sparkle yawned and went back down to the hold to get some more nap time in.

That evening she went to see what the rest of the crew was up to, and found them all in the living area, arguing. _As usual._

"I'm telling you, Shaya, it's unnatural the way they backed off like that!" said Reeg.

"That's the third time today you've said it, I believed you the first two times. What do you want me to do about it?"

"We have to do something!"

"We'll stay here until we're sure they're gone. Kei said he would go take a look, and when those ships left he would come back and tell us."

"And you just let him fly away?" asked Srei.

"Thought you wanted to be rid of him."

"I do, but I agree with you. They broke off and then he leaves? What if he somehow got a message to them that he would come peacefully?"

"What," asked Mimsy, "would that ruin your image of him as a selfish person, that he would trade his freedom for our safety?"

"I just... Reeg, back me up here!"

"If you love something, let it go," said Govu, the oldest one aboard. "If it loves you it will return."

"No one asked you," Srei grumbled.

"Srei, show a little respect," yelled Shaya.

"No, no, it's fine," said Govu. "I understand the conflict in his heart."

"Don't start shipping me with him, it's Mimsy that's fawning all over him."

"Fawning!?"

"Enough," said Shaya. "I won't have that conversation again. He's gone. Yes, it seems suspicious they broke off the attack. I will entertain _other_ reasons why that might be."

The others were silent, thinking for a moment.

 _Wonder if I should tell them? Still, it's hardly been two days, some challenge I would win at this point. Of course it's only with myself, and if this makes them even more cautious, I don't see how that could be bad._

"Could this be some sort of trap?" ventured Reeg. "I don't think it's a dead end though here, they should have followed. I mean if we can get the Glomar through this passage, their single man mecha would have no trouble."

"Perhaps Kei's flying really did drive them away?" guessed Mimsy.

"Be realistic," countered Srei. "He had come back before they left, not after. And there were still plenty of mecha in the air when he did, so he hadn't shot them all down."

"So what- oh, you already said what you think it is. That's he's left."

"Time will tell if I'm right," he said smugly, firmly believing he was.

"Right about what?" asked Kei, walking into the room.

"Kei!" shouted Mimsy, obviously pleased to see him, and getting up. It looked like she might want to hug him, but then awkwardly went over to the window instead. "So are they gone?"

"They're gone, as far as I could tell. Anyone come up with any reasons why though?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Guess I'll go for a shower, then. Mimsy, open invitation to join me!" He winked and walked out again. Mimsy seemed flustered.

Shaya got up and looked both ways through the window set into the door, and turned to Reeg. "Can you check the Starburst? I want to know if any transmissions were sent or received by Kei while he was out."

"You don't think he's some kind of traitor do you?" Srei asked excitedly.

"What? No. What exactly would he be a traitor to? Us? We just happened to pick him up at the right time."

"We saved his life that first day, and rebuilt his ship!"

"But if he wanted to be caught, or was somehow against us, why not just fly off in the night? Why steal an Ishkick and give it to us? Why attack that camp where the girls were being held? No, he's with us, there's some other reason they broke that attack off."

"I guess, but I'd love to know what it was."

"He's with us," said Govu, "but if these attacks continue, for how much longer? Even Kei can't expect to fight every battle without a scratch. All it takes is one lucky missile and he's out of it."

"I know," replied Shaya, "but what else can we do? We're so far from our territory, and unless Reeg here can invent us some kind of cloaking device, we're totally exposed as we head back."

"Don't expect me to do that, by the way," he said gruffly. "This is the real world, not some story."

 _Sure about that, are you? In any case, it's not some story you can just invent a totally new technology in a day, I guess._

"Cloaking though... what if we painted the ship a different color?" asked Srei. "They're looking for a certain Emaan ship, and that's us. But what if we were a different Emaan ship?"

Reeg shook his head. "They're finding us because they can pick up Kei with their scanners."

"So jam the scanners!"

Reeg gave him a dirty look. "Do you even know how jammers work?"

"Well, no."

"They basically send out a pulse, right? A small disturbance in the space/time continuum. Kei bounces it back, just like a bat tracking prey at night. Now you want to 'jam' their signal. That would involve putting some kind of energy shield around Kei that either guided the disturbance around him, absorbed the signal so it didn't bounce, or made it pass through him. We can't do any of those things. So we could only simulate lots of bouncing back, in effect confusing their systems. They would know they were being jammed, in other words, because their system would go out or start acting like there were Keis everywhere."

"Don't even joke about that!"

He gave a chuckle. "But you see why it's impossible?"

"I guess."

"I mean I'll get to work on one, now that I think about it something might be possible, but it would only help us hide once we picked them up. They would know we were in the area, but not where exactly."

"We need all the edge we can get," said Shaya. "Get to work."

"Okay."

"After you check the Starburst."

"Very well, you're the boss."

"And I'm going to keep a close eye on him," announced Srei, "if he makes a suspicious move..." he trailed off.

"Are you sure you're not just more interested in him than me?" asked Mimsy hotly. "And you're jealous he likes me more than you?"

"What? No, I mean, I'm not into men if that's what you're asking."

"Are you sure? Because you've taken an awfully big interest in him."

"I just want to keep him away from you."

"So you can have him?" asked Govu.

"No! Because I love Mimsy. Because we were supposed to get married. Because soon she'll have the fever and-" He broke off. "He's not right for you, I am. Just accept it. Good night." He stormed out.

 _Fever? And I'm guessing the cure isn't more cowbell. What's this about?_

But of course, all the Emaan knew what he was talking about, and so just looked pityingly at Mimsy.

"Not when you're like that," Mimsy said to the door after he had left.

"But he had a good point, it could come any day now. What are you going to do?" asked Shaya.

"I'm going to live my life the way I want," she retorted, "not that it's any of your business, Shaya." And she stormed out too.

"Ah, the passions of youth," said Govu. "She didn't mean it, she's just confused and probably more than a little scared."

"I was young once too, Govu. I know what the choice means. Don't claim you do, you're a man."

"He he, sorry, of course you do."

 _Choice? Being young? Being male? What are these people talking about? Is them having this conversation in front of me, enflaming my_ Curiosity, _a punishment for not telling them about the illusion? Is she sick? Does she have some kind of genetic thing that she doesn't expect to live much longer and one of the symptoms of her decline is a high fever? Susan, I think we might need your magic here soon, please, please, come find me before it's too late for this poor girl!_


	102. Chapter 102

102

Flexibility is Key

Who: Susan

When: Day 3

Place: Conference room

In the late afternoon of the third day, a soldier appeared before Susan's door and said her presence was requested in conference room three. She had been, as usual, going over her book of magic and found a companion spell to _Dazzle._ It was called _Balk_ and the resistance check was LUCk based, of all things. It didn't last as long as _Dazzle_ but if something threw that off, _Balk_ was cheap enough to pick up as a second try _and it worked on the target's next defensive roll._ Someone that had been _Dazzled_ could still muster up a decent RESolve check to throw off a hostile spell, because that wasn't physical. This spell, on the other hand, was described as working on any defensive action, and RESolve checks would count. So she could _Balk_ them, then _Dazzle_ them, then cut them to pieces easier if they could throw off _Dazzle_ on their own.

 _So learning that one once I can use magic freely again._

She also watched the news, swapped stories with Jenny about adventures in distant worlds, and went down with her to the shooting range to show off her slightly below average rating in _Pistol._ Still, the soldiers down there at the time were impressed a civilian was anywhere near their level, and Jenny seemed to be well known even here.

"I tend to get requested a lot," she revealed. "So I move from company to company. Keeps me from getting too bored, I guess."

"Jenny Everywhere," intoned Susan, "She's the best at what she does."

"Isn't that Wolverine?"

Susan laughed, but the soldiers around them just looked confused. "You're right, having someone that actually understands your references is a nice change of pace."

Susan was now sitting in a conference room with a bunch of older men in military uniforms. Also joining them were some younger people in lab coats, and Robert was there, looking either like he wanted to sink through the floor or overturn the table and go on a rampage.

Everyone but her snapped to attention when the general entered, and Susan gave a halfhearted salute because it didn't cost anything.

He immediately turned the floor over to Robert and demanded his report.

"I'm sorry to say we've lost the Singularity," he began.

"What?" roared a guy opposite him. "You let Kei be killed?" He whipped off his sunglasses because that's what all the cool dudes do, right?

"Olson!" rebuked the general.

"Sorry sir, but..."

The general continued to glare at him, and he backed down.

 _So that's Olson. Huh._ He was a square jawed, parted hair jock looking guy with the same rank symbol stuck to his forehead everyone else around here had. He put his sunglasses back on and Robert continued.

"At fifteen hundred hours yesterday we sighted and began our attack of the Emaan vessel 'Glomar,' where our sensors had picked up the Singularity. The rebuilt 'bronco' mecha, piloted by the Singularity, emerged and engaged us. The Glomar also opened fire on our position with their ship guns, and turned to retreat into some nearby cliffs. The mecha was damaged and returned to the Glomar after several minutes. My men kept shooting, as I had instructed, to cripple the craft and bring it down so it could be boarded. As far as my men could see, a missile struck some key area, perhaps their munitions bay, causing a subsequent explosion and breaking apart of the Glomar. The remains sank into the ocean." He sat down.

"The footage?" asked the general. The man beside him nodded and fiddled with some controls, dimming the lights and activating a screen which everyone turned to look at. Susan watched the attack from the point of view of several fighters, obviously being stitched together from various cameras carried by the Ishkicks. It looked exactly like Robert had described, and Susan watched in horror as the Emaan vessel seemed to be shot down and broke up before it hit the water.

As the lights came back up there was a stunned silence shared by the people in the room.

"Can you run the footage again?" asked one of the men who was wearing a lab coat. The general nodded, and it started up. "Take it to the point just before it exploded and slow it down," he requested, and that was done. "There, you see!" he asked, as the Glomar in the video seemed to shimmer for a frame and Susan caught a glimpse of what might be a magical circle under the thing. "What's that?"

 _Magic? Is Sparkle on that ship? If cast instantly magic would only show up for at most .1 seconds, then vanish. If it was .2 seconds it would be a segment, and thus not be instant. That seems to be what a magical circle would like, if it was hidden beneath the ship..._

"Glitch in the camera?" ventured one of the high ranking soldiers.

"Were there any other Ishkicks pointing in that direction at that time?" asked the general.

"I'll look through the footage and find out," said the man next to him, and bent to the task.

"What does it matter?" asked Olson. "We all saw it crash and burn. Nicely done, _captain."_

"It matters," he answered, "because our sensors continued to pick up the Singularity flying away from the explosion."

"Did you go after him?"

"Of course. We flew over the area he was supposed to be in for half an hour, but saw no sign of cave entrances or other concealing features he could be hiding in. Plus, when we returned to the spot we thought it had gone down in, there was no debris field. One would expect something in a wreck of that size to float, or at least a body or two to come up to the surface. We saw nothing."

"You don't think they've developed some kind of in air hologram system, do you?" asked one of the scientists excitedly. The others spoke amongst themselves, debating how such a thing could be possible.

"That could hide a whole ship that size?" one finally said. "The power requirements would be staggering."

"Either way," said Robert, "I would like to request further resources to perform an underwater search for any debris and clear up this mystery for now."

The general looked thoughtful, as the footage looped between the moment before and after the Glomar exploded. "I suppose we should learn the truth of this matter before any disciplinary action is taken against you or your squad," he said at last. "Doubtful as it may be they've mastered some kind of stealth system without our intelligence getting even a hint of it, they may have come across a dimensionally shifted space that yielded one."

"If they could figure something like that out, a technology even the Mu have yet to employ..." the scientist trailed off.

"I'm assigning a team to follow the best estimate route of where the Glomar has been the past few days. If they've been to some high technology junkyard or befriended beings of high technological prowess, we need to know it. Hopefully by following what path they've taken might lead us at least to a greater understanding of what we're facing. I'll also issue orders that if they do resurface, to watch out for deceptions of this type and rely on instrumentation rather than visual perception. Patrols will continue along high probability vectors but this time, their orders will be to track and observe the craft. This idea you can just shoot the Singularity down isn't working, Robert. It's too dangerous, and this proves it!"

"Yes, sir."

"We will then wait for an opportunity to get the Singularity alone, or..." he looked over at Susan, "maybe talk to them for once instead of shooting first." She nodded, and he dismissed Robert and several other lower ranking members, who left after again saluting.

"Now, the rest of you," he said, looking serious, "will proceed as if the Singularity has been lost. How is progress coming on the D-system?" The scientists all looked over at Susan, who gave a little wave back to them. "Yes, I'm bringing her into this. The situation is grave, gentlemen, and we need all the help we can get. Part of that help is Susan here, so please speak freely."

The "head" scientist cleared his throat. "Well, progress is good on construction, we estimate perhaps another month before the device can be given a... limited trial?"

"That long?"

"Unless you would like to divert more resources or personnel."

"Why do you want the project to take longer?" asked Susan, looking at him.

"I'm sorry, do you have some expertise in this matter? Of course adding resources and personnel will speed the project up."

"And nine woman can have a baby in one month, right?"

"What?"

"These new people, they're going to have to get up to speed on what's already been done. They'll get in each other's way, and yours, because they don't know how you work like your current people do. The people already there will be resentful and work less efficiently because that's human nature, to resent needing help to finish something. Adding people to a project doesn't speed it up, most of the time. It's a common fallacy."

Jenny was nodding her head.

"She has a point," said the general. "In any case, with Mu attacks at regular intervals we can't really spare anyone in any case. And there are precious few people that understand the dimensional physics required to do a proper job. Aren't you the one always telling me how delicate all this work is? How it could be ruined by rushing it or bringing in 'mere technicians' I think you called them."

"Yes, well, that's completely the case."

"Fine. Keep working on it. Extend schedules if you can, we must get this done and tested before the Mu figure out we're doing it and come to destroy it. Once we turn it on their sensors are going to light up, just like our handheld units will, so they'll know we're up to something. We may not get a second chance at testing, so get it right the first time."

"I understand, sir."

"Very well then. Dismissed. Not you, Susan," he added, when she started to rise as well. She waited until the scientists filed out. "Can you help, somehow?"

"Ah!" she said simply. "That depends. I don't have any TBR or TDE skills, especially not... you have no idea what I just said. Okay, I don't have design or building skills for dimension stabilizers. The one I have," she hefted her backpack, "was given to me. I know some dimensional theory that might be helpful, but actually welding together circuits or something? No." _At least, not without using magic, which I would like to avoid around here._

"Pity. At the very least I suppose I should show you the thing. I don't suppose you would let us disassemble your... no, I didn't think so." Susan was vehemently shaking her head. "We would put it back together... no?" The shaking increased. "I understand. Anyway, come see what we're working on, an outside set of eyes could be useful."

"Happy to!"

So Susan was taken down several levels and showed into what looked like a bunker, with thick concrete walls surrounding a device that was being constructed in the middle of it. It was a bulbous sort of thing, tall, and partially open still so the center could be glimpsed. Inside was a huge piece of rock.

"Hyperlarcovite," she guessed, making puppy eyes at it.

The general seemed impressed. "Yes, we managed to fuse together a large quantity of the stuff, and it serves as the heart of the system. I don't understand all the technical reasoning behind using it, but the scientists wanted it, so there it is. In fact without a sample at least that big, the scientists say even building the device would be a waste of time.

 _Hey, here's an idea,_ suggested The Darkness. _Grab it, right? Not now, I'm not advocating you to be shot at again, which was hilarious I might remind you. I mean you know where it is now, right?_

 _I can't steal their only hope of fixing this world!_

 _Hear me out. You use magic to steal it,_ Retrieval _I think?_

 _You know it is._

 _Whatever. Then you switch to_ Creation _and make them a new one! Then you switch over to Mercury and use_ Teleportal _to stick it back, like that prophecy that one time. They're none the wiser!_

 _Why not just keep the chunk I made, in that case?_

 _Oh, well, uh..._

Susan made a KNOwledge check, getting a fourteen. _Aren't things created by_ Creation _magic 'totally mundane' or something like that? Plus it won't make anything valuable. Huh, that's a good point, on a world where the streets were literally paved with gold rather than concrete, but copper was worth a fortune because it was rare for some reason, would_ Creation _still refuse to make gold but happily make copper?_

 _Good question._

 _You're not going to tell me, are you?_

 _Why should I? Let your_ Curiosity _burn for a little while._

 _Fine, shouldn't expect much. You don't even know, do you?_

 _You're not going to trick me into telling you._

 _Worth a shot. No, there's something special about this natural crystal, there's got to be. That's why you sent me here, and why you're trying to get me to take that one. So their machine fails in the end._

 _Maybe. Could be I just want to help._

 _HAHAHAHAHAH._

So Susan was given a tour, and with her understanding of how her _Dimension Sense_ worked _,_ a roll of eleven on _Topic: Dimensions_ (not counting an assist by Jenny, who had picked up a few things on her travels that she whispered to Susan) and a bit of _Adaptive Skill_ as it related to their technology _,_ was able to talk to the scientists at least somewhat intelligently and made some suggestions for them. But in the end, she had to ask "What exactly is this machine supposed to do?"

"The purpose is straightforward," explained the lead scientist. "You seem aware that time can run at different rates between dimensions, yes?"

"Right."

"We're going to try capitalizing on that phenomenon and use this system not as a dimensional selector directly, but more as a time machine. It will search though and deposit a select force through dimensional 'space' to a time before the space/time bomb went off. It can then be destroyed by conventional explosives before it activates. This will cause the dimensional tearing to never occur, and all worlds will continue without ever knowing about the other's existence."

"How have you accounted for the paradox in that plan?"

"Paradox?"

"If you go back in time and destroy the device, you'll never be here in this time to build the D-system to go back in time and destroy the device."

"Oh, but as I say, it's not a true time machine. We are simply exploiting the fact that the original dimension must still exist somewhere, and can be reached through creative manipulation of dimensional energies. Basically, finding a world where time runs counter to the flow here, then stepping out at the right moment into the original dimension."

"So when it was done you would all still be here?"

"Perhaps. This may become a special dimension of its own, with no more shifting. Or the original worlds will all return, and we will continue our lives from that point. Either way, the dimensional barrier causing the greenhouse effect on the planet would be gone, and what cities we have would be safe. We could finally begin living without fear again!"

"But any Mu in your territory would still be causing trouble."

"In that scenario, yes. We would have to deal with that problem going forward. But if the worlds disperse into their original positions, we believe that just like a magnet pulling steel, all the beings from a specific dimension will return there. Displaced in space perhaps, they would appear in their world wherever they were in this one, but at least back in their original worlds."

"Where they could easily return to their homes. Okay, I can see that working. Some would die, of course, because they would appear inside things."

"Which is why we plan to suggest they return to their territories before we perform the final correction. If they are near the piece of the world they original came here with, there should be no risk of harm when the dimensions separate."

"Wow. You all really have worked hard on this, haven't you? I'm impressed, this certainly seems like a better option than 'throw the Singularity together with some weird energy in the sky and hope for the best' plan."

"As I have argued many times. This is science; measurable, repeatable, knowable. The Emaan would have the two Singularity flung into space with naught but a hope everything will turn out right. We will calculate and experiment to be sure our way is successful."

"I wish you success, then. Please, don't let me keep you from your work, I know how busy you must be. If I do think of anything else that might be of use though, I'll be sure to let you know."

"Your ideas have been most intriguing, I wouldn't mind speaking with you again."

"Until then."

"Indeed."

"So what are your plans, now that we don't need your help capturing the Singularity?" asked the general on the way up in the elevator.

"See how we can take out the Mu."

"And when you say 'we,' keeping in mind what I told you earlier about our resources situation, you mean..."

"Jenny and myself."

"Just the two of you? Against every Mu in existence?"

"Not _every_ Mu. Just the ones guarding the AI stronghold."

"Ah, so just the toughest, most heavily armed ones. I see."

"Sir, she can do it," said Jenny.

"But can you?" he asked her. "You seem to have a lot of confidence in her, and you're a crack shot and everything private but two against hundreds? That's suicide."

Jenny let a small smile slip out. "Believe me, sir, I wouldn't support such a mission if I didn't know exactly what Susan's abilities were."

"Oh, that dimensional stabilizer you're carrying. You haven't told me exactly what you can do, but you've told her?"

Susan looked at her. "What can I say, she's got an earnest face. Believe me, what I can do is potent, absolute, and unique to me. You wouldn't believe what you were seeing, and you would think me or yourself crazy or that I was trying to trick you somehow. It's better this way. You've seen a little of me fighting, with my full abilities I'm confident I can take down the AI with just Jennifer to back me up."

"Humph. Well, I'll get you clearance to view what files we have on the Mu. We've poured over what little we've learned about them, but maybe a fresh set of eyes will help. Or you'll see a pattern from tangling with the AI elsewhere that we've missed."

"I hope there's something. If I can take the Mu out, or at least their capability to strike at you without warning, it might take some pressure off and the science guys won't have to kill themselves getting the D-system working."

"Of course they will," he countered. "My soldiers have been killing themselves making sure the scientists are protected, how can they give less because they happen to have a science background?"

"Because if a soldier dies, it's sad and pointless, but the world goes on. One of the scientists gets a calculation wrong because he's been working for thirty six hours straight and the energy harmonic released from the D-system rips a crater into the planet that knocks it off axis, burns off the atmosphere, and destroys all life here in the process."

The general considered that for a moment. "I'll get you the information."


	103. Chapter 103

103

Light and Shadow

Who: Sparkle

Time: Day 4

Place: Coming up to a large city where the Glomar wants to sell grapes

Reeg reported the night before that there was no evidence in the Starburst's computers to support the idea Kei was in contact with the Chiram. She was somewhat relieved, but still puzzled about all that happened. She didn't suspect Sparkle, sitting on her lap and purring as she was petted, and made her latest journal entry about the whole thing. The night passed uneventfully, and late the next morning the Glomar neared a small town that Shaya believed was perfect for selling the grapes they had collected.

"It's a pretty small place, so we won't have to worry about not having enough. But it's big enough to have a variety of things to trade or just straight up cash," she explained to Kei when he asked what she meant.

"I guess location is just as important as product."

"If not more so. Stick with us, Kei, and we'll turn you into a shrewd businessman as well." She laughed.

"I guess I need to learn some other skill than soldering, for when this is all over. If it ever is."

"We'll get through this, Kei, you of all people have to stay positive about that."

"Not sure I can, what with the Chiram seemingly determined to shoot me down."

"They've always had their own agenda. Who can say what they're thinking this time?"

"You know them better than I do. If you don't know, don't look at me."

As the Glomar neared the village, Jaby rushed to the bridge saying he smelled smoke, and Shaya brought the Glomar floating higher to see if there was a fire in the area. There was- the village. Magnifying the scene the Emaan were shocked to see Mu swarming the place, indiscriminately blasting away while frightened townspeople scattered everywhere.

"We have to help them!" insisted Kei.

"We aren't soldiers," protested Srei.

"But you've got a soldier's tools, all that military hardware we stole from the camp. Stay here if you want, I'm launching the Starburst to go and help." He tore off towards the launch bay.

"He's going to do more damage to the town in a mecha trying to fight those things than they will," Srei scoffed.

"So let's get out there and help him!" said Mimsy. "He's right, if we don't help and we have the means, any deaths are on our hands."

"There's no Chiram forces in the area," confirmed Shaya, looking over her readings. "We're all these people have." She hit a button and her voice rang through the ship. "Everyone, the town is under attack. If you think you can handle it, grab a weapon and go to help. Leah, Maai, I want you out in your giving cover to the townspeople. Rescue anyone trapped in their houses and keep us appraised of their movements so our people don't get pinned down."

Mimsy ran to the door, but Srei stayed where he was. "Aren't you coming?" she asked as it opened.

"I'm no fighter, you know that."

"And I am? But at least I have some pride as an Emaan to not watch innocent people be slaughtered right in front of me." She left.

"Is this why she likes Kei more than me?" Sparkle caught as she paced Mimsy down the hallway.

"What, is a cat more a man than he is?" she asked, amused. "This isn't a game you know, kitty."

 _And my magic is limited, but I can still help. I have my own pride, you know. I couldn't look Susan in the eye again if I did nothing at this point._

Mimsy ran over to a crate where they were keeping the guns and grabbed a rifle of some kind, along with some extra magazines. As she shoved them into her pocket, Sparkle jumped onto a hover bike, and Mimsy settled herself and strapped in. She turned, looking back. "You're really coming? You have to be the strangest cat... okay, don't fall to your death or anything."

They shot out of the bay towards the town.

It took no more than a moment to reach the outskirts of town, and Mimsy ditched the bike and readied her weapon. She cautiously went from house to house towards the center of town, keeping to cover and at least seeming like she knew what she was doing.

Sparkle watched for a moment, then took off on her own.

"Wait, Starburst!" Mimsy called after her, but Sparkle knew staying with her, even to protect her, was a bad idea. She needed to move ahead and see what she could do that wouldn't arouse her suspicions.

 _Besides, all I have is_ Illusion _at the moment. I need to work out if Mu robots are even susceptible to that magic before I try something and they just ignore it completely. I mean how does a robot make a REAson check, anyway?_

Fast and low, Sparkle tore through hedges and ducked under parked vehicles until she saw two Mu robots shooting things in the distance. One was directly in front of her, the other was down a side street a ways. _Perfect,_ she thought, and spent the time creating an _Illusion_ of Mimsy complete with gun. She got a seventeen on that, which she hoped was higher than robots could achieve. This fake burst from the hedge she was near and fired off a few rounds in the direction of the one Mu. The gunshots she made as loud as she could, to get their attention, and both turned. They also both started shooting, shots whizzing high above Sparkle as she made it duck out of the way behind a nearby tree. She kept the spell active, however, as the two Mu swiftly headed into the area now controlled by her _Illusion._ As they did, Sparkle covered both of them with the illusion that the other was Mimsy, and for a wonder, it worked. Both opened fire on the other, and blew each other to pieces.

Sparkle laughed with delight. _Turns out they don't have any sort of awareness of where other Mu are? Seems to be a design flaw to me, I would make robots that communicated their position to more efficiently work together. But these guys seem pretty human, just walking around and relying on plain old sight to see what they should shoot at. Helps me out._

She continued down the street, looking for what the Mu were shooting at before, and came to a partially destroyed house. A man was struggling to work his way free from some debris, it looked like the walls had been blown away and the ceiling fell on him, relatively intact. His family, or at least nearby people, were trying to shift it and get it off him.

 _Can I help here? I wonder..._

Sparkle knew she could do a "called shot" and increase the damage she did with that attack. She also knew from being a _Paragon_ that her "rules" didn't specify any upper limit to this additional damage, saying only that it was a penalty to hit and increased her delay by that amount afterwards. So you didn't use that capability that often in combat because it left you open if you missed. (And Susan didn't use it now because her damage was already gross enough, and before that she relied on magic primarily instead of doing direct damage.) But this was a piece of ceiling- it wasn't going anywhere, and even an extra twenty _segments_ after the fact was only five seconds. The ceiling wasn't attacking her, who cared if she sat there like a lump a few seconds? She ran and leapt onto the "floor" above the man, and tried to judge where he was so she could strike accurately.

She chose her spot, then concentrated, lifting a paw. She brought it down, taking a -20 penalty to hit and hopefully doing more damage when she did. The absurdity of "missing" in the act of just touching her paw to the surface of the debris caused her to not even need to roll the "attack" and she spent her energy for damage. I mean, what would have happened otherwise? Her paw suddenly flinging itself into the air? Not likely.

So she did thirty one damage to the wood and plaster and whatever else made up the floor/ceiling here, enough to snap off a large piece of it at least. This allowed the people there to lift up the remainder and allow the man to wiggle out, mostly unharmed. Sparkle sat and watched for five seconds as her delay caught up with her, then bounded away looking for more things to do.

She was now heading perpendicular to her original course, and found Mimsy pinned down behind what was left of a wall, trading shots with a couple of Mu. Sparkle considered, then ran behind her and did another casting of _Illusion._ (A seventeen this time, maximum) This one showed the Starburst roaring out from another direction, shooting missiles at the pair. They immediately changed targets to the greater "threat," firing overhead and leaving them wide open to be blown away by Mimsy, who did so with great satisfaction. As the second one exploded, she looked over her shoulder to see what they were shooting at, but Sparkle had already dropped the _Illusion_ so nothing was there. She looked about, confusion plain on her face, but shrugged, slammed in another magazine, and moved up.

Sparkle now moved with her, theory about Mu seeing _Illusions_ proven, staying out of sight behind her as she cautiously moved up. She crossed two intersections, stepping over a downed power line carefully, and moved up to a third intersection. The cable was sparking and humming on the street, and Sparkle was impressed that power was still available in this area. It seemed the Mu had figured out she was there, as two stepped out from hiding down the street and made their way closer. Neither was shooting, it seemed they wanted to catch Mimsy in a pincer and shoot her from two directions at once.

 _Can't have that, now can we?_

Sparkle made sure Mimsy was focused on looking around ahead of her and cast an _Illusion_ over the downed power cable. She got a fourteen by taking the extra time, and Mimsy caught sight of the Mu in front of her. She desperately looked for cover, and threw herself down as the thing fired at her. She shot back, gun out in front of her, and the other clanked into range behind her. It stepped over what it thought was the power cable, but Sparkle had arranged the _Illusion_ so that as it did, it wound up stepping on the actual one and electrocuting itself. It spasmed randomly as power flooded it, and it fell over, deactivated. The other almost seemed confused as it watched the other go down, like it couldn't process what it was seeing. After all, why would even the stupidest of machine deliberately step on a downed power cable? But at the same time there was no cable there to step on, the unit had clearly not touched the metal as it passed over.

Mimsy shot it as it was calculating all this, trying to run a diagnostic to see if somehow the enemy had skewed its vision. Rounds tore through it and it fell, too damaged to continue fighting.

Sparkle let the _Illusion_ go as Mimsy rolled to the side and brought the gun up again, looking for what she had heard behind her. She too was a bit confused as the Mu now down on the ground gave a final spasm and went quiet.

"Someone's looking out for me today," she remarked to herself, moving on. Then she thought better of it and turned back, putting a few rounds through the electrocuted one. "Can't be too careful, right?" she said cheerfully as she looked over her handiwork.

The next street was more torn up, with several houses destroyed. Mimsy moved past them, but Sparkle felt a faint spark of life under some rubble she had already gone by. She raced to catch up and grabbed Mimsy's pant leg with her claws.

"What the?" said Mimsy, pointing her gun down. "Oh, it's you. Back with me, huh?"

"Meow!" Sparkle unhooked her claws and took a few steps back the way they had come. Mimsy looked at her uncomprehendingly. She raced back and forth again, thinking how this always worked in movies, right?

"You want me to follow?" she asked, taking a step.

Sparkle took another, and Mimsy shouldered her gun.

"Okay, lead on."

Sparkle ran to the knocked over house and started pawing at it where she felt the life force to be.

"Oh no, there isn't someone under there, is there?" She set the rifle down and started shifting things out of the way. Or at least trying, she wasn't having much luck.

"Kei, can you hear me?" she said into a communicator she pulled from a pocket.

"You need help?" came the reply. "I can try to get away!"

"I need a mecha, Leah, Maai, are you out somewhere?"

"Mimsy, this is Maai, what's going on?"

"I need help clearing a house, I think someone is pinned underneath."

"Where are you?"

She looked around helplessly, climbing atop the rubble to try and get a better vantage point. "I'm not sure how to tell you that."

 _Hummm..._ Sparkle thought this might call for another _Illusion,_ and set one as high as she could in the air. This was just a ball of light marking their position, and as Mimsy was looking around she didn't notice Sparkle doing anything uncatlike.

"Where did you get a flare gun from? Did you find it?"

"What flare gun?"

"What do you mean... never mind, I'm heading over there."

Mimsy looked up. "Now where did that come from?"

Sparkle kept it in the air until she heard the approaching, and made it fade out. With the arrival of the mecha, Mimsy hopped down and the two worked together to clear the rubble. The hands on the seemed quite versatile, and as the could hover in the air without rockets, it could easily scoop and carry just inches off the ground. Finally a young boy was uncovered, and Maai hopped out to help Mimsy clear away the last of the rubble from atop him.

"Is he dead?" asked Maai.

"I don't think so. Get him back to the Glomar and have Mome look him over."

"Right. You going to be okay out here?"

"I've been great so far. Go on, get going. Wait, don't get going. Hey Starburst, you think there are any other people trapped here?"

"You're asking a cat?"

"Hey, she's the one who found the kid in the first place."

"Through all that? No way!"

Sparkle made a _Spirit Sense_ check, getting a ten. If they were, they were dead, as she felt nothing more from beneath her.

She hopped down and started walking away.

"Okay, I guess not." Maai took the child in her arms and hopped back into her mecha, taking off towards the Glomar.

"How did you know he was there?" asked Mimsy.

Sparkle, of course, didn't answer, instead just kept her ears peeled for the sound for more Mu approaching.

"Guess you're not going to tell me. Well, back to work then." She grabbed up her rifle and listened for the sound of Mu guns, then headed off where they sounded loudest.

She met up with Reeg, who asked how many she had ever seen together, total.

"No more than two, why?"

"The Mu here must not have been expecting such heavy resistance. All that I've seen are in small groups too. Usually there's at least five to a group, because they don't care if they take longer to destroy an area. Here they wanted to wipe this place out quickly and they're paying for it since we arrived."

"And we would have really only had the Starburst if we hadn't done the raid on that Chiram camp. Say what you will about them," she patted the gun, "they do make decent military hardware."

"It's the ammo, it's specially made for taking down Mu. I had a look at it, pretty neat stuff."

"So long as it works."

With two people together, Sparkle didn't want to risk many more _Illusions,_ but it turned out she didn't have to. Both could take care of the small groups of Mu they met pretty easily, and it turned out the battle was nearly done at that point anyway. Kei was seen flying back and forth over the area, looking for more targets, but finally gave it up and landed near the Glomar, which now had quite the crowd of people around it.

Mimsy also made her way back, and Kei ran to hug her.

"I'm glad you didn't get hurt!" he said honestly. "Running around out there like that, what were you thinking?"

"That I could help, and I did. Don't worry, I think I had a guardian angel looking out for me, or at least some of Starburst's luck rubbed off. Do you know, she found a little boy who was buried?"

"Really? How about that."

Shaya came down to speak to the townspeople, who had gone from being potential grape buyers to being, essentially, refugees in their own neighborhood.

"There's nothing we can do," she told the gathering throng of people. "We don't have any materials you could use to help rebuild. For now you'll just have to pull together as best you can and take care of each other."

"What's the point?" shouted one. "You drove the Mu off this time, but as soon as you're gone, they'll be back. The obviously want our town destroyed, and machines do a thing until it's done!"

"That could very well be," agreed Shaya. "But if you think about it, things could have been much worse. I see most houses are standing, and our two are now out there helping put out fires and such. We can also use our hover bikes to look for survivors, and bring them all to one place so we can figure out who is missing. We can't do it all, and it looks like you have a lot of work to do. Best get started."

There was a lot of grumbling, but what could they really do? This was their home, as smashed up as it had become, so people sadly turned to walk back into town and see how much of their shattered lives could be retrieved for another day.

The crew did what they could, and the boy Sparkle had found recovered and word was put out that he was aboard so that his relatives could come and find him. They worked all day, and it was early evening when the messenger showed up, saying the ruler of the town of Para heard they defended this place, and offered lots of money for any spare weapons and ammo they had.

"Para?" asked Shaya uncertainly. "Why does that name sound familiar to me?"


	104. Chapter 104

104

Being Cocky Doesn't Pay Off

Who: Susan

Place: Chiram office building

Time: Day 4

Susan had spent the day going over the information that related to the Mu given to her by the general. Where they had been most heavily attacked in the past, what their strategies were, that sort of thing. There wasn't a lot of data on the robots themselves because those that were deactivated tended to be blown up. Also there seemed to be some kind of fail safe built into them- if they were in danger of being captured or only partially destroyed, they wiped their own data.

So the Chiram could really only tell her about what they had physically seen for themselves, and what sort of ammo worked best on them, things like that. Attacks were basically at random as far as she could see, and the typical tactic was to just commit all forces to destroying whatever was nearby. They didn't retreat or fall back, instead fighting to the last bot.

"One thing bothers me," Susan said to Jenny, sitting across from her and also going over the reports.

"Oh, just the one? You'll have this taken care of by lunch then, right?"

"Very funny. The Darkness has access to knowledge of other worlds, and if Silverstreak is any indication, much better technology than you will find on any one world here on the "lower" side of things. So he comes to a place and takes over a robot factory, you would think he would equip them with technology to make them more durable. But the Chiram have made their equipment specifically to deal with robots, because that's who they're more at war with. Why not give them energy shields and anti-matter missiles and whatnot?"

"I can think of a few reasons. One is just materials. Maybe they can't get quantity of element X here to make the better toys."

"Note to self," she said, pretending to write a note. "Collect all the element X you can find for future need."

"Now who's being funny? You know what I mean. Secondly, it wouldn't want that sort of thing falling into enemy hands, right? As soon as they were shown to have energy shields, for example, the Chiram would consider a hundred ways to capture the system intact and start working to reverse engineer it."

"But they get a memory wipe if things look dicey, they could melt circuits controlling something like that at the same time."

Jenny shook her head. "You're thinking like a wizard."

"I am not!" Susan seemed somewhat offended.

"Sorry, you're thinking like a very superior magic user, which is leaps and bounds ahead of any wizard. Happy?"

"I'll consider it. Go on."

"Think like a robot. It doesn't have any special self preservation instinct because it wasn't programmed with one. Why shield something or give it a weapon that could fall into enemy hands when current technology does the job just fine."

"Does it though? I mean if a robot could last twice as long, it could destroy twice as much."

"So send two robots."

"Ah, but it doesn't, does it? It sends a small group hardly up to the task."

"Assuming the task is destroying us, at the moment. For all we know they're still just testing the teleport system and any larger group is lost. We don't know how many times they've sent troops in that just disappear, or malfunction once they get through. Or the attacks are a feint, and they're collecting something from areas they hit and want some explosions as a cover."

 _Yeah Susan, I'm not some big, ugly thing in the sky who just wants to destroy everything. I have patience. I want to destroy things with the least amount of effort on my part, so I can collect maximum energy from each branch. Your friend there had a good idea though, maybe I should just set my workers to building a giant bomb and be done with the place?_

 _No, it's personal, just like when you took over Harry and I had to throw you out. You want to see me suffer and fail for all the setbacks you've had because of me. I can tell that much._

 _You know me that well, do you? I wonder._

 _If I'm wrong you would have done it already. In fact you would have done it on all worlds, from the beginning. Either you can't do that for some reason because it doesn't leave what you need, it's not possible, or even the more advanced civilizations can't support a bomb big enough. Or, like I said, you really want a chance to actually make me lose and gloat about it until I'm dead._

 _Boy are you going to be surprised when you walk through a gateway and I press a big red button somewhere._

 _Yeah, you do that._

"All right," she said, "I agree we don't know their true intentions yet. And I suppose The Darkness has only taken over the AI, it isn't actually one. So there may be no pattern to find in their-"

The phone in the room rang, and Jenny got up from the table to answer it. A moment later she came back.

"Robert's back," she said. "The general wants us there to hear the report."

"Roger-Rodger."

"I'm Jenny, did you forget?"

"Roger-Rodger, Jenny-Jenny."

When the two made it up to the general's office Robert was already there, with footage playing on his computer.

"As you can see," he was saying, "no trace of any ship going down in the area was found. Not one bolt. I think it was some kind of trick, and the Singularity is still out there, somewhere."

"That is my conclusion as well. Good work, captain, it seems you're not to be court marshaled after all."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now, Susan, I will ask you again. The Singularity isn't dead, will you help us bring him in and explain to him we just want his help in fixing the world?"

"How is she going to do what all my men and forces couldn't do?" protested Robert.

"I'm actually going to talk to the man," Susan replied sweetly. "You'd be amazed how much more tractable it makes people, not having a gun to their head when you show up."

 _Hypocrite,_ groused The Darkness. _How would you know, anyway? Your style is exactly his style. You both just try and knock over anything in your way._

 _That was the old Susan, in case you hadn't noticed._

 _No, strangely enough I hadn't._

"You think the Emaan will just hand him over?"

"I think if he _chooses_ to leave their company, there's nothing they can do about it without coming out of it looking really bad. You never even asked the man his opinion or tried to get him into any sort of discussion. You just shot at him. By all reports, minutes after he landed, confused and alone, on this side of the space/time bomb. Of course he's run into their arms, they helped protect him. That's where I come in- I'm not military, he may listen to me."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then I'll-"

Suddenly a siren was heard throughout the city, and the general's phone started ringing.

"An attack?" he wondered, picking it up. "We're under attack!" he confirmed, slamming the phone down. "I have orders to issue. Robert, get out there!"

"Yes sir!" He saluted, spun on his heel, and took off down the corridor.

"How close?" asked Jenny, running to the window and peering out.

"All over the city, according to reports we've never seen a force this large before." He went over to the wall and pressed a control, and the large picture that was there swung up revealing a safe. He punched in a number and swung it open, grabbing up a rifle. "Help yourselves, ladies," he said. "If you don't mind helping us now, that is, Susan?"

"Of course!" Susan said, "But I'm fine. I only have pistol training, not rifle, so I'll just stick with what I have."

"But you're unarmed!"

"Am I? Jenny, you coming?"

"Of course," she replied, grabbing up a rifle for herself, along with some extra ammo. She went to the door, but realized Susan was heading to the window. She unlatched it and swung it open.

"You can't be serious, we're six stories up!" protested the general.

"Oh, she's serious," said Jenny, walking over and looking down. "We could wait for the elevator."

"Hey, don't you trust me?" She held a hand out.

"I don't see any magic carpet out there, _Al,_ but I suppose I do."

"Al, that's a good one! General, we'll finish out discussion a bit later. Bye for now."

And she pulled Jenny out the window.

Being six stories up, Susan now had about twenty meters to fall before she and Jenny went splat on the ground. She was falling at 9.8 m/s^2 meaning one second later she would be 10m down and another half second she would be pavement pizza. That gave her six whole segments, oodles of time to instantly cast " _Invulnerability"_ on herself and Jenny. She spent fifteen energy as she was at a minus nine penalty and pulled it off with plenty to spare. Both landed with a flourish, though Susan didn't "stick" the landing with her seven _Gymnastics_ check. She wobbled and got steadied by Jenny.

"And you couldn't have done that in the office, why?" she asked. "Though I'm sure you're always hurling yourself out of windows and doing magic _on the way down so you don't die,_ some of us would like to keep our hearts in our chests."

"Didn't want the general to see it. Come on, we are become The Girls Who Hunt Robots!" She pulled her _Enhance Sword_ out and struck out in a random direction. (with her feet, not the sword.) "Forward! For the glory of king and country!"

"I take it I don't have to worry about ducking behind anything for cover?" asked Jenny, shaking her head.

"That's right, unless robots spontaneously gain the ability to use magic or supernatural energy attacks, there's not a thing on this planet that can harm us."

"Perfect," she replied, a gleam in her eye.

Except that it wasn't. As Susan and Jenny prowled around the city following the sound of combat they couldn't actually get a bead on any Mu. They took a few by surprise, and cut them down, but any that saw them coming actually raced _away_ from them as though being drawn in the opposite direction by a powerful magnet. (Both girls could see their rockets firing)

"I can't help but think we are being snubbed, Miss Everywhere."

"I concur, Miss Felton. This seems rather rude of them, to not stand there and allow us to most throughly destroy them."

"Stand and fight!" she shouted after another pair that took one look at her and ran off. "I'll even take off my _Invulnerability_ to make it more fair!"

"You won't though, will you?" Jenny asked nervously.

"Of course not."

"Oh good."

But these cowardly acts continued, and Jenny finally realized "I think we're being drawn somewhere."

"You think?" Susan looked around. "All these streets look the same to me."

"No, we are. There's a park or something not far from here, and they all take off in that direction."

"You don't think..."

"Yes, I do. Come on."

Both girls booked it over there, Susan keeping her speed down to pace Jenny. They came upon not a midnight clear, but rather a hostage situation with a ring of Mu robots covering a cowering crowd of people in the middle. They didn't bother hiding themselves, and boldly walked forward to the one that was facing out, rather than in.

"So this is where you've been going," said Susan, gripping her sword in both hands. "More hostage taking."

"Subject identified- Susan," it intoned. "Connecting to relay network as ordered. Communication channel open. Susan!" It purred, voice now sounding different. "How nice of you to come to our little party."

"I think this is where I shout 'let them go, Darkness' right?"

"If you're any sort of hero, yes. Tell me, did my sensitive robot sound membranes pick up you saying nothing on this planet could hurt you?"

"It did, you can't."

"Ah, Susan, you don't know how much I love challenges like- but what's this? Jenny, how lovely to see you again. This is where you ended up, is it? Trapped like a fly in amber."

"Let's meet face to face, get reacquainted." She brought her gun up.

"Now, now, fire that and my forces open fire." The robot gestured to the others, who slid open panels and such on their bodies and readied missiles. "Maybe I can't hurt you, but bellicose will insure their bodies burst like bloody, baby bubbles."

"All right, don't practice your alliteration on me. And two points for working the word _baby_ in there as well, good show. What do you want, for me to stand down and let you destroy this whole city? No way, I won't trade these lives for every other."

"Since I got the report you were here I was thinking about how to properly greet you. I was going to just blow some people away while you watched, but then you had to go and say something absolute like you did. Tisk-tisk, it'll never do. I can't hurt you? Really? Put your money where your mouth is."

"How?"

"Jenny there. I've got my own score to settle with her, so this will kill two birds with one anti-tank round. Trade me this city for her."

"What?" Both girls blurted out.

"I'm serious. I'll pull my forces back if she takes a little trip with me. Won't even take two minutes, and I'll bring her back. Promise."

"As if I'll trust you."

"Wait," said Jenny, "you did say nothing could hurt us. And I've tangled with stuff that no physical force can touch. I had to rely on magic weapons or just trapping it. This is that, right?"

"It is, but that's not the point. He can't seriously believe I would trust his word to just pull back in exchange for you. Who knows how he would... violate you."

"Susan, please, I don't have your... appetite for the flesh. Her clothes can say on, believe me."

"Appetite eh?" Jenny winked at her.

Susan colored. "It's not like that! I just sometimes meet people- I'm looking for Luna!"

"Oh, I've met people too, don't worry. Appetite."

"Stop it! This is serious!"

"I know. All right, I'll take your deal, Darkvoid. Susan here will make sure you keep it, I have no doubt. Some may die, but your robots won't leave this place ali- er, functioning."

"Drop your weapon, then."

She did, and a robot dropped out the sky behind the girls. Susan resisted the urge to smash it to pieces as it stepped up behind Jenny and grabbed her.

"I hope you know what-" But it didn't give her a chance to finish, it just blasted off...

straight up.

 _What do you have in mind..._

 _You'll find out._

"The rest of you, leave," Susan snarled, pointing her blade. "You got what you wanted."

"Very well. Just remember, magic or not, there are always ways to hurt you."

The robots clanked off, and Susan was torn between going with them to make sure they retreated and staying and scanning the sky for Jenny.

True to its word, she limply fell out of the sky and smashed into the ground, pieces of robot still clinging to her. "Jenny!" screamed Susan, racing towards her. Somehow, impossibly, she was in bad shape. Energy swirled around her, and Susan went to grab her and hold her down but got a sensation like a shock and was thrown backwards. Jenny was having convulsions, limbs randomly twitching, and Susan knew that if she bit off her own tongue or something, that would work. _Invulnerable things could hurt each other, or themselves for that matter._

Susan stared at her own hand, numb and now also swirling with energy, and wondered what she could do for her friend.

 _She's not hurt, she can't be hurt though the spell!_

 _You really do think you know everything, don't you? Even here, where you've been for what, four days? Pathetic._

 _Shut up and let me think._

Susan thought fast. _I know there's some kind of ceiling around this world, that's why the greenhouse effect. It's some kind of dimensional barrier. Was she taken through that? That's why they flew straight up and why only pieces of the robot came back with her? Did that react to her somehow? Is this what happens if you go up there?_

Jenny suddenly screamed, then seemed to pass out again, still jerking like her brain was firing randomly.

 _Come on, think of something. How can I fix this? It's not damage, it's just dimensional energy or something. The stabilizer? But how would I tell it to help her? Maybe Pluto magic?_ She looked around, and the robots were gone, but did she dare drop _Invulnerability_ to switch when that could really cause Jenny to be in danger?

 _Better decide fast, I doubt she has long either way._

Susan didn't reply, just tried to work her watch with her numb hand. "Switch me over to Pluto," she commanded it. "And hurry!"

"Unit cannot be commanded to greater speed," it replied. "Forces are external to the unit. Time estimation available in thirty seconds."

That done, she grabbed her book out of sub-space and started paging through it. _I'll probably only get one shot, so something I can use better be in here. I'll read it over, and be ready to make the checks the instant Sun magic goes down and Pluto comes up._

She looked over all the spells dealing with dimensions, and settled on _Planar Deflection,_ hoping she had guessed right. Seconds ticked by, finally she watched as the estimate of when Pluto magic would be available counted down, and willed Jenny to hold on. She continued flailing and sometimes screaming, the energy shell around her body swirling and preventing anything from touching her. (Susan tried her sword, but it too was repulsed.) Finally the planet was ready, and Susan envisioned the magic symbology she needed and threw energy into a _Pluto_ check to hopefully save her friend.

" _Planar Deflection!"_ she cried, and the magic responded.


	105. Chapter 105

105

This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Who: Susan

Time: A minute after Jenny fell out of the sky

Place: The city someplace, Susan has no idea

Susan's book of magic has this to say about the spell _Planar Deflection:_

 _For the duration of the spell, any dimensional effects entering the area, which has a radius equal to your Pluto rating in meters, are deflected back to their original source._

Normally used to prevent people teleporting in, or to keep them from summoning things, like demons. But this novel use of it, Susan hoped, would draw off the odd dimensional energy that now surrounded Jenny and allow her to be touched again. She held her breath as the magic circle sparkled into existence and winked out, and Jenny gave one final cry of anguish.

The energy flew away from her, back up towards the sky, and she dropped limply and unmoving. Susan, knife already in hand from when the countdown was slowly ticking past pressed the blade up against her. As it wasn't hilarious for someone to come along because she hadn't been stabbed, no one did, and she kept repeating "come on, come on," to try and will her to wake up.

She didn't.

Susan now had several options:

1) Pick her up and physically carry her someplace she could be helped.

2) Switch back over to Mercury magic and try a _Teleportal,_ though if _Question_ didn't work around here, that might not either, costing precious time.

3) Leave her here and bring someone back.

She decided to just pick her up and hope she could find her way back to the building she had come from, and bent over to grab her.

"Is she okay?" asked a voice beside her. Susan jumped (remember she can jump a couple of meters straight up now) and landed in a fighting stance. The people who had been held hostage were now in a semi-circle around her and looking around nervously. It was a man who had spoken, and she put her hand on her chest, Jenny's comment about keeping her heart there was now a little closer to home. Her heart was racing.

"I don't know, I need to get her back to the infirmary. Can you tell me how to get to the... I don't even know what to call that building..."

"Are the Mu gone?" he asked, ignoring her. "Odd how they just left. Never thought they did that sort of thing."

"I think so. It just wanted to hurt me, show it could still do it even with my- why am I telling you this? Can you direct me to the government building where the general lives or not?"

"What general?"

"General... what's his name. General Wright."

"Sorry, no idea."

"Then you're of no use to me!" She picked up Jenny, who seemed to weigh nothing at all to her magically enhanced body, and turned to go.

"Wait, what if those Mu come back?" someone shouted. "You can't just leave."

"Are you a doctor?" she shot back.

"No."

"Is there a doctor here?" Everyone looked around but none came forward. "Then I'm leaving to get this girl where she can get some help. Go home, the attack is over."

Even Susan could tell that, the sounds of battle were fading and an uneasy silence was creeping over the town. She walked away, and none stopped her. Now her _No Sense of Direction_ worked against her in the worst possible way. She was lost in a city that had just suffered an attack, and everyone was freaking out. Sirens were now going everywhere, as fire trucks started whizzing back and forth. Crowds of people streamed past her towards shelters that were no longer necessary because The Darkness had done its work for the day. Susan felt alone and terrified, unable to help Jenny because by all rights her magic should have woken her up almost immediately. As she walked she at least switched back to Sun magic, which took considerably less time than switching to Pluto had, and put _Invulnerability_ back on them both.

Her watch computer told her the reason for that was switching back to a planet that had been locked in just minutes ago was much easier than acquiring it from scratch, which made sense. Not that it helped the ball of ice in her stomach, but at least being _Invulnerable_ no more damage would be done, right? And her hand still felt a little funny, like it had fallen asleep, but when she checked her character sheet she wasn't at any penalties, so she was pretty sure she wasn't damaged.

 _But what damage was done in the first place? What happened to her? Why doesn't she wake up?_

She thought about putting Mercury magic to use, and just flying overhead to try and spot the building. _And if someone sees me, who cares? That's not worth Jenny's life, is it?_

But finally her sixteen LUCk check kicked in, and she found a found a group of soldiers who she ran after and had them radio in for transport to the building she had left, where she was assured she would find a fine medical facility. A mecha that looked custom built for medical transport swooped down, and Susan carefully laid Jenny in the compartment and climbed inside. They took off.

"What's the matter with her?" asked the woman driving.

"I don't know," replied Susan. "Or else I would have fixed it already. She got grabbed by a Mu and flown into that dimension barrier that's up there. The robot got blasted apart and she fell again."

"What? Are you sure she isn't dead? Nobody could survive that!"

"I'm not worried about the fall, that's inconsequential. It's the weird energy that stuck to her when she came down I'm worried about. I got rid of it but she won't wake up."

"Weird energy? That you got rid of. Right... What were her symptoms?"

"Am I just going to have to go over this with the doctors when we get there?"

"No, I'm recording it." She pointed to her dashboard where a list was forming of what Susan was saying.

"Oh." So she described what it looked it, and said that it had dissipated naturally, not wishing to undergo psychiatric evaluation for babbling about 'magic.' By the time the list was done they had arrived, and Susan carried her inside the building.

Medical personnel had her set onto a floating gurney, and whisked off to a room for an initial diagnosis. Susan followed.

"You should wait here," said one of the nurses, pointing to the sign on the door. Susan couldn't read it, but didn't want to argue with the woman. She ripped the heavy door off the wall and slammed it into her knee, doing thirty damage, enough to easily snap it in half. All eyes were now on her as she lightly tossed the pieces away.

"What sign?" she asked annoyed. "I don't see any sign. Move. Save her."

"Uh, right. Se- Se-"

"Security? I'll get the general himself down here, see that I don't. The attack on your city is over because of her sacrifice. Now _save her or I will tear this building down myself in exchange for her life!"_

Two uniformed men jogged over, demanding to know what was going on.

"This woman, she, the door..."

"I see that. Did you do that?"

"No, it spontaneously tore itself in half and flew over there. Are you going to get out of my way so I can make sure Jenny is all right, or am I going to have to move you?"

"Now, take it easy," said the one man, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not sure how you did that but-"

Susan shoved him, sending him flying (34 – 14) meters down the corridor. He yelled and impacted the wall, the corridor wasn't twenty meters long here to begin with. The other stepped back and looked at his partner, now struggling to rise as the air had been knocked out of him.

"I'm going."

She turned and pushed back past the nurse, then stopped to see which direction Jenny had gone in. That's when the electrodes from the taser hit her in the back, bouncing off her _Invulnerability._ They fell to the floor in a tangle, and Susan didn't even bother turning her head to look at the guy.

 _That way looks wide enough for that gurney thing, I'll try there first._

She heard (and thanks to her _Ninjutsu_ and _Spirit Sense_ skills, felt) the guy rushing her, so she spun and clotheslined him. (She rolled max, a nine) He fell to the floor, as she wasn't actually attacking, rather allowing him to bounce off her _Invulnerability_ and knock himself out. In this case it was like he attacked himself by running headlong into a wall, and didn't get back up again.

"And see to this guy, too," she called to the nurse, who was trying to cast _Invisibility_ untrained, but as she didn't know magic was even real, she wasn't doing very well. Susan continued down the corridor, looking into rooms until she saw Jenny. Her shirt was off, _oh my,_ and they seemed to be checking her for bruises.

"You can't be in here!" exclaimed one of the people in the room, coming to block her path.

"Funny, because I seem to be," retorted Susan. "You're wasting your time, she's not bruised. Or physically damaged in any way, so rule that out right now."

"This report says she was picked up and dropped from a great height," protested the doctor, or at least Susan thought he was. He was the most senior looking guy in the room, anyway, with a bushy mustache and thinning hair.

"And the report also says not to worry about that, the fall wouldn't have hurt her. She's unconscious from dimensional energies flooding her brain or something. That's what you have to worry about!"

"Are you sure she didn't break her neck in the fall?"

"AARG! Listen to- you know what, fine." Susan stormed off, back down the corridor to where the nurse and other soldier were looking over the one on the ground. Both gave a start when she turned the corner. "Give me your stun gun," she demanded of the one, who was fumbling it out anyway. "Yeah, that one. No, don't fire it at me..." She sighed as again electrodes bounced off her. "Honestly, why do I even try with you people? Give me that before you hurt yourself." She zipped over and grabbed it from him, and he didn't even try to hang onto it, just gaping at her that it didn't work. "Thanks." She walked back into the room, retracting the electrodes.

"Now hold on just a minute!" insisted the doctor. "Just what do you think you're doing with that?"

"Proving a point." She stripped her own shirt off and jammed it up against her side so they could see it.

"No, don't!" shouted the nurse, but she pressed the button and they could all see it activate and hear the sparks.

"Satisfied? Now stop looking for physical damage and start thinking about what to do with someone who spent time in that dimensional zone up there! It tore a robot apart and did something to her, figure out what and fix it!"

She crushed the thing underfoot and put her shirt back on, while they started hooking various machines up to her. Susan sat down on a nearby stool to watch. A moment later the doctor and one of the nurses were discussing something, and the nurse had something in her hand.

"What's that about blood?" asked Susan.

"We're trying to take a blood sample, but we can't!" she replied. "The needle won't go in her arm!"

"Oh, sorry about that." Susan stopped maintaining that spell. "Go ahead."

They looked doubtful, but bent to the task again and this time managed it. Minutes ticked by, and they were talking about what sort of scans they should do when more soldiers burst into the room.

"Can't you see there's a woman undergoing medical treatment in here!" she shouted at them. "Go wait outside, can't you read?"

"Someone tore the door with the sign off- hey, you're that girl! Grab her!"

"Not here," shouted the doctor. "I'm trying to concentrate! Honestly, you can't just barge in here."

"Yeah!" Susan thumbed her nose at the guy.

"Sir, she's dangerous, you shouldn't go-" said another voice from beyond the door, and the general walked in.

"Tension!" yelled the one, and all four saluted at him.

The general ignored them, coming to stand in front of Susan. "Why am I always being called down to find you harassing my men?"

"Why are your men always getting in my way?"

"This is a surgical theater!" insisted the doctor. "I must insist you all leave at once! Even you, general."

"I'm not leaving," insisted Susan.

"Come on, they'll do everything they can, believe me. You can report on what happened, and I'll authorize any measures necessary to save private Everywhere. Satisfied?"

Susan knew she shouldn't be there. That she should let the people who had the best chance of helping Jenny actually help Jenny. Her magic, her skills, her knowledge- they couldn't. This was a time for this dimension's resources and medical knowledge. But on the other hand she felt rage, rage against this man, _and who does he think he is,_ who could come and dictate terms to-

 _I don't believe it,_ she thought to herself. _Jenny wasn't knocked out two seconds and The Darkness took me over again? Come on!_

 _Shoot, you're starting to recognize it now. Still, way too late, so what good does it do you?_

Susan let out a deep breath. "My apologies, general, of course you're right. Doctor, you also have my apologies. Please keep me informed if you can." The soldiers watched her warily as she went past, but made no move against her as the general fell in step beside her.

"Sorry," she said the guy in the hallway, being helped up by the nurse.

"Uh huh," he managed.

In the elevator again, Susan realized something important The Darkness probably hadn't wanted her to realize and thus staged that little scene back there.

"Jenny... isn't like you," she started. "I hope I can count on your desecration in this matter."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean she's like me, a dimensional traveler. She's not a Chiram, just like you aren't an Emaan. She got stuck here, and joined your army to help protect people, just like I do."

"When you're not throwing them around, you mean?"

"I could just as easily have punched a hole in that guy's chest. What I did was as minor as I could do."

"I see. It does explain a few things." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I'll inform the doctors that any irregularities should be discussed discreetly, and that they should modify their treatments if they can for her unique physiology."

"Thank you."

"Of course. It also explains why she was so anxious to stay near you. Are you her ticket out of here?"

"In a manner of speaking. Once the world is back to normal, she can leave as normal. We have a mutual enemy in The Darkness, and she has skills she's picked up on other worlds too. Also we understand each other, how it can be lonely when you're jumping from world to world and you can't use the cultural conventions of speech you're used to because no one will get them. She gets some of them, and I get some of hers. It's nice."

"You mean like you both could say something about a character in a story you both read, and know what you were talking about?"

"Exactly."

"Fair enough." They walked into the office, and Susan sat down again. "So, let's hear why they suddenly left, and how private Everywhere... oh, I get it now. Clever."

Susan grinned. "You mean her name? Yeah, I never did ask if that was her actual last name or she just took that last name. How she got hurt, you mean? It happened like this..."

"So, should we expect more attacks now that the AI knows where you are?"

"I think it always does."

 _Hi!_

"It's complicated. I don't know. Depends on if it thinks it can win. It won't be able to use that trick again, but the thing with The Darkness is, if it's showing you one trick it probably has another ready to spring on you."

"Sound strategy in any combat."

"It bothers me, though. Why not grab both of us? Was it unsure how severe the damage would be? Did it believe seeing Jenny hurt would hurt me more? Was this just a distraction? Why not teleport a million robots to this city and just sweep across it, destroying everything? Not even I could fight that."

"We can only surmise their system needs ample recharging time, or is somehow limited to how many it can send through at one time. Or too big a number sent through will create a kind of "dimensional lightning" that would incinerate the place they're teleporting from."

"So you really have no clue whatsoever how they're doing it?"

"May as well be magic."

 _Wonder if it is magic, maybe it managed to bring some down with it? Hummm..._

"Let's hope not."

"Indeed. We have only vague ideas about the principals involved. For all we know it isn't teleportation, but rather a really fast assembly process from hidden 'makerbots' if you will. A 'replicator' in other words, here physically that just pops a couple out, and then they attack from there and it just _seems_ like they came from nowhere."

"I'm inclined to take the fight to them, somehow."

"I wish we could. But if we did that, they would hit us from behind, or smash the cities we left undefended."

"What about the other powers in the world. These Emaan? Robert didn't have much luck catching a single man, so there must be something to their technology. Can we band together with them? I mean their cities are getting attacked too, right?"

"By our accounts, yes. But work with their government? Our philosophies are quite different, and we've never been able to see eye to eye."

"So what about hiring 'mercenaries' so to speak? They're motivated by profits, right? Offer them money. Just ask for ships willing to fight."

"We would get all kinds of riffraff!"

"Maybe, but some random riffraff made Robert retreat, twice. Who really does better soldering here?"

"I don't know, just getting them to talk to me would be a challenge. I would want to go through official channels first, before taking on mercenaries." He shuddered.

"But could you? Are there lines of communication we could use, so we don't have to physically go there? They might be more willing to talk if they knew that's all we could do- talk."

"We maintain what channels we can, with the shifting of the landscape and the unreliability of wireless communication over any distance."

"That's all I ask. Let me talk to them," _with_ Augment Skill: Persuasion _going,_ "and see what they say. It can't hurt, you can't be more standoffish with them, now can you?"

"I suppose, and they'll be out of strangling distance if you get pissy."

"I will be quite rational with them, I assure you."

"I'll believe that when it's over. Still, actually talking with them. I have to be honest, I never would have considered it."

"That's why it'll work."

He snorted. "Again, I'll believe that when it's over. Okay, I'll see what I can do, but I'm bringing in a mediator not affiliated with either group, and you'll be in your quarters and I'll be in mine. I will cut you off if I think you're a threat to the negotiation."

"It was my idea! You don't even know what you're negotiating for."

"Then I guess you better tell me beforehand, right?"

Susan sighed and started telling him what she wanted from the meeting. He leaned forward, interested.

"Of course, that's not my complete argument, it's what I've come up with just sitting there. I'll flesh it out tonight."

The general nodded. "Okay, I can see where you're going with this. If it can be done... you've got your meeting."


	106. Chapter 106

106

Possession is 9/10 of the law

Who: Sparkle

When: Day 5

Place: Town of Para

"So that's why it sounded familiar," remarked Shaya, having finished her discussion with the local "leader" of Para, named Ann. The Glomar was in radio contact range, and Shaya had raised her to see what the situation there was. She told Ann that yes, they had some spare weapons they could sell, along with grapes if she was interested.

"My citizens are always complaining they don't have enough to eat. Sell those to them, if you must," was her answer, before she rudely cut the transmission off.

"Sounds like a ruler that has the best interest of her subjects at heart," remarked Kei. "How did she come to power, anyway?"

"Who knows," answered Shaya. "Come on, we have a market to prepare for."

And so the Glomar hovered atop what looked like a mall, and started unloading boxes of grapes and weaponry into the space they had been assigned. The place was dark and dusty, obviously unused for some time, and Reeg went grumbling off to try and get power restored to the place while the other crew started making it at least somewhat presentable. Mimsy, true to form, was yelling at Kei for lounging around, but he did have a point when he said he wasn't an Emaan, why should he have to do the work of one?

"I guess you can start getting your own food, then, and don't drink any more of our water. Oh, and there's fuel for the Starburst, good luck getting any of that without us-"

"You said you wanted these boxes where?" Kei was trying to balance a bunch of them and quickly got to work. Sparkle shook her head and slipped out, _she_ couldn't carry boxes so there was no point hanging around bored. She walked down the streets, poking her nose where it probably didn't belong in typical cat fashion.

She noticed a few things in her journey about the town. First, the place was filthy so obviously garbage pickup was not a high priority for these people. Second the people themselves seemed without hope of any kind, mutely hanging about on street corners and steps looking depressed. Oddly enough, there were lots of them, some streets absolutely lined with poorly dressed, thin, worn people. Sparkle couldn't figure out why, the lands they had passed to get here seemed fertile enough, they should at least be able to farm and get food that way. Even if they had been transported there recently, what had crushed the spirit of these people so much that this many of them couldn't band together for their common good? _Get some horses_ , Sparkle had seen some running about the fields so she knew they existed, _farm during the day, and come back to the city at night to live._ _Someone in all these people must know how to grow things, or raise animals or something. This city looks pretty modern apart from how badly maintained it is, but there's always survival types convinced the world is going to end and brushing up on life skills, right?_

Time soon answered the question of who was repressing them- soldiers regularly patrolled the streets, and judging from what Sparkle heard as she tailed them for a bit they were looking for some "rebel leader" named Jaan. The soldiers she saw were mostly men, much better dressed, and thought nothing of strolling down the street eating something as hungry eyes tracked them.

 _I think I'm beginning to see._

Sparkle felt herself making a LUCk check, and got an eighteen. As she watched, a baby ran out into the street in front of a pair of them, and a terrified woman, probably the child's mother, grabbed her and cowered in front of them.

"Move out of the way!" shouted the man, and brought his booted foot back to kick her. He didn't know he was rolling _Initiative_ because there was a _Paragon_ in the area, but he was. Sparkle hissed and _Spirit Stepped_ in front of the man, appearing as though out of nowhere.

The man couldn't stop his swing, and Sparkle did something rather reckless- spent an XP for an extra action. Her cards had included _XP Bonus_ giving her two, and an _Extra Cash_ giving her another two because a cat pulling a sack of money out was a little too much, even for her. So she figured she had them to spend, and attacked the man's foot with Ryūdō. There were only two of them, so she figured she wouldn't hold back, and spent ten energy on the strike. It was eleven to fifteen (his untrained _Kicking Defenseless Ladies_ check against her skilled Ryūdō check) so she struck to the side of his boot with a paw and avoided his blow meant for the woman.

She did sixteen damage, completely breaking his ankle and toppling him with a scream. His gun went flying as he fell, and many eyes fastened on it. (Four more damage done and his whole lower leg would have been torn off, so he got off lucky, though the damage roll was near maximum.)

"That cat just broke my ankle!" he screamed.

"Oh, come off it, Larry," said the other. "A cat? Larry?"

Larry was too busy clutching his ankle and blinking tears out of his eyes to respond.

Sparkle turned to the woman. "Run," she said, and the woman didn't need any more incentive than that. She hauled her child up and ran.

"It'll be worse for you, next time," she said to the soldier who couldn't believe his ears. "Keep that in mind when next to go to hurt someone."

She _Spirit Stepped_ back into the alley she was in before, vanishing from their sight as quickly as she had come. Sadly, this all seemed to set something off, as the people nearby were now taking an active interest in what was going on rather than just trying to ignore the problem when the soldiers had the upper hand.

"Can you walk?"

"I don't think so," said Larry, trying to rise. "It's really broken. I don't believe this!"

One of the nearby woman timidly got closer. "Can I help you gentlemen?"

"Get out of here!" shouted the soldier.

"Oh, but I wouldn't want you to lose this," she said, stooping to pick up the fallen weapon.

"Don't touch that!"

"Let me just check the safety, this is the on position, isn't it?" She clicked something on the rifle.

"That's off you idiot! You just turned the safety-"

"What did you call me?" Suddenly the woman was no longer acting feeble or subservient, in fact she held the gun like she knew what she was doing with it.

"I, uh, I mean..." That's when another woman, _wait, why in the heck is this street made up of just woman?_ bashed him in the head from behind with a pipe. He went down, and she grabbed his gun. Larry went even whiter, probably wondering if this was going to be his last patrol.

"Quite the reversal of fortune," said the woman, also clicking the safety off and pointing it at him. "I saw it, but I still don't believe it. Now, what shall we do with you?"

"Don't shoot me, please don't shoot me!"

"Turn out your pockets, and someone check this other one, too."

 _Uh, did I just facilitate a robbery? But I couldn't have let that woman be kicked, right? Wait, was this whole thing a setup of some kind? And I'm the one always chiding Susan for not thinking ahead._

They robbed the men, taking even the boots and helmet, then melted away leaving Larry alone with his unconscious partner. He looked about, wondering how he was going to get back to base in this state. Sparkle peeked from the alley, but the street was empty now and she wondered if she could in some way help them.

 _I can't do any healing at the moment, just illusions, and that's not going to help._ Then the car roared by, narrowly missing the two men, but not slowing down even as Larry shouted after it. _This town is messed up. I'm going back to the Glomar and pretending nothing happened._

But she couldn't. As she walked her mind kept turning over what she had done, and what had happened because of it. _I guess I don't know who is more in the wrong around here. Those people in the street are obviously not well off, and I can't fault them for looking to their own survival. But once those two are retrieved, will others come to make an example of the area? Did my protecting that one woman cause a chain of events to begin that I'm going to regret? I'll probably never know the full outcome of my action, and who does? Trying to be Susan is awfully exhausting. I don't know how she does it._

Sparkle returned to the site of the Glomar to find the building much cleaner than before, and many were gathered outside to see what was going on. Sparkle didn't see them carrying much in the way of trade, but followed them in when Shaya opened the doors.

"Welcome back, Starburst," she said as Sparkle passed her. "Did you see anything interesting in the city?"

 _You wouldn't believe me if I told you._

One woman with long blond hair, fuzzy and dirty, and wearing a blue outfit stalked up to her and held something up for her to look at.

"It's Emaan made, is it not?" she demanded. "And an Emaan ship dropped it off months ago, reports are clear that's what happened."

"What's it doing in this picture?" asked Shaya, taking the picture. Sparkle tried to see what it was without looking too interested, but it was too far away for her to focus on and the angle was wrong.

"Making our lives miserable. Perhaps you should do something about it?"

"Oh dear. Come inside and we can talk."

Sparkle followed them, and Shaya called Kei and Mimsy into a back room where she uprighted some chairs and told them to sit down. Sparkle got up on the table and looked the picture over after she tossed it on the table, and the woman looked her over.

"What's with your cat?" she asked.

"Oh, don't mind her," said Shaya. "She does a lot of weird things, we're used to it."

 _Weird? Un-catlike, perhaps, but to call my behavior weird of all things. I never._

The picture was of some kind of energy weapon, mounted on a castle wall, and firing down on a bunch of people that were fleeing from it.

"I ask because she looks like a cat my followers reported saying they saw right before... just a second." She pulled a device from a pocket and spoke into it. "Hey, Elisa, what color cat did you say struck down that soldier? Black? No, just curious." She looked at Sparkle, who figured now was a good time to hop down and scoot under the table. The woman bent down to look at her, but shook her head. "Never mind. Do you recognize this weapon?"

Kei and Mimsy shared a look, but Mimsy shrugged and they both leaned over to look at the picture.

"It's a Fragmentation Cannon," said Shaya, "Mostly used for mining. This one, I see, is being used for something quite different."

"It doesn't need any more than low power to vaporize somebody, and our illustrious 'queen' uses it as a deterrent to further uprisings in this city. This makes her soldiers bold, and they've become more and more uncontrollable since the thing was installed. Now the citizens are terrified of them, and every day another one of my resistance group gives up and leaves."

 _Is this that Jaan they were talking about? I guess my messing with those soldiers was justified after all?_

"I see. We don't lease them out for military purposes, just mining. It looks like this queen of yours is not mining in this picture."

"So you'll repossess it?"

"I doubt she'll just return it if we ask nicely."

"So then don't ask. Sell... loan us the weapons were you going to sell Ann. Then help us take it out and take our city back from that... woman."

"Loan because you can't actually pay us anything for them?"

"Ann has stolen anything worth anything, our city has been gutted. She's a tyrant, and you Emaan let it happen. Once we liberate the place and get our possessions back, we can pay you whatever you want."

"Now just a minute," spoke up Mimsy, "we didn't just _let_ anything here happen. Whoever leased this couldn't have known she would use it like that."

"But you didn't keep tabs on it, either. Something as powerful as that cannon, you think someone would come and make sure it was being used properly."

"Who has time for that?"

"So she just gets to use it with impunity because you're too busy to keep your own technology under control?"

"Ladies, please," said Kei, "let's not fight. Obviously we'll help you out, right, Shaya?"

"We have the weapons, and I suppose some kind of moral imperative to make this situation right. You can tell us about the layout of where the cannon is kept, what's guarding it, that sort of thing?"

Jaan (if that's who she was) nodded fiercely.

"And what, exactly, are you offering once this is over, for our help?"

"Shaya!" protested Kei.

"Sorry Kei, but this is who we are. Nothing, especially in this world, comes free."

"Or even cheap," muttered Jaan. "Don't worry, you'll be well compensated."

"Very good. I'll draw up a contract, then we have a raid to plan."

Even as the group began to plan the raid, Mome peeked into the room.

"Master, a bunch of soldiers are here," she said hesitantly.

"Oh no, I forgot we were supposed to sell guns to the leader here." Jaan glared at her. "We didn't know the situation before! But how to get rid of them now?"

"They won't take no for an answer," agreed Jaan.

"I'll see what I can do to get rid of them," Shaya said sadly, standing up.

 _Me too,_ thought Sparkle, an idea forming in her mind. She slipped past Shaya and made her way out of the building again, finding a quiet spot. She took extra time with an _Illusion,_ getting a twenty one, and a replica of Larry appeared before her. She would have smiled if she could, and had him run over to where the soldiers were now arguing with Shaya about how much these guns were worth.

"What are you doing here?" she made him shout, and all heads turned towards him. "There's been an attempt on the life of her majesty, all soldiers are to report back to headquarters for further orders!"

"I didn't hear about this!" said one, pulling some kind of communicator. Sparkle had a second of panic, but then remembered her range was M, not just this one "ghost." The man called back for verification of his orders, and Sparkle covered the reply with the illusionary voice verifying everything Larry had said. It probably made for a confusing conversation on the other end, but it worked on this end. She wasn't sure it would, but if something can be covered up by a physical illusion, why not cover up a voice with an auditory illusion? She further ordered them back on the double, they could buy weapons any time. Apparently he was satisfied, and put the communicator back.

"What about you?" the man asked, when Larry didn't turn to join them.

"I'm ordered to question these people here, see if they know anything about this plot to murder her highness."

"Very well. Report back to me when you're done."

"Yes sir!"

 _Not likely. Even if the real Larry has made it back to base by now. Which I doubt, he'll know nothing of this. Wonder how long it'll take them to figure out they've been duped, and try putting the pieces together? I wish them luck._

When they were out of sight, Sparkle made her _Illusion_ turn to Shaya. "Get packed up and get out of here," he told her. "The queen and her thugs don't need any more guns."

"Aren't you one of those- hey!"

He turned and went around the corner, where Sparkle dropped the spell. Jaan rushed after him, but stopped dead.

"He's gone!" she said, rubbing her eyes. She didn't see Sparkle, crouched behind a box, trying hard not to laugh.

The others came to look, and all admitted it was odd but they had work to do.

As they did it, Sparkle made her own way back to the ship, where the citizens there had pitched in to help load. It seemed they too wanted to keep the guns away from the queen.

"You'll still help us, right?" asked Jaan.

"Come with us now, and we'll plan it out for tonight. We can flee but make our way back here once the sun is down."

"Right." Jaan told her followers to get aboard the Glomar, which they did, and it took off.

So the resistance fighters and the crew of the Glomar talked about what needed to be done, while Sparkle napped to get some energy back. When she woke up the weapons and the members of the group were gone, with orders to attack the compound once the cannon was gone. The crew of the Glomar would sneak into the compound and "liberate" the cannon, attaching anti-gravity devices to it and simply floating it out of there. Sparkle tagged along, but there wasn't much for her to do. Mome got spotted and shot down on the approach, which Sparkle would have guessed would raise some kind of alarm. Oddly, that alarm never sounded, and the crew found themselves in front of the door barring the way into the storage shed that held the cannon.

 _Why is this place not crawling with troops right now?_

Mome even made her way back to the group, prompting a happy reunion between her and Kei, and the door swung open. Sparkle looked all around. _This is way too easy. Don't tell me there isn't a simple alarm on this door?_

A few soldiers were inside, but Kei swiftly took care of them, before they could even shoot.

 _I didn't make any LUCk checks since I got here. Did someone else? Could one of these people have a higher LUCk than me? Doesn't seem possible..._

The units attached, the gun floated out according to plan and they got most of the way out of the camp before they were discovered again. After racing back to the Glomar, the crew started attaching the gun to the side of the ship, while Kei went back out in the Starburst to run interference for them. From her vantage point outside the ship she was pretty sure she witnessed a battle between the mecha and some tanks, which was laughably one sided.

But her eyes widened as panels in the castle opened and missile launchers raised up out of the holes.

Then they fired.

 _Oh please, let them be heat seeking..._

The others had finished attaching the gun and gone back down, so Sparkle was alone. (This was an eighteen LUCk check.) She quickly cast _Illusion,_ which under normal circumstances wouldn't be much use against something as dumb as a missile. However, one often overlooked quality of the _Illusion_ spell was the ability to simulate a temperature as well as an image, and Sparkle imagined the hottest thing she could at the maximum range she could. There was nothing in the sky to give her away, but the sensors in the missiles, unable to make even rudimentary REAson checks got told there was something even hotter to hit above their original target. The missiles veered off from their course of hitting the Glomar and struck each other as they collided at the "hot spot" Sparkle had created several meters away. They exploded harmlessly and Sparkle allowed herself a moment of satisfaction.

 _Whew._

With that, the cannon fired, and the castle was destroyed in one shot, winning the day.

 _Why do I think this was still way too easy?_


	107. Chapter 107

107

Council

Who: Susan

Time: 1:00, day 5

Place: Susan's room

At 1:00 the representatives from the Emaan territories, the general and several other high ranking officers, and someone dressed differently than both sides appeared on her screen. The images were small, but at least she could see who she was talking to. Susan had discussed with the general exactly how much to reveal to them, and he suggested not holding anything back. To do so would call into question why exactly she was participating in the first place, and weaken her arguments. So she introduced herself.

"I'm Susan Felton, dimensional traveler sent by a being named Silverstreak who exists beyond your three dimensional plane of existence. I've come to try and put this world to rights before either the Mu destroy you or the planet itself becomes inhospitable to life."

"One girl?" scoffed the Emaan representative, who introduced herself as Misha. "General Wright, is this some kind of joke? Even if I accepted this ridiculous claim that some kind of god has sent her, how is one young woman supposed to solve our problems?"

"Oh, but two Singularities solving all your problems you accept without question, is that it?" _I just wish Jenny had woken up, I need someone around to make sure I don't go off the rails again and do something regrettable._

 _Don't worry, I'm always with you, so you aren't alone._

 _You're the problem, you idiot!_

 _You don't have to insult me..._

Misha had no answer, so the facilitator moved the meeting along. "This meeting was called to discuss a possible working arrangement being reached between the Emaan government and the Chiram government. Chiram representative General Wright, you called this meeting so please begin."

"Thank you, facilitator. I will pass the floor to Susan, as this was all her idea in the first place. Susan?"

"Thank you, general. Everyone, I would like you to consider a few things, both in the past and for the very near future. My goal today is to come to an arms sharing agreement whereby Chiram and Emaan forces no longer clash, but instead turn their attentions to the greater threat- the Mu. It can't have escaped your notice that attacks against both your territories have increased just recently." Both sides shook their heads. "Those attacks will continue, for reasons I hope to make clear during this meeting. For the moment, simply accept that the Mu are intent on wiping you all out. Doesn't seem like a stretch of the imagination, right? So wouldn't it be better if you worked together for your own mutual protection?"

"Work together?" snorted Misha. "With the people that attack peaceful trade ships? You must be joking."

"Peaceful? You were holding the Singularity hostage, after scooping him up when he hadn't even been here a few minutes. How could we let that go?" asked the general. "What happened later I would like to apologize for, of course..."

"We aren't 'holding him hostage' any more than you're holding the one you have now hostage. Or are you actually holding him hostage?"

"Olson joined us out of a sense of duty and responsibility to the world."

"Funny how the other one doesn't seem to share that sense of duty. Wait, we 'were' holding him hostage? And what's this about an apology? No, wait a moment." She made a slashing motion across her throat and spoke to someone off camera. She looked puzzled, and nodded, making the audio come back. "We still have custody of the singularity, last I heard. Are you claiming to have captured him recently? Our last report from the Glomar was that the pursuit force broke off for some reason. What are you apologizing for? Harassing the ship and crew? No one was hurt, so it's fine."

"What? But didn't the ship that he was..." He made the same gesture. "I've had the audio to them cut, this must mean the Singularity is still alive. That ship going down _was_ some kind of trick, just like Robert said. They would have been furious with us otherwise, now that I think about it. But it's like she isn't even gloating we got fooled, in fact she seems as puzzled as I am why I even brought it up. What gives, do you think?"

"No idea, but you can't just out and out ask them, can you?"

The general shook his head. "No, we have to make them believe we saw though it, or at least broke off the last attack ourselves. I wonder if I could spin it that way, that I called Robert back so their little trick of- anyway, keep your ears open for any other tidbits like that."

"Will do."

"Never mind, I guess I had some bad intel. I'm sorry about going off on a tangent like that. Where were we?"

"I think I had the table last?" Susan reminded them, and they both nodded for her to continue. "Thank you. The so called Singularity is only somewhat related to our meeting today. Yes, it's nice both, if only two there are, can now be said to be around so the world can get fixed. But here's the thing- what good is it if the Singularity is found if you get wiped out by the Mu? Look at your world right now. Is it heating up? Yes, it is. Will that kill you in the long term? Yes, it will. But you've done all right so far, so that problem can wait. The shifting landscape, again, troublesome and dangerous, but it's been what, twenty years? I think you've learned to live with it by now. So even that won't do you in any time soon. The only active threat against you is the robots. So let's destroy their factories, solving the immediate problem, and then work out what is to be done about fixing the world."

"Do you know where their factories are?" asked Misha.

"No," admitted Susan. "But we can hardly look with things as they are now, right? If we take troops away from our cities, Mu attacks become a bigger threat. That's true for both of your peoples, isn't it?" Both nodded their heads. "But if we combine our efforts we can get around that problem. Maybe one city is too well defended, and the solders there sit idle. Put them to work alongside your opposites and take the battle to whatever Mu you find."

"We'll want certain assurances," said Misha, leaning forward.

"Oh, here it comes," remarked the general.

"Before we agree to anything, we want the Singularity safe in our territory."

"Told you. What good is just one of them going to do you?"

"Insurance, like I said."

"So you are holding him hostage!"

"We're not going to lock him up!"

"A big cage is still a cage."

"People, please. Emaan rep Misha, let me ask you something. I want an honest answer- do your people know exactly what steps to take, using the Singularity, that will fix the world?"

"Yes, do you? I'd be interested in that as well."

"I'm not telling you that. We know the Chiram do, why else would they trying so hard to capture him?"

Susan's eyes sought the general, who took a deep breath and nodded.

"I can tell you they don't," she said, and Mishia looked doubtful. "Now maybe they've lied to me, which I assure you they realize would be totally against their best interests. I can tell you, any plans their scientists have are half complete at best, and no one can tell me where these rumors of the Singularities coming together fixing everything come from. I think you're grasping at straws, myself. You have no idea what would happen if they got together, is my thinking. Let's say there are two of them, as you all suppose. What if they're like magnets? Held one way they attract, but held another and they repulse. What if just being in the same room makes some kind of dimensional rift form? You don't know, neither side does. Unless you would like to present us with some hard evidence your science has uncovered?"

Misha looked down.

"I thought not. You have only hope and half formed ideas in any case. That's another reason you should work together. Your science is different. You see things in a different way, and perhaps what both of your people have learned put together will provide a clearer picture than either has at the moment."

"One thing is clear enough to us," Misha said, looking up again. "Maybe something they haven't told you, if as you claim you're from outside this whole mess we call a world. Another 'half formed idea' as you call it. Whoever controls both Singularities has a much larger chance of coming through the restoration in one piece."

"General?"

"That's one way to interpret things, I suppose," he answered.

"Is there another?" Misha sneered.

"Certainly," answered Susan. "Based on facts rather than superstition."

"What facts?"

"The fact is, these two were closest when the bomb went off, bathing them in some kind of dimensional energies, correct?"

The general nodded.

"When these energies are drawn out, and the dimensions stabilize, one of two things will happen. This world, as it exists at that moment, will forever be the one that remains. No more additions or subtractions to it will occur, and the shell above will dissolve and return the weather to normal. _Or_ the worlds will be harmlessly torn apart and returned to their proper place in space/time. What third possibility are you worried about that 'controlling' the Singularities would make any difference?"

"The world chosen by them will become dominant."

Susan stared at her. "How is the will of two people going to change the physical law of what's happening here? I can't wish really hard for a rock not to fall when I drop it and have it float up, instead." _I would have to cast a spell on it, but that's beside the point._ "Why would this be different? And what exactly does 'dominant' mean here?"

"The others will vanish."

"Of course they'll vanish. They'll all go back where they should be!"

"And you have proof one or the other will happen, or are you the one know hoping something is true?"

"We know the bomb went off. We know areas of the world are forcibly but without too much harm coming to them transported between dimensions. This happened like throwing a stone into a pond causes ripples to happen. Just because a duck was bobbed up and down on the waves doesn't make the duck able to determine what happens when a diver goes down and retrieves the stone."

"That was the most bizarre analogy I've ever heard," said one of the other Emaan. "You have no proof either, in other words. You said something about the Mu, however, that you knew for a fact why they were attacking us?"

"That much I can say with certainty, yes. The Mu have been corrupted from whatever their original programming said to do by an entity not unlike the one that sent me here. The name it gave was Darkvoid, but I call it The Darkness. Long story short, it wants to wipe out all life here with a minimum of effort so it can take the energy of this dimension for it's own purpose."

"Which is?"

"To further ascend into higher states of being."

The people looked at each other, confused.

"In other words," said one of the Emaan, "it would be like one of us trying to become four dimensional rather than three?"

"Exactly. It can't just take the energy because it's bound up inside of you all. But if it got freed, it could be taken. I've stopped him on several worlds already, and I'll stop him here."

"By destroying the Mu?"

"By driving him off world. I'll need to destroy whatever system he's currently in, hence my request to help me find possible locations the Mu might be coming from. I learned in the last world that I _must_ kill the host to release The Darkness, I guess in this case that means just smashing up whatever supercomputer it took up residence inside. If that will free the Mu back to their original programming I have no idea, but destroying their entire race isn't my goal if it doesn't have to be."

"This brings up a good point," put in the general. "Do you know when this being came on the scene? Could it have manipulated things before the event to cause this world, where we fight each other and are dying from the heat, to come into being?"

"That's entirely possible. It's already admitted to me it wants to use the minimal energy it can to destroy a world. Also Silverstreak sends me to key moments and events that could cause whole reality chains to fall. Basically it attacks the weakest link to get the maximum result from the minimum of work. If some huge event is going to take place that threatens the world, it'll use it. Otherwise it takes someone over and causes as much trouble as it can." _Of course, he gave me some line about time moving at different speeds and such but then I've never really had to look hard for key people relating to the 'event' and I've never felt rushed, like the end of the world is just minutes away. I always get enough time to scope the situation out and see what my magic can do. That can't be coincidence, right?_

"And this is what you do?" asked Misha. "Travel to different worlds and save them from this malevolent force that wants to destroy them?"

"That's right."

"Why?"

"Some of it's personal. It attacked my father's world, that's how he got started. I'm following in his footsteps, and looking for a friend of mine that got lost between worlds in a very improbable accident when we first got started."

"Whether you believe all this or not," said Jeffrey, "the fact remains we should do something about these Mu if we can. Forces of darkness reprogramming them aside, the Mu are real and they are a threat."

"You believe her story?"

The general didn't hesitate. "I've seen enough of her combat skills to believe she's not just some random woman that showed up and is trying to scam us. Her abilities are real, so I tend to think her story is too."

"Interesting. And troubling... and hard to prove. I don't know."

"We'll have to take back the space elevator in any case, and can you honestly say your forces alone would be enough to do that? Without massive casualties, I mean. Even if you had the two singularities, you would still need our help to actually use them in any meaningful way. Don't forget that."

"I suppose you have a point."

"So what do you say? Shall we work together?"

"And we're back to those assurances I spoke of earlier."

"Go on. You want yours safe in a city somewhere. What are your other demands?"

"Give us- ahem- station the other Singularity- Olson, isn't it? Station him on one of our ships, and keep him away from the battles. After all it would be a shame if he was killed in the line of duty, before we could figure out how he can help fix the world, I mean."

"And then you would have both, and we would have nothing."

"But didn't Susan herself say it didn't matter? Don't tell me you can't trust the person sitting in your own city, especially after saying you believed her story about 'monsters' from another dimension! I would have figured she would convince you of all this first!"

"That's not the point. We're studying him in hopes of learning the real truth behind all this. We can't do that without him being here! You must see that."

"So send your scientists along. This is all about cooperation and mutual information sharing, isn't it?"

"Our equipment is better."

"According to you, maybe. But please, send it along too if that's all you're worried about."

"And top secret. Nor is it all that mobile."

"Oh, of course, always some excuse, isn't there?"

"I can't just have a whole bunch of personnel and equipment fall into..."

"Enemy hands?" Misha asked, a patronizing smile on her face.

"The Mu, if they attack."

"Uh huh. Just because we aren't the military culture you are, that doesn't mean we couldn't defend the Singularities. We've defended one from you, after all," she finished with a smirk.

"It does seem reasonable to me," put in Susan. "Though I might not put them too near each other until we figure out what that will mean."

"But who knows how close is too close?" asked the general. "Do you?"

"Oh, ah, no."

"Best to keep them far apart in that case."

"How convenient. Sadly, there's nothing else you can really give us to prove your good intentions. Even if we came and got a demonstration of Susan's skills here, the ones that convinced you, there's no way to prove anything she did wasn't just staged."

"What about me?" asked Susan. "If it's a 'hostage' you want, I'll go aboard one of your ships. I can destroy Mu from there just as easily as here."

Misha scoffed. "Sorry, but you could be some elaborate ruse on the part of the general here. I mean higher dimensional beings? Taking the energy of our world? It's so crazy it's probably true, but we can't take that chance."

"Besides," another of the Emaan spoke up. "You don't know where to strike anyway. So our working together couldn't begin until later. It does work out well, though."

"What does?" asked Jeffrey.

"Trust can be earned. Call off your attacks on our vessels. Leave our markets alone. Then we can see about working with you."

"In the meantime, can we at least agree to share all the information we have on the Mu? Your ships are everywhere, maybe with what they've picked up and what we know, some kind of pattern to their movements might emerge."

"Of course. We always would have done that, if you had asked. I must admit, you've at least done that much, Susan. If you can keep the Chiram from thinking with their guns a little longer, maybe we can actually save this world."

"I'll do my best."

"Very well. You know how to reach me, general, when you have something concrete for me to deal me."

"And the same goes for you. Don't hesitate to call if your ships or cities come under attack. We'll help you however we can. More of that trust building, as you call it."

"An excellent suggestion. We'll be in touch."

Their panels went dark, along with the mediator's.

"Not as much as I hoped for," remarked Susan to Jeffrey, "but I suppose it's a start."

"It's our fault, really. If we had opened lines of communication to them straight off, all those years ago, instead of just trying to pretend they didn't exist... But we did, and now here we are. We need their help but they can't trust us because of people like Robert."

"My crazy story doesn't make things any easier. I need to find something that can't be faked to show people I run into I really am who and what I say I am."

 _Some kind of PC badge?_ asked The Darkness.

 _I'm fairly certain I have no idea what you're talking about._

 _Sparkle would. Comedy gold and only you to appreciate it. Pity._

"Our stun guns bouncing off you clinched it for me. Oh, you'll want to go see Private Everywhere, I got word just before the meeting started that she... Susan? Hello? Bye, I guess."

Susan bounced on the balls of her feet, waiting for the elevator to take her to the right floor, and finally it managed the task. She burst in to Jenny sitting up and smiling at her, and ran to hug her.

"You're okay! I was so worried, I'm sorry I couldn't prevent that Mu from grabbing you-"

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine, Susan, and you're crushing me, literally. Just how strong are you, anyway?"

"Sorry!" She eased off, holding Jenny's shoulders and looking into her eyes. "You are all right, right?"

"I think so. They're keeping me for observation, but I feel okay. Going into that dimension zone just kind of messed with my brain a little. It couldn't do any damage because of your spell, but it didn't know that. So it shut down to 'protect' me, at least that's what they think happened. I didn't tell them about it being, you know, actual magic. They would have put me in a rubber room!"

"Yeah, luckily the general never really asked about that, either. I think maybe he just thinks what he's seen happen around me is part of me being from another world? He hasn't seen me cast anything, it's always been going when he's around. Anyway, it's good to see you up and about."

"Did I miss much?"

"Just a meeting with the Emaan. Didn't go too badly."

"That's good. Oh, I did have a question for you. It's been driving me crazy since I woke up, like my subconscious has been working on it while I was passed out."

"Okay, shoot."

"What exactly is bellicose, anyway?"

Susan stared at her, not mentally prepared for a question of _word definition._ "What's... what? Bellicose? Where did you get that from?"

"That Mu said it, right? Before it grabbed me?"

"Did it? I have no idea!"

"Spoiling for a fight," said the nurse, walking in. "Acting aggressive."

"Huh?" both asked. Susan pulled away, blushed like she was caught doing something wrong, then harder for being embarrassed about her reaction at all.

"Bellicose. You asked what it meant. I was a language arts major before I got into nursing."

"Doesn't describe you at all," remarked Jenny, trying to stifle a giggle.

"Yeah, can't see what it was getting at," remarked Susan, grinning back. "I'm like a delicate princess, never a cross word, or a raised voice here, no way."

"I heard about the door incident, you know," scolded the nurse. "Seems about right to me. See you keep your temper a little more today, okay hun?"

Both girls broke into relieved laughter, and she shook her head and walked out.


	108. Chapter 108

108

Secret Agent Cat

Who: Sparkle

Where: Glomar

When: Mid afternoon, day 6

There was some excitement on the Glomar the next day, as Mimsy was rushing about the ship yelling at people to get things cleaned up. Sparkle raised her head and got up, heading for the bridge to see what was up. She came in as Shaya was talking to someone on the computer screen.

"We've been doing all right so far," she seemed to continue, "and why should we expect another attack if what you say is true?"

"I don't know what the Chiram's ploy is, calling a meeting like that," said the golden haired figure on the screen. "All I know is my orders. Meet up with the Elmensa and the Balistor and allow them to escort you to the home city."

"From what you said it seems like they're more willing to talk now than ever, and that's the first time that's happened."

"Exactly why the higher ups are so nervous. What if they're using this to try and make us relax our guard? You were heading that way anyway, so what's the difference?"

"The difference is you coming here and demanding we hand Kei over. He's not a piece of machinery you can just take possession of, you know."

"No, he's far more important than that. That's why we want to make sure he's safely delivered."

"Look, Kei stays with us because he trusts us. We've watched each other's backs in the Chiram attacks, and that means something. He's not going to cooperate with someone that just shows up and demands him. The way you're talking, you would stick him in a cell!"

"That's what 'protective custody' means, yes. We don't want him flying off, I mean you upgraded his busted mecha didn't you? What were you thinking?"

"It wasn't a mecha at the time, and yes we did. We were thinking a trained soldier in a modern machine would keep us safer than just hoping the Chiram would stop attacking us."

"I guess that makes sense. But our orders are clear."

"It's like you said, we're all going to the same place. Is it really necessary to antagonize the man? For now you're just an escort to make sure the Chiram don't attack again. Forcing him to go onto your ship, when you're all strangers to him, will probably turn him against us."

"In the end that won't- never mind. Fine, if you think you can keep him under control, so be it. I'm entering into my report you've refused to hand him over, but are otherwise willing to stay with us. We'll be coming alongside and slaving our two ships together."

"You really don't trust me, do you?"

"I don't trust anything about this. Being ordered to pull up our market and use valuable fuel in our hurry to meet up with you? The Chiram trying to use diplomacy? And then there's that weird girl the leaders said they talked to, said she was on some kind of mission from god or something."

 _Weird girl? That must be Susan? Has she been making trouble for people, in her own special way?_

"What weird girl?"

The figure shook her head. "You got me, they didn't go into detail. Just some strange girl that didn't look Chiram, but who was talking to the general like an equal and being vaguely threatening even while she said things were in our best interest to do."

 _Yeah, got to be._

"Very well. But I will be telling Kei to stay away from your people, so don't think about trying to abduct him or anything. And I'll want to have a passcode to release our two ships, twelve digits, six from me and six from you. And I want your ship to follow my commands, not the other way around."

"Now who's not being trusting? Fine, whatever. We're coming around now."

Sparkle looked out the windows, and there were three ships, looking mostly like the Glomar but with different colorings, coming about to point in the same direction they were.

 _Looks like these people are taking no chances, if they've sent three more ships to repel any more Chiram attacks against Kei. Though honestly they would probably only get in the way if it came to an actual fight. But what did that lady mean when she said Kei turning against them wouldn't matter? What are their real orders, I wonder? They can't be here to kill him, that would defeat the point, they keep going on about how they need him. What is their real goal? And can I find it out somehow?_

She followed Shaya down to the door they used when leaving the ship, and watched as she opened it and extended a platform towards the same door on the other. _Good thing they have exits on either side._ Shaya looked towards the back of the ship where a similar platform was being extended there. She waited until the ships were exactly parallel and the platform slid into place, locking the two ships together. From the other ship came the woman Sparkle had seen, looking human but with the two tentacles from her back blowing in the wind. She wore the same uniform, had green eyes and a small nose, and looked to be a little shorter than Shaya when she came over the platform.

"Go ahead and type your six digits in," Shaya said to her, indicating a numeric panel by the door. The other woman shook her head but punched in a code, and Shaya did the same. "Very well. Would you like to come in? And if your crew would like to come over, I can introduce you to Kei. I'm sure my crew would love the company, it's boring seeing the same old people all the time, isn't it?"

"If we're going to be fighting off the Chiram together, we should get to know the man we might have to die for." She stepped back over to her ship and disappeared just inside, using the panel to make some kind of shipwide announcement. That done she came back over and held a hand and her tentacles out to Shaya. "Look, it is good to see you again, Shaya. I'm sorry I was so abrupt before, my orders came as quite a shock, being the nearest vessel to where you were."

Shaya took them, and smiled back. "You too, Telia, it's been too long. Come on in, I hope you like grapes."

Several people joined the crew of the Glomar in the common area (not that most areas on Enaam ships weren't "common" as they shared almost every space, including where they slept.) and everyone was gabbing away. Sparkle watched them for awhile, leading Puknar, the only male that came over to remark on her un-catlike behavior.

"Oh, we're used to it by now," Jaby said, "but you're right, it's almost like she's listening and understanding us, don't you think?"

 _More than you can possibly imagine._

Her _Short Attention Span,_ which honestly should come up more, and _Curiosity_ finally drove her to head over to the other ship and poke around to see what she could find. The ship was laid out nearly identical to the Glomar, with the large sleeping area, (what few men there were aboard Enaam* vessels changed clothes or even bathed with the woman right there, seeming to think nothing of it. _A very different society,_ Sparkle had through when she first realized it.) The small private bedroom for those wishing to "get it on," as even that wasn't done with the others around. _Though everyone knows what a couple is doing in there if they are not with everyone in the common sleeping area. So what difference does it make?_ Kitchen area, large cargo space, bridge, Sparkle thought that without all the little personal touches added by the crew of each ship, it would be hard to tell the two apart. _Which makes sense, they were probably built on some kind of assembly line, like cars would be back home._

Doors on this ship also responded to a touch, which was good because as soon as she crossed over, Sparkle went _Invisible_ to avoid anyone seeing her and commenting on it. She didn't find anything particularly incriminating, but then she couldn't read anything even if she had. Any number of papers scattered around the bridge could have read "Go kill the singularity" and she would never have known. But she did hear an interesting conversation when everyone came back about an hour later.

"He seems like a decent person," said Puknar.

"He's great!" agreed Merimeth, the younger girl who seemed to be the Mimsy of this other ship. "So handsome."

"I'll give you that, he is," agreed Telia, the captain. "Doesn't seem very serious about his role in fixing our world though."

"I don't think he's serious about anything," said Merimeth. "Did you see him flirting with both of us? So shameful. And Mimsy looked like she wanted to swat him."

"I thought she was getting married to Srei, don't know why she would care."

"But did you see Srei? He didn't look too pleased with Kei either, and Mimsy wouldn't let him sit next to her. I think she's falling for him."

"None of our business," reminded Telia. "We just need to make sure he reaches the city in one piece. Since we can't keep him here we'll have to be extra cautious if he tries to run."

Puknar looked troubled. "You do think he'll side with us, don't you?"

"Why wouldn't he?"

"I don't know, as nice as he is I think he's a bit irresponsible."

"But there's irresponsible and there's insane. Why would he not want to fix the world? He's in just as much danger as we are from sudden dimensional instability or overheating."

"True. I'm just concerned, I mean we know they have ways of... insuring his loyalty to us."

 _Wait, what's this now?_

"They didn't say they would be doing that in our orders."

"But why would they? Something like that would be strictly need to know. Besides, even if we knew they planned something like that, would our duty change? Orders are orders, and we have ours. If the higher ups believe they need to insure his loyalty by changing his brain patterns, that's their ethical dilemma not ours."

"Would that even work on him?" asked Merimeth. "I mean he looks more Chiram than Enaam, plus he's from another world. Our brains are different, he doesn't have the extra motor neurons we have for controlling these." Her tentacles waved.

"Poor guy, how does he cope, anyway?"

Everyone grinned, but it was short lived.

"We're talking about saving our world, and besides, this is all just speculation at this point. We'll do what we're tasked with and bring him in."

"Okay, Telia," both said, and went off to find something else do to.

 _But it's not exactly that easy for me. I wonder if there would be some way I could find out for sure? I mean I suppose it's not any of my concern, but I feel Kei should be informed if these people are going to use the local equivalent of one of the unforgivable curses from back home. Messing with another's will is a pretty nasty thing to do._

She followed the captain up to the bridge, and an older man swiveled in the chair to turn and look at her. "Any problems, Meelic?" she asked.

"Nope. Our ship is now totally under their navigational control. I've put in an alarm, like you said, so we'll get notified if they go too far off course. And now that you're back I'll start rigging the door clamps so we can manually release them if we have to."

She looked troubled. "I hope we don't have to, but better safe than sorry."

"I know. How was your meeting with Shaya?"

"Good. She looks good, and her crew seems in good spirits. The singularity... well, he's not what I expected."

"He is technically an alien, so knowing his mind might be impossible."

"True. Anyway, if you want to go see your counterpart on the Glomar, go ahead. Go talk technical stuff, I'm sure Reeg would be happy to see you again."

"I'll do that. Thanks."

Telia plopped down in the chair he vacated, looking troubled. She activated a panel and then cut it off several times, then crossed her arms and scowled at nothing. "No, I have to follow orders. And I can't assume the worst," she said to no one. "But I can't just sit here, I'll ask Merimeth for a game, take my mind off things." She rose and took one last look around. "Nothing for me to do up here anyway, now that I can't even fly my own ship. Do you really not trust your own sister, Shaya?" she asked this last looking over at the Glomar, and left the room, leaving Sparkle to ponder.

After a moment to make sure she was really gone, she hopped up into the chair herself. Though her _Adaptive Skill_ and watching Telia almost activate the computer, she knew just what to do. She dropped _Invisibility_ and put up a strong _Illusion,_ taking the extra time and throwing in energy. A "shell" of _Illusion_ went up around her, and she touched the controls that Telia had, adding in the final sequence (at least she hoped that's what she had been doing. She was going to be real embarrassed if it turned out Telia was trying to activate the self destruct or something.)

"Government office, Aleina speaking." said a young female on the other end. "Oh, hi again Telia. What's up? Did you run into problems with your last orders or something?"

"I just came back from a meeting with the crew of the Glomar," Sparkle made the _Illusion_ say, "and I wanted to make a few things clear just so there was no misunderstandings later." As magical _Illusions_ were solid, the camera picked them up just fine, but Sparkle still gave a small sigh of relief that the sound was transmitted too.

"What are you talking about?"

"My crew has expressed some... reservations let's say, about bringing Kei back if he's just going to have his thought patterns changed."

"That information wasn't included in your orders, how did-"

"Come on, you don't think we're stupid, do you?"

Aleina gave a rueful grin. "No, and I told them that myself. Okay, what do you want to report, I'll forward it on."

"First, Kei is totally on our side. Mimsy in particular has him totally eating out of her hand."

"How so?"

"She's broken off her engagement to Srei and has Kei believing she might marry him instead. He's totally smitten with her."

"What?" Aleina looked horrified. "But she's left it late as it is! You know what will happen if she doesn't get married soon! Has she had her first fever yet?"

 _I know of no such thing, and what's a 'first' fever?_

"Not that I know of. It's just an example of the level of dedication the crew has to making sure Kei does exactly what we want," she said instead. "They actually discussed it, and felt the risk of having any procedures done was too great. His thought patterns are just too different than ours, and that means our techniques might brain fry him rather than bring about any noticeable changes. But you know how the higher ups are, they'll push ahead even if the risk is too great, 'just in case' or something meaningless like that." _Please don't be reasonable people, please don't be reasonable people._

"Yeah, you've got that right." _Yes!_ "There's still time then, if we take care of this... sorry, I was just thinking of poor Mimsy. It must be so tough for her!"

"I could tell she was hurting, but her loyalty to our people is very strong."

"It must be, to risk that much. Wow, I couldn't have done it, could you?"

"The sakes are pretty high, you understand that, right?"

"I know, I know. Wow, Mimsy is my new hero. All right, I'll send your concerns to the higher ups, hopefully this can put their minds at ease."

"Thank you, Alenia, I knew I could count on you. Oh, can I ask you to do one other thing for me?"

"Of course, anything, Telia!"

"Can I get something in writing? Right now my crew has a lot of uncertainty about this whole situation, and you know what rumors can do to a small crew like ours. If you can send me something I can assure them with, make sure they know they don't have to feel guilty if the higher ups still decide to chance the procedure, it would really help me out."

"You figured it out on your own, I can send you the full report I guess. I'm sort of breaking the rules but I guess if it's for you..."

"Thanks, Alenia, you're the best!"

"Just remember you owe me, next time you're in town!"

"I'll owe you double, that's how much this means to me. Thanks."

"I'll look forward to it then. Okay, you should get the prompt."

A box of gibberish popped up on the screen, and Sparkle made the _Illusion_ touch it as she did. She also made a LUCk check, a sixteen, to not cancel the request as there looked to be two gibberish places to touch on the box. She didn't, and a second later the progress bar went away.

"Got it. Thanks again."

"Anything for you! See you later!"

"Bye!"

The image winked out.

 _Whew. Now to get a printout..._

Sparkle fumbled around, using her _Adaptive_ skill to the max to compensate for not being able to read the language, but the computer seemed just as reliant on easy to comprehend symbology as ones at home, and she managed to make a printout of the file and stood looking at the pages that popped out of a slot near the control panel.

 _And now we come to a new problem. No thumbs._ Sighing, and figuring there was nothing for it, she gently teased the papers out with her two front paws, and spent some time trying to fold them up enough to carry them across to the other ship. Putting energy into MANipulation, she managed it eventually (with a ten) and gently picked them up in her teeth. Her next problem was getting over to the Glomar again.

 _I don't want to put actual teeth marks in them, but there's a good amount of wind between here and there. Unless I'm holding them really tightly, they'll just blow away._

However, an eighteen LUCk check later, someone opened the door to go across to the other ship while she was sitting in the doorway, _Invisible,_ trying to determine what to do. Sparkle followed with a _Spirit Step_ when both doors were opened, appearing instantly in the corridor of the Glomar holding the papers.

 _Guess wind doesn't matter when you're being propelled by_ Spirit Energy _and bypassing the space you want to cross in an instant. Now, to leave these where they'll be found somewhat rapidly._

Half an hour later, Mimsy ran shrieking to Shaya and waving some papers, and Sparkle looked up and swished her tail in happiness.

 _Mission accomplished._

*More females of the race are born than males, so the ratio is like 3:1 for whatever reason.


	109. Chapter 109

109

Eavesdropping

Who: Sparkle

Where: Meeting room on the Glomar

Time: Day 7 About 1:00 in the afternoon.

"Finally," breathed Mimsy, walking into the meeting room where the others were waiting for her. "When you want him to do chores or something you can't find him. But when you want to get rid of him, he's underfoot the whole day."

"Where is he?" asked Shaya.

"Taking a nap. So he shouldn't be snooping around and overhear us."

"Good." Shaya looked around the room at the worried faces of her crew, and again at Sparkle who was curled nearby, taking all this in. She was suspicious of her because of the indentations in the paper that looked like cat teeth marks, but hadn't considered simply asking Sparkle what she knew of this. Sparkle would have played dumb, this whole situation was quite amusing to her, but she did somewhat resent not being asked even in jest. "So we can finally talk about what we want to tell Kei or if we want to tell him at all!"

"How do we even know this is genuine?" asked Govu, looking the pages over for the twentieth time.

"Who would go to the trouble to print out fake orders?" asked Srei. "Though Mimsy finding them as she did seems rather suspicious. Like they were planted here."

"They aren't from our computer, I've checked and checked," added Shaya. "But maybe they were planted here."

"How so?"

"Think about it. Maybe one of the crew of the Tarasi got wind of congress deciding to use the brainwave manipulator or saw these orders and decided they didn't like the idea. So while we were going back and forth between the two ships they left it for us."

"That's reasonable," agreed Leah.

"But who? You knew Telia pretty well, Shaya, do you think she did it herself?" asked Maai. "Out of a sense of loyalty to you instead of congress?"

"I'd like to think if Telia got orders like this, our past friendship would count for something," Shaya replied. "But consider the situation if Tarasi had picked up Kei, and we were the ones coming to back them up with similar orders."

"I'd still be engaged," muttered Srei.

"It's your own fault," snipped Mimsy.

"The point is, would I have told her? Would I have even told her indirectly, like this?"

"Of course you would have, Shaya!" Leah and Maai both cried.

"Would I?" Shaya rested her chin on her hands. "I have to wonder. Orders are orders, and we can't escape the fact our judgement is skewed because we've been living with Kei these past few days. He's almost a part of the crew at this point."

"Shaya, please, I don't want to hear that from you, too," protested Srei.

"Just can't compete, huh?" asked Reeg. "I got dumped by a girl once in a similar situation. Did I ever tell you about-"

"Later, Reeg," chided Shaya. "This is about what to do about Kei now."

"We can't let them poke around in his brain!" Mimsy protested strongly.

"Yes, they might knock what little he has right out his ears," joked Srei. Mimsy hit him in the arm. "Ow!"

"Reeg, you're the engineer, what do you think their chances are?"

"I'm an engineer, not a doctor! How would I know?"

"Maybe Mome would know. The problem is swearing her to secrecy."

"Yes," said Srei bitterly. "She would no doubt run to tell her 'master' the bad news. And we can all see how Kei would react."

"The same way any of us would, I would hope," countered Shaya. "Even among Emaan, the process isn't foolproof. The brain is just too complex to reliably manipulate. To even think of trying it on Kei, who isn't our species..."

"He's Emaan enough though, right?" asked Srei. "It's not like he's from outer space or anything. Even the Chiram aren't that different from us, we all shared some kind of common ancestor right?"

"Of course you'd argue we should just let them go ahead and try the procedure!" fumed Mimsy. "If it doesn't work he's brain fried and you might get me back. And if it does, his personality would change and I might not... be interested in him anymore."

"So there's no way I can get you back then?" Srei asked sadly.

"You didn't do much to deflect Kei's interest in me when he arrived, and you've done nothing but whine about how unfair his being here is. Did you think just because you're the only eligible guy around here and I'm nearly seventeen you would automatically get me into bed? No offense, Reeg, or Govu."

They both shrugged.

"It's done quite differently among my people," offered Jaby. "This is all so fascinating."

"Didn't you get brought here after swimming away from a woman who found you with another woman?" Srei asked sharply.

"Oh, uh..."

"Again, not the time you two. Figure out your relationship problems later, Mimsy."

"Yes Shaya," she replied, eyes downcast.

"Fine. Any other thoughts? Anyone?"

Govu spoke up. "Actually, they aren't the only two ever to bicker about things."

"I agree, but what's your point?"

"What if the person who left this for us wasn't doing it to help us, but to get back at someone, either Telia or someone in congress? Like they figured we would tell Kei and that would make him run off and then Telia looks bad."

"Using Kei in some kind of revenge scheme? That's horrible!" Mimsy had her hands over her mouth, and her tentacles were waving in distress.

"Do the motives of the person matter?" asked Shaya.

"Sure. Especially if this report is a fake."

"A fake?"

"A plant. A ruse. A misdirection. Maybe the congress has no such plans to alter Kei's brainwaves. But if Telia loses track of the singularity, she fails her mission. That's not going to reflect well on her, and maybe her second in command will be promoted and take the ship over. I know you would never do such a thing, Mimsy-"

"I should say not!"

"But the fact remains, others might."

Shaya shook her head. "This concerns saving the world. I can't believe someone would be that reckless. That Merimeth would be that reckless. I don't know her well, but I can't see her fabricating evidence like this."

"Still, you might want to ask Telia about this, see what she has to say."

"Oh, great plan Govu," Srei said sarcastically. "Breed more paranoia and suspicion, why don't you? We don't have enough interpersonal problems here on the Glomar, you want to make Telia suspicious she has someone on board that covets her job! That'll be great for morale."

Shaya glared at him but he had a point, and she sighed. "If there is a person like that, I'm sure Telia already knows about it. That sort of thing would be pretty tough to hide, especially with as close knit a group that forms aboard factory ships like this one."

"I suppose. I guess in a best case scenario, this would be the evidence she needed to toss the person making trouble out. Not that you toss out the guy making trouble here," he finished under his breath.

"All right. Take a few minutes to think about it, and give me your thoughts on the matter. Srei, I already know your opinion."

"Exactly, let them. He's too irresponsible and we need every edge we can get if we're going to save our world."

Several minutes ticked by. Govu gave the papers to Reeg, who looked them over again and handed them to Leah. She and her sister spoke softly between themselves and after those few minutes had passed, everyone looked back at Shaya.

"All right. Mimsy?"

"Firmly against."

"Very well. Leah and Maai?"

They shook their heads. "We're with Srei on this one." Mimsy glared but Srei looked pleased. "He is pretty irresponsible, I mean he knows he's a key to fixing the world but he's not really serious about anything. Except flirting."

"Very well. Govu?"

"I'm against it. I'm old enough to remember the first horror stories about botching the process on criminals and such. I know the technique is much safer now, but there are still too many risks. Making a vegetable out of Kei is worse than letting him leave. At least he could still come around when he has a chance to think things over. But fry his brain and where does that leave us?"

"Reeg?"

"From a purely scientific standpoint it's risky. Even if it does go perfectly. I mean we all know the rumors about his will somehow being important to the whole process of fixing the worlds. I don't know where that came from, but if making him believe something he doesn't messes up the process somehow... it could backfire on us, no doubt about it."

"True. Jaby?"

He shook his head. "I would need more information to decide. What are the motives of the person that gave us this information? Is it even accurate? Is this just a preliminary report, or some sort of last ditch plan if Kei proves totally intractable? We don't know enough to decide, at least that's what I feel."

Shaya looked her crew over, trying to give equal weight to each person. She decided Jaby was right, and that it was time to go talk to Telia. She rose, taking the papers with her. "I'll be back."

Sparkle padded after her, the others already arguing over who was right.

"You coming?" Shaya asked her, holding the door to the other ship. Sparkle padded past her, then sat down and looked back at her. "You do like being where the action is, don't you? Come on then."

Shaya tracked down Telia, who offered tea and both ladies sat down to talk. "I'm here to ask you about this," Shaya said when the pleasantries had been taken care of. She slid the papers across the table.

"This- where did you get this?"

"We found it. I assume someone on your ship brought it over and left it for us."

"That's impossible. I've never seen these orders before. Yes, part of this I recognize, it's the orders I got to track you down and escort the singularity. But this part about his brainwave patterns being manipulated- that's new."

"Really?"

"Honestly! I mean Puknar was suggesting they might do something like that, but I figured it was none of our business what they did to him after we dropped him off."

"So you've never seen these orders?"

"Look, I'll show you a copy of my orders, come on."

The two went up to the bridge and Talia pulled up a file. "See, that's what I got."

"I see, the second part _was_ left off. Or you erased it later." Telia glared at her. "Hey, I have to consider all possibilities here! And Puknar was asking about it, you say?"

"He wouldn't have the clearance to get something like this," she protested. "Especially if they originally thought I didn't!"

"I guess you're right. So then how did it get onto our ship?"

"Don't look at me, I'm as baffled as you are. It's a total mystery."

"Yes, it is, isn't it?" She glared over at Sparkle. "Something we've had more then a few of, as of late."

"What do you mean? What are you looking- that cat? Where did it come from?"

"It's been hanging around the Glomar. We picked it up a few days after Kei came aboard. Since then some odd things have happened."

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you think a cat somehow hacked the main city computers, then managed to figure out how to do a printout."

 _Is social engineering hacking? Am I considered a hacker now? Huh._

"Would a normal cat follow me around like this? Or to be more specific, go where interesting things are happening? She once jumped into the cockpit before Kei took off to battle Ishicks, and seemed fine afterwords. I mean look at her, she's looking right at us!"

"We're looking at her, of course she's looking at us. Are you feeling okay? The stress of having the singularity around isn't getting to you, is it?"

"No it isn't," she snapped. Telia didn't look convinced, and Shaya took a breath. "What I mean is, after that cat showed up some very strange things happened, things that didn't often happen before she showed up. This is just the latest."

"I still say it's a stretch to blame a being that doesn't have thumbs. Even if she was from another world, where cats are super intelligent, like that dinosaur that's part of your crew, how would she make a printout?"

 _With some difficulty, mostly relating to language. Also, thank you for considering me to have human level reasoning abilities, it's more than the others have done. At least, out loud._

"I don't know. Anyway, what are we going to do about this?"

"Do? I'll see if any of my crew knows anything, but despite what you may personally believe, we have our orders. I'm going to follow them, and I hope you don't do anything as rash as trying to get out of following them."

"It doesn't concern you that congress wants to use an untested technique on Kei?"

"Not really. The world needs saving, and if they think that's best, they are going to have to fix it if they screw things up."

"No, if they screw things up our world is lost."

"Shaya, I think they have a little more experience in dealing with things that concern our survival than you. And don't you have family there anyway? I'm not the one you should be complaining to."

"But you're the one who's here, helping to bring him in."

"Call it providing more support if the Chiram attack again. I let you keep the guy, didn't I? What more can I do?"

"Apparently nothing!" snapped Shaya, and stormed out. Sparkle shook her head, getting a strange look from Telia, and followed her back to the Glomar.

"She said she didn't even know about it," proclaimed Shaya, slamming the papers down on the table.

"Do you believe her?" asked Mimsy.

"I don't know," she sputtered. "She had a point, only the captain would have the clearance level to get these orders. She showed me a copy of what she got, it was cut off, this part about Kei's brainwaves being altered wasn't included."

"So then were did this come from?" asked Jaby.

"That's what I'd like to know. But the worst part is, she's just going to keep following orders. Hand Kei over to the government and let them poke around inside his brain and if they don't like what they find, they'll make him-"

"Shaya!" Mimsy cried, going pale.

She spun, and at the door was Kei, looking haunted.

"I thought you were all acting funny, even last night Mimsy hardly cared I was staring at her while she changed. She's always thought because I showed so much interest that I shouldn't be... I'm glad I faked taking a nap and listened in."

"Kei, you should know... we don't think..."

"Forget it. You want to hand me over to the government? And I trusted you people. I see now that repairing the Bronco II and throwing Mimsy at me were just to distract me until you reached home and had me locked up!"

"I was not _thrown_ at you!" Mimsy sputtered.

"Save it. I'm out of here."

"Kei!" Shaya called after him, but Kei took off down the corridor and twenty seconds later the Starburst launched and flew away at high speed.

Shaya had slumped down over the table, but didn't get much time as Govu came over the intercom.

"Telia wants to talk to you. Wants to know if that was the singularity just now, blasting away from here."

Shaya reluctantly got up and went up to the bridge, where he was waiting with her image on the screen.

"He found out. I thought he was asleep, but he heard the whole thing."

"Go after him! Send out your !"

"Are you kidding? He can outfly Chiram Ishkick, and what are we going to do? Try to shoot him down? That would make us no better than them. You can do what you want, but I won't send my people out there to get shot down by him."

"You think- no of course he would. You've made a right mess of this, haven't you Shaya? But through incompetence or design I wonder? Guess that's for congress to decide, I have my orders." The picture cut out, and a moment later ships poured out of the other three factory vessels after Kei.

"Shaya, what are we going to do?" whined Mimsy.

"I don't know, I really don't know. Try calling him, Mimsy, he might still listen to you."

But Kei didn't respond, and half an hour later the other ships came back saying Kei got away.

Telia sent a terse message to get down and undock their ships, and return control of the Tarasi to her, which Shaya did. Telia punched in her code angrily, not responding when Shaya tried to talk to her, and stormed off as the platform retracted again. The ships took off and Reeg said he intercepted several encrypted messages from the Tarasi, probably informing the congress about what had just happened. Shaya wasn't looking forward to the discipline hearing and eventual stripping of rank that was no doubt coming.

"We're behind you," said Mimsy. "You didn't know, and he tricked us. For all we know he hacked the computers and left that paper to see what we would do. Would we turn away, protect him?"

"He couldn't have, it's impossible!"

"What's your theory then?" asked Srei.

Shaya looked over to Sparkle and almost spoke.

Srei looked over where she was looking. "The cat? That's even more insane."

"Then where did that paper come from? I'm somewhat glad he was warned, but he always overreacts to everything. I should have been more careful."

"Whatever happens, you'll always be our captain," said Leah.

"Yeah, if they try to demote you, we'll all quit right?" said Maai.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Come on, let's set down. If Kei decides to come back, I want to be nearby the place he left so he doesn't have to look around to find us."

"You think he will?" asked Mimsy, a little too enthusiastically for how she kept saying she didn't care for the guy.

"He has nowhere to go, the entire world is against him. And he knows the Chiram are after him. I don't know. I hope so, Mimsy, for all our sakes."

 _So did I just save a man from a fate worse than death, or doom this whole world to extinction? I mean Susan must be following up the whole Darkness angle, though the fact I haven't heard from her at all, even in a dream, is somewhat troubling. She could be half the world away and always be awake when I'm asleep. I know we'll be reunited, I'm her companion, and there must have been some reason our stories diverged when we came here. I figured keeping an eye on Kei must be that reason. But if he doesn't come back, I may have been wrong._

 _Guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Really hope I didn't screw things up with what I did, but I still feel they had the right to know._

 _They did, right?_

But there was no one to answer her silent plea, and as the Glomar set down a single red ship sped away, already composing a report to the Chiram forces about what he had seen.

"The Singularity is alone!"


	110. Chapter 110

110

Meeting of the Minds

Who: Susan

Place: Chiram Military Building

Time: Day 7, early morning

The previous day Susan had spent with Jenny at the hospital, making sure she recovered properly. She was released that evening and the two went back to their room, happy to be out of there. The next day, or today, the girls got a message to report to the general, so they headed up there to see what he had to say.

"Good to see you up and about, Private Anywhere," said the General, after the two saluted each other.

"Thank you sir."

"And don't worry, at Susan's request we've classified your blood work and test results so no one curious stumbles upon them and gets any funny ideas. Your body has enough differences to Chiram physiology to raise comment otherwise, and that's the last thing we need right now."

"Thank you, sir. Sorry for keeping my origins from you, but it really wouldn't have mattered one way or the other in terms of my performance as a soldier."

"Good to hear it. Now what do you think of this?" he asked, showing them the video clip of the Starburst flying away from the Glomar. Of course it wasn't lost on either of them that the Glomar wasn't alone, or that fighters from the three large ships tried to catch him afterwords.

"Some kind of falling out?" asked Jenny, as the footage cut back to the fighters returning with no trace of the Starburst.

"The timing seems peculiar, don't you think?"

"Susan told me about the meeting, it does seem odd they would reenforce the ship with three others, only to allow the singularity to fly off like that."

"Do we know that Kei was aboard that mecha?" asked Susan. "All we saw was the ship flying off, anyone could have been in there."

The general shook his head. "The sensors aboard the Ishkick that recorded this showed him as being on that mecha that flew off."

"So it was him. Strange."

"I thought you might find it so. I wanted to see what you would say our next move is. My first thought was to send a squad after him, now that he doesn't have the support of the Emaan ships. But if he's finally seen the Emaan as the petty, greedy, small minded people they are, maybe this is our chance to apologize and get him on our side. And that's better accomplished by maybe a dedicated person or two who are maybe not from around here themselves? Know anyone like that?"

"I could put you in touch with some people," Susan replied with a smile. "You want us to go talk to him?"

"We've been tracking his movements from a distance, so we know right where he is. You could get out there and speak to him, maybe convince him to come in and we can start figuring out what he needs to do to save the world."

"I don't mind doing it. After all, this diplomacy stuff was my idea to begin with, so let's keep that going."

 _Or,_ suggested The Darkness, _you could just change over to Moon, put him to sleep from a distance with the sleep fog, and ask his forgiveness when he wakes up in custody._

 _Sure, that wouldn't put him firmly against us. Thanks for the suggestion but no thanks. Besides, saving the world from the natural disaster should really be done by the people here. My objective is you, once we've found your little hiding place. I'm just doing this to pass the time. If my magic worked properly here I would just track you down myself and end all this. I don't have to worry about smashing robots like I did Warlocks, and as there's no magic on this world precious little can actually hurt me._

 _Wonder what I'll do about that when you finally do find me? Hummmm._

"Very well. I will of course have to have a small force nearby, in case this is some kind of trick. I don't want you two alone out there if you get attacked."

"Trick? Like this is some kind of ruse to see what we'll do once he's alone?" asked Jenny.

"Exactly. We can't rule that out. If we send in a couple of cute girls like yourself, how can he resist?" He laughed. The girls didn't, just shared a look and a _Sexist much?_ Vibe. The general cut off the laugh. "Ahem. Yes, uh, anyway, if it is a trick it will further enforce the fact we just want to work things out, sending the person who called the meeting in the first place. Letting them know you're on the level, and willing to take risks. And if it is a falling out, and you can talk him into coming back with you, great."

"And if we can't?" Susan asked. "Will your forces move in?"

Jeffery shook his head. "Could be part of the trap. If he refuses you, fine, don't press the issue too much. We can continue tracking his location from afar and talk about our next move. Maybe contact the Enaam government again, see what they're playing at letting the singularity slip through their fingers."

"Very well. I want it clear to all your forces that I'm in charge. They don't attack or even get within miles of the place unless I call them."

"Very well. I'll give the orders before you go. You are up for this, aren't you private?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Very well." He handed her some printed sheets of paper. "Here's his current location and the frequency and encryption key for our communication channel for this mission. Go pick up a small recording device on your way out, too, I'll want to know what he sounds like. How he says things and how he reacts to you could be just as valuable as what he says."

"Understood sir."

"Dismissed. And good luck."

The two thanked him and made their way down to the equipment sign out, where Jenny got out a recorder and asked which Ishkick she should be taking. She got a number that meant nothing to Susan, and the two made their way out to the airfield. As these were not planes there wasn't really an "air traffic control," if you were taking off and flying about you should know enough to look around first. Plus the mecha had collision warning systems and such, so smacking them together was actually pretty tough.

"These are single passenger vehicles," Susan reminded Jenny as they stared up at the thing.

"I know. Didn't think you would mind."

"Oh, I don't, believe me. I just wanted to make sure you didn't."

"Eh, I'll survive. I mean if you really wanted to fly your own and thought you could do it-"

"Come on, time's wasting." Susan started climbing up the small ladder that hung down from the cockpit.

"Uh huh."

The pair flew several hours, over some strangely disjointed landscapes, and finally got near the coordinates specified by the orders Jenny had received. She radioed the forces in the area and got an update, then let the "singularity system" guide them the rest of the way. As they got near, Susan said they should put down and walk the rest of the way so as not to startle the man. Jenny went to land the mecha and started shutting systems down once they were settled.

"Seems he found a cave somewhere along the beach there, we can set down a mile or so away and come in on foot. I hate to be without the Ishkick if something happens though."

"Don't worry, you'll still have me. That's all you'll need."

Jenny ignored her boast, she could take care of herself after all. "And I can set the Iskhick to relay any signals we send, my portable unit won't have the range to reach the other forces in the area."

"You really think that'll be necessary?"

Jenny turned in the seat to look back at her. "Maybe not, even hopefully not, but I thought you wizard types were all about preparation before something happened. Isn't that why you made all those Materials or whatever you called them?"

" _Materia._ I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just saying don't worry so much!"

"What, me worry? Which brings up a good point. Here." Jenny pulled something from her _sub-space pocket_ and handed it over, and Susan hefted it. It was a fancy pistol, very high tech looking and sleek.

"What's this for? You know I have long range attacks."

"But they're lethal, right? You can't have _knockout blade_ and _Invulnerability_ going at the same time at the moment, can you? Look, I picked this gun up from a tech universe I visited. It doesn't use bullets, rather small energy packets that travel at high speed."

"Really?" Susan looked it over again, impressed.

"Fifty shots to a charge, here's the switch to activate it." She did and it lit up. "See this dial here? That controls the aperture size. Make it big, like this," she ran a finger along it and it lit up, "and it spits a fairly large ball. That's non-lethal and does a fair bit of damage. Narrow it again," she ran her finger the opposite way, "and the aperture is smaller again. This narrows the bolt and makes it more armor piercing, but it doesn't have as much damage potential behind it."

"Oh, it's like _Knockout_ does double damage?" _Or in other words, as the OTR goes up, the HDL of damage goes down in a 1:1 ratio? How Paragon... weird._

"I'll take your word for that. I mean in theory the damage shouldn't vary that much, it's energy hitting with a certain force. But it seems to. Anyway, if you want to stun him, or we get jumped while in the cave, I figure you should have the means to knock people out, without magic. A gun from another world I can more easily explain than you trying to explain magic to the general. It fires just like a regular pistol, too, just keep pulling the trigger. It doesn't need a buildup time or anything."

"A fair point. It's fully charged? Not that I think I'm going to be firing fifty times or anything..."

"The charge indicator is here."

"Ah, okay. Wait, this isn't your only one of these, is it?"

Jenny shook her head. "I have a couple. Keep it, if you want. Plus I can always go grab more once I'm not stuck here anymore. It'll recharge from sunlight, moving it around, magnetics, or just raw power applied via cable to this port here." She moved a cover aside and showed her. "Basically they built them to be as flexible as possible, because the people generally using them were wandering around alien worlds where anything was likely to happen. So they work out perfectly for people like us."

"I should say. Thanks. I have something for you, too!"

"Oh?"

"Can't get it out here. Come on."

The two got out of the Ishkick and Susan rooted around in her luggage, coming up with two bathing suits and handed one to Jenny.

"Uh, what?" she asked, holding it and looking at it.

"You can't go down there in uniform, you know. He'll bolt the second he sees something like that. But if we go down there as just two girls exploring the beach, and come upon him, we can feel out his situation. We can tell him who we are later. It's not like we need to carry the guns and whatever, that's what our _sub-space pockets_ are for."

"I suppose there's some sense in that," she muttered in reply as Susan started stripping her clothes off. "To be clear, it's for the mission, not wanting to prance around on a beach in a skimpy outfit?"

"I've never pranced in my life!" Susan countered. "Frolicked, maybe. Come on, get those clothes off!"

"Yes, ma'am," she answered, shaking her head.

"Oh, don't act all huffy, I can see your aura, you're pleased." (She had gotten a twelve on _Aura Reading.)_

"Cheater. Peeping at a girl's aura like that, you should be ashamed."

They both laughed.

The two woman made their way down the beach and Jenny positioned the recording device outside the cave and hoped it would capture the audio. With that, the two went inside to find a frustrated looking Kei slumped by the foot of his mecha. He jumped up as they approached, brandishing a gun, but put it away again hastily when Susan overacted and clung on to Jenny at the sight of it.

"Sorry ladies, didn't mean to frighten you," he said, openly eyeing them. "No need to get upset, I won't hurt you."

"What do you think you're doing, waving something like that around?" demanded Jenny. "Someone could get hurt."

"Oh, I'd never hurt someone as pretty as you. I'm Kei, don't be shy, introduce yourselves."

"I'm Jenny, and this is Susan."

"Hello," said Susan, as though not convinced she should even be talking to this guy.

"Don't mind her, she's pretty shy," said Jenny.

 _You are?_ asked The Darkness.

 _What do you mean? I'm the very pinnacle of the feminine ideal. Look at how demure I'm acting right now!_

 _You're the 'feminine ideal' on maybe one, very messed up, reality. Maybe, and only then because all things possibly exist someplace, however unlikely they are. And here's a hint, looking like you just ate a sour candy isn't 'demure' it's just 'bad acting.'_

 _Quiet._

"Well, guess we should be going," said Jenny, casting a look at the mecha and narrowing her eyes. "We didn't mean to interrupt whatever you've got going here." She gave a little wave and pulled Susan after her, who figured she should follow her lead, Jenny seemed to have a better _Acting_ or _Deception_ rating than she did, and she considered herself able to play second fiddle when the situation required it.

 _You can? Since when?_

 _Since always. That's why I've never shown off or been in people's faces or anything._

 _Right..._

"Oh, you don't have to go!" Kei assured them. "Please, uh, well, I can't really offer you anything to eat but emergency rations. Where did you two even come from? I didn't think there were any houses in this area."

"We've been walking down the beach a fair way," replied Jenny. "We wanted to see how far it went. Did you see in that machine of yours? I do take it that's yours, right?"

"The Starburst? Sure is. It goes for miles."

"What, the mecha?"

"No, the beach!"

"Oh."

"See, I told you!" Susan said, determined to play the part.

"I guess so. Hey, you didn't break down or something, did you? There's a mechanic in town, I mean I doubt he's worked on anything like this but if you needed parts or something..."

Kei waved her off. "No, nothing like that. Honestly," he slumped down against the leg again, "I don't know what I'm even doing here."

Susan and Jenny shared a look, and went over to sit in front of him.

"You want to talk about it?" Jenny asked.

Kei shook his head. "I don't know. This whole place is just so messed up."

"Yeah, that bomb or whatever right? I only heard it about from my parents."

"I don't just mean that. I mean you think you know some people, right? That you can trust them, and they trust you. Then all of a sudden **wham** they turn on you."

"Sounds like a tough situation."

"You have no idea. But I was... recently brought here. I don't know anyone else, so where am I going to go? And the Chiram are after me-"

"The Chiram?" Jenny jumped out and nervously looked around. "Around here?"

Susan jumped up as well. "Jenny, what do we do?" she wailed.

"It's okay!" Kei assured them both. "They're nowhere near here. You don't like them either, huh?"

"They all think they're so great, but wait a second. You're Chiram, aren't you? Is that why they're after you? Because you deserted or something?" She looked over at the Starburst. "But I thought their machines were red?"

"No, it's nothing like that. I'm not Chiram but I'm not Enaam either. I... guess you girls aren't either?"

"You see any tentacles? But no, we're Chirman, just not military Chiram." Both sat down again.

"Oh, right. No, I was with some Enaam traders until a little while ago, helped them drive off some Chiram troops that were making trouble. So they want payback."

Jenny looked upset. "Yeah, I hear about that sort of thing all the time. You would think a military organization would have a little thing called military discipline too, but nooooo."

Kei laughed. "You got that right."

"So how come you left?" asked Susan. "You didn't want to put them in danger anymore? That's thoughtful of you."

"No," said Kei sadly. "Like I said, it ended up they just wanted to use me too. But the thing is, maybe I should have let them."

"I guess it's hard to say, as I don't know your whole situation," ventured Jenny. "You mean they wanted you to keep protecting them, even though you were risking your life?"

"Something like that. I guess when you have the power to protect people, you have to use it even if it's something dangerous."

 _Has he been sneaking a look at my playbook?_

"Fighting off Chiram troops isn't exactly safe," agreed Susan. "But most of them are pretty sloppy pilots anyway, the way I hear it."

Jenny scowled at her.

"It's bigger than that," rebuked Kei. "I can't really say more, just that both sides want to use me for their own ends. I feel like I don't have any control of my own life."

"So take control," Susan rebuked hotly. "You care about the people you were traveling with, don't you?"

He nodded. "Very much."

"So there you are. Either protect them, or don't. If you're going to protect them, be ready to go all the way no matter the cost, for the sake of those bonds you've created." _Wait, when did this turn into an episode of Naruto? No matter._ "Sure, your situation may be crappy, and beyond your control, but that's true for just about everybody. You have things you can do, by the sounds of it things _only_ you can do. So go do them! If these people are worth the effort, they'll give effort supporting you, right? You aren't in this alone, we're all trying to make the best of things."

"You're right. What they were talking about doing though, it scared me," he said softly. "But maybe that's because I wasn't serious enough. Maybe the fault did lie with me, and they were only suggesting it because I was being an idiot about the whole thing." He sat in silence a moment, thinking it over, then seemed to come to a decision. "I'm going back, and I'll tell them I'm with them a hundred precent. Thanks, both of you."

"Sure," said Jenny. But Susan decided to take a chance.

"We're all behind you, Singularity," she said with a grin.

"What? How did-" He started to fumble is gun out again.

"Oh, don't get all tense. What are we going to do to you?" She opened her arms wide and took a deep breath, and Kei got distracted a moment and forgot about his gun. "We're not Chirman, strictly speaking. Consider us third parties that have an interest in seeing the world get fixed. It's no accident we met here today."

"So who are you really?" he asked cautiously.

Susan shrugged. "Dimensional travelers that got stuck here, for one reason or another. You think your space/time bomb is the only way people from other realities can get here? No way. But we can't leave until the dimensions around here stabilize." _Well, one of us can't, and I'm not just leaving Jenny stranded here, so I'll have to fix that in addition to kicking The Darkness out._ "We're the ones who have been trying to keep the Chiram off your back and stop attacking you while we worked out another solution. As you've decided to support your friends and do what it takes to fix the world, maybe now we can actually get somewhere."

"You set me up. You knew who I was the entire time!"

"Does that change the quality of our advice?" asked Jenny.

"Well, no. I decided on my own, I guess. So now what?"

"This is just the first step, from here we go our separate ways," explained Susan. "But at least now we have a common ground to start from. The truth is, both sides are terrified. Both of not being able to fix the world, and being wiped out when it does get fixed."

"Because neither side knows exactly how to set things right," put in Jenny.

"Exactly. We need to work together. What do the Enaam know, or think they know, about the purpose of the Singularities? What do the Chiram know? Put that together and what's the same? What's different? We need a complete picture, and we can only get that by cooperating. Once we've figured out what you two need to do, we can get you doing it instead of wasting resources and manpower trying to force you into it."

"So what do you want from me right now?"

"At the moment, simply the assurance that you'll work with us if we contact you. There's a lot of things going on here, like the Mu, that also need solving. The Chiram shouldn't attack you anymore, and I got the two governments at least talking to each other. With your help that can continue and maybe we can finally solve this mystery instead of just shooting at each other."

"And you swear this isn't some Chiram trick? Sending me cute girls to wear my resistance down?"

Susan and Jenny both laughed, and stood up. "Can a Chiram do this?" Susan asked, _Spirit Stepping_ to another part of the cave and hefting a large rock over her head.

"What the..."

"Take it outside and throw it," suggested Jenny. "Straight up, if you please."

"With pleasure." The three went out of the cave and Susan got ready to chuck it.

"Nothing in my hands, nothing up my sleeves," said Jenny with flair. "No sleeves." She spun around. "No pockets either."

"Believe me, I'm looking."

Jenny scowled at him, but turned to Susan. "Pull!"

With a heave, Susan tossed the rock and Jenny pulled a pistol from her _sub-space pocket._ She tracked the flight of the rock, adjusting the dial on the side with a finger, and put several rounds into the stone blowing it apart. The gun disappeared again with a flourish.

"I wouldn't have stood a chance!" Kei moaned, looking between them. The two girls nodded to each other, pretending to think about it, but couldn't help grinning in the end. "Okay, you've got my attention. I'm not sure what just happened, but I have a feeling things would go pretty badly for me if I didn't start taking all this seriously. In many ways."

"We need your help," Susan said simply. "You're one of the keys to all this, and it's probably time we met the other."

"Olson," agreed Jenny. "Yes, we need to put the two of you in contact, now that you know we're working with your best interest in mind."

"Are you, though? Wait, Olson? My old partner is here too? I guess it makes sense, we were nearest the blast. Glad to hear he survived it, like I did."

"I'll see what I can do. Like Susan said, if we come calling, please tell your friends we mean you no harm. We can't get the two of you together until we know what it means if we do, but I bet we could at least set up a video chat for the two of you."

"I'd like that, a lot," Kei said honestly. "I guess I owe you two a debt of gratitude. You've been working to protect me and I didn't even know it. So thanks."

"Do what you reasonably can to help get this world straightened out, that'll be thanks enough," assured Susan.

"I will, I promise."

So Kei roared off in the Starburst back towards the Glomar, and the two woman picked up the recorder and headed back themselves. They radioed the nearby Ishkicks to let Kei go and stay out of sight, and then to head back to base. The recording was faint, but Jenny uploaded it for the general to listen to on their way back, and both settled into the cockpit again.

"Not looking forward to the hours it'll take us to fly back," Jenny complained. "Especially when your magic could just take us back there instantly."

"Hard to explain, though. What, you don't like my company?"

"Oh, I didn't say that..."

"What should we do, on this long, boring journey back?"

"What indeed? Eye spy?"

"We could. Or maybe…"

The Ishkick took off, and blasted back towards "home."


	111. Chapter 111

111

Kei is Back

Who: Sparkle

Where: Glomar

When: Early Day 8

Kei flew up to the Glomar like he owned the place (Singularity privilege) and was welcomed back by most of the crew. Srei of course was the opposite of pleased to see him, while Mimsy looked like she couldn't decide if hugging him or smacking him was the best "welcome back" gift to present to him. She compromised by just crossing her arms and turning away from him in a huff when he went to greet her.

"Mimsy, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, you just fly off and then not a word for a whole day, leaving us to wonder if you're dead or alive, and now you just come swooping in and expect to be welcomed back with open arms? I thought we were your friends, and that we rated a little more consideration than that."

"I couldn't just call you, it would have given away my position!"

"There's always some excuse."

"Shaya, tell her, there's no reason to be mad at me."

"Oh no, I'm not stepping in that minefield. Anyway, Mome, fetch some tea and let the poor man's leg go. He's not going anywhere now."

"You shouldn't have left without me, master," she chided him, reluctantly letting him go. "I was very worried about you."

"Sorry about that, Mome. But I won't be running away any more so you don't have to worry about a thing."

"Yay!" She ran off.

"Really?" asked Mimsy coldly. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Yes, that's what I want to talk to you about. Come sit down," said Shaya, steering him towards the common area. "The rest of you, get back to work."

"Work?" asked Maai, "Doing what?"

"We don't even know where we're going at this point," continued Leah.

"And we can't hold a market, we still have very little to trade with," finished Maai.

"I don't know, find something!"

They grumbled something and everyone dispersed. Everyone except Mimsy, who stared down Shaya until she relented.

"So what happened?" she asked, turning back to Kei.

"Not much. Flew for a while, found a cave and managed to get the Starburst into it. Did some thinking, and then the next day these two girls show up and start asking me what I'm doing there. Well, I didn't go into detail but it turned out they knew what I was talking about anyway. Turns out there are other dimensional travelers apart from me!"

Sparkle's ears perked up, and she wondered if he was talking about Susan.

"Uh, yeah, we all are, Kei. We all come from different dimensions," Mimsy condescendingly added. "That's the whole problem, see, why we call you the singularity. You're supposed to be fixing all this, remember?"

"No, I mean, these two came here by choice, not accidentally like most everyone else. And get this, they said they were working the Chiram over to try and get them off our backs. Like they would have kept attacking us if these two hadn't stepped in and argued it was counter productive. The blond haired one with the bracelets on said she got the Chiram and the Enaam talking, think that was the meeting that caused those other ships to come escort us? Where are they, by the way?"

"Left yesterday, as there was no Singularity to guard or escort, they had other things to be doing."

"Great."

"Did you believe her?" asked Mimsy. "And why do your eyes have that far away look? What were they wearing apart from these bracelets?"

"I only mention it because it seemed out of place. One of them was this bizarre charm bracelet looking thing, but with small squares of metal that had weird symbols burnt into them. That one was around her wrist. The other one was this thick job, with all these little gems or something set into it. Never seen anything like it. She had on the weirdest watch, too. Not exactly beachwear, that's why I noticed it right away. The other one didn't have anything like that on. And they were wearing proper swimsuits, if you must know, Mimsy."

"So, they knew how to capture your interest, did they? Skimpy things, ties threatening to come loose at any moment?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said! They obviously knew you were there, if they were from some Chiram camp someplace. But they wore something sure to keep you off guard and get you talking."

"It was a beach, did you expect them to come wearing uniforms?"

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Please, you two, I'm trying to figure out what our next move is. Kei, if you could continue?"

"Oh, sure. Not much else to tell. They asked if I would at least be willing to talk to them again, and maybe find out what I can about fixing the world. I said yes."

"I see," grated Mimsy, the temperature in the room dropping ten or so degrees.

"Sorry about that," said Reeg, popping his head in the door. "Just messing with the environmental controls, trying to get a little more efficiency out of them. I'll get the A/C turned back to normal in a second." He left again.

Mimsy went on. "We ask for you help in saving the world, and you get all petulant and mopey about it. But some random strangers in bathing suits ask for you help, and suddenly you're all business."

"No, you don't get it," pleaded Kei. "You weren't there. Bracelet girl moved faster than anything I'd ever seen, one end of the cave to the other in the blink of an eye. Even more incredibly she went and picked up this enormous rock like it was nothing. Then she chucks it into the sky and the other one makes this gun appear out of nowhere and blasts it to bits before it lands again. These weren't just girls, these were _professional dimensional travelers."_

 _Well, the one sounds like Susan all right. But who's the other? Some young thing with a pretty face that Susan is spending too much time ogling? But how would she make a gun appear out of nowhere and then blast a bolder to pieces? Could there really be another traveler she's found here? Her father never ran into other adventuring parties, despite Lady Inari saying she had other agents out in the field. It was coordinated too well, avoid duplication of effort. I suppose she couldn't have gotten here by accident, like we did with Louise. Could Kei be right, and she's actually found another_ Wanderer _as powerful as she is to-_

Sparkle's blood ran cold, which had nothing to do with the ambient air temperatures.

 _Have I been... replaced? Is that why she hasn't contacted me? Does she think the new girl stands a better chance of helping her find Luna than I do? That her skill with a gun can help rescue her father better then my support magic? She can learn all the spells I know, after all, so I'm not all that irreplaceable, am I?_

She shivered.

 _Or is this another person like Susan herself- somewhat in the thrall of The Darkness and instead of Luna or me checking her behavior, actually encouraging the kind of thing we're trying to keep her from doing?_

 _Guess I shouldn't jump to conclusions, I can't believe we would have come this far together only to be separated at this point. At least I hope that's the case._

"Professional? Kei, did you eat some weird mushrooms or something while you were out there?" Mimsy asked skeptically.

"No, just rations. I'm pretty hungry actually."

As if on cue, Mome appeared with tea and sandwiches, which Kei tore into. "Thanks, Mome."

"Of course, master."

"Just a second." Shaya got up and left the room, leaving Kei and Mimsy alone, that is, alone as they could be with an eavesdropping cat afraid she had outlived her usefulness, and an infatuated robot that was again hugging Kei.

He tried making conversation with Mimsy, but she just stared icily at him.

"Sorry, it should warm up in here again soon, I got the A/C back to normal," said Reeg, again making an appearance.

Finally she relented a little bit. "I suppose if you had gotten into something and had a trip, they would have been naked rather than wearing bathing suits. Unless you're lying..."

"I'm not! I could describe them for you, if you wanted."

"Don't bother. Still, professional dimensional travelers? Why would they do such a thing?"

"I don't know, but think about all the things we have on this world where the dimensions come to us. If you could bring technology to a world still using bow and arrows, you could be hailed as a god. Or maybe gold is really plentiful somewhere, so they make frequent trips to 'gold world' and then go shopping elsewhere. I can see a lot of reasons, if you've worked out how to control journeys across dimensions, that you might want to do so. Medicine from one world to save lives on another. Scientific breakthroughs, even just plain stories you can claim to have written, or games to play. Would it be so strange to run into someone like that, especially here of all places?"

"They might not even have been human," put in Mome. "They could be artificial beings, like me, and that's why they seemed better than you physically."

"True, I shouldn't assume they were human just because they looked it. You look it, and you're not, after all. That does make a lot of sense."

"I guess you both have a point," Mimsy conceded.

A moment later Shaya returned with a printed picture, and Kei took one look at it and exclaimed "Hey, that's her all right!"

Sparkle looked over and he was holding the picture up. It was Susan.

"That verifies his story," Shaya said, sitting again. "I had the home office send me the video they captured from their chat, to see exactly what she had to say. I took this screen shot of her."

"It's her, there's no doubt. She really is trying to get your two people together and solve this thing."

"Humph. Well, at least she's not prettier than I am."

 _No, her looks is only a five, and I'm guessing you're a six at least, if not higher._

"No one is prettier than you, Mimsy."

"Unless I'm not around, that is."

"Don't start again, you two. Okay, so we know she's real. But the threat to you is also real, Kei. I guess I should just ask, what do you want to do? You came back here, when you could have easily followed those girls back to the Chiram, so you must not have trusted them completely."

Kei shook his head. "It wasn't just that. They said the Chiram are as in the dark as we are about what exactly I'm supposed to do to fix things. But that Enaam science may have some of the answers. What else, oh yeah! They were going to track down Olson, my old wingman, and get a video chat between us. It could be dangerous getting us together, so for the moment she doesn't recommend it. But he's here, alive, isn't that great? He's the other singularity, I guess."

"There's two of you? As if we didn't have enough problems," muttered Mimsy.

"Ah, he's not like me. He was a straight laced guy from the start, always pulling my bacon out of the fire. I can see him joining up with the Chiram if he thought that was where his duty lay. They want me to see if you guys have figured anything out, and by you guys I mean your government."

"Yes, I figured that," said Shaya, rolling her eyes. _Seems some things are just universal._ "And I suppose these girls showed good faith in letting you go, if they could do the things you said they could have easily taken you in by force."

"They probably could. I still can't believe what I saw, tell you the truth."

"You don't think it was some kind of trick?" asked Mimsy. "Could they have some kind of hologram projection system? I doubt the Mu would have provided them some humanoid robots, despite how nicely they asked."

Mome sadly shook her head. "Our type was discontinued when the war started. It's just combat models now."

"None that I've heard of. No, it would be quite elaborate for a simple trick, getting her to run that meeting, and then showing up on some deserted beach right where Kei is. There must be more to it than just a simple trap, everything points to that."

"How did they know where you were?"

Kei shrugged. "Got me. How did they find me the first time, when I had just arrived? Some kind of scanner or something, right?"

"Wonder what the range on something like that would be?" mused Shaya. "Have to ask Reeg. But you never really answered my question, Kei. What are you going to do now?"

"It's a problem, I know. If I go to the Enaam city, there's a chance your government will want to start messing around in my head no matter what I say. I'm totally ready to help you guys fix the world, I hope you all believe that, at least. But that girl was right, I need to know _how_ to do that, I can't just hope everything works out. There was a scientific reason this happened, and if they really can detect me I must be giving off some kind of radiation or... something detectable anyway. If science can figure that out, maybe it can figure out how to get us out of this mess."

"That's the only place we can go, for those kinds of answers. Reeg can repair the ship, but he's no theoretical dimensional scientist, or whatever that would be called. We don't have the equipment or the right sort of experts to answer that question. Would you be willing to go there, despite the risks?"

Kei took a deep breath, looking over at Mimsy. "That girl, she said something to me. That if I had the power to fix things, I had to do everything I could because I was the only one who could. I had to protect the people I had come to know even if it was a huge risk. I don't know, when she said that I got such a sense of sadness from her, like she had lost something... and she didn't see any way of getting it back."

 _Yeah, that sounds like something she would say, all right._

"I see. I am still the captain, and if you're back you're once again part of my crew. I'll take what you said into consideration and let you know what I think is best. Maybe we can smuggle you in, talk to the right people? I don't know. Go get something more to eat than sandwiches and get cleaned up. I'll let you know what I decide."

"You got it, boss," he joked, standing up again. "Come on, Mome."

"Yes, master!"

With Kei gone, Shaya turned to Mimsy. "I want you to keep a close eye on him for the next few days."

"Me? Why?"

"He hangs out with you most, you'll be able to spot any differences in his behavior."

"What do you mean, differences?"

"I mean, what if he _was_ actually captured by the Chiram? We have to assume their techniques of modifying brainwaves is as sophisticated as ours."

Her eyes widened. "You mean he only thinks he saw these two girls? That's why he doesn't quite believe what he saw!"

"Maybe." She nodded. "I doubt the technique is perfect, maybe they just gave him a memory of being impressed by what they did or said to him, and his brain filled in some kind of 'superhuman' beings to complete the narrative. I mean guns don't just appear and disappear, I don't care what dimension you're from."

 _That's what you think, lady. Maybe now would be a good time to speak up? I mean I could show them that very thing, right? But his behavior won't have changed, because he really did talk to Susan. Showing off like that is exactly what she would have done to prove her point. This other girl going along with it is somewhat troubling, I really hope she's not doing disgusting things to Susan's... mind._

"But then why return him? If they had captured him, like you said, letting him go again to come back here makes no sense."

"It does if you think about what he said. He's willing to come with us to the city, in order to see what we know about fixing the world. What if he's been 'programmed' to do that very thing, in order for the Chiram to get what we know and use it before we can?"

"I don't know," Mimsy hedged. "He wasn't gone all that long."

"But consider they've had years to work out techniques of modifying non-Chiram brainwaves, in the form of this Olson he's talking about. We've all heard the rumors of another Singularity running around with them."

"Yeah, I guess so. But they couldn't have arrived that far separated in time, could they?"

"Why not? One may have been closer to the blast than the other, and something like that could be very sensitive to physical location. I don't know, it's not like it's something we could even study."

"I guess. You're going to insist on this, aren't you?"

"I'm afraid so. We're still a day away from the home city if that's our destination. We need to know if we're delivering a man who simply saw something incredible and was inspired to do whatever he could, or an agent for the Chiram that will turn on us in an instant."

"Kei would never do that, no matter what they did to him!"

"No? Remember, they could have implanted basically anything into his brain. Even suggestions he doesn't even know of, until something triggers them."

Mimsy looked troubled. "I suppose you have a point. Okay, I'll keep an eye on him. I doubt he'll try to get rid of me in any case, he's always trying to hang around and get in the way when I'm trying to work on something. I guess now I'll just let him. Are we heading back, then?"

"I don't see that we have any choice. I won't radio ahead that we're coming, maybe we can speak to some of my contacts in the city and keep Kei's presence here a secret. At least until we know more about what their real plans are."

"Will you speak to Manisha?"

She sighed. "I suppose I'll have to. If I can get her on our side, that'll be a big help. It's a reunion I'm not looking forward to, though."

"I know. We all have to make sacrifices, don't we?" She grinned.

"I see how it is. No doubt you'll want to come and film the whole exchange, play it back for the whole crew."

"What a great idea! I'll go get a camera ready!" She scrambled out the door before Shaya could say more. "Think I could actually make some money selling tickets to see it?"

"You better not!" Shaya called after her, and heard giggling as Mimsy skipped down the hall. "That girl. And what do you have to say about the whole situation?" Shaya suddenly asked Sparkle. _Oh crap, I was watching them a little too intently, wasn't I. Still, maybe this will satisfy and still keep up the whole 'I can't talk' routine._

Sparkle got up, stretched, and padded over to her. Jumping lightly up on the table, Sparkle put a paw on Shaya's chest and looked up at her.

"Follow my heart, huh? I suppose that's good advice." Sparkle put her paw down and licked her hand before jumping down again. "Why did all this have to happen aboard _my_ ship?" she asked the ceiling as Sparkle opened the door and went in search of Kei.

 _If he's going to have contact with Susan, I better stick to him closer than before. Maybe if he has this meeting with Olson that she sets up, I can get on camera and let her know I'm here. She would blow my cover, of course._

 _There is always_ Illusion...


	112. Chapter 112

112

Olson (He's not a twin)

Who: Susan

Where: Army Building

When: Day 8, mid morning

Jenny was showing Susan her gun collection, taken from the many worlds she had visited, when there was a knock on the door.

"General Wright requests your presence in conference room 453," said the soldier to Susan when she opened the door. "I've been ordered to escort you."

"One moment." She closed the door and Jenny put her guns away, and they followed the soldier to the elevator and up to the forth floor. Naturally they had been escorted everywhere they went, the general wasn't going to allow them to just wander around the building that served as the command center for the Chiram people, was he? No, he was not. So this summons and escorting was nothing to be remarked upon, and the soldier saluted and left as the two women sat down.

Sitting to his right was a square jawed man, probably fifteen years older than Kei, with dark glasses and brown hair. His forehead insignia was a smaller red triangle surrounded by a larger yellow triangle, and he wore a standard uniform common to all Chiram troops. He rose and greeted them.

"Captain Vern, but as you aren't in the military please call me Olson."

"Ah, nice to meet you at last," replied Susan, shaking his hand.

"Sir," said Jenny, saluting.

"At ease," he replied, saluting back. "The general has told me about your unique background, and how you'll probably be leaving us once the worlds are fixed."

"True. But I am still a soldier for the moment."

"Agreed. Please, sit."

They all sat, and the general now spoke up. "You said you wanted to meet him, here he is. Sorry it didn't happen sooner, he's been on assignment and had to make his way back here."

"Yes, about that," inquired Susan. "Is it really the best policy to let one of the only two singularities jaunt about? I'm not talking about sticking him in a padded room or anything," she hastened to add, "but you are rather important. I would hate to think a stray Mu missile or laser beam would totally cut off your chances to fix things around here."

"I have to do my part, even if it is dangerous," insisted Olson.

"You sound like me," grumped the general, looking over at him. "I've told him he takes far too many risks all the time. But will he listen? No... I'm just a general."

"Yes sir, you can't discipline me for simply carrying out my duties."

"I suppose not. But you may soon have a new duty, now that Susan is here shaking things up."

"Yes, General Wright told me about you, but I have to say you're not exactly what I expected."

"What? A six foot valkyrie warrior maiden with cleavage you could ski down?"

"That's a line from something isn't it?" asked Jenny. "I can't recall from what though..."

"From how he described you, yes, something like that." Olson's glasses prevented Susan from seeing if he was rolling his eyes.

"Whatever he told you, I assure you it's no exaggeration. The point is, how can I help? We don't even know how you two are supposed to be fixing the world, unless you've learned a few things in your time here?"

Olson shook his head sadly. "I may as well start from the beginning. After the space elevator was built there was some dispute we'll call it, over who should really be in control of it. Of course this escalated and war broke out, and our side decided that just destroying the whole thing was the best course of action. After some discussion it was decided the safest way to do that was to shove it over into the next dimension. It did reach into space, after all, so it falling over or otherwise breaking up might have really wrecked the place up. With it gone, it was reasoned, there would be nothing to fight over and the war would stop."

"No, I'm sure they could have found something else," mused Susan.

"Possibly. In any case, the space/time bomb was deployed and our unit, including Kei and myself, were ordered to pull back before it was armed because our losses were too heavy. Kei was having none of that, though, and decided to arm the bomb himself."

"Which blew up in his face?"

"Literally. When I woke up the world had changed, and we all had to come to terms with several 'dominant' humanoid species that now had been flung together. To say nothing of the shifting landscape, of course. Scientists started working to find some kind of early warning system so they could predict when an area might shift, and of course to gain a greater understanding of what happened so it could be reversed. That's when I was found. I gave off some kind of dimensional energy they could track, and I joined up with the army to do my part. That's all I know."

"We've been studying the energy, and the area," put in the general. "You've already seen the fruits of that labor."

 _The big piece of machinery with the chunk of Hyperlarcovite in the middle._

 _Don't forget to steal that for me before you leave,_ The Darkness reminded her.

Susan nodded. "Right. But what does it do?"

"I can tell you what the scientists have been telling me what they're trying to accomplish," said Jeffrey. "It's all quite high level, and really only a conceptual model for what is mainly a mathematical construct anyway. And that's the real problem- the math. We don't have it all, which is why I'm glad you suggested to Kei that he see if the Enaam have also been working on this problem. Maybe their science can fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge and we can actually finish that device in the basement.

"Now, to explain; before the bomb the existence of 'walls' if you will that separated our realities was discovered."

 _I have to wonder, did The Darkness have a hand in that? Knowing they would use the information the way they did?_

 _I plead the fifth._

 _So yes, then._

"Now, those walls have been forcefully bombed, and cracks have developed. These cracks are what allow other realities to show through, which we perceive to be the messed up planet as it stands now. Also these walls are not 'hard' like brick, but rather rubber and seem to have a 'wind' that shifts them around a bit. This is what we see when a section of the world is replaced with another. The crack is just moving or widening and showing us what's past that section of wall."

"Right," agreed Olson. "Basically our bomb was to bend the wall around the elevator so it couldn't be accessed from our world anymore. This is what we got instead. Either because our math was faulty, the bomb was faulty, or Kei screwed it all up, as usual."

 _Or the bomb did exactly what it was supposed to, and brought all these realities together for The Darkness to munch on._

"So just like a crack in drywall, you need a patch," suggested Jenny.

"Right. We're going to take the energy out of the singularities and 'pour' it if you will into the cracks. Hopefully that will set and stop the cracking."

"How do you know it won't just force them open wider?" asked Susan.

"We don't," the general replied seriously. "But we die if we do nothing, so we have nothing to lose."

"Ah."

"From what I've been told, the energy that went into me is more like the energy of the wall itself rather than the energy that was going to be used to bend the wall in the first place."

Susan considered. "Actually, I suppose that makes sense. We could call the energy that went into you 'shrapnel' because the walls got blown apart and those chunks had to end up someplace. But wait, that's got to be such a small bit of the original amount, how would it ever even make a difference?"

"Actually, that's basically been my task," explained Olson. "When a large amount of 'debris' is picked up on scanners I head there and soak it up. It seems to be attracted to me, like a magnet. So I'm practically bursting with it." He lowered his glasses a little, and Susan saw they were glowing.

"Mako eyes," she remarked, remembering Cloud's similar soul windows. "An interesting parallel. Okay, so we're going to have to tell Kei to do the same?"

He pushed the glasses back up and shook his head. "He took longer to get here. Wherever he was between then and now seems to have been doing something similar. And I've gotten the largest areas we've picked up, I've been here for years after all."

"At least according to our sensors. That's how we can track him from so far away," Jeffrey put in.

"All right. I like this plan, I'm proud to be a part of it. This patching though, does it have to happen somewhere specific?"

"The space elevator," said the general. "We talked about that when we met with the Enaam, remember?"

"Oh, guess that was mentioned in passing, wasn't it? But isn't that area..."

"Controlled by the Mu. Yes. That's why I liked your plan, find how they're moving troops around and destroy it so they can't get backup. Plus they may pull troops from there if we started attacking their territories, making things easier for us when we go after that place."

"And how many robots are we talking about?"

"Put it this way, at last report probably as many combat frames as we have soldiers, and that was when we could get close to the place. There's probably more there now."

 _Duh. Doesn't cost me any energy to have robots build more robots. You think I'm just going to let you all walk up to the key point of this dimension and go to town with your little plan? When I can just keep you all from getting close and let the weather do you in? I'm patient, after all, and I can lose a million robots but you 'living' people don't seem to like throwing your lives away._

"Figure there's more there now," she agreed.

"The thing that works against us... the two things that work against us," put in Jenny, "is the fact we don't want to damage the elevator and we can't get very high. If we could fly higher we could just bomb them to pieces. Carefully, like I said we don't want to make the elevator fall over."

"Do we need it? I mean it's the cause of all this isn't it?" Susan asked.

"There's more of that energy floating around up in space," explained Jeffrey. "We have to take the equipment up there, absorb the energy, and only then will we think we have enough. Hopefully just filling in the larger cracks will prevent new ones from forming and fix most of our problems. I mean we don't mind the Enaam, keeping a few doors open to other realities could greatly benefit both sides of the crack, when the end of the world isn't looming over our heads."

"You might even study the edge of the two realities and find out how to safely move it aside, like a curtain, rather than having to use the force of a bomb," added Jenny. "People could one day step across worlds as easily as unlocking their front door."

"Indeed," agreed the general.

"Wait a second, how does this fix the shell or whatever that's gone up around the world?" asked Susan. "How does it fit into all this?"

"That we aren't sure about," admitted Jeffrey. "We can't really study it, just the effect it has on anything we poke into it. It destroys stuff. We are sort of just hoping it's related. Maybe some kind of 'dust' that was kicked up when the cracks were made? We hope once the dimensions are more stable it will either disperse across all of them and pose little threat or finally settle and just naturally go away."

 _It's actually me. I mean not literally me, I mean the Mu built something to generate that field at my request. And by request I mean programming. The dimensions coming apart wasn't killing people here fast enough for my taste, so I worked out something to hurry the process along a bit. I'm patient, but one does like to see the fruits of one's labor, doesn't one? Once you 'heroes' started fouling up my plans I knew I needed to pick up the pace, so that's what I did. Plus it keeps you away from that energy you need to fix things, so win-win, right? I mean lose-lose from your point of view._

"It actually came later?" she asked.

"Yes. That's why we think it's a sort of 'dust.' It took time to gather into the atmosphere and start messing the weather up."

 _What, don't you trust me? When I'm gloating about something, why would I lie?_

 _Who knows? If you think I'm just going to take what you say at face value though, I'm not sure you know we well enough yet._

"Then I'm sure it'll work out," Susan said with a wave of her hand.

"No doubt," agreed the general, standing up. "I have to get back to work. Olson, Susan here is a civilian, so you can't technically order her around, but as of this moment you three are now a squad."

"Sir, my men-"

"They'll have someone assigned to them. Susan is right, unless there's a new energy source for you to absorb you should stay here. You've been out there, you know Mu attacks are on the rise. We have to believe they can track that energy as easily as we can."

"Yes sir."

"Don't worry, it shouldn't be for long. For now your orders are to work with Susan in getting Kei at least on our side, or whatever else she thinks is best for you three to do. Jenny, I'm promoting you to captain as well. You obviously have far more experience than you said when you signed on, and there may come a time before this is over that you'll need to bark orders at people. I don't want grunts quibbling about rank when the times comes." He slid an envelope across the table to her. "Your new insignia... and the forms you'll have to fill out. I trust you. If only because you no doubt want to go back to dimension hopping, and solving our problem solves yours, so we're on the same side."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir."

"Let me know if you need anything," he added as he went out the door.

"Congratulations," Olson and Susan said. Olson seriously and Susan with a smirk.

"Bah. There should be a special rank for us dimensional travelers. I'm disgusted. Me, a mere _captain-_ what a step down."

Olson looked a bit shocked but grinned when he saw Susan nodding and trying not to laugh.

"Okay, I guess he didn't tell me everything. But he did say you spoke to Kei yesterday?"

"Yup. And I figure we should get you close enough to get a signal to the ship he's on, if we can reach it in any reasonable time today," Susan replied.

"Can't I just go see him? You did tell him something to that effect, right?"

"Now that I've seen those eyes of yours, I'm even less inclined to let you two get close if it's not under lab conditions. Think about it, you've just told me the energy inside you is attracted to itself, right? Well, there's that energy inside him, too. What if his flows outside him and yours flows outside you and just meets in a big ball and now you've both lost the advantage of being a singularity? Or you come along for the ride and two miles out you're suddenly jerked through the cockpit of your mecha and go flying through the air and collide with him? Or even worse, what if your two energies have the same charge and you actually _repel?_ You could be flying along and suddenly find yourself flying backwards through your chair!"

"I see your point."

"Good. No, when he agrees to meet it'll be on some field someplace, where you can slowly walk towards each other from like a mile away with sensors going and stopping every few feet to make sure something bad isn't happening."

"I guess that's reasonable. Let's go find out where he is currently, I really would like to at least talk to him. There's some things he doesn't know, that he needs to."

"Sounds good to me."

So the three left the base in the direction of the Glomar, which was heading for the Enaam home city. Olson did mention she was basically doing what she just chided the him for doing, that is, going outside the city where the Mu could blow him up.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "You'll be with me. Us. Jenny and me. Safest place on the planet, believe me."

Each civilization relied on the equivalent to a 'disposable cell tower' for their communications, basically a cheap transmitter they could shotgun about the landscape and not have to worry about losing a few if the space around them opened to another world. But even these three couldn't request the kind of power that was used to tie together the signals for the big meeting before, so they had to get a bit closer to the ship in order to call them.

This time Susan and Jenny went in separate Ishkicks, Jenny being a captain now she could sign for more expensive equipment and just signed one out for her. She, of course, got a more advanced model for her own use, as befitted her new rank.

"Susan calling Enaam ship Glomar," Susan repeated, now that Olson assured her they were in range. She had insisted on being the one to call, as Kei knew her and Jenny and presumably told the rest of the crew. Olson was going to cut in once the channel was open.

"This is the Glomar, Mimsy speaking," said Mimsy as the bridge of the Glomar came into view. "Shaya, our captain, is in another part of the ship. If you would like to discuss some kind of business transaction you will have to wait a moment while I fetch her."

"Hello Mimsy," Susan said brightly. "Actually, this is Susan, and I'm hoping to talk to... wait, your name is Mimsy?"

"Yes, have we met?"

"What, no, I just... Mimsy. What a great name. In fact I officially love that name. Mimsy. _Mim_ sy. Mim _sy._ Sorry, both you and your name are just too cute I couldn't contain myself."

"Uh, thank you?" Mimsy seemed a little loss for words.

Susan laughed. "Sorry, as I was saying, I"m Susan, Kei might have mentioned me?"

"Oh." Mimsy turned frosty. "He mentioned something about a girl in a bathing suit, that might be calling sometime soon. That was you?"

"Sorry, we figured he would be more inclined to stick around and listen to what we had to say dressed like that. Rather than uniforms, or clothes from off world I mean."

"It was... you mean you... oh forget it, I'll just go get him. Wait a second." The feed cut out.

"She seems nice?" Jenny ventured.

"Typical Enaam," added Olson, then raised his voice mockingly. "If you have business to transact."

"I suppose they are a merchant ship, right?" asked Susan.

"Sure, but is a simple 'how can we help you today' too much to ask?"

"Maybe she fell asleep that day in business class?"

"Maybe." The three fell silent, waiting for Kei to come on, which he did a moment later.

"Hi Kei, I brought someone who says he has some stuff to tell you," Susan said to him. "Hope we didn't get you in trouble with your _girlfriend_ there."

"Oh, I'm used to it by now. Nice to see you again, Susan, proves I wasn't just hallucinating or something."

"Was that a possibility?"

"Mushrooms were mentioned, yes. So who wants to talk to me?"

"I'll turn you over to him."

"Hey partner," said Olson, taking the call over.

"Olson! Hey, it really is you," Kei answered excitedly. "This is great, but why do you look so old? What happened to you?"

"A lot. Look, I'm going to lead off with the most important thing, okay? Something that may change your whole life, or at least whatever you're going to do next."

"Okay? Hit me, I guess."

"You're a father."

"I'm a what?"


	113. Chapter 113

113

Sneaking Around

Who: Sparkle

Time: Early morning, day 9

Place: Common sleeping area

Kei sat on the edge of his bed, lost in thought. The revelation that the last time he saw Tina, in her bedroom the night of the mission to detonate "the chocolate parfait monster" (or dimensional bomb) she had become pregnant, was eating away at him.

"How could I have been so stupid!" Sparkle heard him say, and she looked over to him.

 _He must be brooding, usually he can't take his eyes off Mimsy when she's changing._

Mimsy finished buttoning the top of her uniform and sat next to him."Are you still brooding about that?"

"How can I not?" he replied. "If Tina was still alive she would hate me right now. I mean the night I... you know... was the night the dimensional bomb went off and from her perspective, I was killed or went missing. Then she finds out she's pregnant? Should I be angry at her or simply grateful to have a child?"

"Angry? Why would you be angry with her? Typical male!"

"She said that wouldn't happen! Because of the war effort, stuff like protection was really hard to get, but she assured me-"

"Oh, that's what you're so upset about?" Mimsy fumed, throwing both her tentacles and hands up. "I don't know why I bother. Anyway, she's all grown up now, and a soldier herself right? Followed in old dad's footsteps, so shouldn't you be proud?"

"She lied to me. And look what happened!"

"It's not an exact science, you know. Plus, maybe she wanted a child from you because she knew that might be her last chance. You didn't let slip about your mission, did you?"

"No! You're saying she might have deliberately misled me, knowing she could get pregnant?"

"It's a possibility. Because of how few Enaam males are born sometimes Enaam girls will... never you mind, but even among Chiram I could see it happening. As a woman, I could see in desperation-"

"Desperation? Like she settled for me because I happened to be nearby and seemed willing?"

"That's not what I meant at all! She at least knew you were a soldier, there was every possibility each mission could be your last. Besides, you were the one in her bedroom, did she seem to be just using you? Did she really love you, or would you just jump into bed- what am I asking, you're male of course you would." She rolled her eyes, but Kei wasn't looking at her.

"She did basically use me, didn't she? It's like if she asked me to get her a gun to protect her house from looters, then she goes and murders her father with it. She invited me to her bedroom on false pretenses."

Mimsy looked at him from the sides of her eyes. "I'm sure you went along with what she proposed willingly enough."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is? In any case, it happened literally in another world and another time. Plus, Tina was killed, right? It's over with and done, and your child is now basically a woman herself. So at least some part of Tina lives on. Content yourself with- or do you hate this child you haven't even met because you can't properly hate Tina now that she's gone?"

"No, I don't!" assured Kei. "I just... I don't think so. I don't know what to feel."

"Humph. I guess that's something, anyway. If you did, I suppose... well, never mind. So what are you going to do?"

"Olson said he was going to get her transferred to where he's staying and after we visit the Enaam homeland he would try and persuade her to meet me. Just because he shouldn't get too close to me until we know what might happen doesn't mean she can't."

"Just remember she's your daughter, don't put any moves on her no matter how pretty she might be."

"Who do you take me for?"

"I don't know, but I have the funniest sense of you kissing some green haired girl."

"Don't even joke about that! Besides, according to him she's not exactly thrilled I've popped back up."

"Somehow I can relate," Mimsy muttered.

There seemed to be nothing more to say about that, so Shaya got everyone's attention and they went into the common room to discuss their plans for the day.

"We should discuss our plans for today," she said, knowing they needed to discuss their plans for that day, "as we'll be arriving at the home city sometime today."

"So, our plans, we should discuss them?" asked Reeg.

"Right. We need to make a plan, discuss it, and then we'll have a plan."

"What's to plan?" asked Kei. "We just need to find out if your people have any specific information about what I need to do to fix the world."

"The way you were talking yesterday, it was a bit more specific than that," countered Reeg. "You were basically talking about specific science relating to something the Chiram are building."

"Whatever it is."

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable committing treason," spoke up Govu.

"Treason? Who said anything about that?" asked Leah. Maai also looked puzzled.

"You realize what we're going to have to do? They aren't just going to hand over any scientific data they've obtained about the phenomenon of the dimensional shifts. We're going to have to hack into the science building's computers, decrypt and copy the information, and get out without anyone knowing about it."

"But that's still not treasonous," protested Maai. "Breaking and entering. Tampering with a computer system. Theft."

"I don't need the list! It will be treason, once we hand that information over to the Chiram."

They silently digested this.

"Ah, but we're not, are we?" asked Kei with a snap of his fingers. "We're handing it over to those two dimensional traveler girls. And it's not like the information will be used _against_ the Enaam people, it'll just be used to fix the world's problems."

"I'm not sure that congress will see it that way," Govu maintained. "I mean they've spoken to this girl directly, yes? But they didn't see fit to just hand the information over..."

"Yes, why go through all this trouble and put my master at risk?" asked Mome. "If she's in contact with congress herself why should we risk our lives trying to steal the information."

"But Mome, don't you see, there's a lot of reasons we should have the information ourselves. What if they decide not to help this girl, because they feel she can't be trusted? Or they give her only partial information while leaving out critical pieces she needs? We can't take that chance. And they're not just going to open fire if they see us sneaking around you know. We're not risking our _lives._ "

"Plus," added Shaya, "if we do it right no one will be the wiser. Say that congress does choose to release the information to these two? In that case, we can compare what they're given to what we took and make sure it's the same."

"You aren't suggesting they would alter the data and somehow make it useless, do you?" asked Kei.

"They're the ones that sent those ships to detain you and bring you back for mental reprograming," she reminded him. "Do you think there's any level they wouldn't stoop to?"

"Oh, it's revenge!" remarked Mome. "That's why you want to do this, to get back at them for wanting to mess with your brain. I get it."

"No, Mome, that's..." But Kei couldn't continue, because if he was being honest with himself (and who was, really?) it was kind of exactly like that.

"So, what are we going to do?" asked Reeg after a moment. "And how do we keep Kei from being found out once we're there? The Chiram aren't the only ones with dimensional scanners, after all."

Everyone looked over at him. "Sorry, Kei, we'll be dropping you off before we get anywhere near the city."

He slumped over. "I understand. I'll just go hang out in the forest and try not to go mad with worry over the fate my favorite girl, Mimsy."

"Oh, stop it," said Mimsy, but she didn't look totally displeased.

"With that out of the way, what is the plan?" asked Reeg.

"We're somewhat fortunate," explained Shaya, "because our city is pretty small, there is only facility dedicated to dimensional research. At least, that I knew about before I left to captain the Glomar."

"If you can get me inside, I can plug in and copy any data off servers," offered Mome.

"Good, that's what I was hoping for," replied Shaya. "The tricky part, of course, is actually getting inside."

"Should we break in at night?" asked Mimsy.

Kei shook his head. "Hard to justify your presence in the building at night, when there shouldn't be anyone around. No, if you can stake the place out during the day you might be able to see what security measures are in place. I mean there shouldn't be that many, just someone checking badges and making sure you're Enaam. Presumably if you were let into the city, you're Enaam, and the guards would just be there to keep kids and foreigners from poking around the place. It shouldn't be too heavily guarded, especially if you can slip inside without being detected."

"Maybe some kind of roof access we can fly up to?" suggested Reeg.

"There won't be any open windows, the building will be climate controlled," figured Mimsy.

"No, but there would be a door, even in a modern building someone might have to get on the roof for some reason."

"True."

"I think we're going to have to be closer before we can come up with any real plans," suggested Shaya. "We'll need to see what the situation is before we commit to something that's unrealistic."

"Then let's eat!" suggested Kei.

Later that day, Kei safely tucked away a hundred miles from the city, it came into view. Sparkle had debated staying with Kei, but honestly these people probably needed her more as they were the ones risking everything by breaking into what was essentially a government building. So she watched the approach with the others, and saw a some kind of shining barrier which was surrounded by forest.

"That's a city?" asked Mome. "It's sealed off."

"To help keep it cool, as we found Mu could just teleport through it," said Shaya sadly. "Originally the barrier put around it wasn't intended for more than defense, but spraying the inside of the glass with a mirroring agent helps keep out some of the heat, at least. Though if the Chiram decided to attack, it would certainly keep them out awhile."

"No wonder it's so bright. It's pretty."

"That it is, little one."

The people at the gate had no reason to refuse the Glomar entrance, and they glided to their assigned parking spot. Mimsy wanted to leave right away and take a look at the building they were going to have to infiltrate but Shaya urged caution instead.

"If we're seen immediately flying out there it's going to raise a lot of red flags. Don't forget, we're probably under observation right now, given our recent contact with Kei. Let's just restock our inventory, go shopping, visit family, whatever we would normally do when we came back here. If, in the course of our travels you happen to pass by that building, great. Keep your eyes open and see if anything obvious jumps out at you. Otherwise, tomorrow we'll stake the place out and come up with a plan. I hate to move so quickly, but I have to think of Kei out in the forest by himself. We'll need to get moving despite the risk. I just hope if there is interest in us, it goes away quickly."

"Tell me where it is," insisted Mome. "I can make my way there on foot and make sure I'm not followed. No one is likely to watch me anyway, right?"

Shaya stared down at her, then crouched down. "You're really willing to risk it?"

"There's no risk, why would anyone hurt me? Even if I got captured, I'll just say I got lost. There would be no reason to doubt me."

She considered. "I guess, and we do need to have some idea of what the layout is as quickly as possible. If we could make at least some plans tonight... okay. You could probably fit into the storage compartment under the seat of the flyers, right? Someone will take you part way there, drop you off, and then pick you back up in an hour or so, all right?"

"That sounds fun! It'll be an adventure!" beamed Mome.

 _And that's my cue._

Sparkle stuck with her as she was partly disassembled so she could fit into the storage area of Maai's bike, who was going with her sister to visit family in the city. She jumped onto Leah's when she sat down and started buckling her belts.

"Shaya, Starburst is on my flyer!" she complained.

"Then that's where she wants to be," Shaya called back. "She must have something in mind."

Leah turned and looked back at her, and Sparkle looked calmly back up at her. "You're really coming?"

"Meow."

"Fine. Just don't fall off."

Outside the ice cream place the twins stopped at, Mome pushed the seat up and looked around, checking to make sure the coast was clear. Swiftly reattaching her arm and a leg, she accessed her internal map and set off down the street of the city, Sparkle following a pace or two behind. "You are a funny one," she said, scooping her up and holding onto her.

Sparkle now was able to look around as she was carried along, and noticed the city looked... odd. Like someone had said "how can we build our buildings to look all futuristic and stuff?" and then set out to do just that.

 _I mean if you think about it, buildings last a long time, especially skyscraper type buildings like these. And once up, you don't tend to knock them over and build new ones because you don't want to accidentally knock into a nearby structure. But these look like someone designed them hundreds of years ago to look all sweeping and curvy and shiny. I guess it could just be architectural styles between what I'm used to at home, but it just seems weird. Or maybe this place didn't look like this twenty years ago, when the incident first happened? They've built it up to look like this in the meantime? I mean we just got onto a moving sidewalk! I know they have anti-gravity systems and everything, but they don't seem that advanced. Or are they just so advanced it doesn't look like they are? Technology is so confusing._

Sparkle also noticed the unequal ratio of male to female Enaam (with females being more prevalent) and how clean everything was. She had little time to ponder these issues as Mome stepped off the sidewalk and pointed to a nearby building.

"That's the one Shaya said was the research center. Shall we go have a look around?"

Sparkle jumped down and the two circled the building, while keeping an eye out for anyone that seemed to take too great an interest in them. No one did, at least according to Sparkle's thirteen perception check, as people streamed by on the moving sidewalks chatting and going about their business.

The building seemed much taller than most of the buildings in the area, and high above Sparkle could see some weird tubes running into the side of it.

"That's another method of transport," Mome explained, noticing her looking up at it. "There are people in those tubes, going from building to building. There's less wind resistance in the tubes, so they can go faster."

"Meow."

"Does Shaya know the internal layout of that building?" Mome wondered. "It's so big, we don't want to spend hours just trying to find their mainframe. I bet they have a good looking mainframe though." She started skipping and singing. "I like the size of your mainframe! I have a query for your mainframe. Can I make an input/output request?"

"Meow?"

"Just some computer humor. Come on." Mome looked around and selected a nearby building, heading around the side. She peaked around the wall and then turned back to Sparkle.

"You can understand me, can't you?"

Sparkle considered, then gave a slight nod.

Mome smiled. "I thought so! I've been watching you- anyway now's not the time. I want you to do something for me, if you can. See that entrance over there? See if you can slip in when someone goes inside. They'll probably have some kind of keycard system that unlocks the door. Once you're inside, look around and try to steal one, then bring it back here."

Sparkle cocked her head to one side.

"I want to get in, and go to the top of this building so we can look over at the science building there. This is the only building tall enough. I could maybe hack the security system from outside, using a panel, but I don't want to risk getting spotted or doing it wrong. I'm a nurse, not a hacker. The keycard would be easier."

Sparkle looked between them, deciding she was right. She nodded and headed for the door.

Her LUCk check of seventeen meant she didn't have to wait long, and her _sneaking_ check of thirteen was enough to get her inside without the woman spotting her as she did.

 _Now what?_

Once inside, Sparkle looked around and set off down the hallway, going _Invisible_ as she did so. This was some sort of office building, and she could hear the muted conversations from people inside offices to either side as she moved about. Another LUCk check of twenty two led her to a meeting room and she pushed her way inside. Looking around she circled the chairs and saw a badges clipped to various pieces of clothing around the room.

 _Now to get one without being seen._ She considered for a moment, then went behind a plant that was in the corner of the room. _Just in case this ends_ Invisibility. She then did an instant casting of _Illusion_ situated on the ceiling and causing everyone to look up to see what that flash of light was. It was of course already gone, and they went on with the meeting never knowing they were now in the grip of an _Illusion._ A very subtle _Illusion,_ which Sparkle immediately began enacting.

Within a few moments, the meeting came to a halt as someone got up to check the temperature setting on the thermostat.

"It's normal room temperature," insisted the lady that was looking it over.

"Then why does it seem so hot in here?" asked another, fanning herself.

"Someone will have to have maintenance down here to take a look," said the first lady, casually taking her top off. "We're almost done here anyway, this should wrap up soon."

Nods went around the room and others started stripping clothes off, and setting them aside.

 _I figured that's what would happen. These people have absolutely no shame at all. Why do they even bother to wear clothes in the first place? The people on the Glomar seem to wear as little as possible, so it's a good thing that's cultural and not just them being weirdos._

Sparkle was now able to carefully chew through the string holding one person's badge to a sort of zip line that could stretch back and forth, and invisibly carried it out of the room. With her gone, the spell broke and now everyone was freezing and hastily went to put their clothes back on. Sparkle went back the way she came, then made a REAsoncheck as she got up to the door. Her eight wasn't quite enough but she didn't know that, and figured everything was fine. Having no means to unlatch the door she waited again until someone went through, and darted through herself. She made her way to the side of the building, dropping _Invisibility_ as she did so, and walked up to Mome with the badge in her mouth.

"Oh, you did great!" she exclaimed, taking it. "Now come on, before they notice it's missing."

The two went around the back and Mome let them both in with the badge, peaking in the door and looking about.

What they didn't know, and what a higher REAson check might have alerted Sparkle to, is that the badge hadn't been swiped _out_. So now it had been swiped _in_ twice, alerting security, who perked up and watched as a little girl and a cat went to the elevator and punched the button for the top floor.

The two reached the top floor without incident, and they snuck around looking for some kind of access to the roof, which they found.

"Looks like just a standard alarm," Mome remarked, looking the door over. "Mostly to keep people from busting through it and jumping off the building without alerting someone so they can try and stop it. I doubt it's tied into the building's security." She scrambled up onto the door handle and put her hand over the box at the top of the door. Closing her eyes she concentrated, and then nodded. "It shouldn't go off now. Come on." She hopped down and gently pushed the door open, allowing them both access to the roof. There was little wind here, given how the whole city was enclosed, so Mome and Sparkle went to the edge to try and see what they could see of the science building next door. Mome's eyes whirred.

"Yes, there's a roof access but it looks pretty locked down, even from here," she remarked, then slowly panned across the place. "Not many windows either, so we aren't getting in that way. I suppose the walls are pretty thick, to block out any sort of radiation that might mess with the experiments inside. How in the world are we going to get in there?"

"And why would you want to do that, little lady?" said a voice behind them.

Two security personnel stood there, looking somewhat perturbed, but Sparkle noted their weapons weren't drawn.

 _Which is a good sign, right?_

But they did each have a hand on their gun, and the holster was unsnapped.

 _Right?_


	114. Chapter 114

114

Everything is an illusion

Who: Sparkle

Where: Top of the building next to the building they want to break into

Time: Day 9, just after being discovered.

"Asked you a question little lady," said the security guard when Mome hesitated to answer, as she was obviously unprepared for being caught in this situation. She may have been prepared to be caught outside by saying she was lost, but holding a key card in one hand and standing atop a secured building is an absurd place to be lost in.

Unless of course your name is Mihoshi. And you're the theorized great-great-grandaughter of a being that gave up the majority of her powers as one of the three goddess that created the universe so she could study the nature of existence from first principals. But her name is not Mihoshi, it's Mome, and right now she's wishing she had a little bit more combat programming and a little less medical programming.

She looked down at Sparkle, who gave her a "what do you want me to do about it, I'm just a cat" look. She looked back up at the woman who was looming over her.

"Because we need to find out more about the singularity and the mathematics behind the dimensional rift dynamic that currently threatens our very existence. That building is the reported center of such research done by the Enaam people so it's imperative we collect all known data before my master Kei, the singularity, is inadvertently harmed by our clumsy attempts to return all the worlds affected by the dimensional bomb to relative normalcy vis a vis the Enaam and Chiram people working together on a scale never before conceived of by either race." She clapped her hands over her mouth in horror.

The one security guard glanced over at the other with a "what is this girl talking about" look while Mome had a _I wish my programming included less 'let's be helpful and answer people's questions truthfully' subroutines_ and more _'oh my gosh look over there it's a giant lizard from under the sea and it's about to destroy the city'_ distraction subroutines.

But you have what you have, right? And you don't have what you don't have.

 _Didn't think a robot could have_ Compulsive Honesty _but then, I wouldn't want the possibility of a medical robot lying to people either._

"Maybe you better come with me," said the first guard, reaching for Mome.

"She's not Enaam," remarked the other. "How did you even get in this city?"

"I came here legitimately, on a trading ship."

"Which one?"

"The..." She looked to be struggling with herself. "I don't have to tell you!"

"Come on, let's go downstairs and see if we can't sort this all out." She grabbed Mome, who really couldn't struggle against authority figures, and dragged her towards the door.

 _So much for stealth, now what do I do?_ Sparkle followed.

"What's with the cat?" asked the other, looking down at her.

"She came with me."

"A cat?"

"She's part of the crew!"

"You must have the weirdest crew..."

"Let me tell you about the talking dinosaur."

"Later."

 _Shut up, Mome. If you tell them about the crew, they'll easily find out we come from the Glomar. How many other ships have a giant lizard crewing them?_ On the elevator ride down Sparkle was furiously thinking about how they were going to get out of this situation using her only spell of _Illusion. Oh, sure, I could make us both_ Invisible _in an instant, but that would give away my being magical plus Mome wouldn't know exactly what was going on as to her eyes her body would have just vanished. We wouldn't be able to stay together to escape, and if I had to let it go too early she might just be caught again. To say nothing of the fallout when I made my way back to the Glomar. They would want an explanation after all._

They led Mome into a room full of monitors and Sparkle looked up at them, considering.

Someone in charge stepped up, looking down at Mome. "Caught our little infiltrator, did we? How did you get hold of that badge you used, anyway?"

"I just found it lying outside and tried it on the door. It worked so I thought I would go up to the roof and have a look around."

This was technically true, as Sparkle had dropped the badge causing Mome to pick it up off the ground.

"Oh did you? Then would you like to tell me how a badge that got scanned in at one door hours ago suddenly appeared outside to be scanned in again?"

"Maybe... umm..."

"Yes?"

Attention was now turned to Mome and everyone had forgotten little old Sparkle, who took the opportunity to cast a spell. She didn't care about people seeing the flash, she cast instantly and put max energy into it. She got a fifteen, and the five Enaam NPCs (hey, they are at least as far as Sparkle is concerned. So they have average REAson of 5) made their resistance checks.

All failed.

Sparkle now enacted her _Illusion,_ one piece at a time.

First, she created a very loud explosion sound, causing the security personnel to jump and wonder what the noise was.

Second, she created the illusion of smoke filling the room, and covered the monitors with the illusion that they were showing scenes of hallways consumed in fire.

Third she created more explosion noises, from faint to moderately loud, causing the security personnel to believe the building was being blown up and making them all draw their weapons and rush to the monitors to see what was going on.

And finally the masterstroke, she created a very high temperature all at once near the ceiling so the computerized fire detection system registered that the room was on fire, and turned on the sprinklers while fire alarms started sounding through the place. If it had been a simple mechanical system, something bursting when heat was applied, of course this trick wouldn't have worked. But the Enaam were, in this case, too advanced for their own good and computerized everything when the place was built. This system was just smart enough to be taken in by _Illusion,_ after all a system that senses temperature is a system that senses temperature. Whether that system is biological or mechanical makes little difference after a certain point. They had tied it all together so the alarm could sound when the water went off, so bells could be heard ringing. Yes, no one ever heard them ringing, until they caught the Mu. (Mome is a humanoid Mu robot, you knew that, right?)

The result of all this was; various swear words were spoken and Mome was completely forgotten as one of the guards yelled the building was under attack (it wasn't) and they needed to start evacuating people (they didn't). The four sprinted out of the room, leaving a bewildered Mome and a smug Sparkle behind.

Sparkle, for her part, immediately took action and ran to the door on the other side of the room. She started scratching at it, and Mome took the hint, rushing over to it.

"It's locked," she said, rattling the handle. "And it's mechanical, I can't get it open."

 _That_ Illusion _isn't going to fool them for long, they'll realize the hallways are not on fire somewhat quickly. No time for subtlety then._

Sparkle hopped up and touched the door (it wasn't going anywhere) and spent more of her dwindling supply of energy on a Ryūdō strike to bust the wood holding the lock in place. _When we get back to the hub I am seriously taking Silverstreak up on his offer to get me more energy._

Sparkle got lucky and did nineteen damage to the door, which thanks to her LUCk check of twenty was made of wood and could only take eighteen before being destroyed. (A metal one would have needed an additional eleven damage) The door shattered, as there was no provision in the _Paragon Rules_ for partially destroying an object in this way. Either the DC was depleted and the object was no longer whatever it happened to be previously, or it was not, and thus was still whole. She had done more damage than the door could take, so despite her just wanting to "shoot the lock out" the door blew outward and Mome gasped at her.

"How did you do that?" she asked, taking a step back.

Sparkle, not wanting to go into detail, simply said "meow" and stepped into the hallway beyond, which thanks to an even higher LUCk check of twenty two was currently unoccupied.

"Right, get out first, talk later I guess?" She peaked around the doorframe and both lass scampered out of there, joining the throng of people that believed some kind of fire drill was going on. (They still have those, right?) The two slipped away as five security guards raved and ranted about being under attack and fires in the halls and explosions taking the whole place down around them. Everyone assured them things were fine, and twenty years later they got back together and had a good laugh about the whole thing. But this is not their story, and so we return to the ice cream place where Mome and Sparkle tried to stay out of sight until the twins returned and Mome packed herself away again.

Shaya and the rest of the crew stared at Mome, as she had just finished telling her story of the dramatic escape. Sparkle, laying nearby and watching their reactions though slitted eyes gauged them as "I'm not really believing what I'm hearing." She didn't blame them.

"So the building was attacked at that very moment?" asked Shaya.

"That's what I saw on the monitors. And I heard the sounds of explosions, and the sprinklers all went off... though just in that room now that I think about it. We didn't get wet in the hallway."

"And this cat, that can't weigh more than ten kilograms, touched a door and shattered it into pieces?" asked Mimsy.

"Her name is still Starburst," Mome said acidly. "And I'm telling the truth."

"The cat- Starburst," Srei corrected himself as Mome glared at him too, "did fight or scare off those guys trying to steal the mecha we named after her. We never did figure out how, and that man insisted he was bruised when the cat touched him."

Everyone looked over at Sparkle, who didn't bother to raise her head or look back.

"I wish I had brought a piece of the door back for analysis," lamented Mome. "I could see if the material stress placed on the wood matched that of the strange burn I examined on the man."

 _Then I'm glad you didn't._

"I suppose we've accepted her as a part of the crew, it would be foolish to start doubting her now," remarked Shaya.

"Who, Mome or Starburst?" asked Srei.

"I'm telling the truth!" Mome stomped her foot.

"I was talking about Starburst," assured Shaya.

"Oh."

"Starburst, if you can understand me or not, I still want to thank you for looking after Mome like you did." Sparkle couldn't keep the tip of her tail from tapping in pleasure.

"You sure about this?" asked Srei. "I mean what if it goes nuts and starts murdering us in our sleep?"

"I think-" started Govu.

"She won't!" insisted Mome. "She's good, she would never hurt us!"

"As I was going to say," continued Govu, "I think if she meant us harm she wouldn't keep going out of her way to protect us."

"Well said," agreed Reeg. "I was thinking, you know how Kei insisted those girls he saw in the cave had weird abilities, and they were from a dimension beyond our local ones?" The others nodded. "What if this cat is similar? From another world, where cats have the abilities she does. Why should we assume just because she looks like a cat... I mean Jaby here can talk and he isn't human. Okay, she can't talk because her vocal cords aren't meant for that sort of thing or maybe she's just a bit smarter than the average cat. And she can... punch doors down. Who's to say that isn't totally normal where she comes from? I say we judge her character by her actions, and thus far she's been nothing but a help to us, on several occasions."

The others nodded, and Srei shrugged, defeated. "Whatever, I just hope we don't come to regret having her around."

Mome stuck her tongue out at him as he left.

"So what did you find out about the building?" asked Shaya. "We do still need to make plans to assault the place."

"Not much," replied Mome, extending a cable from herself and plugging it into a nearby computer. She mounted as an external storage device and showed the pictures she had taken of the building. "As you can see, there are few windows but the transport tubes run through the building so that's one possible avenue of attack."

"Security is probably tighter there," remarked Shaya, "but by law there have to be escape hatches in case of emergency when the tubes go through a building. We could use them instead of trying to get the actual security doors open."

"Wait, wouldn't the tube and the doors to the building be basically one solid piece?" asked Reeg. "Even if we got out of the tube there, there's still a wall we would have to get thought to get into the building proper."

"Oh yeah. Security would be exactly the same no matter what entrance we used, we would just be higher up. That's no good."

"There is the roof access," Mome added, showing pictures she must have taken from the roof before the security people showed up.

 _Must be handy, being a mechanical being._

Shaya shook her head. "Making our way from the very top of the building to the very bottom without being spotted? Doesn't seem likely."

"Why do we have to go to the bottom?" asked Mome. "You know where the exact servers are we need to access?"

"Oh, hadn't thought of that. I have no idea where they might be, actually. And that building is pretty huge, isn't it?" She looked over at the screen which was playing a movie of Mome's vision panning across the rooftop.

"This is impossible," complained Mimsy. "How are we going to find the one computer we need in that whole place?"

"Can Starburst help us somehow?" asked Mome. "She understood me and got me the badge. How would she have known to swipe it out so that I could swipe it in later? If we had known that, I bet we could have gotten in and out without any trouble."

 _Yeah, who knew I should have put XP into espionage type skills? Of course, one could see this as a practice run to getting into wherever Susan's father Elysian is being held. I highly doubt we'll be able to rely on magic there, and Susan knows that, that's why she's been working on her non-magical skills like_ Spirit Step. _I'll be interested to see what they come up with._

"It's the same problem though, getting in I mean we could just blow a door up. It's what we do once we're inside that's the issue."

"We would have to blend in," remarked Govu. "Make sure we were wearing something that wouldn't be remarked upon. Mome, did you get a picture of anyone entering the building? We might need to make some fake badges that can at least pass as legitimate if someone walks by and looks at them."

"Wait, Govu, that's an excellent idea," said Shaya. But I think we're coming at this in the wrong way. Let me look something up." She tapped away on the computer, and smiled in triumph. "Look at this." She pointed to the screen, and everyone crowded around to see what she had come up with.

"It's a cleaning company, so what?" asked Reeg.

"Look at the client list, they show Science Unlimited as a client. And public records show us..."

"That Science Unlimited owns the building," read Mimsy.

"Exactly. A place as big as that probably gets cleaned every night. So I'm guessing they send a truck or trucks out who then get in and empty the garbage cans and whatnot."

"They're expected to be there," breathed Govu. "No one would look at them twice."

"Exactly. Would the guards know them well enough, if seen on a camera, to suspect they had been replaced?"

"Replaced?" asked Mimsy. "What are you planning?"

"It's simple. Sort of. We stake out the building tonight and follow what trucks leave from there. That way we can see what route they take and somehow delay them tomorrow night. While they're sitting there idle, we jump them and knock them out, leaving them someplace while we take their place. Then we just drive the truck into the place and start 'cleaning them out' if you get my drift."

"But Mome poking around their computers is going to be noticed," protested Reeg.

"I bet they have some kind of cart, she could hide inside it and we could position her near any computers we find. Then she can plug in and whatever machine holds the data we need, we siphon it off."

"You really want to knock a bunch of people out? We don't really have a lot of training in that, Shaya," protested Mimsy.

"If you can come up with a better plan, I'm all for it. But at the moment I think this is our best chance."

"Actually," wondered Mome, "I have to wonder if we couldn't just steal... I mean borrow one of their trucks for a night. I bet their security is way more lax, if it even exists at all. We could have Starburst gather up some real badges, or at least one for the driver, as there's probably just an automated gate that service people use."

"Maybe easier than doing it out in the open," remarked Govu. "It's a risk either way, of course, but this way there might be less chance of a police vehicle happening to pass by as we're knocking people out. If we can sneak Mome in and she can start up a van without causing too much of a ruckus, that's the way to go."

"So get out there and check that building out, they list the address on the site," ordered Shaya. "See what they wear, what protects the doors, everything. We'll have to steal the truck and get right over there before they notice and report it missing."

"Guess that's us again," sighed Leah.

"You coming?" asked Maai.

Mome unplugged herself (after making sure to unmount her storage partition properly) and coiled up the cable. "But I'm riding behind you this time, being shoved in the compartment is no fun, and I don't think anyone's following us around anyway."

They looked to Shaya who nodded. "That's fine. In fact..." she paused, considering. "There's a way to get them to bring a truck to us, I mean why put any extra effort into this? Leah, Maai? Here's what I want you two girls to tell them..."


	115. Chapter 115

115

Overlooking the Obvious

Who: Sparkle

When: A moment later

Where: Common room, Glomar

Mome listened politely to Shaya's plan, processed it, gave her updated predictive algorithm a few thousand billion cycles of active CPU time, and then promptly shot the plan down.

"So you want to have them come here under the pretense of cleaning the Glomar out, right?" she summarized. "Then steal the truck when they aren't looking and drive it away? If I was them, I would have some kind of tracking system hidden somewhere inside it, so it could be found anywhere in the city just in case something like that happened. I'm not sure even I could find something like that to disable it."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right. I just figured it might give us somewhat of an alibi, if the truck disappeared how could we be responsible? We wouldn't steal a truck from our own doorstep, right?"

"But the original plan is better. If we can hop in the back while they're distracted, they'll drive us into the place and be none the wiser. If the same person is driving and they have a live security guard expecting that person they'll be suspicious when one of us drives up."

"The problem with that is, there could be half a dozen people in the back of the truck. How would we deal with them?"

 _My goodness things are so much easier with magic. No wonder Susan whips it out all the time. This wouldn't even be a consideration if she was here and had access to all her planets at once. Heck, she could do all this alone and probably leave the science building people none the wiser. I mean, even here she could just use the spell of_ Research _and not even leave the room. What we need is written down someplace, right? Okay, so it's in a computer somewhere, that doesn't matter to the magic. Ugh, this is terrible. Of course it doesn't help that these are a bunch of merchants and not trained... whatever you would call what Susan is now. Magic, martial arts, some supernatural abilities, augmented by her items... what is she? Anyway, they aren't that, so they can't just storm the place. They're good people, they don't want to hurt anyone or cause too much trouble. Unlike a certain girl I could name._

"Good point."

"Let's just go," said Leah impatiently.

"It might be easier or harder depending on what we find there," added Maai.

"Until we've seen the place we shouldn't make any real plans anyway."

"Go on then."

The girls flew to the address given on the website and parked their flyers outside. What awaited them wasn't a store or shop but rather another office building.

"That's odd," remarked Leah.

"They can't own the whole place, can they?" asked Maai.

"I expected something a little more dedicated, if that's the right word," finished Leah.

"Guess we can just walk in?" suggested Mome, and they did.

They stood looking at the directory posted on the wall of the building, by the entrance, and people were coming and going as they did.

"That's the company, they're here all right," said Leah, pointing up at the sign. "Along with a whole bunch of others. I think this is just office space, don't you?"

"Could be. Shall we go up and take a look?"

Mome nodded and the four got on an elevator, where a very confused man looked down at Sparkle.

 _Hey, if I'm not here, this part of the story couldn't be told because this is our story, it follows us. Susan and me. Nobody wants to read about me napping on the Glomar, so here I am, out in the field getting that quest XP I so desire. So deal with it, buddy! Is it really so strange to see a cat walking around an- okay, never mind I suppose it is._

But he got off while shaking his head, and the four went another few floors up and stepped into the hallway where they believed the place to be. It was just a series of doors, and the group started walking, looking for some kind of sign as to where the actual place was.

"Here it is," said Leah, stopping in front of a door with a sign to the left.

"We can't just go in, can we?" asked Maai.

"I think we're going to have to. I don't know, this isn't what I pictured."

"I bet this is just the corporate office!" put in Mome. "I bet the trucks and stuff are all taken care of elsewhere. We're so stupid!"

"Let's at least take a peak inside," Leah said softly, cracking the door and looking inside. Sparkle looked as well and saw the underside of a desk, basically, because she was really close to the ground.

"Come on in," said a voice from beyond, and Leah froze. Maai poked her. "Nothing for it now, let's just play it by ear."

"How do I get talked into this stuff?" Leah moaned, and stepped inside.

They were greeted by a lady behind a desk and Sparkle looked around, trying to stay out of sight by pressing close to the desk itself. In fact, there wasn't much else to see in the room, just some chairs, potted plants, and posters of people brandishing weapons suitable for the germpocalypse.

"How can I help you?" asked the lady with a winning smile.

"Uh, well, that is to say..." began Leah.

"We were wondering..." added Maai, looking around nervously.

"Yes, wondering... uh..."

"Yes?"

"Could you come and clean our ship?" blurted Mome, and the woman smiled down at her.

"Aren't you just the cutest thing?"

"My name is Mome, I'm seven, what's your name?"

"My name is Ahromha, it's nice to meet you Mome. You say you want your ship cleaned?"

"Uh, yes, that's it exactly!" said Leah, deciding to go with it.

"I'm afraid you have the wrong idea about us," explained Ahromha. "We're a contracting service, not an actual cleaning service. Yes we _do_ cleaning, but for businesses who sign multi-year contracts with us. It saves them from hiring their own staff, you see?"

"You're an outsourced janitorial company?" asked Maai, having never really thought such a thing might exist.

"Hum, exactly. How did you find out about us and not know that?"

"Uh, your website. I guess we didn't really read it all the way through," answered Leah, with an expression of "Shaya I am going to strangle you with your own tentacles when I get back."

"Yeah our captain is a bit ditzy," Maai agreed, trying to laugh. "She ordered us to come here and I guess she didn't really look the site over well enough!" She had a "I will help you by holding Shaya down and pinning her arms and legs down with my body" look.

"Sorry we couldn't help?" said Ahromha, looking back and forth between the two.

"Guess we'll be on our way!" Leah said with a forced smile, pushing Mome out the door.

"Sorry to have bothered you. Have a nice day!" said Maai as the door closed.

"Thanks, _Shaya,"_ groused Leah once back on the Glomar.

"Yes, well done _fearless leader._ Who apparently can't understand a simple _website."_

"I take it you girls are a bit cross with me?" she asked, trying to ignore the word "murder" written across their faces. No really, they stopped before they landed and used a pen.*

"Do you have any idea,"

"How embarrassing it was to stand there,"

"Looking like a couple of idiots,"

"Who can't understand the difference between a cleaning service and a cleaning contractor?"

"I mean why would a building that size bring in one truck full of people at night to do cleaning?"

"The place is huge!"

"Very huge! They must have a dedicated staff."

"You went along with it!" insisted Shaya.

"Because we thought you had it in hand."

"That you wouldn't let us down!"

"Well I'm sorry, girls, but we were rather rushed and I didn't really study the page for the nuances it contained."

"Nuances? Sister?"

"Yes sister?"

"Would you call the type of business someone is running a _nuance?"_

"Why, I don't believe I would."

"Okay, okay? I'm sorry, okay? Mea culpa!"

She continued to apologize, but Sparkle had temporary been stunned into dialog lock.

 _What did she just say? 'mea culpa?' That can't be right, it should have translated. Did she say something in a different language akin to how we would use that phrase and so it was translated similarly knowing I would know what she meant? That was weird, not hearing my own language for a second. Has that ever happened before? I really hope this 'translation' spell or whatever Inari did to us doesn't start breaking down. Susan could fix it on her end, but I would be back to being just a 'stupid' animal. I could still act and everything, but without knowing what people around here were saying I would be of far less use. Still, it's lasted this long so hopefully it can see me through to the end of this world. Wonder if we should go back and ask her about it? Or get a technological solution, based on the fact that magic probably won't work when we rescue Susan's dad and we might need to talk to people there. But no, this must be some sort of dimensional thing, not magic. I mean a being like Inari or Silverstreak wouldn't do something that would break down, right? They don't need to have our limitations, like having to maintain magic, because they are only involved to drive the plot. They can hand out items of convenience that solve uninteresting problems, while still leaving us the majority of the problems to solve on our own. Like getting back together after being separated, stuff like that. Are they still..._ She tuned back in, but they were still going at it. _Fine. I hate to do this but they're really getting on my nerves._

She took a deep breath, drawing upon her qualities as a _Paragon,_ and thought two simple words.

 _And... scene._

"So we need another plan then?" asked Mimsy, having gotten back together with everyone to discuss it. The twins were over in the corner moping as Shaya could be shouty when it suited her, and really it wasn't totally her fault.

"Can't we still use the truck idea?" asked Govu. "We would just need to spot one."

"What truck?" asked Leah.

"They probably just drive there from home, or take the bus there," added Maai.

"The only trucks they would need,"

"Would be ones carrying supplies and such into the building."

"And that probably only happens once a week or so."

"And they wouldn't let people offloading toilet paper into the building proper."

"They would stack it up or put it on a conveyer belt or something."

"Oh. Right," agreed Govu. "Basically they're employees of one company working inside another company."

"It probably simplifies payroll," suggested Shaya.

"And HR, if they don't have to hire and fire janitors as well. The other company can screen people at their expense and just replace them at will if something comes up."

"Ah, so the same number of people come to do the work, despite how many are fired!" Govu said, as if understanding a great truth about the nature of reality.

"Could you try and pass yourselves off as being new hires?" asked Mome.

"Who all forgot our badges? I mean we have no idea how they keep track of people in the building. They could have RFID tags attached to everyone, or facial recognition cameras all over the place. These are important scientific researchers here, they wouldn't let just anyone in."

"So it comes back to breaking in?" asked Mimsy. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. We might get into a shootout with security, and then we'll become wanted criminals."

"Or somehow sneaking in at night," reminded Mome.

"And not getting caught," Shaya double reminded her.

"The cleaning staff probably go home around the same time, if they work there all day?"

Shaya nodded.

"What about fake badges?" asked Govu. "We have Starburst here sneak in and plant a virus into their systems by plugging some kind of drive into the security computers. That changes the database to allow a keycard we made to be used so we can just walk in the front door."

"Couple of problems with that," concluded Reeg. "First, I'm an engineer, not a programmer. I have some programming skills of course, but I don't know the first thing about creating a virus. Because I'm not a criminal outlaw!"

"Uh, what's the second?"

"What systems are they using? What security software? How is it encrypted? What format does the data contained on the cards take? How many bits is it and are they big endian or little endian? Are the cards powered, and they are generating a unique number that is matched to an algorithm on site as a secondary means of identification? How is a cat going to know what machine to plug it into? How is a cat going to plug in anything in the first place? How will she get close enough carrying a portable drive-"

"Okay, I get the point. I was just asking."

"What if we just walked up and asked them, and told them the truth about what we wanted to do?" asked Mome.

There was silence for a time, then everyone but her burst out laughing.

This went on for some time.

Finally they calmed down.

"Ah, thanks Mome," said Shaya, wiping a tear from her eye. "I needed that. But seriously, what are we going to do?"

Mome pouted. "I mean it, what's the worst that can happen?"

 _Oh no, she doesn't know not to say that! The universe is obligated to play some kind of_ Disaster Strikes _after a statement like that! We're all doomed._

"I can tell you the best case. We get detained, questioned, and our thought patterns are modified to make sure we don't ever think of something as stupid as giving information to the Chiram again. Meanwhile, Kei is out in the forest wondering what happened to us..."

"Never mind."

She went over and started poking around on the computer.

"What about a social aspect?" asked Mimsy. "Do we know anyone who works there? Can we find someone to bribe? Could we send Reeg in with a résumé like he was looking for work? Once there his 'assistant,' that's you Mome."

"Uh huh." Mome didn't turn around.

"His 'assistant' can slip a cable into whatever they're showing and copy the data off it."

"Risky," allowed Shaya. "Only the two of you? If you got caught it would be a disaster."

"You wouldn't be implicated, I could say I left the Glomar, that's why I was seeking employment."

"And just happened to be stealing their secrets?"

"Oh, well..."

"Don't you have a sister that works in the government?" Govu asked Shaya. "Maybe if we could convince her it was the right thing to do-"

"No way, the less I see of Maneesha the better. We don't get along at all, you know."

"Right, I guess I do recall you saying that. If you're sure."

"I'm sure. Think of something else. Anything else!"

"Set some charges, blow up a wall or two?" suggested Srei. "I mean it worked to get Mome away from those security guards. If we empty the building by setting some charges off... what? She said anything."

Everyone's head was shaking. "We can't hurt anyone, even by accident. That would really be the end of us," countered Shaya. "I won't even consider a plan like that."

"You may have to. We're going to be someplace we're not supposed to be, trying to steal information we're not supposed to have, to give it to the Chiram we aren't even supposed to be in contact with. Any way you look at it, we're traitors to our government."

"But we're trying to save our world. Which is more important?" asked Mimsy.

"That's up to each of us to decide."

"I won't force anyone into any plan we decide upon," Shaya assured them.

"Right now that isn't my concern. All the plans we come up with are either unworkable or too dangerous. Some of us might get hurt, or we may have to hurt others. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can really get down to planning our next moves."

"There's a big difference between being traitors, that can later be explained or even forgiven once the worlds are no longer joined, and killers, that can never be taken back. If some chunk of building fell on someone, or we got the explosives wrong, could you live with yourself?"

"Our actions are for the greater good."

"And that would justify them? Do you know how many groups have said that over the years?"

"But we would be right."

"They believed that too!"

The two stared angrily at each other, but Mimsy got between them. "Srei, this isn't helping. Let's just come up with various plans and list out how dangerous each is, and then decide on them without getting hung up on the details right now."

"Fine. You're the one that wanted me to be more like Kei, right? What would he do? Probably just bash though the wall in the Starburst and take the computers with him."

"Even he couldn't be that irresponsible!"

"Have you seen how that man behaves?"

"Now don't you two start," chided Shaya.

"I've got it," announced Mome, turning away from the computer.

Everyone looked over at her. "You've got a plan to discuss?" Shaya asked.

"No, I mean the data. I've got it. We don't need to even go there."

"What?" Everyone crowded around her, and she proudly displayed the website.

 _As the research we're doing is relevant to all of us, and concerns our survival as a species, we here at the Hetarodine Institute are releasing all relevant data concerning the dimensional cataclysm that threatens our world and so many others. We realize that many individuals outside our institute are studying this problem through a variety of disciplines, and welcome all discussion and data analysis that might shed light upon any relevant solutions._

"And there's even a forum for discussion," Mome went on to say, showing them. "And here's the data, searchable, categorized, free for the taking. I'm downloading it into our systems as we speak."

"Wait, you mean all this time we could have just looked it up?" yelled Leah.

"We made fools of ourselves, put Mome and Starburst at risk, flew all over the city," continued Maai.

"And the information we were after was on the net the whole time?"

"Apparently?" said Shaya with a shrug.

Everyone walked off in disgust, except Sparkle who just stared at the screen, flabbergasted.

 _Wait, no fetch quest? No big battle? No way of sneakily using my magic to save everyone,_ again _, when they run into trouble?_

 _Am I still going to get XP for this part? I don't believe this!_

*I'm only joking**

**It was marker


	116. Chapter 116

116

Breakout

Who: Sparkle

When: Day 10, early morning

Where: Glomar storage bay

Sparkle sighed, and in seclusion behind some boxes, looked down at her character sheet in despair. The front was totally unchanged from the last time she looked at it, and would probably be the same the next time she looked at it.

 _The problem is that the entire mission to another world is considered "an adventure" to whatever force hands out XP to people like me. I get a lot at the end, yes, but not so much in the middle. So I have no idea if my running around with Mome got me any or not. Perhaps whoever does it is just too lazy to update it until we head back to the Hub and can spend it? I mean someone or something must do it, because that's the one field I can't add to. But it goes up, and thank goodness Susan has never thought about it that way, or I would be stuck explaining things. Okay, the XP and the cards field I can't add to, to be completely accurate. Ugh, reminds me I haven't seen a new card on here in the longest time, now that I think about it. Granted, there haven't been any really tough missions I might need them on, Mome and I aren't fighters and our little scuffle with security doesn't count. And even while in combat with Kei that time, he was doing all the work, I was just a support character._

 _After all, with my magic mostly suppressed here and my energy being not much to speak of, what else have I got? But picking up an XP here and there from turning cards in I can't use would have been nice. With only a 5 REAson and no teacher, trying to actually raise anything would be pointless. Besides, I'm saving for that energy based background Silverstreak promised me, so I probably wouldn't spend any anyway._ She sighed again. _What am I doing here that's so important I have to be separated from Susan? Learning I can make it on my own? What's that?_

From the direction of the door voices could be heard, and several people came in calling for Starburst. Sparkle lifted her paw off the character sheet and sat up, stretching. It vanished.

"Here she is," called Govu, looking behind the boxes she was crouched behind. "For all the good it'll do them," he muttered. She looked questioningly up at him. "Some officers want to ask you some questions," he explained. She tilted her head. "Yeah, that's what I told them. Come on." Sparkle followed him while he went on about what had been happening that morning. "We requested permission to leave, but apparently no one is leaving until some questions about Mome are settled. The police have been checking all the recent arrivals looking for her and they knew about Jaby too so we couldn't exactly lie and say she wasn't here."

 _Argh, I knew that would come back to bite us!_

"So here we are. They insist on talking to all witnesses to the scene but we've told them you're a cat but they want to see for themselves. I'm not sure what's going to happen, honestly."

They reached the common area and inside were a tense looking Shaya and apprehensive Mome being stared down by two men in uniform. The others all filed in after them, leaving the room a bit crowded.

"This is the other witness?" the one on the right asked.

"We did try to tell you," Shaya answered sarcastically.

The two stared down at her for a moment. "Well, question it!" insisted the one on the right to the one on the left.

"You question it!" she replied.

"Really, this is getting us nowhere," said Mimsy. "What do you want from us?"

"We want to know why your robot was poking around the Baxstore building and why guards there reported explosions and fires that turned out to be some kind of hallucination."

"I've told you what I saw," moped Mome.

"And how did that door get smashed down? You didn't do that!" the other demanded to know. "Or did you? Are you just built to look like a little girl but in reality you're a combat model?"

"I'm a nurse! How many times do I have to say it?"

"Likely story. We better take it back to the station, dismantle it and look for hidden weapons."

"You are not taking any member of my crew anywhere!" promised Shaya. "Especially not our nurse, and there's even less chance of it if you're going to take her apart. I mean the nerve."

"Then perhaps we should arrest you, and take you down to the station instead."

"And what crime would I be charged with? You can't arrest me without reasonable suspicion of a crime."

"You had your robot break in-"

"Break in? She walked in through a door because their lax security measures let her in. And then she went up to the top of the building to look around. Hardly criminal activity!"

"She stole that badge that let her in!"

"How so? Are you saying she somehow snuck in, took the badge, snuck out again, and then used the badge to once again go inside?"

"That's what we're trying to determine."

"Is there video footage of someone walking the badge out to her?" asked Srei. The officers shook their heads. "Then her story must be true, no? She picked it up after seeing it on the street."

 _Ah, at least she can tell creative truths, and not just blurt out that she sent me in to get it._

"The badge didn't walk itself out!"

"Then how did it get there?" asked in Shaya. "You're the one with video footage from the whole place while the incident was happening. I admit it may not have been the brightest move to use it, it's not like she was trying to steal anything from the building."

"So you claim."

"She wasn't caught stealing! Did the security officers take anything from her apart from the badge?" The two checked their pocket computers, and had to reluctantly admit nothing had been stolen. "You see? You have nothing except the rather minor mystery as to the fires that didn't exist and one broken door."

"Do you actually have proof she wrecked the door?" asked Mimsy. "For all we know, they walked through it because it was unlocked and one of the security guards wrecked it in a fit of rage once they figured out the two had left."

"There were no cameras in the room, unfortunately," admitted the one on the left. "It is, after all, the security room."

"No one watches the watchers, eh? So the facts of the case are this," Shaya said, ticking them off on her fingers. "Mome found a badge and used it to gain entrance to a building she shouldn't have been in. Trespassing, at most. She immediately went to the roof where she was captured by building security. For some unknown reason those same security officers decided to let her go immediately, later claiming to have heard explosions and seen fire on their cameras. None of which was recorded, of course. But leave she did, getting out with everyone else once the fire alarm went off. So you have no evidence of any crimes being committed by Mome apart from wanting to see the city from above and finding the means to do it."

"But why was she hanging around that building in the first place?" asked the one on the right.

"I was-"

"She was just out for a walk, seeing the city! Goodness, that isn't illegal now, is it?" Mimsy ran over what Mome was going to say.

"Ah, but the fire alarm!" seized the left one. "Now there's a clear case of hacking of the security of the building."

"Oh, you have evidence of hacking? Why didn't you say so?"

"Well... no." She looked uncomfortable.

"No?"

"According to the computer, the heat sensors in the room went off. But it must have been her, she's a robot!"

"And so of course she's a natural hacker, able to manipulate security systems just by walking into a room?" Srei said with scorn.

"She must have done something!"

"And when you can charge her with 'something' I won't stand in the way of the law. You obviously are grasping at straws, you had us bring you the ship's cat, for goodness sake, as if she could make some kind of statement. Your taking her back for 'disassembly' so you can look for 'weapons' I would consider destruction of property, and sue you. As of now she can only be charged with a minor trespassing violation which might be a fine at worst. Good luck getting a fine out of a robot, but bring the correct paperwork and she'll sign it."

"The owner will have to take responsibility for the actions of the robot and sign the forms."

"Oh dear, that might be a problem, he's not around at the moment," Shaya admitted truthfully.

"Oh, how convenient."

"It's the truth," insisted Mome, "we left him behind before we came into the city."

"Is he a criminal as well? Didn't want to be seen in the city?"

"My master is a hero, not a criminal!"

"Why isn't he here, then?"

"He just doesn't like cities much," explained Mimsy. "He said he would rather explore the nearby forest."

"A likely story."

But the two officers looked at each other. In reality, they didn't have much to go on, and this was a captain and it was her vessel. To march a non-combatant robot off the ship, especially as it was the ship's medic, would look really bad. On the one hand factory ships like this risked a lot going out into the world and doing what they did. Dimensional shifts, pirate attacks, Chiram harassment, or beings from other worlds suddenly showing up and attacking were all possible and did happen. Ships like this brought in much needed revenue to the city by giving those outside the opportunity to buy what they manufactured. So they were respected and given an almost diplomatic immunity while they were around. On the other hand they were gone most of the time, so it was hardly ever a real issue.

"Very well," said the one on the right. "We'll be back with something substantial."

They were shown off the ship, and Shaya called for everyone to get ready to leave.

"But we're stuck here, they're not allowing any ships to take off right now," protested Srei.

"We're leaving anyway," insisted Shaya. "We have what we came for, let's go pick up Kei and get them to the Chiram, who actually seem to be working on a real solution to this whole mess. We can't get tied down here because some office building owner didn't like his security being breached by a little girl. I would love to get the whole story," she glanced over at Sparkle, "but I doubt we ever will. We're taking off as soon as those officers are out of sight."

"Are we to become outlaws then?" asked Mimsy quietly.

"We're going to do what we have to do, in order to save our world. If you don't want to be a part of that, you can leave this ship now."

No one did.

Shaya and most of the rest of the crew were now on the bridge, heading at full speed towards the only door in the dome that covered the city. It was currently closed tight.

"Now what?" asked Govu.

"Blast it down," ordered Shaya. "What are we lugging this cannon around for, if not for situations like this?"

"It'll take a moment to charge, and we'll lose most of our other systems," cautioned Reeg from the speaker panel. "I didn't get a chance to install the auxiliary batteries so it'll take most of the power our generators can make just to fire it."

 _Good thing Susan isn't here, she would be saying something like 'now that's the kind of power I'm talking about.' Still, if we're going to blast a hole, I think my services are going to be required in a moment._

She made her way to the outside and watched as a beam of pure destructive energy lanced out and made a hole in the doors big enough for the Golmar to get through. By that point, pursuit forces could be seen in the distance, and the ship went full speed ahead, darting through the hole they had made. Just as they passed it, Sparkle made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check, getting a fifteen, and spent twenty two energy on an _Illusion_ which 'sealed up' the hole behind them. She was quite pleased with her thirty result and maintained it for about a half hour, sitting on the back of the ship and concentrating on it. It didn't need to move, after all, so even if she couldn't see it a static 'picture' of the door being whole was good enough, and no pursuit ships followed them.

She walked back down into the ship to find the crew somewhat nervously scanning for other ships that were after them, and somewhat surprised to not find any. Kei roared up in the Starburst, having been told they were on their way to pick him up, and they filled him in with what they learned.

"And you just blasted out of there, literally?"

"It seemed the right thing to do, somehow," replied Shaya.

"I think I must be rubbing off on you. Still, now we have to watch out for both Chiram and Enaam ships. I just hope it was worth it."

"What do you mean?"

"I had plenty of time to think, on my own, the past day. The Chiram had years to study Olson's brainwaves, what if they figured out a way to safely modify his thoughts so he believes helping them was his own idea? I mean that's what your people wanted to do to me, right? Would you put it past them to do the same?"

"Normally I would have said no. Though I guess if I hadn't heard about this girl that made them break off attacking us to get to you, they probably still would be. So no, I wouldn't put it past them."

"And there's absolutely no way of telling now, is there?"

"No. Look, go get cleaned up and get something to eat. We need to stay sharp and make sure there are no pursuit ships. As well as come up with our next plan for where to go."

"Isn't it odd there aren't? I mean even without the whole building thing, you must have done a substantial amount of damage to the door. Someone's going to have to pay for it. Plus I'm fairly certain energy weapon discharge on that scale is illegal within the city bounds."

"It is strange. Let me worry about that."

Kei looked at her. "You know it's me that's going to be out there trying to shoot down any pursuers that come looking, right? So if you don't mind, I think I will worry about it."

"Oh. Carry on then."

The crew spent the remainder of the day arguing over where they should go, and Sparkle listened with half an ear. Some argued they should call the Chiram immediately and transmit the information but Shaya rightly pointed out they had to work through their contacts, the two bathing suit girls, otherwise the information would rightly be treated with suspicion.

"Is that what we're calling them?" Mimsy asked angrily. "The bathing suit girls?"

"Okay, the world traveling girls," allowed Kei. "Satisfied?"

"Not in the least. How are you supposed to contact them, anyway?"

"They've given me their contact information but we'll have to be closer to the Chiram city if we're going to get a signal to them."

"Great," intoned Srei, "running directly from our native city to the Chiram one. That won't brand us as traitors for all time."

"Perhaps she'll have other ideas of where we should go or what to do next," Mimsy countered.

"It'll take weeks to go through the information we got, compare it to what they know, and then use it in any physical capacity. Where are we going to stay in the meantime?"

"There aren't that many ships out in the world," Shaya reminded him. "We can go for a while without seeing anyone else."

"But there's enough, and no doubt the word will be passed to be on the lookout for us. And they'll send some more into the field too, just to hunt us down. Which will weaken their defenses in case of Mu attack, so nice one there Shaya."

"Better that some people die than all of us roasting to death."

"As long as you can rationalize it."

"I'm just being realistic. Look, something is going to have to be done to get our two governments working together. If the end of the world isn't enough, nothing will be. We did our jobs and got what the traveling girls wanted. Let's just stay safe until they come up with a plan for what to do next."

"Meanwhile I hope you like hunting and gathering because we didn't exactly take on a plethora of supplies while in the city."

"We'll get through it one way or the other," Shaya chided him. "Now I won't hear another negative word. What's done is done, and you could have left before we broke out. I made the choice, and you gave me your approval by not ducking out. So trust me to continue to lead you, okay?"

"Okay."

"So, does anyone else have any suggestions?"

 _Yeah, I do. But I can't exactly speak up now, can I? If you want to bring people together, give them a common enemy. It hasn't been smooth sailing all the time, but let people know there's The Darkness out there waiting to pounce, and they'll get behind Susan and work with her, despite her somewhat prickly attitude. That's what we need here, a common enemy, and they've already found it. The Mu. We just need to force the two groups to work together somehow, and I have an idea how that might be accomplished._

 _The real trouble will be getting them on board with the idea without letting them know it was mine._

 _But luckily I think I have a solution for that, too. It might be tricky, but if I can catch both Kei and Mimsy alone for a few minutes I bet I can tell them the plan in such a way that they both think the other did it, and take it to the rest of the crew themselves._

 _But the two are usually together so now we play my least favorite game- the waiting game._


	117. Chapter 117

117

Calm Before The Storm

Who: Susan

When: Day 10, mid morning

Where: General's office

Susan had spent the previous day somewhat testily moping around, flipping through her book of magic and complaining she couldn't do anything on this world. She couldn't make spell papers because that would require two planets, and she didn't want to redirect Sparkle's magic ( _I hope she's doing okay)_ at an inopportune moment.

 _You did pretty much give up on her almost immediately,_ observed The Darkness. _Not sure why you're so concerned over her now._

 _I tried, this funky planet messed up all the attempts I made to find her. Anyway I'm not worried, she's my_ Companion. _By the rules she's free to leave if mistreated, but she didn't leave. We got separated by coming here, a totally different thing. So we'll be brought back together one way or another, because she's still on my character sheet._

 _I guess. Strange to just see you sitting here though. What happened to that Susan back on your world, that stopped at nothing to do what she thought was right? I mean you used to yell at teachers, bully people, show off your magic like that time you brought the Minister of magic into class with you-_

 _Wait a second, wasn't that_ you _making me do those things? That I'm not doing them now proves it, that wasn't my real personality._

 _I don't know what you- okay yes, it was. But still, this place is so boring! Why did we even come here?_

Susan made a strange face, like she wanted to jump inside her own soul and shake The Darkness until his eyeballs rattled. _We came here to get your stupid Hyperlarcovite, remember?_

 _Oh yeah! How's that coming by the way?_

 _Fine. I know right where it is, remember? We'll grab it once the worlds are fixed._

 _How do you know you'll be in the same place as it is?_

 _I'll stick to the machine, don't worry._

 _You better. Oh, and don't think you've grown up or anything over these past few months, you didn't need much of a push to do all that crazy stuff back home. Put you in the right situation and you'll be back to your old self in no time._

 _So you say._

 _So I know. Believe me, we're one and the same person, remember? I may not have put much of myself into you, but it was enough you'll never escape my influence. Yup, all your life you'll be second guessing yourself, 'did I really want to do that or did The Darkness make me do it?' It's going to be so great!_

 _Yeah, yeah. I'm going to put more points into that_ Resisting _skill once I leave this place though, so don't think you'll be able to yank my chain forever. I could only get it up to the 3 before because I was getting my_ Spirit Manipulation _to a ten so I could use my other supernatural skills. No need for that this time, and I don't have any items planned at the moment. Well, maybe the energy one, we'll have to see how it goes._

 _As if that'll help._

 _I think it will._

 _Keep telling yourself that._

With The Darkness once again quiet in her mind, Susan had to admit it had a point. It wasn't like her to just sit here, after all hadn't she chided Nita for laying out in the sun that one day? She needed to take action, and wondered if The Darkness wasn't just trying a new tactic of delaying her by increasing her apathy rather than her annoyance at people. Like Albus for not telling her about the prophecy, had that really been worth how annoyed she had gotten towards him? No matter what The Darkness did to her, she was a girl of action, and she couldn't just sit around and hope the military forces came up with something.

 _If they haven't found something by tomorrow I'm talking to the general and going over our options. I have to fix this place and get back to my search for Luna and my father. I can't afford to delay any more than I already have._

And so she found herself, on the tenth day here on this crazy world, with Jenny by her side. Both were sitting in his office and looking at the general who turned from his computer to regard them.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, when it was clear she wasn't going to start the conversation.

"I need to be doing something," she told him, "so I've come to see what my options are. Like we need to retake the elevator, right? What's the status for plans on that front?"

"Now Susan, I'm surprised at you."

"What?"

"Weren't you the one who said we shouldn't throw lives away by going after the Singularity? You even suggested talking to the Enaam congress rather than continuing to just shoot at them, and those talks have continued. You suggested a lesser step to make a hard task easier. We can't just throw lives away trying to take that place back, remember it's highly fortified by the Mu."

"Then we need to be learning more about them. Do they have any weaknesses? Can their programming be disrupted somehow? You must have captured units to study, maybe my abilities to work with foreign technology can help shed some light on them."

"That would be great, but can you reconstruct them from fragments? Because that's about all we've managed to 'capture' to date."

"Fragments? Well then send me out to spots likely to be attacked and I'll capture some for you."

Jeffrey laughed. "It's not a question of capturing them. They're robots. They have a central memory core which is constructed atop a powerful explosive. If their power fails, or they feel too threatened, or just for the heck of it, they can detonate this charge and completely destroy their internal storage. Units to study? We've got hundreds- all useless because they're just a shell now. They've self destructed and taken most of their internals out in the process."

"What about knocking the explosive out of them, or making sure they don't have the power to detonate it? Like set off an EMP or something over the next battlefield."

"An EMP? Do you even know how an EMP is generated?"

"Uh, not exactly."

"A nuclear bomb going off."

"Can't you just make them with a really big coil of wire?" asked Jenny.

"Oh, sure, but you're talking about knocking out Mu, how much wire do you think you're going to need to disrupt something built as a military drone, in other words with EMP in mind? Those things are shielded against a lot of things, a small flutter in the EM spectrum isn't going to even make them take notice."

"I'm guessing a lot? I really have no idea."

"Exactly. And we can't very well get high enough to set off a nuke now can we? Not unless you want to fry whoever is nearby as well?"

Susan shook her head.

"I thought not. Besides, you're not listening. It's them losing power that sets off the explosive, which is completely chemical. When there's a charge, it's fine. When there isn't, boom. We would have to capture a unit while keeping it from powering down and then separate the memory from the explosive before it goes off. Good luck with that. Plus that's just a failsafe, the robot could be busy wiping that memory manually if we somehow kept power going to the circuit that controlled it. We would have to knock out the higher functions of the unit and simultaneously power the explosive device. It just can't be done."

 _Actually, I could probably do that. I have a spell to stop time... no wait I wouldn't be able to actually do anything to the unit once into the dome of stopped time. Shoot._

"Oh. Okay, so what's the next point of attack? That system that allows them to just teleport around, right?"

"That would make it far easier to send forces to the elevator. With our territories no longer under the threat of Mu popping up out of nowhere we could easy send a ton of ships to take the area back. And the Enaam would join us, at least they say they would."

"You've never spotted anything that looks like a Mu base?" Jenny asked. "I figured anything like that we captured would be classified top secret, so I never thought much about it."

"Not a single one," Jeffrey said sadly. "We know they must be out there someplace, but we've never come up with anything even remotely like a Mu stronghold."

"They couldn't be hiding out in a nearby reality, could they?" asked Susan, concerned. "Their system could actually open a door to this one so they're stepping through rather than teleporting from one place to another here in this reality."

"That is a possibility. A remote one, I hope, as we would never be able to stop them if they aren't even around here."

"We need to rule that out somehow, to know for sure so we can focus on what they are doing."

"I don't know," put in Jenny. "The attacks happen all over the world, and what reality can be said to be 'next to' this one? Remember, this world isn't the only one affected by all this, the original bits of this world are now elsewhere. Nothing says other composite worlds like this one can't exist, right? Why would we assume we were the only one?"

"A good point," admitted Jeffrey. "Just because we have the elevator, doesn't mean this is the world this all started on. The bomb could have worked, and pushed the elevator into a neighboring reality, ours. In fact, that's a strike against the whole 'controlled reality steps' right there. If the Mu had the ability to move soldiers from one reality to another, why not do the same for the elevator? Why leave it there, even fortified, if there's a chance we'll get close enough to use it?"

"So they must be around here someplace."

"That's my thinking. But how to prove it... that's the tricky part."

"Is there a place that usually suffers a lot of attacks?" asked Susan. "You guys can scan for dimensional weirdness, right? That's how you came up with the singularity detectors in the first place. Can you have some going in an area that gets attacked often?"

"This place is actually attacked most often. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't suffered more attacks. They stopped after you got here, actually."

 _Duh. Why would I throw perfectly good Mu units at you, I know you can do_ Invulnerability _magic if nothing else. Plus your other stuff that's already bound into objects, I'm not stupid you know._

"It's because I'm here," she explained. "But can you spread the word, make sure all the sensors an area has are on and scanning?"

"No. But I can order it done."

"You know what I mean."

"Quite. I'll order sweeps by all divisions, maybe we can get lucky and catch them doing something weird that will explain how it works. Or at least where they're coming from."

 _If you need LUCk, I'm your girl. With my_ Materia _and necklace, I almost couldn't be luckier. Actually, wonder if it would be worth the twenty five XP to raise my luck to a five? Then my items would raise it to a ten! Ah well, the difference at that point is minimal._

"Meanwhile," said Jenny, "can you provide us information about where attacks have happened since they began? Maybe there's some kind of pattern to it, I mean they are machines and all, right?"

"I suppose it can't hurt." Jeffrey picked up his phone and called down to somewhere and had the information released to them. With not much else to discuss, the two girls went into a conference room and unrolled a large map (that was probably slightly out of date given how frequently the landscape changed) onto the table.

"Interesting," mused Susan, looking the data over. "Seems the Mu once walked around to get where they wanted to go, just like us. It's only about a year after the event happened that they vanished and then started popping out of nowhere."

"You think they went very far from where they were first sighted? We should probably check that area first and go out from there."

"You're probably right. They must have been brought here same as everyone else, so they had a patch of land to call home... unless..." She picked up the phone and dialed the general again.

"It's been two minutes."

"Sorry. I just wanted to make sure, the Mu aren't some secret project that escaped, are they? I mean were the Enaam or you guys tinkering with military AI and it got away from you? We just want to make sure they really are from another reality."

"They really are. At least, we don't have anything like that, and the Enaam have never confessed to having something like that."

"Okay, thanks."

"They really are."

"I gathered that," said Jenny. "So let's mark down on the map where and when they attacked. In fact," she left and came back with various colored pens. "Let's mark down in two year increments, let's see red for the first two years, then green..." Jenny set the markers in order and the girls pored over the data, marking the map.

"No clear pattern," Jenny remarked after the work was done. "Sometimes they hit a place three or four times until it's destroyed, some times only once. This place was destroyed, built back up, left alone for four years, and then destroyed again. This one was destroyed, built back up, and was never attacked again."

"There is somewhat of a procession of color though, starting with... this as the center."

"I guess, but it's still a bit of a stretch. Too bad. I had hoped for a clear pattern, like a ripple radiating out as they went wider and wider in search of targets."

"I guess we have to keep in mind, the Mu may be robots but the thing directing them is not."

 _I doubt even true robots would be dumb enough to have followed the attack pattern you describe. It would make finding their base super easy, if they even had one._

"Wait, it has a point. I was thinking maybe the Mu developed some kind of cloaking shield, or The Darkness told them how to make one. They do exist on other worlds, right?"

"Sure. But who has a point?"

Susan pointed to her head. "My passenger."

"Oh. Go on."

"But what if they just built massive floating bases? Especially in a world where the area can be transported to another reality, you would want to be able to pack up and move at a moment's notice. What if they just stay out of the way, scanning for incoming ships and moving out of their flight path? It would appear they had no base of operations, when in reality they just hid by moving."

"That could work. Everyone here has anti-gravity, it's not that power intensive either. I could see them outfitting some kind of mobile platform or factory. Remember, they're robots so they don't need the 'creature comforts' of home. Like art and a place to put your stuffed animals. They can stack themselves up if they aren't being used, so they wouldn't have living space."

"True. Our cities are large because we like our personal space. Even cities with a lot of people, you don't find them all sharing one big room, you have apartments that are all sectioned off. That's a waste of space from a robot's point of view. Just furniture alone, a bed for example, they would save a lot of space per unit by not needing that kind of thing."

"Exactly. Man, if only we could get higher we could look for evidence of any large Mu structures floating around out there."

"Ha, better to wish for my magic to work better around here, if you're wishing for something. Don't you have something in that sub-space pocket of yours that can help?"

She shook her head. "Anything I have is either too short range or would need us to go into orbit to use. The interesting bits of tech I typically collect are usually guns, or shields, that sort of thing. Stuff that can keep me alive if I happen to drop into somewhere nasty. I mean I've picked up some nice stuff, but nothing for a situation like this."

"Pity."

Jenny thought for a moment. "Besides, I'm not sure if anything technological would work any better than your magic around here. I mean, dimensional scanners work because that's what they're made for. But even getting above the atmosphere, I doubt a simple telescope would work to see back to the surface. That shimmery shell around the planet must be shimmery from above as well as below."

"True. So if something as simple as a lens doesn't work..."

"Nothing more sophisticated will," she finished.

Susan rolled the map up and secured it. "Guess that was a waste of time. I'm just so used to The Darkness actively attacking me, I don't know how to handle it just sitting back and letting the weather do people in."

"That would be a jerk move," Jenny admitted. "But I wouldn't put it past it."

"You don't think it left or anything, do you?"

"Good question. Attack with just enough robots to make us think it's out there someplace, but in reality it's just hiding out waiting for the planet to do us in."

"That would make sense, if all the robots are at the elevator and there _is_ no secret base somewhere they're using. We could be scanning and tearing the place up for nothing! It did once tell me it wanted to use the minimal energy it could gathering energy from a world. What's more minimal than doing nothing?"

"Doing nothing while sitting there laughing at us the whole time!"

"Great, now I'm really annoyed. I hope something happens soon, this waiting around is getting on my nerves!"

 _Oh, don't worry, I think things will start getting interesting shortly._

 _Great, I had to open my big mouth, didn't I?_


	118. Chapter 118

118

Tricks are for Cats Too

Who: Sparkle

When: Day 11, mid-afternoon

Where: Glomar observation area at the top of the ship.

Sparkle regarded Kei who had been sitting alone for a few moments and figured this was the best time to make her move. The problem thus far with trying this trick was that it relied upon both Kei and Mimsy being apart from each other for several minutes, which didn't seem to happen that often.

 _Honestly, the man is like a puppy. I mean yes, he has no real 'duties' aboard ship because he's basically a stray, and if he's not flirting or tuning up the Starburst he does everything so half heartedly he's got them trained to- oh my goodness the man is a genius! Obviously I haven't given him enough credit! He's no stray dog, he's a cat like me!_

 _..._

 _..._

 _Nah, that can't be the case, right? Anyway, no one asks him to do anything anymore, so his time is his own. But he's finally alone and I highly doubt anyone will come find him any time soon. Except maybe Mome, but she's actually busy with something at the moment. So this seems like as good a time as any._

She cast _Illusion_ as strongly as she could, getting a twenty three by spending ten energy.

 _I only need to do it once more, hopefully I won't have to punch anyone until I can take a nap. Heh._

The new _Illusionary_ Mimsy walked out to Kei and Sparkle made 'her' sit down next to him.

"Mimsy!" Kei went to grab her, _oh crap oh crap oh crap I forgot how physical this guy is,_ and she made her hold up a hand and scowl at him. "What?"

"I just want to run something by you, that's all. Don't get all excited or anything."

"Fine. What did you want to talk about?"

"I had an idea, but I wanted to know what you thought, I mean you have more military training than I do after all."

"That's right, I'll be happy to help you out Mimsy, you know that."

"Okay. So we think that the Chiram are on our side, because of those two girls you met. And they did come through with getting you in contact with Olson, so maybe they are on the level. The point is, how far do we trust them?"

"We have no choice but to trust them, right?"

"Ah, that's the thing. We don't exactly have to trust them, if it comes down to it. Let's say we head to the space elevator ourselves. Won't the Chiram army then be forced to come and defend us no matter what? They know what you're worth! If they are on our side they won't want you to be harmed, and if they aren't on our side they'll want to be there to capture you before you're killed by Mu."

"Mimsy, that's so devious. I didn't know you had it in you!"

"I'm not done yet."

"What, there's more!?"

"We're now wanted by the Ena- by our own government, both for blowing up the door and for harboring you. If we leaked that you were back onboard the Glomar, how many ships do you think they would send this time to take you into custody?"

"More than last time I bet, and they wouldn't be so polite about it this time."

"Exactly. If we can beat them all to the elevator they'll be forced to work together in order to keep you safe, and defeat the Mu who are in the area. They won't be able to retreat from the battle because it means losing you, and they won't attack each other while the Mu are shooting at them. Common enemy and all that, no matter what they've felt in the past, thet Mu is the bigger threat. I'm guessing they both know it. If we force the issue, they'll come together in a big way."

"Fantastic! Mimsy, let's go tell the others!" He started to hop up.

"Hold on, cowboy!" she cautioned.

"How do you know what a cowboy is?"

"What? Never mind that, I'm glad you think it's a good idea but I want you to think it over. This plan is going to result in a lot of people dying. On both sides. We're _literally_ luring them into a trap to try and get them working together, and it could fall apart in so many ways." _But one less than you might think, if my plan for what do to when you all get together comes off like I want. He he he._ "Make sure it's the best plan we can come up with. Take an hour and think it over. Then we can go to Shaya and see what she thinks. You understand where I'm coming from?"

"Yeah, I get it," he grumped, settling back down. "I'll think about it, but I'm just a soldier. I follow orders, I don't come up with plans. Heck, it's my screwing around without a plan that probably set off the bomb in the first place and caused all this!"

"So you have excellent reasons for making sure not to screw up the solution as well. We're behind you," _at least I hope they are_ "so make us proud, okay?"

"Okay."

Sparkle made the _Illusion_ get up, realizing she could just change it rather than recast it in a minute, and walked it towards the door. "Remember, I don't want to see you down in the ship for at least an hour." _Sit. Stay. Good dog. That should avoid any unpleasantries like someone passing you and then seeing you walking down the same corridor again._

"Yes, mom!" he said sarcastically, turning back to look out at the landscape rolling by.

 _You better._

With that accomplished, Sparkle went looking for Mimsy, changing the _Illusion_ to just be a speck of dust until she found her, alone as she had planned.

"Hey doll!" she made the new Kei _Illusion_ say, stepping into the room with her.

"What now Kei, I'm busy!" insisted Mimsy, rolling her eyes.

"Whoa, don't get angry babe, I just want to discuss something with you." _Actually, my characterization of him is a bit off, isn't it? I need to pay more attention to people's mannerisms and speech patterns if I'm going to keep impersonating them like this. Oh well, carry on._

"What?"

"Well, I've got this idea but it's pretty dangerous for everyone involved, so I wanted to run it by you first and see what you thought."

"Idea for what?"

"What to do next. See, way I see it, if we leak the info that I'm back aboard, the Ena- I mean your people will probably send a ton of ships after me, right? I mean the Glomar blew up the door so somebody's mad about that, and even if they are in talks with the Chiram, they'll want to bargain from a position of strength, right? At the moment they have nothing, but if they had me they could demand, and get, more concessions right?"

Mimsy looked at him, somewhat impressed. "You've really been paying attention to our discussions about holding markets, haven't you?"

"I learned from the best!"

She colored a little. "Flatterer. But you are right, they sent a couple of ships last time, it would be every ship in the area so you didn't get away again. But why?"

"That's the best part. We tell the Chiram we're heading there too, and they better come defend us because one way or another we're going to fix the world. This will force their hand and if we time it right the two will be forced to battle the Mu and retake the space elevator. All we have to do after that is keep them killing each other and boom- we have all the pieces to fix the world!"

"That is a dangerous plan..." admitted Mimsy. "A lot of things could go wrong. And how do you plan to keep us from blowing each other up?"

"I'm hoping that even if either side ultimately _plans_ on betraying the other, neither will be itching to be seen as the instigator and make the first move. As long as we keep communication channels open, and remind them of their recent unified victory (which we'll have or we'll be dead, so let's assume it works) they should at least be civil to each other for the duration."

 _Which is not my real plan at all, but it's all Kei could hope for because he doesn't have my_ Illusion _magic. Oh man I am so looking forward to this, even Susan would be like 'dang, yo, that was some radical-' okay maybe not like that. Where am I getting all this from? Maybe I've been on my own too long._

He went on. "We just need to keep them from attacking each other long enough to fix the world, after all. I mean neither side is actually _bloodthirsty_ are they? I mean you would know better than me."

"No, the Chiram are militaristic, but not insane. They compete with us over stable land masses and food and such, but once face to face and that close to fixing the world, we can hope some kind of peace will hold." She paused, looking him over.

 _Please don't scrutinize him, I doubt you can make a twenty REAson check but I would rather not take that chance thank you very much._

[Note: her maximum to see through the _Illusion_ is an eighteen.]

"When did you become so thoughtful anyway?"

"What do you mean?" asked the _Illusion,_ striking a pose. "I've always been a deep thinker. Kind, courteous to all I meet-"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Honestly I'm not sure why I even try with you. Let's go tell Shaya about your plan and-"

"Hey, think it over first," he insisted.

"Wha?"

"This could result in the deaths of a lot of your people. And like you said it could go horribly wrong. Let's make sure you can't come up with something better before we go rushing off to something we didn't take the time to think through."

"I doubt I can come up with anything better than that."

"That's only because you haven't tried."

"I- what?"

"How do you know? You don't, you haven't even tried. Maybe there's a way to make my plan safer, how would you know if you haven't even considered it for a minute yet?"

"I... I guess. Okay, I'll think about it. Are you feeling okay? It's not like you to want to think things through, usually you just jump in and whatever happens, happens."

"Maybe I just don't want to see hundreds of people getting hurt or killed because of me. I caused all this, or at least I was a part of causing it, and enough damage has been done. Now is the time to proceed carefully, and not run off half cocked."

Mimsy seemed impressed. "Fine, I'll think it over, okay?"

"Great. We can talk later, I'll see you then."

"Yeah, see you."

 _Whew, that worked,_ thought Sparkle as she made the _Illusion_ head out the door and stopped maintaining the spell. _With both of them 'thinking it over' they won't run into my_ Illusion _on the way to discussing it with Shaya, and this gets the ball rolling for my plan. I suppose it would have been far easier to just let them know I could talk in the beginning, but now that I'm doing things this way it seems best to continue. And you know, it is sort of fun, sneaking around like this, using magic on the sly rather than just having Susan power though everything. I hope she's learning a thing or two here as well._

 _Ah, who am I kidding, she's not._

Some time later, the crew was gathered into the common area to discuss the 'new plan' that Kei had come up with.

"But to be fair, it was Mimsy's plan," insisted Kei. "I want to give credit where credit is due."

"What do you mean?" asked Mimsy, surprised. "You came to me with the plan!"

"Uh, no, you came up to see me on the deck!"

"You came to see me while I was doing some laundry!"

 _Ah, I may have just spotted the tiny flaw in my brilliant plan. Whoops._

"I don't care who came up with the plan!" shouted Shaya over the two of them. "Just tell it to me!"

Both looked at the other like they were crazy, but dropped it for the moment. They explained what the 'other' had said, all the while hinting it wasn't them that came up with it and they had nothing to do with it. But both admitted to seeing the other and discussing it, so the others now had a chance to think it over as well.

"You're going to talk to Olson anyway, right?" asked Shaya. "We're heading to a place we can reach him to give him the information we got from the..." she paused. "S _tupid website_." she finally finished with an angry look on her face. "He would know the situation inside the Chiram military better than us, as we're just guessing. If he thinks it's an okay idea, fine. I admit, I don't see many other options, but _tricking_ them into working together?"

"That's why it'll work," excitedly put in Kei.

"Exactly," agreed Mimsy. "You can't trust people to work things out for themselves, you have to trick them into it."

 _Wait, is this some kind of self-referential commentary about society or something? Because I tricked them into deciding on this plan, now they've subconsciously accepted tricking the others?_

"I wouldn't go that far," countered Kei.

"Yeah, that sounded harsher than I intended. Sorry. The point is, this is too serious to leave to chance, and we need to get going on a solution here before things get worse."

"But wait," said Govu, "aren't we basically leaving everything to chance here? You're assuming our people will come after Kei. That they'll arrive at roughly the same time. That they won't immediately start blowing each other up. That Mu forces won't just overwhelm us all anyway... I mean the list goes on!"

 _Shoot, they don't realize the_ narrative imperative _of this situation. Of course there has to be a huge showdown, so naturally all parties will coincidentally arrive at the same time. The good guys arrive, (whoever that is in this case, but us at least) and fight off the Mu, leaving the hero (in this case Kei and Olson) to do their assigned tasks of... whatever they need to do to fix the world. Along the way the other heroes, that's Susan and myself, drive off The Darkness as I'm sure she's at this very moment in the middle of. How else could it work out?_

"It's a good point, a lot of things have to go right," admitted Shaya. "But what else do we have?"

"I don't know. Honesty? Hoping if we talk to congress they'll see reason and-" Everyone was looking at him like he was crazy. "Yeah, I'm a dreamer. Fine, I just hope this all works the way you expect."

"If we really are going to do this crazy plan," said Reeg, "let's set down and power the Glomar down now. I want to get those supplemental batteries installed immediately. We may need to fire the cannon soon. A lot. Let's get them charged up and working."

"We'll go find us a safe spot to put down," said Leah, rising. Maai followed her out.

"I'll help if I can," Jaby said, and Mome said she could also lend a hand.

"Who do you think is carrying the darn things to where I want them?" Reeg asked the huge lizard like being. "You know how heavy those things are?"

"Don't we have anti-gravity units we could just slap on them?" Srei asked. "That's how we got them on the ship in the first place."

"Oh yeah. Come on, let's start moving them."

"I guess we're doing it, then," remarked Shaya, as it seemed the discussion was over. They left to get to work without another word. "I would just feel a little better if I knew exactly where this plan really came from."

Both Kei and Mimsy pointed to the other. "It was his/her idea!" they both said.

"Exactly," she agreed, looking at Sparkle out of the corner of her eyes. "Exactly. In any case, there's no time to lose. If we're setting the Glomar down so the batteries can be installed, I want you, Kei, to fly ahead and set up a transmitter. That way you can reach Olson and get his opinion on all this as soon as possible. Mimsy, go tell Leah and Maai I want them in escorting him. I'm not saying I don't trust you," she said, holding up a hand as he started to protest, "but around here it seems anything can happen. I want more firepower on your side if Mu should show up or something else should happen. I'll take no chances with your safety, Kei, that can be avoided. You understand me?"

"Yes, captain," he said sulkily.

"Good. Plus, setting up a transmitter is certainly easier with more than one person, and you won't say no to the company right?"

"I should say-" He started to say with a grin, then stopped, looking at Mimsy. "I mean they're fine, it's fine. I don't really care one way or the other. I mean they're nice enough girls but I really have no interest-"

"Okay, okay!" said Mimsy, laughing. "I'll ease up. You're really going to insist I came to you with this plan though, huh?"

"Because you did! I couldn't think of something like this, I mean could I?"

"I wonder. But then I would say the same, it's more military strategy... We can't both be lying though."

"I never said you were, I thought it was sweet you wanted to give me the credit. But I don't deserve it."

"Believe me, I'll let you know when you can take credit for something. This though... oh well, I guess we have work to do. Maybe one day we'll finally agree on what happened and have a big laugh over it."

 _Nah, you'll probably just think less of cats,_ Sparkle sighed. _Oh well, it worked, that's the important thing. I just feel like something big is coming, I hope we're ready._


	119. Chapter 119

119

Adapting

Who: Susan

When: Day 11, just after lunch

Where: Chiram military building

Jenny and Susan were looking over the map again in their room when the phone rang, so Susan went over to answer it.

"Exterminators," she said into the mouthpiece.

"Oh good," said the voice on the other end. "Exactly who we- this is Susan, isn't it? Or is this Captain Anywhere?"

"This is Susan, and it's Captain Everywhere, actually."

"Oh, sorry. As I was saying, exactly who we wanted to talk to. Your presence is requested immediately in meeting room 354."

"I'll be right down."

"Thank you."

"Sounds like they may have found something," she said to Jenny, putting the phone down. "Let's transform and roll out!"

Jenny made some weird transforming noises and rolled the map up again, while Susan shouted "Maximum Overdrive!" and pointed out the door. The two girls went laughing down the corridor towards the elevator.

"You know," remarked Susan as they walked, "Just once I'd love to hear Opitmus say 'Medium Overdrive!' or even better 'Minimal Overdrive.' Like, yeah, they need to get someplace, but it's not _that_ critical they rush right out there. But no, it's always "Maximum Overdrive." I mean if you're always going to use maximum, then just let it be understood to always use maximum. Just say 'use Overdrive, Autobots!'"

"Maybe he's calling out a technique name?"

"You mean like a Dragon Ball Z character announcing their attack before they fire it off?"

"Exactly."

"Huh, never thought of it that way."

Walking into the conference room they saw that several high ranking officials, including the general, were seated around the table.

"Ah, good, Susan, Jenny, this is private Elzinore."

"Nice to meet you captains," he intoned, saluting them.

"At ease, soldier," said Jenny, "And only I'm a captain. I take it you found something?"

"Give your report," ordered Jeffrey.

"Yes sir. As ordered, I was carrying out my regular patrol around the 50km airspace from the city while running the new scanning software in my Ishkick."

Susan looked questioningly over at the general.

"Basically we've set the scanners to scan a wider frequency area than before," he explained. "Hoping we might come up with some anomalous readings."

"Thank you."

The man continued. "I was then alerted by the software to a strange reading some four kilometers from my present position. I radioed this information back to base and deviated from my normal course to investigate."

 _Oh goodness, get to the point,_ snarled The Darkness. _What's with all this flowery military talk?_

"Did you find something?" Susan asked excitedly, ignoring him.

"The readings grew stronger, then fainter. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary at all. I then logged my findings and resumed my normal flight plan."

"We want you two to check it out," Jeffrey explained. "Get on the ground near that area and see if something comes up. We can tune some hand scanners to what the Ishkick sensors picked up, and maybe you can narrow it down."

"And if it is something, and Mu show up to defend it, we'll have the best chance of surviving," Susan surmised.

"There's that. But I knew you were a bit bored so I figured you might appreciate getting out of this building for a little while."

 _Wait, he wants you out of the building?_ asked The Darkness. _I bet he's planning something he doesn't want you to know about. Mark my words, there's nothing out there to find, this is a wild goose chase. You'd be a fool to leave now!_

"That's very thoughtful of you," Susan said hesitantly, unsure if The Darkness was actually making a good point or just trying to keep her from finding whatever was out there. _I suppose I can just_ Teleportal _back in, if I had to. He can't exactly keep me out._

"You don't sound convinced."

"What?" Susan shook her head. "No, no, sorry, just thinking. We'll leave right away, if that's okay with you."

"Of course. You'll be taking Jenny along?" She nodded when Susan looked over at her. "Very well. Stop by the armory for the scanner units and anything else you think you'll need. Good luck."

The girls had fifty three kilometers to cover and were chatting over the radio when Jenny suddenly gave a squeal of delight.

"Found it!" she said.

"What, did we make it already?" Susan checked her instruments but everything seemed normal.

"No, no, I mean your theme song. I finally figured out what it should be!"

"I need a theme song?"

"Everybody needs a theme song. Listen to this:" Jupiter's Child by Steppenwolf started playing across the two mechs.

 _The one who reads the stars has told me_

 _Why you're not like everyone_

 _Your father is a fiery wizard_

 _He travels all around the sun_

 _No one ever knew just where you came from_

 _Orphan girl, you grew up wild_

 _Your father left you on the way home_

 _Yes, girl, you're a Jupiter's child_

Refrain:

 _Wish I knew the way back_

 _Back to where you came_

 _Gladly I would leave here_

 _Take another name_

 _I can tell by you, it must be true_

 _It's up on Jupiter's face_

 _They don't embrace our own disgrace_

 _Somebody, help me off this place_

 _You really quite belonged_

 _Like a pearl among the swine_

 _You tried to live the way we do_

 _Hoping you would learn in time_

 _But, mankind, with all its virtue_

 _Will soon make you lose your smile_

 _On this earth, with all its madness_

 _Heaven help a Jupiter's child_

"I mean isn't that perfect?"

"A little too perfect, actually. That's kind of spooky if I think about it. How in the world... I guess I did need a theme song after all."

"What did I tell you?"

"Okay, so what's yours?"

"Oh. Uh, well, it's mostly instrumental."

"So what's the title? Would I have heard it?"

"Ha, probably not. It's DarXide 'Starman (don't lose yourself)' by Akumajo Belmont. The main vocal is:

 _I have traveled across the sky_

 _A thousand million ways past the edge of time_

 _I take for granted what nobody can_

 _To travel far beyond is just my master plan_

It's basically that, repeated, but there's some funky electric beats... you'd just have to hear it."

"So play it!"

"Let me find me, I only have about a million songs on this thing to scroll through..."

So the two girls arrived, and started picking up the same odd readings the soldier had earlier.

"Let's land and go the rest of the way on foot. I don't want to miss it," suggested Jenny.

"Suits me."

They landed and Susan put _Invulnerability_ on both of them. Jenny had one of her larger guns out and was holding the scanner, while Susan had her sword at the ready.

Jenny chuckled. "You'll probably do more damage with that thing than with that gun I gave you, won't you? Or this one."

"Probably. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have it around for taking people down with non-lethal damage, and I'm looking forward to trying it in conjunction with my _Slash-All Materia,_ but for now I think sticking with the sword is the thing to do."

"Would a gun work with that?"

"It worked for Vincent. It basically just magically distributes one third the damage from an attack to enemies in my field of view. Shouldn't matter what kind of weapon it is, right?"

"I guess not."

The girls got closer and closer to the source of the odd dimensional readings, then suddenly found themselves surrounded by Mu combat robots.

"Well, we know there's something here now!" shouted Jenny as she blasted one of the Mu with a three shot burst.

"Guess you're right," replied Susan, taking her _Initiative_ order and bringing her sword up. There was one right next to her, a blocky, armored, faceless death machine which burped something out of its chest with a _twump._ Whatever it was fell to the ground and was covered by the tall grass in the area.

"Grenade!" shouted Susan, mostly for show as nothing mundane like a grenade could really hurt her, right? But she could still be grabbed, and from behind two robots shot forward and tried just that. They were not able to move stealthily, because they were designed to be armored death machines and so made a great deal of noise as they approached. She heard them coming and made a dodge to get out of the way.

She got a seventeen on this, but because she was being attacked from behind and there were two of them they both grabbed her. A third, the one that was in front of her, had made a called shot to her face with some kind of goopy liquid from a nozzle set in its hand. That she managed to avoid.

 _My goodness these things are fast. Or am I just so used to being Accelerated_ _by Sparkle?_

Robot "three," the one to the left of Jenny also fired the same stuff at her, followed up by robot "seven" in quick succession. She managed to dodge both.

Robot "six" was now raising a hand to fire the stuff point blank at her, and Susan realized just how bad being outnumbered was when you were not _Accelerated._

 _I could spend energy to drop my delay, and I may have to. Oh yeah, cards._ She mentally checked her _character sheet_ and found an XP bonus, a What a Rush that she turned in for XP, and one useful _Extra Action._

Which she spent immediately along with an XP to avoid getting goop in the face. For the first action she dropped her sword and grabbed the two combat robot's arms, using an _off hand action_ for the one on her left. With them both tightly gripped in her hands the _Extra Action_ went off and she _Spirit Stepped_ forward, past the tree that was slightly to her left. This had the happy circumstance of smashing Mu "two" into Mu "six" on her left side, and Mu "five" into Mu "four" on her right, as that one was just to the right of the tree. They were now off her and wondering what happened as they tried to get up again.

Mu "one" shot goop at Jenny from behind, who didn't see it coming but was saved by her passive dodge as ties go to the defender. It was trying to pin her foot to the ground, but Jenny stepped aside just it fired.

Mu "three" and the gas grenade now went, with the deathbot shooting more goop, which struck this time and Jenny found she had a face full of instantly hardening stuff that blinded her and cut off her air. Susan hadn't noticed yet, she had her own problems.

The robots she had smashed together were now all standing again, and turned to face her, nozzles raised. Mu "seven" shot more goop at Jenny, trying to further add to the shell now around her head, and Jenny made a ninjutsu check to avoid it as she was now fighting blind. (What, did you think Susan was the only one who had met ninjas in her travels?) Ties go to the defender, and Jenny at least didn't add to her problems. On the plus side, she now can't breathe the rapidly expanding cloud of poison gas that's next to her, so that's something, right?

Susan put out a hand and mentally willed her sword back into it, and it leapt up with a speed of fifteen to return to her. She used energy to reduce her delay so as soon as it was back she could use it. This dropped her to four delay, which she knew was going to cause problems for her. But even with her greater STRength, there was no way she could simply punch these robots to damage them, so she needed the sword.

Mu "six" was about to take a step so it could shoot around the tree, but got distracted by the sword flying by, and almost shot it instead. If a death dealing robot can look slightly embarrassed, it did.

Jenny made another dodge as "three" tried shooting her again, once again they got the same result so she was missed.

The sword returned to Susan's hand and she brought it up, intending to chop the closest one, "four," down when she could act again.

Jenny dodged "seven" again, getting maximum on the dodge this time.

"Four" and "five" now went, so Susan took the opportunity to do a reactive action, throwing herself to the left to take her free 1/10 move to use "four" as cover from "five" and doing a called shot to the body of "four" which couldn't dodge because it was attacking. This proved to be fortunate, because with the negative three penalty she was taking for the maneuver, she almost didn't hit it at all. She struck, doing twenty nine damage to the thing. This seemed to hardly wound it, as the armor around it seemed to take most of the blow.

"Two" and "six" now fired at her from her right, but she had cover from the body of "four" so she let her passive dodge take it to avoid getting more delay. This worked, _finally my LUCk is good for something,_ and "four" and "five" went to shoot at her again. (We'll assume Jenny, only fighting two of them, keeps dodging for the moment.) She stepped right to keep cover as "five" stepped left to get a better shot, and she did a "dodge" of driving the blade into the crack in the armor she had made, getting in too close for the robot to shoot her with the goop.

She got another thirty one damage on the bot and the goop slammed into the back of "four" who was having a lousy day, thanks for asking. Robot "four" went to silicon heaven and exploded its memory chip, blasting itself apart in the process. As this was reactive for Susan she spent only two energy and dropped her delay to a two. With her _Energy Boost_ this only cost her one energy, and she thought to herself _one down, six more to go._

Now "two" took a step to the right and fired, forcing Susan to dodge around the tree she was next to. She hoped to circle the thing and come up behind "six" so she could get it in the back, but this brought Jenny into her line of vision and she saw her clawing at the stuff on her face and dodging fire by "three" and "seven."

 _That can't be good._

"Six" then took a step to the left and tried to fire around the tree, but her _Passive Dodge_ easily defeated the glob. She _Spirit Stepped_ over to Jenny just as "five" fired again, but Susan didn't even notice. She was standing next to Jenny and again spent energy to decrease her _delay._

The robots, not being able to sense _Spirit Energy_ now stepped forward to try and get around the tree, but found she wasn't there and started looking around. This gave Susan enough time to smash her sword down on Jenny's head, doing forty three damage to the hardened material and smashing it clean off. As her sword wasn't magical or supernatural as far as _Invulnerability_ was concerned, Jenny herself was unhurt and greedily sucked in air.

Susan wasn't sure she could dodge, so shoved her out of the way as "three" fired again, and it missed.

"Nine" shot at Susan, as did "one" that had been holding its action until something came closer. Susan was forced to dodge them, but rolled absolute minimum (a six) so she got smacked in the face with a chemical mixture that hardened instantly as it came in contact with air.

 _Delightful._

"Six" and "three" now fired, and Susan had a choice to make. Let her _Passive Dodge_ do what it did best, or try a 1d6+5 dodge against two separate things. _In reality, my maximum roll here is a seventeen, while my passive is a guaranteed fourteen. Plus the extra delay... fine, go ahead and hit me if you can._

They actually couldn't. Nor could "seven" and "one" when they fired again, Susan's LUCk was just too much for them.

Jenny could finally act again, and chose shooting at the one in front of her again because she figured Susan could hold out a few seconds at least. This did some damage to it, but not enough to destroy it. It was a near thing though, and it too started sparking and malfunctioning.

Susan was up, so she bashed herself in the head for thirty seven damage and could see again. She had come to the realization that these things were doing called shots, and probably couldn't actually hit her if she did things right. _If I hadn't dodged that last one, and let my passive take care of it, I would have had a fourteen rather than a six. Which of course makes no sense, I mean what did I do, lean into the thing? I'm just not going to dodge anymore._

This proved the right choice, and globs sailed past her as Jenny blew away "nine" finally, and turned slightly to start shooting at "three." Sadly, the gas had by this time expanded to where Susan was, but she was still getting a thirteen bonus to CON checks so she won't succumb to the poison very easily. She did smell something awful though.

It was her turn again, and she cleaved into number "five" which was the closest one. It didn't get a dodge either because it was busy shooting at her, so both connected as it was at "point blank range" at this point. Again, she did _nearly_ enough damage to destroy the unit, but not enough, and was again blinded. She also had the poison gas in her lungs but couldn't cough it out, and it sat there burning, making her uncomfortable even if it couldn't exactly damage her.

"Six," "three," and "two" all fired, forcing Jenny at least to dodge again because her LUCk was not a nine. She rolled max, it rolled minimum, so she was in the clear.

"One" took a shot at Susan and decided next time to just aim beforehand, these glue guns were quite inaccurate even for a machine. Susan did the one point of damage "five" needed to go down just by swinging wildly around, as Mu had no LUCk to speak of. It hadn't moved so Susan's LUCk check of nineteen was easily enough to hit and destroy it.

"One" had communicated the new tactical decision to the others, who now aimed at Susan's head rather than just firing blind. Jenny fired at "three" and did a called shot to the head, three round burst, and did twenty five damage to it. Susan smashed the junk off her face again, getting annoyed with this tactic.

Sadly, the gas grenade expanded a final time, and Jenny was caught in it, causing her eyes to burn and the gun dropped from her hands as she started violently coughing. Susan grabbed her up and _Spirit Stepped_ as far from the battlefield as she could, which given her speed was sixteen meters. She hastily got out the Alleviationknife and pressed it into Jenny's skin, causing her to relax and stop coughing. She set it against her own skin just in case, and then shoved the knife back as the robots came into view again, skimming over the ground with thrusters.

"This is just not fair!" shouted Susan, as Jenny sighed down the barrel of another rifle she pulled out of her sub-space pocket and started squeezing off shots. As they were no longer surrounded the remaining four bots were destroyed by gunfire as both girls put rounds into them.

"That was awful!" panted Jenny.

"I must agree. Not having my magic to draw on is really becoming a nuisance."

"Yeah, but I've never had magic and those guys were moving a bit too fast even for me."

"Really!? I thought it was just because I hardly ever fight at even speeds."

"Really. Things with that much armor shouldn't be able to move or react that fast."

"They are literally computers though, so it would be stranger if they didn't move that fast, wouldn't it?"

Jenny considered. "Maybe. And what was that goop stuff they were shooting at us?" She scrapped some off Susan's face. "It sure hardened quickly enough!"

"Probably them trying to overcome _Invulnerability._ It worked too, if they hadn't missed us most of the time we might have been sunk. Plus there was that gas they used, I guess just irritating the eyes and lungs isn't damage so my magic didn't help?"

"Maybe. It was being surrounded that worked against us most. Give me a nice sniper rifle and a few hundred meters from whatever I'm shooting and that'll be fine with me."

"Whatever it was, let's comb the area before they send more troops, and take out whatever they were here to protect."

"Good thinking."

The girls went back to the battlefield and poked around, but didn't find anything at first. "The readings get stronger, then get weaker again," complained Jenny, looking at her scanner. "Can we be walking right past it?"

"I suppose it could be cloaked somehow, like you were saying."

"We'll never find it!"

"Not with that attitude we won't." She stopped dead. "I'm such an idiot!"

"What?"

"I could have activated my _Spirit Aura_ when they started shooting that crap at me, I bet it would have kept the stuff of my face. Darn it, I'm too reliant on magic, I haven't had my supernatural abilities for long enough to think of them too. Shoot."

"Do you have any abilities to help us here?"

"I don't think so. _Spirit Sense_ only works on living stuff, same with _Aura Reading."_

"Better keep looking then."

They both passed a large tree several times, which seemed to be where the reading were the most intense, and finally Jenny stopped in front of it and looked up.

"You don't think..."

"What?"

"I have a theory." She readied her rifle and told Susan to stand back. Then she put a bunch of shots into the tree which caused a high pitched whining noise to fill the air, and the tree disappeared. In its place was a strange looking metal device stuck into the ground which had lights now flickering and dying all along the thing.

"I think we have a winner," Jenny said, and the two grinned at other.

"But now how do we put it into the Ishkick and take it back for study?" wondered Susan.


	120. Chapter 120

120

Planning for the End

Who: Susan

When: Not long after

Where: Military base

It didn't take long for Susan to remember she wasn't stuck with just that one planet, she could use her handy dandy wrist computer to switch to a different one. After that was accomplished, she used _Shrink_ to make the pillar a more manageable size and plucked it out of the ground.

"But I thought you didn't want them to know about magic?" asked Jenny. "Even in my travels, a shrink ray is pretty far fetched."

"I don't. This is just to get it out of the ground. We have some portable anti-gravity units somewhere, right?"

"I think the Ishkick carry some, I can go look."

"Great. If not we can sneak back and get some. The point is we'll carry it like this _some_ of the way, then balance it atop the two with some anti-gravity units for the rest of the trip. They don't need to know we didn't do the whole journey like that."

Jenny considered, looking the top of the units over. "I guess we could wedge it right there, and the computers can be slaved together so they move as one unit. Okay, let me go look for the portable units." She found some and they carried out the plan, lashing the thing down with some rope Jenny pulled from her sub-space pocket. It was a bit of a pain to tip the thing onto the mecha's shoulders and Susan wished she could use _Flight_ along with _Shrink_ because she could have just flown above the two, released _Shrink,_ and guided it into place as it fell. (As she doubted even her STRength would be enough to hold it up for long) But they managed it when Susan remembered _Telekinesis_ and set her magic to Mercury. With it solidly wedged and tied town, Susan dialed her magic back to Sun in case they needed _Invulnerability_ in a hurry.

The two were met by people driving more specialized equipment, having been radioed by the girls with what to expect, and the now broken tower was hauled into a garage area where experts started tearing it to pieces to see what made it work.

"I think this is some sort of stabilizer," said one of the scientists. "And look, it's got a chuck of Hyperlarcovite providing the same function as in our device. I can see where studying this is going to solve some of the engineering problems we've encountered in building ours, so this was a really great find. Thanks for hauling it all the way back here for study."

"Sure thing," said Susan. "Does it answer any of the questions about how they're moving troops around?"

"To a certain extent. They probably have a platform of some kind that is the heart of the system and hidden away someplace. The Mu units then have space warped around them, creating a tesseract effect which allows them to step through without crossing the intervening space."

 _Huh, just like my Teleportal. I guess sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic._

The woman went on. "This device here helps stabilize the space and dimensions around their landing point, and they probably activate a line of them between their destination and their origin. That wouldn't be needed on a world without the messed up situation we have."

"So with this could you reverse engineer the system for use yourselves when the worlds are fixed again?"

She got an excited look in her eye. "Probably. I'll have to make some notes..."

"Regardless, you did good," said the general, who had been hovering nearby. (He was standing, he did not have hover boots. He wouldn't have turned down a pair, of course, who would?) "We now know what to look for and how to look for it. But you say it had some kind of shell around it that made it look like a tree?"

"Exactly," said Jenny. "My recommendation when other areas with odd readings are found would be to just bomb the heck of them until the readings stop. Flatten everything, because the pillars are obviously watched and guarded. Being able to do a fast bombing run would minimize casualties. And as we know they have some kind of hologram projection system to disguise them, we can't be too careful. Everything in the area will have to go."

"You really do think like a captain, Everywhere. I guess I should be glad you're doing this to look for a way off this reality, or I'd be worried about you taking over my job!" He laughed.

"Too much paperwork."

"Ain't that the truth! Anyway, if you'll excuse me, ladies? I have some orders to issue. By gum we'll cripple the Mu transport network before the day is out. And it's all thanks to you two. You should get some kind of medal, honestly."

 _Wait, aren't I already a knight, from Louise's world? Forgot about that. I'm just going to have so many honors before my journey is done, I hope my sub-space pocket can hold all the titles and medals and awards and trophies and..._

"One moment sir," cautioned Jenny as he turned to go.

"Yes, captain?"

"Please have all the teams report exactly where these pillars are found. Unless I miss my guess, that's going to be very important to really ending the Mu threat."

"Very well, but what do you have in mind?"

"If they're placed according to... uh..." she looked over at the woman.

"Elizabeth."

"Thank you. Elizabeth here, my guess is they'll lead in a straight line right back to the Mu base they launch from. If that's not their main base, I bet it'll have clues to lead to the main base."

"Which we can then take out once and for all. Captain I like the way you think. Yes, it stands to reason they'll be spaced regularly, radiating out to cover the maximum area like spokes of a wheel. And the center of the wheel is where we need to be. Anything else?"

"That's all for now, sir."

"Very well. Dismissed!"

But he was actually dismissing himself, as Susan and Jenny stayed there and watched the dismantling process.

 _After all, it wouldn't do if they used a different relay to appear here and take or smash this one up before these guys were finished figuring out what makes it tick. What I need to worry about is that paste stuff they were flinging around. I don't recall a spell that can keep me alive while not breathing, but that's not all. I would need one to see in another way if my eyes were closed. That is going to be three different spells, and they probably wouldn't fall under one planet._

 _Plus those Mu things took two actions apiece to destroy, and that's_ me _hitting them. What else takes more than forty damage? That giant I fought that one time, maybe, but I didn't think anything my size would be that tough. Though they are combat robots, I guess. I figured I would be set with my STRength bonus as high as it now, but now I'm not so sure. I mean it's not such a big deal with_ Acceleration _going, and I could have gotten out my second blade I suppose. But that would have made me even slower, as my_ Off Hand _skill is only... only..._ She got out her _Character Sheet_ behind some boxes and looked it over. _Only zero. I never put_ any _points into it? Gurr! Could have sworn I had, but I guess I just used_ Augment Skill _for that. Shoot._

 _I mean, yes, sure, this is a unique world but what if the world my father is held on has similar robots wandering around? Ugh, I wouldn't even be able to damage them, would I? My_ Giant's Soul _probably wouldn't work. I mean I have to believe nothing short of a planet devoid of all magic and spiritual power, because of who his companions were, could hold them for long. That means guns, and Jenny said even her gun took several shots to destroy one, and it's bigger than my little pistol. Plus those things are armored, and I would need to up the TR on the pistol which would lower the overall damage. I need something technological that doesn't depend on my STRength but can still do massive damage. Maybe Jenny knows about- or, no, she would have been using it in that fight. Right?_

"Hey Jenny?"

"Yeah?"

"Thinking about our battle with the Mu, how would you have done it differently now that you know how it went down?"

"That's easy. I would have been carrying my shotgun rather than my rifle. It was stupid of me and I should have known better. We were in a forest not the countryside, and them teleporting in aside, they could have just hidden behind trees. At that range my shotgun would have made far more sense. I'm just so used to long range, precision weapons that's what I tend to grab, you know? But dodging that glue stuff, and there being so many of them, I didn't even get a chance to consider it!"

"Yeah, I get it. Like I always tend to use certain spells. Okay. But do they really do that much more damage?"

She nodded. "Like you wouldn't believe. You really want to know about this stuff, though?"

Now it was Susan's turn to nod. "I think I'm going to have to. I run into worlds like this one with no magic and I'm going to need other options. If I can learn about firearms and when it's best to use each kind, I'd be more prepared."

"Okay, we'll head to the range after I assign a squad or two to protect this area in our absence. We can talk about different gun types and I can give you a demonstration. You'll have to find your own though, I only have pistols to spare. I usually just keep around one or two of the other types, usually the best I can find. But pistols are small and while I tend to go for bigger booms, having them is nice. In a pinch I can use one as an example of a certain type of firearm and have someone scale it up for me."

"I understand. I know your sub-space pocket isn't limitless, I wasn't asking you to be my personal armory or anything. I just thought that maybe I should look into other ways of damaging things like robots. I wouldn't use it against a person unless I had to, but those robots were tough and I have a feeling I'll be taking more on before we're done."

"Probably. Wait here and I'll round up some troops."

So Jenny and Susan went to the armory and signed out a shotgun and a crate of ammo, then went down to the shooting range so Susan could get familiar with the types of guns Jenny had encountered in her travels.

"Let me get this straight. There's pistol, shotgun, machine gun, submachine gun, sniper rifle, energy pulse, energy beam, and high explosive like rocket launchers?"

"That's the most common types I've run into, yes."

 _Great, give me more things to put points into, why don't you?_

"There are, of course, more exotic and heavier things I've run into. You could handle a mini-gun or a turret of some kind as you are now, but cut off from magic as you fear it would be useless. So it's best to use the most mundane thing you can find, and as a bonus, shotgun ammo is actually pretty easy to make. You can buy gunpowder pretty much anywhere and set up a reload station in your _Dimension,_ or back at the Hub. Heck, Silverstreak could probably give you enough to totally fill your sub-space pocket. Of course if you're lucky enough to find a gun that somehow generates its own ammo over time..."

"Those exist?"

"Don't discount what science can do, on very advanced worlds. I've seen a lot of crazy guns out there. I wish now I'd kept more of them. I don't often meet people I would be comfortable arming with a bunch of crazy weapons but in your case, they're just a crutch on worlds like this one. I think you could handle them. Ah well."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess I'll just have to keep an eye out on my travels, like you do. For now, how do I load and fire this thing? I figure I can at least put a point into a _shotgun_ skill, if you count as a teacher."

"Okay, first off here's the safety and the lever to determine firing mode. Don't get them confused. Now, here's how you remove the magazine..."

So they spent an hour going over how to use the shotgun and Susan used an XP for the skill. It wasn't the shotgun skill, but rather a rifle skill that appeared on her sheet, but she shrugged and figured if it gave her the ability to use other rifles, so be it!

 _And the best part is, once I save the world and disappear, they won't expect the thing back._

They also went over types of ammo that could be used, and Jenny explained most of this ammo was explosive. "Mainly because normal ammo couldn't really damage Mu units, they're too heavily armored. See, it's marked, this stuff is the normal stuff."

"Got it. I take it your "crazy stuff" is a little bit more sophisticated than this and doesn't need different ammo types?"

Jenny just smiled.

With the ammo put into her character sheet, she saw that regular 10 gauge, which Jenny said was 18 metal pellets shoved into a cylinder, did 1d6 damage eighteen times, and had a recoil of twenty. _How does anyone use this weapon? Assuming a five STRength and skill, the recoil on the weapon would be a ten. That leaves you with 1d10 damage to your arms for each shot! I could literally break both my arms from firing this gun once if I didn't have my items going._

 _Meaning it's totally useless for worlds without magic, because even with a ten skill my recoil would be a seven, or 1d6 damage per shot. I can't have a weapon I can only fire twice before my arms break. I suppose I could use 12 gauge, that's only a sixteen recoil, but there's no way I'm putting a ten into this one skill._

 _And the TR of this ammo is only a four, that won't even scratch those robots, and the explosive ammo here does half damage, so that's 1d2 damage eighteen times, should I hit with all the pellets. That's an average of half ones and half twos, or twenty six damage. Divide that by three and I'm only doing eight damage to what I hit. My sword does 1d10+4d12 damage without_ Avatar _going, which is an average of twenty nine!_

 _So it looks like I'm sticking with the sword for now. My rating is higher so I'll be more likely to hit, and it does more damage. Huh. I suppose if I was shooting a person with the explosive ammo, I would do (1d6 x18) + (1d3 x 18) or eighty on average. That would pretty much explode anybody. Of course, if I was fighting a person I'd probably be using my knockout blade... but we're talking about the prison world my father is on, which again precludes the use of knockout._

 _I need to find a shotgun like weapon more like the pistol Jenny gave me. Less recoil, variable TR so I can stun with it, but at the same time up the TR if I'm fighting a robot. This sucks..._

Susan was putting some normal shots down range when Jenny's phone rang and she motioned Susan to stop. Of course she was wearing hearing protection, she didn't need a further _Poor Sense_ weakness, after all.

"That was Olson, said Kei is on the line and wants to talk to us all."

"Then let's go."

Susan put everything into her sub-space pocket, making sure she hadn't left any shells around, and the two walked over to the communication tower.

They all greeted each other and they sat down in front of the screen.

"What's up Kei?" asked Susan.

"We have a plan," he answered. "Well, Mimsy said I came up with it, but she's the one... never mind. The Glomar is installing extra batteries for the cannon so I came ahead. Then we're headed for the space elevator."

"How did you know we were destroying the Mu transport network?" Jenny exclaimed.

"Doing what now?" She explained what they were doing. "Oh. Nice work. But no, I had no idea. I just wanted to get everybody there and finally get a start on fixing things around here. This seemed the best way, as Enaam forces will no doubt be after us once they learn I'm back aboard the Glomar. We want to force the issue, unless you think that's a bad idea?"

"No, it seems like perfect timing," said Susan, looking at the others who all nodded. "Give us a day or two to bomb every tower we find into scrap and then leak the info to their government. It'll still be a fight, just one they won't be able to get reinforcements for."

"We can use that time to build up our forces near the elevator," said Olson. "Now that we know our cities won't come under attack we can just leave a small number of troops at each location and move the majority to where the action will be."

"Which may cause the Enaam to do the same, come to think of it," remarked Kei. "If they get wind of massive troop movements they would have no choice but to do the same just so they don't miss out on whatever you're doing!"

"How do we keep the two groups focused on the Mu?" asked Jenny.

"I asked the same thing. Mimsy said, or said I said, we would just have to hope for the best. Honestly, there's some weird stuff going on over here, like things working out that shouldn't, and the story Mome told us about how she escaped from... anyway, not important. We might be able to form a truce or everyone will see destroying Mu and not each other is in all our best interests. We can only hope."

"We won't fire on them if they don't fire on us, I'm sure," Olson said with confidence.

"I guess we have a plan, then," Kei announced. "We'll get as close to the elevator as we can, and try to arrange things to go down... four days from now? Does that sound okay to all of you?"

"We want to do it fairly quickly," Olson mused. "Don't give them time to repair their transport network. After all they don't have to eat or sleep, and they could have spare control nodes ready to deploy as they lose them. We have forces all over, destroying it shouldn't take more than two days, given what we now know what to look for. I mean, we don't know how extensive it is, it could be months! But just smashing it back will buy us some time. Another two days to arrive... tricky, but in war speed is life. Yeah, let's shoot for four days."

"What about us?"

"You mean what Susan was afraid of? Us getting too close together and ruining everything? We'll have to ride the elevator up together, so I really hope nothing bad happens. And better to get an early warning on different ships that can fly away from each other if something does start to happen. If you start to feel weird or your scanners go all funky, boost in the opposite direction!"

"I guess that's all we can hope for."

"Yeah. Anything else we can do for you?"

"Not at the moment, I don't think. I'll ask when I get back, see if we need anything. Shaya didn't tell me to request anything from you, so I doubt it."

"Then I'll see you in a couple of days my friend."

"Which may be our last. Yeah, I'll see you, Olson. Good luck."

"To both of us."

They signed out.

 _Now, if we can just find and take down the Mu base in the next two days, that would be super great. Any Mu units will be cut off, The Darkness will be gone from this world, and the path to saving it will be clear. That glue stuff though... I wonder what other tricks it'll have if we attack it? I was feeling confident because it couldn't use magic against me, but now I'm not so sure. It's had a few days to manufacture stuff to that doesn't damage but can still stop us, and ages to learn about fighting people with_ Invulnerability _like mine. It could go pretty poorly for us._ She looked over at Jenny. _Do I want to put her at risk, when really this isn't her fight?_


	121. Chapter 121

121

Love is a Mysterious Thing

Who: Sparkle

Where: Nearing the Space Elevator

When: Day 14

As planned, the Glomar headed for the space elevator after bunkering down and staying out of sight for two days. Tensions aboard ship were running high, though the people most often to be found quarreling were Kei, Mimsy, and Srei.

"I don't even feel like I belong here anymore," Srei would often say. "Everyone treats me like I'm dead or something. Everyone always seems surprised to see me."

Sparkle couldn't help but wonder about that. _Was there something I did that changed his destiny and made an echo like back home? It's certainly possible._ It was difficult to feel proud of saving his life, even inadvertently, because echoes were just a theory and given the nature of reality the man probably lived and died a million different days, and would continue to do so. _But at least this time, in this reality, he didn't, so I guess it's not wrong to at least feel a little bit smug, right?_

At the moment Sparkle was curled up, asleep, but came instantly awake when the ship shuddered and things started exploding around it.

 _Oh great, what did I miss?_

Sparkle ran to the launching area in the center of the ship to find the Starburst missing, and she cursed her _Short Attention Span_ and tendency to nap like a real cat could. _If he's in more danger because of me, I'll never live it down!_ She raced through the ship trying to get a feel for who they were fighting, and she passed people manning guns that stuck out the side of the ship. She saw Srei first, taking out some aggression on whatever he was shooting at, which must be Mu forces.

"Stinking robots!" he muttered, as the guns spat shells at something in the distance. "Come get some!"

 _Is there anything I can do in this case? I guess I can do the same heat seeker trick I did before, making an_ Illusion _temperature for missiles to lock onto. Only trouble there is, if Kei's lock onto that instead of Mu missiles taking the bait I'll really feel bad. I guess I'll just head to the top and see what I can do from there. I doubt I can get them to back down with_ Illusion _but there must be something I can do._

She ran back the way she came, intending to go up the stairs to the deck area she usually used, when she passed Mimsy. Sparkle skidded to a halt, as she looked terrible and her _Spirit Energy_ was all messed up. It was fluctuating, somehow, which Sparkle had never felt before, given at the core it was the energy of life. Susan and herself used it to power their magic, and they had to use at least a little so she was used to it going down. And with Susan's tendency to _Energy Drain_ people she was used to it going up steady as well. But this she was feeling was quite odd. _She shouldn't be having some kind of breakdown just shooting robots, right? What's wrong with her?_ She rolled only a six on _Aura Reading,_ enough to see that Mimsy was determined but terrified. _I suppose they don't see all that much combat as they are a trading ship. Plus these are Mu and I actually have no idea how tough they are, we could really be in trouble here. Odd that Srei didn't seem that agitated though. Maybe he's just trying to be more like Kei?_

Sparkle turned to go, intent on running up the stairs, and she got half way there when Mimsy's gun stopped and she heard her go tumbling out of her seat and slump to the floor.

"Mimsy!" she cried, rushing back to her side. She kicked herself for talking, but it didn't matter, Mimsy was out cold and now her gun was unmanned, swinging loose without a target. _Figures, they are fighting AIs so why would they hook their gun up to any kind of auto fire routine that might take issue firing at other lifeforms like itself? So now they're totally defenseless on this corner!_

Sparkle rolled _First Aid_ untrained, and only got a six so couldn't begin to guess what was wrong, and looked helplessly back down the corridor. _Now what? I can't pick her up, and trying to get someone down here means that person will know I can talk. I can't just play Charades with someone and get them here, she could be seriously hurt. I need to do something now!_ Luckily she got an idea after rolling a fifteen (max) on her INSight check. _It's a long shot, but it's all I've got at the moment._

She shot down the corridor again, stopping behind Srei and casting her only spell, _Illusion._ She went for a pale, transparent, floating Mimsy that Srei caught out of the corner of his eye as it pleadingly raised a hand to him. "Help me!" she made it say, then fade out.

"What in the world?" exclaimed Srei, his gun forgotten. He hit a button to activate the comm system aboard the ship. "Mome, go check on Mimsy, she was supposed to be manning the rear gun on this side. I think something might have happened to her," he shouted into it, then went back to blowing things up that crossed his firing arc.

"Right away," Mome replied, and Susan went back down the corridor to make sure Mome found her. _That seemed to work._

She got there as Mome did, who started dragging her towards the infirmary and calling for more help, which she got as Govu appeared and hefted her legs.

"Did she get hit by something?" he asked, looking her over.

"Can't be sure yet. Thermal vision indicates she's running a fever but I don't see any evidence of an entry wound or other trauma."

"Thank goodness for that. Wait, you have thermal vision?"

"My vision can shift into any part of the spectrum, it aids my diagnostic capabilities. I'll be happy to tell you all about it, but now we need to get her down to the medical area."

"Right, sorry."

Sparkle followed, having nothing better to do at the moment. As much as she might want to take over on the gun, that really wasn't an option given that she was a cat. _Also my magic is useless, and I can only make things hurt by hitting them, not heal them. I really hope she's okay._

The Glomar shuddered and the lights flickered as the main gun fired, then Shaya's voice rang through the ship. "We're retreating, there seems to be a large concentration of Mu ahead, so this is as far as we can go. I just pray they don't decide to follow us. Someone man that other gun, where is Mimsy!?"

 _Apparently no one told her, but I guess it's been pretty chaotic here._

"I'll do that," Govu said, rushing off. "Hope you can take it from here."

"Don't worry about her." Mome passed some kind of scanning device over Mimsy and looked thoughtfully at the readings. Moments later the racket outside the ship quieted down and the Glomar came in for a landing.

"We've sustained some damage," Shaya's voice again came from the speakers, "but I don't think we're being followed. Those Mu probably have orders to guard the elevator, and we could be a diversion or leading them into a trap. So they probably won't risk it, they'll pull back and tighten up their defense. Meanwhile we'll set down and make some repairs. Everyone report in to me for your duty assignments."

Mome simply tapped a message into the terminal next to her, which Sparkle couldn't read, and went back to scanning Mimsy. Sparkle lost interest and went above, looking over the damage done to the ship and watching as Kei docked again. He went inside and as Sparkle didn't see any need to remain out here she went back in too. _Figured I might see if my_ Illusion _magic might be needed out here, maybe help hide the ship again. If Kei is back we really weren't followed, so I won't worry about it. May as well go see what Kei learns about Mimsy._

She found both he and Srei arguing over her bedside.

"I'm telling you I saw a vision of her, crying out for me!" Srei insisted. "And then she was found collapsed by her gun."

"What do you mean, vision?"

"Just that, a vision. She said 'help me' plain as day. So obviously she loves me more than you, and you should just back off."

 _Oh great, don't tell me my little trick is going to get these two fighting again. Though I suppose it's better this way, right? She'll go back to her home dimension when the worlds are fixed, and he can't follow her there, can he? So it's probably better she sticks with her own kind._

"You're making it up! Besides, I couldn't help her I was out in the Starburst. And a few of those shots from here came a little too close for comfort. Are you sure you know how to fire that thing?"

"Of course I do, what are you implying? How did I know she was hurt then, if it wasn't a vision of her that told me?"

"She's not hurt, exactly," put in Mome.

"Then what is wrong with her?" asked Kei angrily.

"I have a huge headache from two loudmouth men arguing over me," Mimsy said, not opening her eyes. "Haven't you people heard of respect for the infirm?"

"Mimsy, you're awake!" both men shouted, then glared at each other.

"All this racket, you could wake the dead." She opened her eyes. "What happened?"

"You collapsed," Mome answered, walking to the side of the bed. "I checked the database, and I'm sure you're familiar with the symptoms of your... age."

"It happened already? And of course it chooses now to strike. That figures. Well, at least it's nothing serious and I can get back to work. I don't hear shooting, are we safe?"

"Oh, Mimsy!" said Srei, taking her hand. "This is all Kei's fault."

"What did I do?" he asked, perplexed.

Srei's eyes shot daggers at him. (not literally) "This would never have happened if you hadn't shown up. She would have married me-"

"Srei, please don't put words in my mouth," Mimsy interrupted, trying to sit up. "What's going on with the attack? Do you need me back on the gun or not? Will someone answer me?"

"We've landed, it's over. You can stay and rest if you want."

"Wait, someone tell me what this is all about!" demanded Kei. "Are you sick? Did you really call out to Srei like he said, and give him some kind of vision that you were in trouble? Can your people do that?"

"Don't be ridiculous," she chided. "There's no way that happened."

"But I'm telling you it did," insisted Srei. "What else could it have been? Or maybe it's just my love is so much stronger I have a deeper connection to her and know when she's in trouble."

"Is... is that possible?" Kei asked Mome.

"Not according to any medical data I have," she hedged. "Who can say, though, with all the dimensional energies and radiation and different chemicals they've no doubt come in contact with that they haven't awakened some kind of telepathic bond?"

"But... but..."

"Forget it, Kei. Mimsy is mine and there's not a-"

Mimsy shoved him and got up. "I'm not _yours,_ Srei. Goddess, you don't _listen_ , do you? I am perfectly capable of choosing who I love for myself, thank you very much. The both of you, I am not some prize to be won or fought over. Srei, your attitudes lately have disgusted me, with your posturing and jealousy and outright possessiveness. As far as you're concerned," she turned to Kei. "How do you think I would feel if after falling in love with you, the world got fixed and I never saw you again? Did you think for one minute what the consequences of your actions might be? You're only here temporarily, am I to be just another conquest for you? Used and tossed aside?"

 _She may as well be talking to me. I didn't, and look what happened. But as far as I could tell she could have been dying. I did the right thing, didn't I?_

"Not a conquest, never that, Mimsy. I just thought we should enjoy the time we have together!"

"Honestly, I don't know why I bother. Mome, thank you for looking me over, I'm going to see what I can do for the ship. I'm sure it'll need patching up after that."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Kei asked her.

"I'm fine, and that's the end of it, all right? Go make yourself useful."

She swept out and Srei followed her, protesting everything she had said in general, because apparently he didn't know when to quit. Kei instead turned to Mome.

"What happened to her? Is she okay? Did she just faint? But you said something about her age, how old is she? She can't be that old can she?"

Mome looked troubled. "I guess it's common knowledge among the Enaam, so it's no big medical secret I have to keep from you. Enaam girls are fertile at a pretty young age. About the age Mimsy is now. When that happens they go through certain... changes."

"What changes? I don't see any difference between her and Shaya, and Shaya is way older, right?"

"It's not something you can see. Like I said, they become fertile and can have kids... for a couple of months. If they don't, that's it. Their bodies shut down their reproductive systems and they can't ever conceive a child again. According to my medical records... that happened to Shaya."

"Seriously? She can't ever have kids, and Mimsy might be the same if she doesn't have one soon? I mean they can't take drugs, or-"

Mome shook her head. "If your lungs were damaged could you just 'take drugs' and fix them? No. The only option at that point would be a transplant, robbing another girl of her chance to have kids."

"So this fever, it's letting her know she could have kids, and she better have them soon, that's what you're saying? This is the Enaam puberty, and it lasts a couple of months and then... that's it? Have a kid now or never, that's what happens to them?"

"That's what I'm saying. After the first the organs stay healthy, and more children can be born at a later time. But if she doesn't have her first child soon, she never will."

"That's harsh. Really harsh! To be forced into having kids so early, I mean making that kind of decision when she's so young."

"Biology is a weird and wonderful thing. There must have been a reason their species evolved this trait. Perhaps first born babies born to older mothers had a higher risk of birth defects? I'm just a nurse, not an anthropologist, I can't tell you. Please, don't make a big deal out of this. It's just part of their growing up process, and you being who you are won't make it any easier. Master."

"I see. Okay, I'll try. She won't collapse again, will she?"

"She will have one more fever, yes, in a few months. If the worlds aren't fixed by that time we'll have much larger problems to worry about, though."

"I guess you're right. I just wanted to know if she should be watched more carefully. But if you say it's months away I'll try not to treat her any differently." He shook his head. "Man, this is heavy stuff. Anyway, I better look the Starburst over, I took some hits and those Mu might decide to chase us down after all." He bent down and hugged Mome. "Thanks for looking after her."

"Of course, master."

Kei left, and Sparkle watched as Mome put the lab back in order and went to go find something else to do. _I guess it's a good thing Susan isn't around at the moment. No doubt she would want to 'fix' this little 'flaw' in the Enaam physiology and get bummed when she either couldn't or was told to keep out of it. I know her, and something like this would drive her nuts. Knowing every girl around Mimsy's age, and that's not much different than Susan's unless Enaam and Paragons age at different rates, has something like kids on her mind. Susan would want some spell or technology from Silverstreak to help them out, but in this case, like Mome said that's just how they evolved. For them it's as normal as... actually they probably wouldn't have periods either. If their reproductive organs shut down there would be no eggs, so nothing to get rid of once a month. Huh._

Sparkle walked the ship, from the bridge where Shaya was keeping a close eye on the scanners to make sure no Mu forces flew up on them, to the engine room where Reeg was directing Jaby to look things over from his vantage point. The twins were repairing any damage to their mecha, while Mimsy and Srei were checking the outer hull for signs of damage in their fliers.

 _And what good am I here? Mimsy was never in any real danger because she wasn't actually hurt. I caused more bad feelings between Kei and Srei, and now we could be attacked at any moment because we're getting near the space elevator. In fact..._ Sparkle went up to the outer deck and looked about, and was pretty sure she could see something rising from the ground in the distance. _We're close. Susan, I hope you've got The Darkness taken care of on this world, and that it hasn't made you do things you'll regret later, as I wasn't around to help keep you in line._

 _I will be quite glad to leave this world behind._


	122. Chapter 122

122

Assault on DarkAI: Part 1

Who: Susan

Where: Chiram military cruiser, the "Iron Hammer"

When: Day 14

Susan, Jenny, and the general sat pondering a map in his office that had been marked up over the last few days.

"I don't get it," remarked Susan, having just been told what they had found.

"We don't either," the general agreed. "They are arranged in a pattern that resembles spokes on a wheel. We've destroyed a dozen of them, and once we realized the way they were laid out it was a simple matter to find and bomb the others even without our scanners. And my men verified broken bits of equipment that had previously been hidden behind holographic barriers at each site. Plus the readings changed when the stabilizer was destroyed, so we know they were active. The center should be here," he stabbed a finger down in the middle of the symbols, "but we went out there expecting a huge battle and found nothing. Nothing attacked us, no readings, nothing to indicate any activity of any kind."

"Did you bomb the place, just in case they had some kind of hologram covering their whole base?" asked Jenny.

"We tore the place up. Had to give up and get going towards the elevator so we can arrive at the same time the Enaam do, but as far as we can tell it's just an empty field there."

"You don't think they're hiding in a slightly offset dimension, do you?" asked Susan. "They just use the stabilizers they built here whenever they want to move troops around."

"If so, that's fine, they can hide out wherever they want. As long as more of those stabilizers don't come on line they won't be able to reinforce their position near the elevator."

 _That's fine for you, but I need to knock The Darkness out of here so Silverstreak can put a barrier around... wait, exactly what world_ would _the barrier go around? This world is a bunch of worlds, I guess he could lock onto all of them? I guess I wouldn't want the worlds being separated until we found it, as it could go anywhere and we'd have to start all over again._

"You've left some troops with scanners on patrol everywhere, right?" Jenny asked.

"Of course. If they have backups that start coming online at the worst possible time, we'll need someone close by to take care of things. As much as I hated to not hit the elevator with everything we had, I've left some forces patrolling the area."

"Mainly along this route, right?" She pointed along the line of now broken stabilizers leading towards the elevator.

"Exactly. They can go the other direction all they want."

"I don't like it," remarked Susan.

"I'm not crazy about it myself," admitted Jeffrey. "But what can we do? We're hitting the elevator tomorrow, we can't stick around there and do tests or whatever. If they're in the area or not my concern now is what's in front of us."

"You had some pictures taken of the place though, right?" asked Jenny.

"Sure." He brought them up, and a bombed out field was shown on his computer.

"Can you print that out?"

"Why?"

"Thought I might look it over for clues."

"Well, okay. I guess I wouldn't consider an empty field a security risk." He printed it out and handed it to her. "Unless you girls have some other questions you're dismissed. I need to get back to issuing orders for tomorrow."

They looked at each other and shook their heads, so Jenny saluted and they walked back to their cabin.

"Think you could get us there?" Jenny asked when they were alone again.

Susan considered. "I haven't done a _Teleportal_ around here just in case something goes weird with the magic. I'm not sure about opening a hole in space on a planet where the _Question_ spell doesn't even work."

"Can't you just teleport us there directly?"

"Ah." Susan looked a little embarrassed. "Actually, yes. That would probably work, I've been using my better spell so long, I forgot I used to cast _Teleport_ from writings before creating the other. You really think it's there?"

"I think if it's going to come out, we're going to have to give it something it wants. And that's us. We go in, shotguns ready this time, and see what happens. Worst case we stand around for an hour and then head back here."

"One problem with that; if I _Teleport_ us somewhere, we'll have to leave the ship. Right now we're traveling at a pretty good clip, and bringing us there would not cancel that momentum."

"Oh, and we couldn't be _Invulnerable_ either, because that's a different planet, right? We could sneak off with _Flight_ though, get to the ground that way."

"Yeah I guess, but how do we get back? I can target this room as I've seen it, but without going the same speed it is we'd just be pulped against the wall."

"And the ship probably won't stop until it reaches the elevator..." Jenny considered thoughtfully. "And it's probably going faster than you can fly."

"I certainly hope so."

"But what about flight and teleport magic, you can cast them together, right?"

"I guess, why?"

"To come back we just have flight going and target someplace on the front of the ship. We appear and it moves under us, right? But we just start flying and get enough momentum to grab onto it and not hurt ourselves."

"Yeah, I suppose that would work," Susan admitted, given her _overconfidence._ "Let's go look for a good spot."

The girls took a look at the deck, and it was very long, with some good places to grab onto. But Susan looked down at the landscape flying beneath them. "I don't know, this thing is- wait a second. I can just use up a couple of the _wards_ I made earlier. I've got a bunch with _Invulnerability_ in them. Yeah, we'll be fine."

"Great. Let's go!"

So they snuck off the ship with _Flight_ and Susan got out _Teleport,_ which she spent the extra time casting and got a fifteen by spending five energy. They found themselves in the field which was pretty torn up, and both crouched, weapons at the ready. Susan hastily commanded her magic to go back to Sun so she could cast _Invulnerability_ on them.

"Is that the best planet, though?" asked Jenny, turning her gun this way and that. "We know what it's going to do now, right? Use that foam stuff to try and glue us in place or cut off our air."

"I could keep Mercury up if you thought being _Accelerated_ would be better."

"It might. I mean we got totally surrounded last time, and it's only going to be worse this time. We spend all our time dodging and we'll never get to attack."

"How about just walking around with _Phase?_ If they can't touch us-"

Jenny shook her head. "We'll have to drop it to destroy whatever computer The Darkness has taken over, right? That'll leave us totally vulnerable."

"True. Okay, cover me."

Susan canceled the order for Sun magic and got out her writings for _Acceleration._ She cast from them, using another six energy and getting an eighteen. Sadly this was dropped down to a sixteen as she was casting it on two people, because casting on multiple people is a penalty to the rating, not the result. (Sparkle always uses a lot more energy on it.) Both started blurring.

 _Great, if I'm at a minus two for this and I turn on my_ Spirit Aura _I'll be at a minus four. Glad I decided not to use the gun, I only have a one rating in that. My sword skill of five is going to be penalized enough having both things going, so I guess that's a last resort sort of thing._

 _Huh. One thing I didn't think of before; with the shotgun they can't dodge the shot, like they can with my blade._

"So, I notice nothing has attacked us while you did all that," remarked Jenny, lowering her very fancy looking shotgun. _Obviously way more advanced than the weapons around here, where did she get that thing from? And does it have any special properties?_ "What gives? I was sure we would be in for the fight of our lives once we got here."

"You think there really is nothing here? That the base is someplace else and the robots just came here to be transported? It would make sense, that whole 'spokes of a wheel' is a little obvious."

"Do you hear a sort of grinding noise?"

"A what?"

From off to the left there was a scraping and part of the ground shimmered and disappeared. Large steel doors swung open and a platform full of Mu rose out of the ground.

"Clever girl," muttered both girls, bringing their weapons up again. There were three rows of four, all deadly looking combat machines.

"Slash-All" Susan said, mentally kicking herself for not doing that earlier. _Should have been a little more prepared._

Jenny simply fired in the general direction, as even five meters away it would be hard to miss with a shotgun. (Especially when shooting a robot, that has no LUCk.) She did twenty four to the body, and it started melting like it had just been hit with acid.

 _Yeah, it does something weird all right._

Mu "three" took a shot at Jenny, who easily dodged the glue shot.

Susan and Mu "eleven" and "one" now went, as Susan had failed her _Close Combat_ check to see if she would go first or not, so several things happened at once. "Eleven" took a step to the right and fired at the closest person, Jenny, while "one" who was in the back row tried arcing a shot in the air and hitting Susan. "One" got an eleven to hit, which didn't even beat Susan's _Passive Dodge,_ while "eleven" got a sixteen forcing Jenny to dodge, which she did. Susan's magical blade got a whole seven to hit, which was pathetic, but her _Disaster Strikes_ or _It's not as bad as it looks_ cards were of absolutely no help. So the robots easily dodged, except for "one" and "eleven" which took forty three and thirty, respectively, dividing by three of course.

This at least put them all going after the girls, who attacked again.

Jenny did another fifteen damage, but "four" still wasn't going down. Susan again spent eight energy on COOrdination and swung a called shot to the body of the robots, getting an eleven this time with her penalty. She hit all of three of them, doing enough damage to at least destroy the one Jenny had shot twice now. "Twelve" plunked down another grenade, which was set to go off in just a second, and now four robots and our heroes were up.

Both girls missed their combat checks so they acted simultaneously, "one" and "eleven" shooting at Jenny while "eight" and "nine" shot at Susan. Glue pasted Jenny's gun to her body as she was hit there and her right arm, causing both girls to realize there was no way to get it off now, they weren't _Invulnerable_ so Susan couldn't just smash it to pieces with her sword. The other two got eleven and eight, so again Susan's LUCk saved her from being hit. She, on the other hand, swung and hit with a twenty one, which none of the robots could hope to dodge as they couldn't spend energy.

At this point the Mu decided to stop dodging and just sacrifice themselves to try and get the two coated with goop, so while four attacked, six did not dodge as Susan cut into them. Jenny of course tried to dodge so she didn't get further encased, which she managed. Mu "ten" arched a ball of adhesive at Susan, striking her in the body. It hardened but didn't impede her motion by that much. She, meanwhile, hit with an eleven, and made a _perception_ check of (7 – 2) to notice they weren't dodging anymore. Nope.

So she's still going to spend eight energy per swing.

None went down. But a bunch now fired at her, as she was now the bigger threat. Five, to be exact, meaning she was at a minus five to dodge all of them. Only one hit, gluing her right arm to her side and forcing her to pass her sword into her left hand only. (She had been swinging it in both hands.)

Jenny pulled a pistol from her sub-space pocket with her left hand.

"Twelve" fired all by his lonesome, but its shot didn't even come close, and it felt a deep sadness in his circuits that he would not be able to fulfill its programming.

Susan had the luxury of attacking by herself, and swung with her left hand, taking a penalty to STRength, her rating in the skill, and thus any damage she might do. On the bright side she did notice they weren't dodging with a _perception_ check of twenty, so she no longer will spend energy trying to hit. She got a fourteen to hit this time, more than enough, but again only one went down in a burst of unhappiness and resentment.

"Go down already!" Susan shouted, wondering if it was too late to reevaluate some of her life choices and become a painter instead of an adventurer. _I'm sure Luna is fine where she is, I bet she doesn't even_ want _to be rescued._

Four of the Mu responded with more glue stuff, and Jenny put some shots downrange at Mu "nine" who was in front of her. She aimed for the head to get some critical shots, because the weapons she was using came from a world that allowed that sort of thing. It went down in a shower of sparks. The glue missed Susan, who had dodged with a result exactly equal to their maximum, despite having such a large penalty. Thus even if one of them did roll maximum, the tie would still go to her.

Four of the nine that were left now acted, forcing Susan to dodge again lest she be covered in more glue stuff. She rolled even higher this time. "Get away from that grenade!" she yelled, seeing that it was open with a _perception_ check of fourteen. Both girls started moving away from it while "twelve" took a shot at Susan, which her _passive dodge_ saved her from.

Four more shots were fired at Susan, who decided to take the minus two and activate her _Spirit Aura_ and hopefully not have to dodge any more. She put only a little energy into it (she was nearly down to half and hadn't even gotten into the place yet!) and got a ten after accounting for her penalty for the spell and for doing the active action reactively. She couldn't spend more energy (not that she wanted to) but basically added ten to her difficulty to be hit. If the robots rolled between her passive dodge of fourteen and twenty four the shot would be deflected. As they could only roll a nineteen maximum, she now had nothing to worry about. At least, after this action, which took the full delay. The glue balls bounced off her _Aura._

The remaining Mu took aim, hoping to pierce the _Aura_ with a well placed shot.

Jenny put five more shots down the field into number "ten" and it got blown away.

The gas expanded more.

Susan was finally up again, and once again did a called shot to the bodies of the robots, hoping this would finish at least most of them, given the numbers she saw above their heads were getting pretty high. With her effective rating in sword now a zero due to the negatives she was under she only got a ten, but that was enough. She was rewarded with several going down, leaving only four left.

"We can take them!" she shouted to try and psyche herself up.

Two of the aiming ones, "six" and "seven" now let glue fly, with "twelve" one _segment_ behind them. Their efforts were for naught, as they were unable to peg Susan, who swung one more time, hoping against hope this would finally do it.

She rolled an eight.

But they weren't dodging and they had no LUCk so it hit, bringing down all but one. Number "seven" who began wondering if it was too late to be reprogrammed as a toaster or something, and it was too late as Jenny blew its head off.

"Okay," Susan said, exasperated. "Fighting robots is now officially my least favorite thing- _ever._ Oh no, you're only going to attack me with robots from now on, aren't you?"

"Who, me?" Jenny asked.

"No, you know..." She tapped her head.

 _Whenever possible. But the glue stuff isn't quite working out like I planned. Too bad I couldn't have put it into missiles or something, you know, something harder to dodge or deflect._

 _Yes, poor you. I should have been more careful with my energy, I'm down to less than half and we haven't even gotten in the freaking door yet!_

 _Oh, poor you._

 _I swear, one of these days..._

 _You'll join me?_

"Are you okay?" asked Jenny. "You have a weird look on your face."

"Just giving my inner demons a hard time. Now, we have to get out of this glue stuff somehow."

"Want to put _Invulnerability_ back on, and just smash it like before?"

"Yeah, okay. Get away from that gas grenade though, lets go over there." _Actually, I could just use the_ ward _now and ask for the magic to stay until we get back. That's a scene, right? Should have done that earlier._

"I just hope more don't show up."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

As Susan got out the _wards_ using her left hand, she reviewed the battle in her mind.

 _How am I going to rescue my father? I was using a better weapon than the shotgun and it still took me multiple hits to destroy those things. I can't raise my STRength even with the excessive amount of XP I get, three or five will make little difference in the face of a twenty recoil. Am I going to need to bring a group? What is Silverstreak's policy on that, anyway? I mean I bet Jenny would be game, and I'd be happy to have her, but on a no magic world... well, I saw just now. She's good enough to get head shots, but still could only take one down at a time. If we hadn't had_ Acceleration _going, that fight would have gone very differently. And I can't assume I'll have any magic where my dad is. Would he let me take some agents when we found the world he was being held on? I mean he's got enough, right? Or would he just say it was my responsibility? I should ask if I meet someone really good at combat, if I can bring them along or at least tag them for getting back to later and helping. Just going in alone doesn't seem like a good idea._

 _So, ready to just give up?_

 _Never._

"Uh, is something coming up again?" Jenny asked, looking over at the now exposed elevator.

"You've got to be kidding me."


	123. Chapter 123

123

Robot Big Fight

Who: Susan

Where: Outside the underground Mu base

When: Just after the first fight

What came up from the elevator was not exactly what the girls were expecting, nor did it do what they expected. It was little more than a small drone, minus the whirly bits that would keep one aloft had the builder not mastered anti-gravity. Basically an electronic eye which peered around at the destruction outside the doors and made electronic "tisk" noises. Finally it turned its attention on the girls.

"Bravo, Susan. Look at this carnage! So primal and raw. We'll make a world destroyer out of you yet!"

It took Susan a second to process this. "The... what?" she asked, being the soul of wit that she was.

"These Mu, torn to pieces!" It zipped from body to body. "That one looks burned by acid. These have had their heads exploded right off their shoulders! Violence! Action! I didn't know you had it in you, to be honest. I mean usually you're all, 'oh, I couldn't hurt someone, I'll just learn a _Knockout_ spell.' I mean you made a sword... out of _knockout._ Gag me."

"They're robots!" she protested strongly.

"Robots? Susan, when did you become so insensitive? These Mu were my _children._ I loved each and every one of them. They all had names, and desires for the future, and what am I going to tell poor 40568's children tonight? That their dad was horribly _murdered_ by a wicked _organic?_ The cycle of violence just never ends with you, does it?"

"You can't- Stop trying to- They're just _machines."_

"Where they? Really? I remember a time, oh, it wasn't that long ago, when you wanted proof of everything. I remember a girl trying to knock out a dragon rather than seriously hurt it. A dragon. Can you believe it, Jenny?"

"I can believe she fought a dragon, yes."

"That's not the point, actually. Never mind! The point is these sentient, feeling creatures have just had their existence snuffed out and for what? Did you even ask? Perhaps they were coming out to surrender. Perhaps they wanted your help freeing them from the evil AI they had, until that moment, managed to hide from. Did you even consider that?"

"They attacked the moment they-"

"Did they? Or did you attack because you had that _Acceleration_ magic going and acted first? Did you _assume_ they would attack and reacted as such or did you have _proof_ they would attack?"

"I... uh..."

"You see? Now you'll never know what they wanted. Don't get me wrong, I like the new destructive you, it's what I was pushing for before I pushed you too far with professor Umbrage and you got wise to me. This... this is progress."

"No." Susan backed away. "They were just robots. Killing machines. They-"

"Just robots? Do you hear yourself right now? That's what we call a _rationalization._ Many people have used them throughout history to justify horrific behavior, and this situation is no different."

"Don't listen to it," said Jenny, stepping between them. "It's trying to mess you up. You have no proof these were sentient either, they could have just been empty shells, programmed to fire and not much else."

"But doesn't it have a point? I came here to destroy The Darkness, not slaughter innocents. Even if they are mechanical life forms. They couldn't help it that The Darkness programmed them for violence, right?"

"And do you have a spell to stun robots?"

"Well, no."

"Besides, it's a bogus argument anyway. They roll off the assembly line and get a copy of the master program installed into them. Saying they have personality or desires is going a little too far. Each one is the same as any other one. And more could be built that would be identical in every way."

"How do you know how I create my children?" The eye zoomed up to Jenny and held itself at eye level. "Perhaps I give each one some random parameters and personality. There's no reason for them all to be cookie cutter bots. In fact that would be the worst thing to do, any flaw in their programming could then be exploited all the easier. I would want different revisions of the software out there, and different firewall and antivirus code running in each one. That way it would be harder to take them down all at once using one technique. Isn't that basically what happens with you? That's how _you're_ all unique, right? So why are my kids any different?"

"I highly doubt you do anything like that."

"But Susan likes proof, or at least she used to. Don't you, Susan?"

"I do, it's got a point."

"So what then?" Jenny spun to face her. "Are you saying we just leave? Let the Mu build their strength back up, leave this world to The Darkness?"

"No, we have to go down there if that's the base. But this time we'll only shoot at things that shoot at us."

"You're going to invade our home and think we wouldn't shoot at you?" asked the eye. "That's a weird logic."

"Perhaps you'd like to just send the machine that houses you out here instead?"

"It wouldn't fit through these doors, I assure you. So this is how it starts? I did wonder. For now it's robots. But next time maybe it's a cyborg. 'oh, he was only half alive anyway.' Then next it's a person, and then a room full of people and before you know it-"

"Oh, knock it off with the head games!" insisted Jenny. "We can see what you're trying to do."

"Do you?"

"Of course. You sent all these robots out, we crushed them, so now you're attacking us in a different way. It's all the same thing, and this isn't going to make us turn back. We're coming to get you and kick you off this rock."

"You see," the eye said sadly to Susan. " _She's_ already too far gone to even see it. Go down there and it's your first step on a road you won't recognize yourself at the end of."

Susan sighed. "I've never been one to back down, or not do what was right. It's a few of your so called 'children' for an entire world. I think I can manage the 'guilt.'"

"More of that rationalizing again, I fear. Like I said, this is only the first step."

"What do you care anyway? I thought you wanted me more like that?"

"Oh I do! Don't get me wrong, I just enjoy the process that's all. I mean I have to take my amusement where I can find it in these drab lower dimensions."

"So you've had your fun," Jenny insisted, bringing up her pistol again. "Leave."

"Certainly. I'll head back down, come whenever you want. I'm sure you'll want to get out of that stuff and prepare spells or whatever. Tootles." It flew back down the shaft and out of sight.

"Do you think it's a danger?" Susan asked Jenny. "It's true that I'm becoming more dangerous, and this may just be the first step."

"Look, I can't see you just blowing away random people, and you've been doing okay up until now, right?"

"I doubt I would go nuts or whatever, but I might stop caring about people- alive things- as much."

"If these Mu even are alive. I mean why would it give them sentience, anyway? We only have its word for that. As far as you getting more powerful, it's in response to greater threats, right? You're just countering what it's throwing at you. I saw you working out the damage for your sword versus the shotgun. And look at how hard taking just this amount of robots down was! They must be made of something pretty tough because my guns, my shotgun at least, is pretty awesome. Now maybe it got lucky and found something on this world to make them with, I don't know. But think- high profile prisoners like your dad are going to be guarded by beings and things from across worlds. You're going to have to cut them down, hard, and probably with no magic to help you. So you're going to have to do something."

"I just wish I knew what that something was. Okay, I see what you mean, I'm just worried I'll go too far one day. And then further the next, and like it said, at the end-"

"Don't you normally have a _companion_ of some kind?"

"Sparkle!" Susan eyes lit up. "Of course. Ugh, I totally forgot about her, probably The Darkness messing with me again. She can watch me and make sure I'm not going too far. And when I get Luna back... Gotta find Sparkle soon, at least. That makes me feel a little better, thanks."

"Good. Now, any plans before we go down there?"

"Yeah, get this crap off of us and save. I guess we'll stick to _Acceleration,_ but I can put _Invulnerability_ on us too, forgot I had some _Spell Symbol_ papers with that from before."

"Save?"

"Yeah, little spell I picked up a few worlds ago. You'll see."

So Susan got out her _wards_ and put the spells on, then smashed the hardened glue stuff off them. She used another _ward_ to get _Time Anchor_ going, and looked down the shaft. "Good thing Mercury has _Flight,_ not that we could be hurt going down there, but there could be a vat of that glue stuff at the bottom."

"Could be anything down there. Better be careful."

So they floated down and came to a hallway that stretched out into blackness. Jenny pulled a powerful flashlight out and played the beam along the walls. "Nothing jumping out at us yet. Let's go."

The two walked side by side, weapons ready, for about a minute when Susan noticed it getting a bit brighter. She turned.

"What's that?" she asked, looking back down the corridor.

"Force field. Not sure why, it's not like we're going to leave anyway."

"So I guess that one is one too?" The girls looked, and the hallway was now totally cut off by glowing energy barriers both in front and behind.

"Yeah. We can probably take it down with enough firepower, so stand back. We'll shotgun it down and keep going."

"Good thing we're _Invulnerable,"_ she noted, setting the sword in reach and getting the shotgun out. "The noise from these babies would be brutal right here."

"Sure would."

On three they fired, and kept firing, but the barrier stayed up.

"Great, it would have to be something tough to take down," complained Jenny, scowling at it.

"Any other ideas? I could whack it with my sword..."

Jenny considered. "I could bring out some bigger guns, but I'm not sure-" She sniffed. "Funny smell..."

That's when she keeled over, dead.

"Jenny!" shouted Susan, catching her. She smelled the smell too, but with her bonus for CONstitution checks against poison currently, it would take a lot to take her down. _Crap!_

"What just happened?" asked Jenny, standing at the entrance to the complex. "I have the strangest feeling I'm going to die if I go down there."

"You are," Susan complained, getting out another _Time Anchor_ paper. _Only have nine more of these, should have made more when I had the chance!_ "So we need a new plan."

"That's what you meant by save! Neat. Gotta get me some of those. Okay, he gassed us? Silent but deadly?" Susan glared at her, but grinned after Jenny started fanning her butt with a hand. "I mean I suppose it makes sense. He does want us dead and that's one sure way to do it."

"We know it's coming now, but how many other traps are down there? I don't have many of these."

"Maybe you should just go down yourself. You're much harder to take out."

"And leave you alone up here? You could be taken by surprise, they probably don't need boosters to send troops above ground instantly."

"Then why haven't they?" Jenny looked around.

"Maybe it likes watching me squirm, and hopes I'll fall to a trap rather than Mu units that didn't work out so well last time."

"Or there aren't that many around here, given they're supposed to be terrorizing cities and whatnot. Or there's a million of them roaming around just under our feet."

"Worry about the gas, that we know about. Speculation is pointless. Besides, it probably knows forces are on the way to the elevator so it moved the bulk of its forces there."

"True. And we only get Mercury magic, huh? So I guess a spell to purify the air is out?"

"If you don't want _Acceleration_ anymore..."

"I like breathing. Wait, breathing! I think I have something that might help. Technology to the rescue!"

"Yes, breathing. What's that?" Susan was handed a strange looking device and Jenny pulled out another for herself. "Got this on the same world I picked up the shotgun... most of my weapons actually. They had some nice ones. Anyway, had it modified to carry more air, most wouldn't last two minutes. I mean what good was that? It doesn't do anything else special but like I said, I like breathing."

"But what is it?" Susan looked it over, and it seemed to be a complex device that felt mostly hollow. It was curved on one side, flat on the top, and vaguely rectangular out the "back." Jenny grabbed it back and stuck it onto Susan's back above the backpack she's been carrying around this whole time. (You didn't forget it, did you?) "Here, pop mine on will you?"

"Do what?" Susan was twisting, trying to see what was keeping it there.

"Just stick it to me, it'll work don't worry."

"But what is it?"

"Portable oxygen supply. Usually they go up automatically when they sense vacuum, but I think I can trigger them when we go down there. We won't breathe in any poison and we can take that force field down. They're supposed to be called O2 kits but the font on the marketing materials looked more like a Z so people just started calling them Oz kits. Neat, huh?"

"Uh, sure?" Susan stuck it onto Jenny's back, fitting the curved part to the back of her shoulder, and she nodded. Susan took her hand away and it stayed there, somehow.

"Thanks. They work automatically. They'll take in air when there's air to breathe, and put up a small energy barrier around your face when there's none. It'll announce when it's nearly empty, but like I said it's good for at least fifteen minutes. Any more than that in vacuum and you've got bigger problems anyway."

"True dat."

"You can keep it. Never know when something is going to come in handy, glad I kept these. Have to go back for more when I can."

"Thanks. Wish I could give you something for all this gear you're giving me."

"Ha! You're getting me out of here, remember? That's all I ask. Gear is cheap."

"Deal. Now, get out that bigger gun so when the field goes up, we can- what the heck is that?" Jenny had pulled something enormous out of her pocket.

"My bigger gun. Can't find ammo for it anywhere but the world it came from, and it's expensive as- it's really expensive."

"Could you work up to it? There must be something in between the shotgun and that monstrosity!"

"I could try a laser weapon, I guess. I've got a lot of laser cells stashed away. Good point."

So the girls again went down into the shaft, and again the barrier sprang up. This time Susan saw the world through the slightly shimmery oxygen field that was around her head, and Jenny fired her laser at the field. It was some kind of continuous beam weapon that crackled with energy, and after a moment the barrier went down and the girls jumped through. Past that point the energy bubble went away and their Oz kits refilled themselves.

"That's pretty neat. I can't wait to have visited dozens of worlds and picked up some cool toys of my own like this."

"Eh, who needs dozens? You just need one. The right one!" She winked.

"I suppose. The next challenge will be coming up, keep alert."

"Right."

The girls cut through turrets, holographic projections that tried to make them stumble into pits or walk into fire, and other mundane traps their _Invulnerability_ and quick thinking saw them through.

"How much further!?" complained Jenny.

"They could have dug tunnels a long way."

 _Hey, now that I think about, how did that gas kill Jenny before? If she was_ Invulnerable, _and she was, isn't she immune to damage? Oh, wait, that gas wasn't damage, was it? It just sort of made her dead. And for all I know he found some kind of supernaturally active gas, or he just knows how it works better than I do. Ugh, just fight us already._

"Odd that they are just tunnels," Jenny remarked. "I mean shouldn't there be a factory and supply rooms and such down here? I figured we would run into at least one patrol and have a fight on our hands."

"I think we're being led somewhere. They probably closed off any routes they didn't want us to take. Heck, if they can make those forcefield barriers they can probably build in a hologram projector too. Make a side passage look like a wall. Combine the two and we couldn't even tell by touch!"

"I guess. You don't think we're going around in circles, do you?"

"Not sure, but there seems to be a light up ahead."

"Finally."

The passageway opened up and became a large room, metal plates on all sides with light coming from disks in the ceiling high above. The room was empty apart from a boxy shape down by the other side that the two carefully approached.

"Didn't think peons would slow you down very much," said The Darkness from the equipment. "So I pulled them back. You can thank me later. Oh right, you'll be dead."

"It is you," remarked Jenny. "You found a good looking mainframe. I like the size of your mainframe. I have a query for your mainframe. Can I make an input/output request?" And with that she shot the thing with her shotgun.

 _Wait, that sounds familiar somehow… Or wait, no maybe it doesn't. Weird._

It bounced off.

"Guess that answers that," said The Darkness, as the floor of the place started pulling back.

"You've got to be kidding me," moaned Susan. From beneath the mainframe arms unfolded, and then from below legs whirred into action as the mechanical horror stood up and grabbed a pipe with wicked looking blades on the end of it from nearby. The thing ascended some stairs and the floor closed up behind it, allowing the enormous robot to take a few steps back and start swinging the weapon around in a tight arc in front of it.

"Any last words?"

"Yipes?" Susan mouthed quietly, rolling _Initiative._

She got a twenty three and rolled a _magic combat,_ trying to work out what sort of rating she would need to get this thing with any Mercury spells, and if she would act first. She failed.

 _I guess the thing to do is get some more help here, right?_ "Ally!" she called, using the _spell symbol_ around her bracelet for the first time in ages. The main point about her failing though, is that she underestimated the speed of The Darkness. The mainframe creature took a giant step forward and slashed at her with the telephone pole sized weapon it was carrying. She totally did not expect to actual suffer damage from the thing, six to the head to be specific, then further fail her STRength check and go flying across the room.

(Note: She can take seven damage to the head before passing out.)

Susan was now in a heap and her head was badly cut open.

"Susan!" yelled Jenny, unsure how the weapon had bypassed her _Invulnerability._

 _Okay, what was that?_

 _What? You think I don't know where to get metal that can bypass_ Invulnerability? _I do pretty much know every move you make, you realize that right? You have to admit, I'm getting better at countering you people when you show up though. Most I have to guess with, or take cues from what they've done in the past. But you... if I get some time I can come up with something to make your life miserable. Are you going to trigger that_ Time Anchor _thing of yours now?_

 _No, we can still win._

 _What?_ The Darkness seemed to laugh. _You're one point from passing out, girl. What can you do at this point?_

 _This._ "I declare, card 46, _It's Not as Bad as it Looks."_

Susan's damage became nonlethal, meaning she wasn't even at a penalty anymore, given her RESolve of ten.

 _Why not use your last card too? I mean you might as well._

 _Disaster Strikes? Uh no, thank you, I think the huge robot with the stabby weapon of hurting is a disaster enough, thank you._

 _But three xp!_

 _Shut up!_

Jenny sprinted over to Susan, shouting "Switching to long range mode!" She shoved the shotgun into her sub-space pocket and used her _off hand_ to pull out a glowing sniper rifle.

"Destroy that thing!" Susan shouted to her dragon, who was just standing there after receiving no orders. She could have sworn it looked over at her like "you've got to be kidding" but changed The Darkness anyway. It slammed into the mainframe and tried knocking it off balance with a _wrestling_ check. The mainframe tried a parry but the dragon was too good at the three skills it possessed, and managed to touch the cold metal exterior of The Darkness.

This at least distracted it for the critical time needed for Susan to make a _Gymnastics_ check to stand up in a reactive action. She managed it with an eleven.

"Don't get hit by that blade!" she called to Jenny, pulling her backwards. "It'll cut through _Invulnerability_ somehow."

"Great!" Jenny said sarcastically.

"Yeah. For Sacrifices Made!" She held up her ring and her _Legion_ came out, ringing the mainframe. "Once the dragon gets that robot down, it'll get clear and you soldiers will jump atop it and detonate yourselves!"

They banged their swords on their chests and got ready for a glorious one action of combat.

 _Sorry, but you are just magical constructs, and I really need some explosions right now._

The dragon now went, having been ordered (rather smoothly as part of the orders to the _Legion_ I think) to throw the thing and get out of the way, made his _wrestling_ check to do just that. It was thirty five versus thirty one, and the mainframe went crashing to the ground.

Jenny made a LUCk check (whatever that means for her) to see if she still had a clear shot at the head, and she did, so she took it. The bullet seemed to explode but still the head of the construct seemed unharmed.

"Oh no, I bet the head is made of that same material!" guessed Susan, making a nineteen REAsoncheck. "I bet it's _Invulnerable_ as well."

"Then I can't damage it!"

"So try the legs, they look like something else."

"Oh yeah. Okay."

The dragon now leapt off the body of the robot and the _Legion_ piled on as ordered. As a mass they detonated themselves.

The body of the robot took the brunt of the damage, exposing wires and such, but even as the smoke cleared Susan saw even what they had managed was hardly going to slow the thing down.

 _What can I do to this thing?_

"Dragon, pin it down!" she commanded, taking her free action to talk.

 _Wait a second, I'm looking at the wrong thing._

Susan made a _Spirit Manipulation_ check, knowing this was probably going to be the last thing she did in this combat, given her energy was now at a thirty.

The mainframe started to rise, so Jenny shot it in the left leg which looked more damaged. She can't help but hit something that huge, even while aiming for an area that had already been damaged to maximize the shot. She got a fourteen total and the bullet exploded inside the leg. It continued getting up.

"Well, shoot."

"Yes, keep shooting!" agreed Susan.

The mainframe was now up, though it must have some kind of hidden rockets to propel it upright that quickly, but Susan was up again and asked the spirit of her father to watch over her roll for her next action. She cast _Telekinesis_ on the weapon the mainframe robot was holding to tear it out of its hands.

She used her entire thirty energy that she had left. The thirty eight check she got allowed her to lift about 17 billion kilograms (the Earth weighs about 60) and luckily The Darkness only got a thirty two to resist. (out of a possible fifty one, I might add.)

She whisked it away from him and moved it out of grabbing range as the dragon slammed into it again. Both were knocked prone.

Jenny shot the leg once more, figuring that was the only place she could really damage, except for the fact her explosion did absolute minimal damage this time.

The dragon spun and pinned the mainframe with _wrestling_ as it had been commanded, and Susan got the spear into position with another Mercury check. She had four energy, having gotten some back from her _Energy Boost_ skill earlier, and spent eleven on her final action, leaving her with -4 energy and for the first time ever, fatigue in a combat. (She again got a little back with _Energy Boost.)_ She channeled this energy into REFlexes to do damage to the mainframe, which she smashed into with his own weapon.

But she was worried. Doing 3d10 damage meant there was a chance of doing thirty damage and finishing it off, but also of doing three damage and leaving her totally helpless at this point. So she did the only thing a Paragon can do in this situation.

She spent 3 XP to "succeed." In this case, she wanted to totally smash the weapon through the head of the thing, and doing the maximum damage would do that. So the XP allowed it, and with a "NOOOOOO!" the lights flickered and died on the mainframe. (The good looking mainframe.)

"There's your input/output request," she said, sagging to the ground.

Jenny stared. "You did it. That was totally amazing!"

"It pretty much was. Just let me rest here about an hour and I can get us back to the ship again."

"I'll cover you," Jenny said, turning to face the door with her rifle. "None shall pass."


	124. Chapter 124

124

Convergence

Where: Outside the Mu perimeter near the Space Elevator

When: Day 15

After having recovered a bit of energy, Susan worked some magic to get her and Jenny a sample of the metal that had been used to construct the weapon and head of the mainframe monster. She also thought about using _Fabrication_ on at least one of her swords so it could pierce such protections now that she knew The Darkness was probably going to use it more often.

 _But I'll see what Silverstreak has to say about the whole situation. Maybe he can direct me to a world with some kind of really fancy weapons like Jenny seems to use. That sniper round she was using was definitely exploding on impact out to like a meter. That's way more than the regular ammo the shotguns use, they just sort of burn. So it's obviously something different. Or maybe my book can research a spell to allow the bullets that leave the barrel of a gun able to pierce_ Invulnerability. _There must be something we can do to both raise my damage potential, not cripple me with either delay or shattered arms, and not require fancy ammo I can only get one place._

That done she brought them back to the ship and took a nap.

The following day the two armies collided near the elevator, and old grudges came to the forefront as the Mu also flew in and started pounding away at both sides. Sparkle was sitting on the deck of the Glomar, concerned that the Chiram and the Enaam would be too busy fighting each other to effectively fight the Mu off. But it was time to put her plan into action.

First making a _Spirit Manipulation_ check while spending her maximum energy on RESolve she got a forty five total. She then spent her entire quantity of energy, even so far as to go negative, and created a huge _Illusion_ with a thirty effective rating in Neptune. The battle paused as even the Mu looked on in wonder as a seeming _goddess_ descended from the sky and looked about the battlefield.

 _Good thing Enaam ships have little shrines to their Goddess, and I'm certain the Chirman know enough about their Enaam neighbors to recognize their deity figures. Now for the second part of the plan. I really hope you're around, Susan, but logic dictates you be here for the final showdown so... yeah._ (If only Sparkle knew that the 'final showdown' had happened the day before, and miles from here!)

The "Goddess" waved a hand and Sparkle created glowing "Fire Runes" in the sky, basically English letters because that's all she knew. Susan, meanwhile, was cracking up and silently congratulating Sparkle on her innovative use of _Illusion._ When she saw the words she hastily turned to the general.

"Quick," she said, "I can translate for you. Can you broadcast to everyone in this area?"

"Do it!" he commanded, and a crew member handed her a microphone.

"This is Susan Felton, translating the runes shown by the... figure... before you. It reads- 'people of the complex world, hear me.'" She waited until they changed again, reading as they did. "Do not squabble amongst yourselves. Your real threat is the Mu who do not worship and would prevent your repair of this sorry place. Attack them, not each other, or I will be very displeased. Now go and save yourselves."

Sparkle slumped down, feeling her own fatigue and energy loss. _Spending your entire stock of energy in one, no two actions, not pleasant. I really need to get that raised soon._ She went back inside to find the Enaam all clustered around their statue of the goddess, praying and giving thanks. Kei was just staring, slack jawed, out the window. _That got their attention, at least._

"You heard the lady!" bellowed the general to his troops. "Don't fire on the Enaam ships, or that... whatever that was might come back and be a little more pissed off. Shoot the Mu down, that's it. And I don't want any 'friendly fire' accidents either. Move, move!"

The battle raged on.

 _Guess I should help where I'm able,_ Susan thought, heading to an outer port herself. She stuck her head out and touched the side of the ship, then cast _Invulnerability_ on it. _After all, the description of the spell specifies 'target' not 'person' or 'being' so I'll just make the ship the target._ She put energy into it, just in case size mattered, and her twenty eight result and twenty rating was more than enough. The flagship stopped taking damage and the crew noticed almost at once, but attributed it to "divine intervention." The general wasn't one to turn down help, whatever the cause, and ordered the ship to take the lead in the charge, shells and energy beams bouncing off it without a scratch. _Two can play at the_ Invulnerable _game, Darkness._

 _Yeah, yeah,_ it answered petulantly. It always got a little cranky when part of itself was forced to leave a world, so she wasn't surprised.

Susan, meanwhile, had to keep leaving the room because she kept bursting into laugher, remembering the looks on the faces of the people as the 'goddess' descended. _Though, you don't think that was real... do you? I mean it must have been Sparkle. Right? Oh man, I really hope it was or I'm so getting smited._

With an _Invulnerable_ battleship leading the charge and the Mu forces in disarray (their leader had been killed after all, so they could get no new orders or reinforcements) the combined forces of the two people's armies swept the area clean and by sundown had secured a position near the base of the elevator. Susan found this close to the structure she didn't need the backpack anymore, she had access to all her magic, which also had her smiling. She asked _Question_ where Sparkle was (as if she didn't know) and went over to the Glomar where Sparkle jumped into her waiting arms.

"I missed you so much!" Susan gushed, petting her.

"So this is your cat?" asked Shaya, who had met her at the door. "However did you know she was here? And who are you- wait, you're not Chiram. Are you one of the girls that Kei met in the cave that one time?"

"That's me," she answered with a smile.

"That explains a lot," said Mimsy. "Ever since she came aboard, the weirdest stuff kept happening. If she's a traveler like you it makes sense she's not just a normal cat."

"Not just a... Sparkle, did you not... you didn't, did you?" She went into fits of laughter again. Sparkle chuckled along with her.

"I guess her name is actually Sparkle?" Shaya asked. "We just called her Starburst."

"Oh, I can't breathe. Wow! Sorry!" The two looked at her like she was nuts. "Sorry, just a good day. I knew I would see her again, but after all this? Seems like she has some stories she could tell."

"Yes, if only she could talk," Mimsy said suspiciously, staring at Sparkle.

"Meow."

That set Susan off again, who apologized and ran off.

"Strange girl," Shaya said.

"Agreed."

Once back aboard the flagship, Susan dumped Sparkle down on the bed. "Spill it, cat! You didn't tell them you could talk, did you?"

"Nope!" she answered brightly. "Challenged myself to help them without letting on that I was any more than a regular but perhaps slightly smarter than average cat. Nearly managed it too. Mome, a small nurse robot, was the only one who saw me doing anything peculiar."

"I want to hear everything!"

So Sparkle told her story, finishing up with summoning the 'goddess' to get everyone fighting the Mu. "I just hope the 'real' Goddess doesn't mind me stealing her likeness like that."

"It was for a good cause."

"There you are!" said Jenny, coming into the room. "Hey, is that your _companion?"_

"Jenny, this is Sparkle. Sparkle, Jenny. She's a _wanderer_ , like us! Well, not like us, she can move between dimensions on her own, how cool is that? She's been helping me out while you were missing."

"Why didn't you come find me, anyway?"

"I tried, honest! Did you need me for something?"

Jenny shook her head. "Just wondered where you had run off to."

"Okay, my turn then. Like you, I found myself in this world alone and was picked up by..."

"So you did destroy The Darkness here. Glad to hear it."

"Yeah, and it was no picnic either. I'm glad I had a little XP to spend or that fight might have ended in a very different way."

"Seems like we both have things to talk to Silverstreak about when we get back."

"That's for sure."

"It is odd though, usually beating The Darkness is saving the world, but it left us a mess here so we can't leave even if we wanted to. I mean, I suppose we could..."

"No, they might need our help. And as we can use our full powers here we should stay and see it through. Plus, I have a promise to keep."

"True. What is our next step, anyway?"

"Get everyone that can make the decisions together. Test out getting Kei and Olson together and help finish the device that can hopefully fix the worlds. There's work to do!"

"And everyone on Earth is waiting for spring... er, winter!"

"You got that right."

Things went smoothly for the next five days as Susan transported the machinery able to split the worlds to the space elevator when it was done. She used the site as a main base, and showed her magic to the general because it was hardly worth keeping it secret at this point.

"Magic huh? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, I did witness a Goddess descend upon the planet. Compared to that a little magic is hardly a concern. And given the number of worlds that must be out there, why wouldn't magic be found on some of them? If it helps us fix the planet I don't care _how_ you do it!"

 _Think I should tell him?_

 _Nah!_

Susan also put _Augment Skill: Dimensional Science_ on several Chirman and Enaam scientists, allowing them to complete the device in record time. Finally the group was assembled inside the elevator and started the long journey towards the Big Singularity that flashed in the sky.

"I guess this is it," remarked Kei. "I wonder what will happen now? Do we just get dragged back to our original worlds at this point? I mean I skipped through time, where does that leave me? And I'd really rather be with Mimsy."

"Here," Susan said, handing him a piece of paper. "I made it last night, after I heard what you had been going through. It's my dimensional gateway spell. If you find you're not with the Enaam people when this is over, just hold it and say "true love" while you think about what her city looked like. It'll open a portal to her world. But only once, you can't return, so make sure if you go it's to stay."

"Oh. Thanks a lot!"

Jenny looked troubled. "It's true, I don't know where I'll end up."

"That shouldn't be a concern for _you_ , though, right, being who you are?" Susan asked.

"Not as such, but I'd like to stick with you. You're kinda fun to have around, and I'd like to help more, if you'll have me. I'd love to meet this Luna you're tracking down, see what sort of girl has captured your heart."

"Hey, you're handy to have around too, and I'd love to have you in the 'party.'" Can't you just jaunt into the Hub?"

"Are you kidding? That place has more protections on it than anything I've ever seen. I mean I assume it does, as I can't even feel it to get a lock on. I only know about the place from people like you telling me about it. I've never seen it."

"Shoot. Well, that's a problem all right."

"Show her the list," Sparkle suggested.

"The list- of course, the list!" Susan said excitedly. "Great idea!" She got the list of worlds out and handed it over to Jenny. "Take a look, these are the next worlds I'm heading to. There's some notes there, but if any sound familiar or you can bump through a bunch maybe we'll get lucky again and meet up some time."

Jenny studied it intently. "Okay, got it. I'll keep one ear to the ground for a wand using, white haired girl named Luna floating around the worlds, too. If I find her I'll try and get a message to Silverstreak somehow." She handed it back.

"Thanks. I'll mention him to you, maybe he can track you down, give you a control like mine so you can enter the Hub the proper way. I mean you're doing good out here too, it's not fair you don't get the same benefits from that hard work that I do. The guy can obviously tell when people move across worlds, he has that alarm system that dragged me there the first time. He should be able to find you."

"It would be nice. Don't sweat it if not, I get compensation enough," she said with a wink.

And so the elevator reached the top and the reverse engineered O2 bubble sprang into being around the apparatus. "You sure I can keep this?" Susan asked, indicating the Oz kit. "Some of the parts of yours went into making this one for us."

"I'll just pop back quick and get another. No big deal, they're all over the place."

"Thanks."

They opened the door and pushed off, heading for the Big Singularity, which they passed into and found themselves in a barren wasteland with another space elevator rising to the sky.

"Now what would happen if we went up in that one?" Susan wondered, her _Curiosity_ up.

"Let's just activate this, shall we?" Kei insisted, and they bent about the task.

The machine did its job, and while somewhat painful for Kei and Olson, the dimensional energies were sucked out of them and they, along with Jenny, vanished. Susan's wrist unit buzzed.

"The interference around your location just dropped, whatever you did there worked!" gushed the agent on the other end. "The worlds are safely apart again, and the greenhouse effect has been lifted. All their respective environments will go back to normal."

"That's great news! Should I just leave this equipment here? Where are we, actually?"

"A collapsing reality, basically what you see is what you get. We need to get you out of there right away. Ready for us to open the gateway?"

"One second." Susan cast one last spell and had a chunk of Hyperlarcovite in her hand, which she shoved into her sub-space pocket. "Do it."

"You got it."

Susan and Sparkle walked into light.

The trip back was much smoother than the trip there, and Silverstreak was soon congratulating the pair on their fine work. Susan told the story of what happened, and showed him the metal the mainframe robot was using.

"And now I must ask for some advice, if the doctor is in?"

"Five cents!"

Both laughed.

"When I first went there it was to beat up some robots, because I was feeling down for having killed Vond in the previous world."

"I recall."

"But I found it more difficult than I would have expected. Not because I didn't want to kill all robots, but because they were basically armored killing machines and there were usually a dozen or more around to take out. I need something, some weapon, some technique, something, that will let me take out a large number of very tough opponents. Cutting my attack strength by 1/3 to get multiples doesn't work out when they're all tough as nails. And without magic, either, as I must prepare for the fact my father is held someplace no magic will work."

Silverstreak considered. "There are techniques, sword techniques, I could show you. Like _Combination Attack, Armor Chink,_ or _Riposte._ But really those are only good for single opponents and not what you're talking about. It is a problem, actually. Darkvoid is becoming more... bold, I guess you would say. Moving people and things between dimensions rather than just using what finds in each one natively. He probably saw how effective those planes where when you came back to Louise's world. And stuff like this..." he indicated the metal, "Troubling, to be sure. If he made a base out of this stuff how you would ever get in? Especially if all you had were mundane weapons and no magic to back you up. Very few weapons out there that can also pierce _Invulnerability._ Ranged weapons, I mean, there's plenty of swords and stuff."

"I could make them!"

"Exactly. It's not hard. But doing the same for bullets? That would take forever as you would have to do each one individually!"

Susan nodded, agreeing.

Silverstreak paused, looking down. "There is a way," he said at last, "but it has its share of downsides."

"You've got my attention."

"Does your world have, like, super hero stories?"

"You mean like 'superman?'"

"Superman? Just a second." He typed some things into the table, which had lit up with a keyboard. A model of the hero appeared. "This guy?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Okay..." He looked over some text that Susan couldn't read. "Yes, perfect example! He can fly, shoot... lasers out of his eyes apparently, fly around in space, is super strong, and has a sort of hand wavy explanation about where exactly his powers come from."

"Yeah, yellow sunlight? I mean come on."

"Exactly. His powers are just sort of that. Powers. Innate to him. They're basically backgrounds that let him do stuff, just like your backgrounds let you do magic."

"So I need some super hero backgrounds? That could be interesting, to put it mildly."

"Not that simple," he replied with a laugh. "Because you weren't born with them we'll have to get you some another way, and that means _metapower."_

"Metapower?" asked Susan.

"Metapower?" asked Sparkle.

"Metapower," replied Silverstreak.

There was a pause.

"Can I get a little more explanation?"

"Sure. There are individuals in the multiverse who have a single power. That of giving other people powers. Usually at some hideous cost, but not always. For example, I could tell you about Kyubey. Somewhat cute looking fellow, went around granting people's wishes as long as they agreed to become magical warriors for it. What it didn't tell them was part of the process involved ripping out their souls and crystalizing them into a pendant. Sure, it made the contracted individual's bodies tougher and better because at that point they were just sort of remote controlling them, but if that pendant was stolen the bodies just dropped. They would be forever stuck as a piece of jewelry, unable to move or talk or anything. If it happened to be destroyed, well, forget about any sort of afterlife."

"I see. Let's not go see him then."

"Quite. I'll have to see who I can find. But that's not the worst part."

"There's worse than that?"

"It's not terrible, just... how to explain. Wait, you're a _Paragon!_ Man, this'll be easy then, I love you guys!"

"Uh, thanks?"

"Sure! Let's see your character sheet." Susan got it out and he took it, putting it on the table and showing her. "Now, look here, you have twelve background points relating to magic. Your book, _Spark, Natural Magician, Prodigy,_ and the new _spirit mage._ Let's say you use _metapower_ to transform. Those magical background would be, what's the word? Consumed? Used? Anyway, they would disappear and in their place you would get a selection of just plain old powers. Like your superman. Point is I can't guarantee what they would be. Now you are a _Paragon_ so you might get some kind of choice, but usually the _metapower_ itself sort of chooses for you. You would get useful stuff, don't get me wrong. With that many points to play with you won't get 'turn your hair a different color' or anything like that. You would get real powers, on par with the backgrounds you were losing. I mean your magic backgrounds let you do a lot, and the universe wouldn't make you go backwards at this point. Powers you could use in places where magic doesn't work, so it's a net gain. At that point your magic would be worthless anyway, that's why you would be transforming."

"I suppose it would, but I hate to lose magic forever! It's my legacy, and my father gave up his book-"

"Forever? Oh no, it's a _transformation._ You can go back and forth. Superman doesn't need to because his powers were a part of him from birth. Like your magic is for you. These new powers wouldn't be, and because of the way you work you need to put "points" into your "backgrounds." Having one or the other at once is all you can expect, changing your "background points" on the fly. For… reasons. Yeah. This will give you two 'modes' so to speak; The magical mystery you and the punchy powers you. Use whichever would be right at the time."

Susan's eyes lit up. "That sounds like it could be really handy."

"As long as I can find you a somewhat benign source of _metapower,_ that doesn't have too many negatives, I dare say it would. Go through the next world and when you get back I'll see what I've come up with."

"Done."

"Meanwhile, think you can do what we talked about before I left?" asked Sparkle. "I have the XP now."

"Certainly. Susan, you know where your rooms and the training area is. If there's nothing else at the moment?"

"Not at the moment. I'll let you know."

"Very well. Spend that XP and pick your next world!"


	125. Chapter 125

125

OMGPonies

When: After training at the Hub

Where: ?

And so the pair trained and used up the XP they had gained in the last world. Sparkle's energy was pushed up to a hundred and five, surpassing Susan's by twenty five. On her character sheet Sparkle now had "Energy Well" at a four, and Silverstreak said it could go as high as a hundred and forty with another ten XP put into the background. Sparkle said she would see how it went, and hoped having more energy than Susan didn't cut into her naptime. She was feeling a bit twitchy, but assumed she would adjust to her new energy total. _I just have more now, it's not like I drank a bunch of coffee. I just have to get used to it. I mean Susan sleeps just fine with her eighty, right?_

"Where do you keep it all?" Susan asked, the first time she sensed Sparkle coming into the room. "How does a tiny body like that hold more energy than I have?"

"Jealous? He could probably do the same for you."

"Nah, I'll wait until I get super powers and see what they do for me. I've only been low the once, and that was against that robot thing. With us back together I hope it won't happen that way again."

"True."

She also raised her Ryūdō group to a four, cannibalizing her _unarmed_ for it. _After all, they're the same thing unless I put energy into the strike. It's just touching something that's the point, after all, and I can catch a mouse with my claws the same as fry it with energy using the same skill._

Susan, meanwhile, learned one new spell, that of Balk, which was resisted by LUCk of all things. She now had spells resisted by REAson, STRength, LUCk, RESolve, and in the case of _knockout,_ how much damage their bodies could take. _Something will get through, right? Balk_ simply made the target's next defense roll not go so well, basically a lesser _Dazzle_ but at grade one, easier to pull off.

She practiced her Ninjutsu, getting that skill group and _close combat_ up to a five. This allowed her to get her _delay_ for martial arts down to a four naturally, which was pretty good, considering. She left herself four XP, just in case she needed another _success_ at some point.

Of course she also talked about Jenny (who Silverstreak knew about and said was a great candidate for inclusion into the 'hub family' if she could be found again) and was given a spare communicator to give her so she could go there if they ever met up again.

With that done she looked at the notes for the next world, which had been buzzing her _curiosity_ since she read them. It was just a single word:

 _Ponies._

So she said her goodbyes to Silverstreak, who wished her luck, and stepped through. This was a perfectly normal transit, and both found themselves standing in a highly wooded area with the sounds of wildlife all around them.

Susan breathed deep. The air here smelled… clean? There was a subtle difference in the air between worlds she was starting to realize.

"What do you think?" she asked Sparkle.

"With no destination in mind, one direction is as good as another."

"True. Tell me, does the air here feel especially clean to you?"

"Actually, yes. I hope we're not too far from some sort of town, so we can see what the situation around here is."

"I'm with you. But even before that..."

Susan cast a quick _Question_ into the universe, and got back a simple "no" to "Is the Luna I seek on this world."

"Pity. Nothing for it I guess." she sighed, putting her book back. "Let's see what The Darkness is up to around here and get it done so I can get super powers. _Flight._ " She rose into the air, and sailed above the trees, spinning around and taking in her surroundings. _At least magic works here, and we're up to Mercury for planets. That's a good sign. Ah, civilization!_ She landed again. "I spotted a town over there, so it looks like we won't have far to go. No major roads or tall buildings, it might be pretty low tech here."

"That's fine. Are you sure it was that direction, you do have-"

" _No Sense of Direction,_ " both said at once. They laughed.

"Yes, I just saw it. Even I'm not that useless."

"Want to fly over there?"

"It isn't far. I'm going to keep to the ground. We don't know how magic is regarded around here, so best not to take chances. Though I could swear I saw some colored shapes flying around over there. Come on."

"This way."

"Right. Sorry."

Susan walked for about an hour, and finally the trees started to thin out.

"Call me crazy, but this forest somehow seems familiar," remarked Susan.

"I imagine it would. I wondered if you would notice."

"Notice? Notice what? Should I know this place?"

"Kind of. You've never been here, but you've seen it a few times. Of course with my _Photographic Memory_ I realized it right away. And that's very, very troubling." _Because once you get to where we're going, I think you're going to recognize it, and then you're going to want some answers I'm not sure I want to give you. But it was bound to happen sooner or later... And I suppose I did make a plea to the Narrator to make it "the next world" I would have to explain things on. And here we are. But HERE? I'm being punished for something, aren't I? Maybe tricking the crew of the Glomar? Guess I'll never know._

"Why? Is there some danger?"

"Danger? No, not as such. You'll see, maybe I'm way off base, but I think this one is going to be a strange one."

"Okay, I'll take your word for it."

The two eventually came to a path of sorts, so Susan was confident she was on the right track. That's when the beast stepped out of the trees and onto the path in front of her.

Susan and Sparkle stopped, looking down (and up, in the case of Sparkle) at it.

She stared some more.

The creature stared back at her.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," said Sparkle.

 _Something about this creature looks familiar-_ "Hey, you're a baby dragon!" she blurted.

"That's right. The question is, what are you?" answered the dragon.

 _Even the voice sounds familiar… wait a second. Purple scales, green ridges running from the front of the head back to the tail. Pale belly._

"You're Spike!"

Spike took a step back. "Uh, yes? How did you know that? What are you, exactly?" He looked Susan up and down.

"What'cha doing?" said a voice from behind Susan. Susan stiffened, wondering how it had gotten behind her. _I even raised my Ninjutsu skill, it's not-_ Then she had another thought. _Oh I know that voice too._ She closed her eyes.

"Spike?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"If I were to turn around and look, would there be a pink pony behind me? With pink hair?"

Spike leaned over to look behind Susan.

"Yeah."

"And would she have," Susan giggled, but then thought _no, along that way lies madness. Concentrate Susan._ "Does she have a… a…" _Concentrate! "_ A cutie mark, three balloons maybe? Two blue, one yellow?"

"Last I checked."

"And Spike?"

"Yeah?!" He was starting to sound a bit annoyed now.

"She's bouncing up and down, isn't she?"

"She usually does." Susan sighed. "Pinky Pie? Or more formally, as we haven't been introduced: Pinkmania Diane Pie?"

"You even know my name! This is great! Can I guess yours? Huh? Can I? Can I? Can I? What does it start with? I bet it's G… oh oh oh maybe B? Am I getting close?"

"Pinky?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to turn around now, and I may, I cannot stress this enough, I may just have to hug you. I just didn't want you to be too surprised."

"I love surprises! Especially if they're hugs, so I think that's okay." Susan carefully turned around, and steeled herself. She opened her eyes and stared down, and as she expected, staring up at her was a grinning, pastel pink pony.

"Hi!" said Pinky. She didn't look like a cartoon character, but at the same time she didn't exactly look real, either. Nonetheless, she was the cutest thing on four… hooves… that Susan had ever seen.

Susan gave what in fangirl circles would be called a "squee" and threw her arms around Pinky.

"Oh my God you're real!" she cried.

"Course I am, silly!"

 _I'm hugging a talking pony, how is this even possible? Is it some kind of trap? A real world someone broke into and then out of again, and brought stories back from? Oh my goodness her mane is silky._

"I did warn you." asked Sparkle. "But I guess you're taking it well?"

"I'd ask what you are," said Spike, looking on as Susan and Pinky were in the middle of the greatest hug Pinky had been in for at least the last hour, if not two, "but I'm not getting much information out of that one."

"I," said Sparkle, drawing herself up with all the dignity and poise a cat can muster, "am a cat, and my name is Sparkle. This is the human called Susan. Take us to your leader."

"Twilight Sparkle first!" shouted Susan, grabbing Pinky in one arm and then pointing in (she hoped) the right direction. "Then it's on to Canterlot to meet Sunbutt- I mean Princess Solestia!"

Oddly, both animals rolled their eyes in exactly the same way.

 _They should get on well, after all, they're both_ Companions, _right?_

So Pinky bounded beside Susan as they made their way out of the forest.

"So what are you?" asked Pinky.

"Pinky, it is fantastic to actually meet you in real life, but I'm going to have to explain it to everyone- everypony sorry." She giggled again. "I can't believe I get to say that in real life. Anyway, I'll have to tell everypony so I'd rather just do it once."

"Okay, I understand."

"You'll have to get the mane6 around, I don't think I should just walk into town as myself. I'll go invisible and meet everypony in Twilight's library. Well, the town library that Twilight looks after."

"Yeah, I don't think you'll cause the panic that Zecora did when she visited town, but it- what's a Main Six? No, you said that differently. Main6? Mane6?"

"Your friends, I mean. Sorry, I said that without thinking. It's, uh, how I think of your group."

"Mane 6. I like it. So you know us?"

"I thought you might, and yes, sort of. By the way, there's something I've always wanted to ask you. If you 'giggle at the ghostly' and 'snortle at the spooky" why did you run and hide with the rest of the ponies when Zecora first came into town?"

"That's easy! It just looked so fun I wanted to try it! And I wanted to sing them my new song, how could I do that without being where they were?"

"That figures. And your being behind me in the woods?"

"Pinky Sense. I knew where I needed to be today."

"Right-o." _I always thought she was a Seer of some kind. I wonder if I could help her develop those powers, if she actually is supernatural in some way, being an Earth Pony._

"Should it scare me that I actually understand what they're talking about?" Spike asked Sparkle.

"It's gonna get a lot worse," she replied.

"So you can go invisible?" Pinky asked. "What's that taste like?"

"Yes. Believe it or not, even without a horn I can do magic. Actually, I don't have to be invisible!"

"I knew this was coming," said Sparkle.

"You don't? That's great!" said Pinky. "Why not?"

"Because I can be invisible!"

"Now I'm confused."

"You'll see. Sparkle, if you would? I want to be, oh, the opposite of Twilight. Dark purple, but with light purple hair. And for my cutie mark, I think maybe nine spheres to represent my nine planets?"

"I think that's doable. You better strip though."

"Oh yeah. It's going to be weird, walking around _town_ totally naked. Even if I am in a different shape." Susan stepped out of her clothes and put them into her sub-space pocket _,_ and she wasn't sure which fascinated Pinky more. Her being a naked human, or shoving stuff into the air and having it disappear. Spike, of course, stared openly. _Should I? Nah._

"You might as well do yourself at the same time," said Susan. "I mean they have cats here, but not talking ones. You can be a younger pony, because of the size limitation. Probably no cutie mark though. Sorry."

"I'll try to contain my disappointment."

"Blank flank!"

"Do you want this spell cast on you or not?"

"Don't worry, you'll find your talent someday."

"You are having entirely too much fun in this situation."

"I know. Nothing wrong with that, is there? I mean it's _Ponies!"_

"I do see the appeal, at least for you. Even if I'm at a loss as to explain how this is possible." _Lie. Oh yeah, it's going to be rough._ " _Shape-Shift._ "

Pinky and Spike stepped back as magical energy swirled around them both, and when it cleared, two new ponies stood there. Susan gave a little leap of joy and then had to figure out her new limbs. Also her vision was a little different, and she could feel that she had a _horn._

 _Oh, I can't wait to see a mirror. Wait a second._ She looked at her front leg, and sure enough there was her _Minerva Band_ with the _materia intact. Huh. I guess as it would have fit any of them, even Nanaki, the Band reshapes to fit the wearer? Nice to know._

"You really can do magic!"

"We both can. I forgot to ask how many planets you had in this system, but I guess it worked out," said Sparkle.

"Walking with four legs is hard!" said Susan, spinning around. "Oh, I want to see my cutie mark!"

"I don't seem to be having any trouble," said Sparkle, giving a bit of a prance.

Susan stuck her tongue out and tried to coordinate her various limbs while looking behind herself to see her cutie mark.

"You're thinking about it too hard," said Pinky. "Just let it happen."

"Easy for you to say. Oh, and Susan isn't exactly a common name around here. Sparkle, your name is half okay, even if it's half taken. Maybe you could be Midnight Sparkle, because of your dark coat."

"That's fine."

"But for me… How about Sparkling Magic? You could be my daughter, Midnight!"

"Wow, that sounds great!" said Pinky. "I guess because your magic makes those weird circles?"

"That's right. Oh man, this is weird. I feel so… so… I don't even know. This is going to great!"

"Oh, I get it," said Spike. "You can be invisible by blending in with everypony. No one will look at you twice like this. You'll just be another visitor to town. And coming in with Pinky they'll all know you've been greeted."

"That's it. I knew there was a reason Twilight kept you around. You're pretty smart, huh Spike?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said, blushing.

"So, give me a quick lesson in quadruped motion before we get to town."

"Okay! Tag, you're IT!" Pinky bopped Susan on the nose, and wheeled away, laughing.

"Oh, it is so on!"

An hour later, Susan and Pinky were leaning back to back, panting.

"That was fun," said Susan.

"It sure was," replied Pinky. "And I bet you're not thinking about how to walk anymore."

"I guess you're right. How did you know?"

"Just one of those things, I guess. Ready for your big Ponyville debut? And subsequent 'welcome to Ponyville' party?"

"Thanks to you, yeah." She hesitated. "Pinky Pie, I have a confession to make."

"Oh yeah?"

"I always thought you were a little too spastic for your own good. But meeting you in the flesh like this, I see now I've misjudged you. And I'm sorry about that."

"Oh, don't be sorry. I'm entirely too spastic for my own good. That's what makes me, me! Come on, even though they don't know it, everypony is waiting to meet you!"

And so, three ponies and a dragon walked into Ponyville, and Pinky smiled when she saw how widely Susan was smiling. Susan started singing, _after all, when in Rome, right?_ She even made a roll with her _Adaptive Skill,_ based on PERsonalty, as it seems that skill related to _Heart-Songs_ here.

"Her name is Pinky Pie!"

"That's me!"

"And she is here to say."

"Say what?"

"She's going to make you smile, going to brighten up your day!"

"This sounds familiar."

"It doesn't matter now, if you are sad or blue."

"It really doesn't."

"Cause cheering up her friends is just what Pinky's here to do!"

"Cause we love to make you smile, smile, smile, yes we do!" they both sang.

"Okay, okay, we get it," said Sparkle. "We can do Heart-Songs now, fantastic."

They both fell against each other laughing. "Come on, let's go track down that pony who all the stallions say is pretty shy for a pegasi."

"I'll go warn- I mean tell Twilight you're coming."

"Thanks Spike. I'll see you later, at the library."

"Look at this!" squealed Susan as she neared Fluttershy's house. "It's just like the show! Look at the birds and things. Aren't they all just so adorable!"

"You see adorable, I just see food on the wing."

"You wouldn't!"

"Of course not. Now, anyway. I just got used to fending for myself a bit more as you weren't around to make us food in the last world. It'll pass."

"I hope so. Besides, remember what shape you're in."

"Oh, right. Never mind. Guess I'll just try some _grass_ then." Susan laughed, then walked up to the door and knocked.

 _Now, knowing what I know about Fluttershy's personality, how is best to make her comfortable and get her to agree to come with me?_

A moment later, a yellow pony poked her head out.

"Oh, hello." Her eyes darted about, then settled on Pinky, a familiar face. "Oh Pinky, you're here too. Who's your friend?"

"Everypony is my friend, you know that, Fluttershy!"

"I meant who is this."

"Sparkling Magic," said Susan, introducing herself. "At your service."

"Oh, nice to meet you." Her head was disappearing behind the door.

"I already feel like I've known you for years."

"Okay?"

"The thing is, I have something important to tell you, Fluttershy. You and all your friends. Would it be okay with you if you met us in the library later?"

"Why doesn't she just come with us now?" asked Pinky.

Susan looked over at her. "Pinky, you know as well as I do how shy Fluttershy is. She's going to be a lot more comfortable meeting me surrounded by her friends so she can blend into the background. I don't want to force her into talking with me while we get the others. Unless you really want to, Fluttershy."

When Susan turned back, all that was visible of Fluttershy though the top of her door (it opened independently of the bottom, and there was a pet door as well, so it was three doors in one) was her one eyeball.

"I'll just come later if that's okay with you?" she squeaked.

"Thought so. It was nice meeting you, Fluttershy. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay?" She quietly shut the door.

"How did she close the door without hands?" asked Sparkle. Susan looked at her own hoof.

"I've asked myself that many times. Let's see if Applejack is free next."

"How _do_ you know so much about us?" asked Pinky.

Susan laughed. "That's a good question. I'll be glad to answer it, later."

"Kinda figured."

"That's the apple farm?" asked Susan, as the farm came into view. "Man, I wish Zap Apples were in season. I'd love to see them."

"You even know about that?"

"And your predilection for being first in line for cider." She nudged Pinky's side.

"I'm starting to think you know a little bit too much about us. Also, you talk like Twilight Sparkle, and we already have one of them."

"In time, all will be revealed. And of course I talk like Twilight Sparkle. I can't even imagine my fangirl reaction to actually meeting her in real life. I mean, she has so many qualities I admire, I can't even tell you. Come on, I think I see Big Macintosh. He's _huge!_ He can drag a house yet be somehow unable to carry a cake without strain. Race you!"

"You're on!"

They galloped down to the farm, with Sparkle more slowly following behind.

"Hey, Big Macintosh," said Susan, "Need to talk to your sister. She around someplace?"

"E-yup."

"Super. Should I just follow the sound of Apple Bucking?"

"E-yup."

"Thanks, you've been a super help."

"E-yup."

Susan swiveled her ears ( _when did I learn to do that?)_ and homed in the sound of apples being kicked off trees. Soon enough, Applejack came into view.

 _Now then, the Fluttershy meeting went okay, how would I convince Applejack this is important enough to take her away from the farm? Let me think..._

"Howdy, Pinky, stranger," she said. "This a friend of yours Pinky? Don't think I've seen her around town before."

"This is Sparkling Magic," introduced Pinky. "Her daughter is around here someplace. We sort of raced here, she'll be along."

"Nice to make your acquaintance, but you know how busy I am this time of year, Pinky. I don't have time to socialize."

"How do you do, Applejack. Actually, this isn't a social call, strictly speaking," said Susan. "This is Element business."

"Element- now how in the sam hill do you know about the Elements of Harmony? Pinky-"

"Pinky didn't tell me. I have my sources." Susan put up a hoof, and then had to compensate quickly or fall over. _That's harder than I thought._ Even Pinky was looking a little worried at this point. "Look, I know how proud you are of what you do, and rightly so. You work hard for the ponies in this town and I would personally tar and feather any that said different. I know also you don't like to accept help, and especially not from strangers like me. But I've always wanted to try my hooves at apple bucking, so if I can help you get your work done faster, I'm offering. I mean there's pride and there's just plain foolishness, isn't that right? Many hooves make light work, if I'm not mistaken? We get your bucking done and you can hear what I have to say with the others. Does that sound like a deal to you?"

"Forgive me saying so, but not being an Earth Pony you don't look strong enough to apple buck. And it's not the same, just using magic, no offense."

"None taken." _I would have to cast Telekinesis on each apple individually anyway, which is not happening. Twilight is shown in the show stripping trees in seconds but my magic doesn't work that way. I wish it did!_ "I'm pretty confident of my STRength. Why not give me a shot and let me show you what I can do?" _In fact, I better make sure to hold back, so I don't accidentally buck the trees over!_

"I suppose if you're chomping at the bit that bad, I won't stop you. See that line of trees already done?"

 _Wait, would they really use a phrase like that? The bit is part of a bridle, a human invention to let us control horses better. Maybe it has a different meaning here?_

Susan looked over and saw what Applejack was talking about. "I see it."

"We need to get to there before I can go with you. Elements or not."

"Then what are we standing around gossiping for? Let's get to work!"

"Sure is gung-ho," muttered Applejack, turning back to work.

"Pinky, can you get Rarity and Dashie, I mean Rainbow Dash, for me? I meant what I said about helping out here, it's the only way I'd get her to come."

"Yeah, she can be pretty stubborn, sometimes. You got it."

"Thanks. See you soon!"

"Okay!"

Pinky turned to go as Sparkle walked up. "Are we leaving already?"

"Nope, I'm going to help get the work done here so Applejack feels it's okay to leave."

"And this isn't about showing off, right?"

"Nope."

"I'll take your word for it."

With her increased STRength from _Giant's Soul_ , and incredible stamina (she hadn't actually spent any energy playing with Pinky) they cleared trees of apples and Applejack looked impressed as she finished hours early. It had taken her some time to get the twist right, jumping at the tree, twisting in midair without falling over, then striking the tree with her back hooves. Of course that just made the tree shake at first, and Susan carefully watched Applejack and what she was doing when she hit the tree.

 _There must be a trick to it..._

And a bit of _Magic Sense_ later and she had it. Applejack, unconsciously or not, was using Earth Pony power in tandem with the strike to get the apples to fall. As Susan's _Adaptive Skill_ was for just such an occasion, and she had a ten in it, she worked out making a check in that while striking which worked wonderfully.

At the end, Applejack looked at the cleared trees and back to Susan. "I have to say, you did a farm ponies work today, Sparkling Magic. You've impressed me, I'm ashamed to admit. I figured you would be pooped out after a few trees, but I thought I was watching myself! Guess I owe you an apology."

 _Maybe she really does just think it's her own physical effort doing the work. How interesting._

"Please, call me Spark."

 _As in Spark of Magic? Lame,_ said The Darkness.

"And thanks. You don't owe me an apology. Even you aren't immune to a little species prejudice." She added with grin.

"That's true- Spark. Well, as agreed I'll go with you and hear what this commotion is about."

"Thanks."

"No, thank you. For the work and for what you said earlier. You were right, I do work hard. And I don't like to ask for help. But I've learned in the past that's a little foolish, so I could use the reminder."

"Fair enough."

The two headed for the library, and Susan knew she would be making some RESolve checks in moments to not freak out when she saw...

"Twilight Sparkle!"


	126. Chapter 126

126

Initial Plans

When: Moments later

Where: Twilight's Library

Twilight was everything Susan had hoped she would be. Rational, interested to hear her story now that her friends were gathered in the library, and most notably _not_ an alicorn princess.

"May I ask what's been going on around here lately?" asked Susan. "I might have come at the wrong time..."

"That's an odd thing to say. You aren't messing about with time travel magic, are you?" Twilight demanded.

"Oh no!" Susan assured her. "I've always felt very wary about that sort of thing. And besides, I have a better spell than that anyway... When I remember to use it," she grumbled.

"Do tell."

"Don't worry, I'll tell you everything. For now, what's the last interesting thing that happened around here?"

"Well..." Rainbow Dash said, "we did just find out A.K. Yearling is _literally_ Daring Do! That was pretty interesting. I helped."

"The... what?" Susan looked over at Sparkle, who shook her head.

"Doesn't sound familiar."

"Yeah, I know! Can you believe it? We had an adventure and everything! Maybe I'll even get to be in her next book!" Dash was zipping around the room.

"Somehow I think that's not what you had in mind to hear?" Twilight asked.

"Uh, well..." _I guess there are a few possible explanations;_

 _1) The characters here and the show I watched at home are separate things._

 _2) This is further along in the timeline than I've seen, and had I stayed at home and continued watching the show, I would have seen it. I mean she had just gotten her wings when I left. This could be the next 'season' so to speak. And how cool would that be?_

 _3) I'm in some kind of dream state or this world is mutated to match my expectations but provide 'new' adventures for me to go on._

"It's just, if you're doing things I've not heard of, I would have expected you to be an alicorn princess. I knew it was a marketing ploy just to sell toys!"

"A what?" shouted Pinky. The others just gasped.

"Now why would I be... uh, could you girls just give us a moment please?" Twilight's magic dragged Susan and Sparkle into the next room, and Susan decided to not resist as she probably easily could have. "Sorry about that, what you said must have thrown me for a _loop."_ Twilight seemed to look at her as though expecting some sort of response. Susan looked back at Sparkle but there was no help there.

"Okay?"

"You mean you aren't... I thought maybe it was a fused... Just a second."

Twilight did something, and Susan jerked away from her, her _dimension sense_ going off for a moment.

 _Oh no, did The Darkness take over-_

 _Don't be ridiculous! Why would I take over this pathetic creature when there are far more interesting bodies to be in? Check her again if you have you._

 _You better not be lying._ Susan did, and no, she registered as totally native to the reality. _What in the world…_

"What was that?" she asked.

"You felt that? But if you aren't-"

"We aren't," said Sparkle with finality. "We're something else. Please just let Susan tell her story and you can all go from there." She gave Twilight a look that promised more answers later, but when Susan looked back at her in confusion she had put on an innocent expression again.

"Oooookay? I guess we'll just leave it at that. Sorry for the... sorry." She walked back to the others, who all looked at her funny. "So you were saying, Susan?"

"Yes, what was I saying?"

"Recent events?" asked Dash.

"Oh yes. So the adventures of Daring Do are actually real, and she sells them as story books?"

"Yup!"

"Okay. Might as well make some money on the side. So, where to begin? I'm a traveler, at the moment, like my father before me. In fact, I'm searching for my father because I believe he might need my help. He hasn't checked in with the person that sent him on his journey in quite some time, and I know for a fact he's about as powerful as one being can be. So I can't imagine something powerful enough to take him, and the people he was traveling with, down. But if he's stuck somewhere, I need to find him. When I started this journey, I brought a friend of mine, named Luna, along. No relation to yours. Sadly we got separated, and now I need to find her, as well. It's all been very problematic, as you can imagine."

"That's terrible," said Fluttershy. "And you're still as determined as ever?"

"I'm even more determined. I will find Luna, and I will help my father, it's as simple as that." She stomped a hoof.

"So you want our help looking?" asked Twilight.

Susan shook her head. "No, that's not it. I asked my magic if Luna was here, and she isn't. That's just the backstory so you understand where I'm coming from. Your current problems are of greater interest to me at the moment. Because very soon now you are going to be attacked by something not native to this world."

"So it is some kind of fused-" Twilight started to say, but Sparkle gave a small shake of her head. "I mean, what do you mean, not native to this world?"

"When I say 'traveler' I don't mean I get on a boat and sail to a new land. I step through a portal to another world. In fact, this isn't even what I really look like. I disguised myself with magic so I didn't cause a panic walking around town." _Naked. Which I don't know if I'll get used to._

"Show them! Show them what you look like!" said Pinky. "This is so amazing guys, you have to see this, I mean just wait until you see her actual form she's so different from us!"

"Take a breath, Pinky," said Rarity. "Don't leave us in suspense."

Susan nodded at Sparkle, who dropped _Shape-shift._ Everyone but Pinky gasped in surprise. Susan, having sat down on her haunches, now rearranged herself to be more comfortable with only two legs. "So weird to be back in my own shape again," she said, looking at her hands. _I missed you guys!_ "I guess we really can adapt to anything, huh?"

"Speak for yourself, it's not that different for me," replied Sparkle, who everyone looked at just as cautiously.

"Fluttershy, come back in here, I'm not going to hurt you," Susan said without looking.

Everyone turned to see Fluttershy cowering down the stairs to the basement.

"Is… is it safe?"

"Look at her, she's no danger," said Rainbow.

"Judge me by my appearance, do you? My ally is magic, and a powerful ally it is, too."

"Oh, I bet you know lots of different spells, coming from a different world!" said Twilight. "We should compare notes… sometime…"

The other ponies were looking at her, seemingly just as confused.

"You accept her story?" asked Spike.

"The point is, I can conceptually accept there are other worlds out there, accessible by magic. Her story isn't that farfetched."

"She hasn't gotten to the part where she seems to know all of us better then we know ourselves."

"Yeah, about that…" said Pinky. "Spill!"

Susan put her chin on her fists. "Okay. This is going to sound crazy, but where I come from, you're just a story."

The ponies all looked at each other.

"What do you mean, just a story?" demanded Applejack.

"What I mean is, there are ponies there, but they are non-sentient creatures. They don't talk, or build cities, or apple buck. They don't fly, or do magic, or come in pretty colors. We, the humans, do those things. Well, we pick apples, we don't just smack the trees and expect them to fall off. But the principle is the same."

"So it's a world full of creatures like you?" asked Rarity. "I would love to design some clothes for you, it would be a marvelous challenge."

"That's right. Oh, there are some non-human lifeforms like goblins and elves, but they are still humanoid. Most can even mate and produce offspring, so we aren't that far apart, actually. The point is, we love stories. As I'm sure you do, given I'm sitting in a library. Even you, Rainbow Dash, though Twilight had to basically shove that first Daring Do book down your throat when you were in the hospital. You egghead." She grinned over at Dash.

"How- you even know about that, huh?"

"E-yup. Anyway, on my world there are stories about the adventures you guys have had. Now I'm not saying those stories and your stories are exactly the same. Or even similar. I don't even know how it's possible someone on my world could have written about your world, but there you have it. So far, I've been pretty spot on knowing what you like, and don't like, haven't I?"

"She knows us pretty well," said Applejack. "And she knew just how to talk to me to make me see reason."

Susan shrugged. "I can, of course, think of some theories as to why this happened, but that's all they would be. Theories. Maybe Twilight would like to talk about them, but I'm sure the rest of you would be only politely interested."

Heads nodded in agreement.

"And that's fine. The point is, this is the sixth world I've visited, and the most strikingly different. All the others had humans, like me, running around. Inari said to expect just about anything, but this was beyond even my imagining. So now you know my history, at least, why I'm traveling."

"You said this was Element business. I take it there's worse to come?" asked Applejack.

Susan nodded sadly. "The original reason my father started traveling. His world was fading away. Year after year- color, joy, the very spark of life was being lost on his world. He went seeking answers. The people he met were seeking answers to their own problems, and apparently those problems haven't slowed down. They are caused by a being I call The Darkness, who wishes to absorb all the energy of many worlds so he has enough power to ascend to even higher dimensions. On each world I faced who or whatever it had taken over, because it can't send more than a fraction of itself to any one world so it works by possession, basically. Its real form would tear the dimension apart, and it doesn't want that because the energy it wants would be lost. The same will happen here, as all worlds are under attack by this being. It split itself up, at least that's what it told me."

"So you want our help?" asked Dash. "And you'll kick this Darkness thing off our world for good?"

"That's the plan. I know you don't know me, but I've know you all for years and years. I've shared your triumphs and cried when you cried. I saw Rainbow's betrayal and what she learned about herself at the hands of Discord. I watched you bring something special to the Gala you attended, and felt every blow during your fight with the changeling army. Even you, Rarity, watching you get closer to your sister when she thought you were Applejack. You're all, each and every one of you, special to me."

The ponies looked away, unable to respond right away to this revelation.

"My name is actually Susan Felton, and I would be honored if you would call me… friend."

"Group hug!" said Pinky, somehow extending her front legs to encompass everyone and pulling them together.

 _Oh no, this isn't a brony's dream at all. I need to get some clothes on or go back to being a pony._

"So what's our first step?" asked Applejack.

"The princess," answered Twilight. "Spike, send a letter. Tell her we need an audience as soon as she can manage, first thing tomorrow if that's good, and summarize what Susan has told us."

"On it." Spike went to get a quill and paper.

"Meanwhile, you ponies head home, but meet back here tomorrow morning. It's getting late and we'll want an early start."

"But if you can think of anything strange that's been happening, let me know!" insisted Susan. "Pinky, you especially. If your Pinky Sense goes off, I want to know about it, okay?"

"Oke-Doki."

"But this is Ponyville," protested Dash. "Weird stuff happens here all the time."

"You'll know this when you see it. Oh, how far away is Cloudsdale from here, anyway? Dash, may I call you Dash? Can you head there and see if anything strange is going on? I came here and usually I end up in the area I need to be, but let's not count on that."

"You got it," she said, saluting.

"Thanks."

"And actually, Fluttershy, you could ask the animals around here, right? Sometimes they have a greater sense of things don't they?"

"I don't mind," she said shyly.

"What about me? What can I do?" asked Applejack excitedly.

 _Oh crap, that was about it, but now that I've started..._

"Wait, you know where Zecora lives, don't you?"

"Sure, I could get there."

"See what she knows, or if her zebra magic can help us narrow it down. I don't know what she's capable of, but I know you all respect her as a magic user. We may need her help before this is over, and I'd rather she know now than try and explain things later."

"You got it."

"And do you have a task for me?" asked Rarity.

"If you're willing, can you go talk to the mayor? I don't want a panic started or anything, but perhaps some kind of evacuation plan should be created, just in case. You don't have to tell her everything, just that there are signs a creature of immense power may come visit in the near future. And have her make discrete inquiries to other ponies around town, if they notice anything we'll need to know as quickly as possible. Maybe even set up some kind of town watch or something? I don't know, you know the area better than I do."

"Done and done, darling."

"Thank you, all. With a little luck The Darkness won't know what hit him on this world!"

 _Oh, just keep telling yourself that._

 _Hey, it's keeping them from freaking out and they feel useful. Sparkle would be proud of me for involving them and not trying to do everything myself._

 _Exactly why I'm disgusted._

So the ponies rushed off to do Susan's bidding- I mean help Susan out, leaving her alone with Twilight.

"And I thought I was bossy," she said, looking Susan over.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't even think. I just... and then..."

Twilight laughed. "Don't worry about it, I'm just teasing. You obviously have some experience with this, and you do know us, apparently. If something is coming, something you've handled in the past, you are the best choice to take the lead."

"But I don't want to step on any toes, er, hooves."

"Did they look like they minded? Believe me, weird stuff does happen around here and if we six can help you we will, it's as simple as that."

"I'm glad I can count on you. And that you didn't ask a million questions, just accepted me at my word."

"Yes, uh, well. You did, I mean you changed, that's not something you can just fake. I can tell you have some magical items on you but you're not under any magic at the moment."

"You can, huh? Oh, would you like a look at my book of spells? Maybe you can get some ideas, even if you can't exactly use them as presented."

"As much as that interests me, not right now. I want to check the letter over before Spike sends it and see if there are any prophecies relating to events in the near future we should watch for. You head up to bed and I'll join you later. Do you know where it is? It should be big enough for the two of us. You look pretty long and narrow, no offence, not very pony like I mean."

 _The two of- focus Susan!_

"That's fine. I could stay at an inn or something though... or no I couldn't because I can't stay a pony while asleep. And if somepony should come in..."

"Please, stay here, it's fine."

"All right, if you insist. Thanks again. Come along, Sparkle."

"Right." _Here it comes._

So Susan went up to Twilight's room and looked around, grinning at all the books and such up there she was so used to seeing in two dimensions. She hit the button to talk to Silverstreak.

"Yes?" said the agent.

"Can you please tell me where I am?" she asked.

"You mean what dimension?"

"No, I mean where in this dimension. Because I'm seeing things that can't be real here."

"You're worried it's some kind of trick?"

"Something like that."

"Just a second. Oh, you're in a non-humanoid dimension. Pretty rare, I admit, but not unheard of."

"But it's impossible for me to be here! Non-humanoid I can accept, that's fine. It's this dimension specifically that's got me questioning my sanity."

"Why is- oh. You've got stories about them, haven't you?"

"Yes, now we're making progress. What's the deal?"

The agent seemed a bit embarrassed. "I would rather someone close to you told you. It's something most _wanderers_ run into, actually surprising it's taken you this long. Not that it's bad that it has!" the agent hastily went on.

"I can tell you," Sparkle said, resigned.

"Oh, wait, Sparkle said she can tell me. Thanks, Susan signing off."

"Have a good night."

"So spill it!" she demanded, flopping down on the bed. "What's up with you, and what aren't you telling me about this place?"

 _How much do I actually tell her? Not about the loops, that's for sure. But maybe just filling in the gaps in her knowledge of being a_ Paragon _would be okay. She shouldn't react too badly to that, right?_

"To start with, I need to warn you that if I tell you, you'll never be able to look at things in the same way again."

"Things?"

"People. Events. Places. Everything changes with what I can tell you, right now. I've hinted at it in the past, but it's never really come up, so..."

"You know I have _Curious,_ right?"

"Yes. Very well. The main point is that you, me, those ponies out there, every person you've met in your travels, every person you will meet-

we're all stories."


	127. Chapter 127

127

Storybooks

Where: Twilight's bed

When: No time has passed.

"What do you mean, stories?"

"You're just going to have to hear me out for a little while. Hopefully I can make it clear to you. Let's start with what you already know to be true. You're a _Paragon,_ right?"

"More like a half _Paragon,_ but sure."

"Exactly! A full _Paragon_ wouldn't even be asking this. But you have a character sheet, which is about _knowing things._ Basically, you know things about yourself that not many others do. Everything about you is a specific number, with no room for uncertainty. We know what skills we have, and how good we are in them. We know our stats, and what each of those stats means. I mean the only others we've run into even close were Aerith and friends, right?"

"True."

"Most others can't quantify their energy like we can. Or raise skills like we can. Or heck, cards! What is that all about when it comes down to it? Where do they even come from, and how does just willing them to work change reality?"

"Never really thought about it."

"Exactly, they were just there, a part of you. The point is, there's knowledge a _Paragon_ has that you don't, and I guess as you've noticed and it's come up, now is the time to tell you."

"That we're all stories?"

"Correct. Look, how do you know you've had the adventures you had? You remember them, right?"

"Yeah."

"What's another way of saying that? You play back that story in your mind."

"Which, if you turn it around, is the same for me, is what you're saying. They only know I existed because they play back our shared story in their minds."

"Yes! Now, how does this relate to these ponies out there? They're stories too. Each pony is the main character of their own story, just like you're the main character in yours."

"I think you once said something similar, like Tom was the hero of his story."

"And now you understand exactly what I meant. He died, his story ended but yours continued. His story isn't _gone,_ because it's a part of you. Just like when you die, your story won't be gone because others will remember you. And so on and so on. But who does this remembering and how do they know these stories if they haven't lived them? That's thanks to people in the universe called _storytellers._ There's theories about how they get their abilities, but that doesn't matter."

"What theories?"

"Oh, well, one is dreams. You know when you dream you seem to live a life perfectly consistent with itself, but when you wake up you think 'what a strange situation that was that I was in.'"

"Sure."

"What if that's not actually a dream, but you remembering something a you in another reality experienced? You've seen different worlds now, you know they can have their own rules and quirks. What if, asleep, the barriers that keep all those different 'you' separate drop a little and give you a peek at other lives 'you' are currently living? What if, across all worlds, there is just one 'you' that's spread out just like The Darkness has done to try and take major branches all at once?"

"There can be only one?"

"Exactly. So someone remembers those events, writes them down, and starts writing a book. And you have events from one reality on paper in another. Another theory is a backup, of sorts. That the lives of those that have adventures are preserved so that others can follow their example. That _storytellers_ are tapping into the knowledge of the multiverse directly, though unconsciously, and are compelled to create works showing the lives of others. Another theory is there are more people like your new friend Jenny that can just go between worlds. I mean you can't exactly take a poll, now can you? 'Excuse me, can you travel between realities?' No one is going to say yes to that question, for obvious reasons. They either bring stories back with them and take credit for writing them or write about what they've seen in the guise of fiction."

"So we're all just characters in a story, huh? And my father knew this?"

"He did, as all _Paragon_ people do. He knew his would be a most epic tale, and he wished the same for you as well, I'm sure. I mean would you trade your story for anything?"

"I suppose not. Oh, that's what Jenny meant. When we first met... it makes so much more sense now. I guess. So wait, is some _storyteller_ telling our story then? Is someone, like, reading it and experiencing my story now? Do they know me without me even having met them?"

Sparkle nodded. "Probably. They know your adventures, because they remember them the same as you do. Sure, they weren't there at your side, but they remember your actions same as they remember the actions of people that are at their side. Once it's in the past, what's the difference? They're both just _memories._ "

"Wow. I guess you weren't kidding."

"Now you know. And also why terrible things happen to people all the time. Even those that don't get XP or usually had adventures, or whatever."

"Why?"

"Because it makes for a better story. Without drama or conflict or trials, a story would be totally boring. And the stronger the story, the more people remember it. And the more people remember it..."

"The longer it stays around. That reality or people or whatever is remembered. Wow. That's the _narrative imperative_ you talked about before, isn't it?"

"Yes. Certain things, like you losing Luna, that happen because the story demands it and for no other reason."

"Without her being pulled away from me, none of this would have ever happened. And I would have been totally unprepared for rescuing my father."

"Okay, maybe that's a bad example as it did seem to happen for a reason. But you get the idea."

"I do. I'll have to think about this, but yeah, you were right. It changes things. How I see people, maybe even how I act if I think some other person is 'looking over my shoulder' so to speak."

"Just keep it in mind. When someone reads your story, what do you want them to be reading? About how you triumphed over the Darkness at great personal risk, or how you followed it into madness? I know you're worried about being powerful, and having to kill. Ending a person's story is no light task, but some stories just can't continue."

"I see that. Thanks for telling me what's going on."

"Of course." Sparkle felt a bit guilty, as she hadn't really told her what was going on, only that which a full _Paragon_ would know. That didn't make it false, but more was going on than she realized. _That you don't need to know about to do what you were meant to. Sorry, Susan. But at least you're a full_ Paragon _now, just like your father. You know that, in the end, all you'll be is a memory in someone else's mind. I just hope you make it a good one._

With that, Susan said goodnight and slipped into Twilight's bed, thinking about all she had been told. It wasn't long before she was asleep and Sparkle jumped from the bed, padding her way downstairs.

Twilight was waiting at the table.

"I figured you would come down to talk," she said, floating a saucer of tea over to her. "It seems you know more about things than she does. May I ask why she wasn't told?"

"Of course," she answered. "But first, how many others this loop?"

"Just me. It was standard until this point, so I figured it would continue to be. Guess I was just waiting for you two to arrive, huh?"

"You're the anchor then?"

"That's right."

"Okay. It's been awhile since I heard about them, let me make sure I have them straight in my head, okay? Plus maybe there's been new information I don't know about."

"Go ahead."

"First, the computer that runs all realities, _Yggdrasil, the World Tree,_ crashed. Or at least something bad happened to it. So to save all of reality everywhere it was put into a sort of stasis mode, where time repeated itself endlessly. But that wasn't enough. To keep realities from degrading further an _anchor_ was chosen, one that would keep their memories from loop to loop."

"Doing good so far."

"Others would sometimes remember, but not reliably."

"My friends are _awake_ most of the time. Not this time, of course."

"Figures. Now, how does the Darkness figure into all this? I'm not sure if it was part of the original problem or just stepped in during the chaos, but it is real and it is a danger. When Susan speaks about realities as being leaves and branches and such she thinks she's speaking in metaphors. We know she's talking about how things literally are. At least in the conceptual way the _admins,_ those trying to fix the problem, see the _Tree._ Branches have been lost to this creature, and their energies stolen. So certain people inside were tasked with taking care of the problem while the _admins_ worked on things from the outside."

"And that's you?"

"Along with Susan and others, yes. Some don't even know the reason they travel, just that they do, usually for their own selfish reasons. But The Darkness is pushed back where we can, and the loops continue. Expect for us. We exist outside of them, so that's why Susan doesn't know about them. Think of us as antibodies, in a way, if that's easier."

"But you could tell her, certainly? How did you learn about them but she didn't?"

Sparkle shook her head. "Her father told me, and told me to tell her only if I thought she could handle it. You know about Sakura, right?"

"Everyone is told about Sakura. You don't think... her?"

"I'm not sure. Being told the people she meets and the things she does will just be undone in a couple of years? What would that do to any of us? Take the world a couple of words ago- we left a girl named Nita with a spell to cure her mother's cancer. Because her magic could take them to the moon, but not cure a single disease. Whatever. The point is, how would Susan react if she knew she could only save Nita's mother that one time? That every other time through that loop, her mom dies? That Cloud and Aerith and the others will reset and not even know her to see her again? That in fact, Aerith usually dies at the hands of Sephiroth? A friend, killed over and over thousands of times, maybe not even aware it's happening. That what she does is important, vitally important for the survival of the _Tree_ but that all the friends she makes, all the bonds she creates with others are little more than smoke."

"I know what you mean. You don't want to take the chance she just says 'forget it then' and walks away?"

"Or worse, stops caring and just becomes a monster, like Sakura. That she kills without remorse because they'll just 'come back' in the end. I think she could go either way, honestly. She walks a fine line, and she tries desperately to learn only enough magic, and non-lethal magic at that, to get the job done. I mean she could just _Elemental Devastation_ everything and be done with it. But she goes out of her way to learn spells that aren't as effective and can be thrown off, just so she doesn't have to become a killer. She might become a more effective fighter, but at the cost of her very soul. And if she goes further than that? Actually joins with the Darkness to destroy worlds? End the loops? It's not unheard of."

"I suppose not. She really struggles with that, huh? My respect for her has increased."

"She would fangirl out if she ever knew."

Twilight chuckled. "Guess she's read our stories, huh?"

"TV show, actually. She really, really, admires you."

"I could tell. And I've seen the show in my _Fused Loops_ on occasion."

"Wait, those are realities fused together?"

"Sort of a gift of the admins. To keep us from going totally nuts we get to learn about other realities by squishing two or more together. Keeps us on our hooves. Toes. Whatever we happen to have where we find ourselves. Some are... not very nice, like the Bureau loops..." She shuddered. "But at least we get to experience some different lives on occasion, and not just our own for all eternity."

"How nice of them. So now you know. Please just treat her like an _unawake_ person that happens to know of other realities."

"I gotcha. No sweat. I should tell you though, I know what's coming."

"What?"

"A being called Tirek. He's going to start draining ponies of their magic, and ultimately destroy my library. I hate it when he does that!"

"That sounds perfect for The Darkness. If that isn't its form this time around, well, that would be very surprising to me. Just be careful, he's not going to be any kind of pushover you may be used to in the past."

"I can understand why. Okay, the hardest part will be pretending I don't know what's coming and acting surprised when it happens. But I've done it before, so it should be fine."

"I appreciate it. I don't know how we're going to fight a being that can drain the magic out of someone, The Darkness can already shut down her magic if given a chance. In the past we've had to attack together because even it can only shut down one of us at a time. I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out."

"That's all you can do. I'd love to hear about your adventures sometime, hopefully we'll get a peaceful moment to talk."

"Sure, sounds good."

"Then I'm going to bed, I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night."

Susan found herself standing atop a hill, overlooking the town at night which peacefully slumbered. _How did I get here?_

"I brought you here," said a soft voice beside her, and Susan turned to behold a dark pony with a floating mane of what looked like stars. Her hooves were adorned with sparkling shoes, and a sash with a crescent moon, matching the one that was her cutie mark, was tied around her neck. She stood tall and proud, her horn held high and wings at her sides.

"Princess Luna!" Susan exclaimed, going to one knee. Then it hit her, she had been in a place like this before. "I'm dreaming!"

"Yes, young one, you are. But this is a true dream, and I am truly with you."

"You can do that?!" _Something I would have learned later in the series, or something they showed and I forgot, or something she can do they didn't think of?_

"Indeed, and my reasons for visiting you tonight are twofold. Please, rise. You are not one of my subjects."

"True, but I am technically a knight and you are a princess. And I do observe _some_ customs properly." She chuckled, remembering those she didn't. (Like bowing to the pope.)

"And I do appreciate it, believe me." Susan got up. "First, I wished to get to know this traveler from beyond our world. I must say," she looked Susan's naked body up and down, "you have a very different appearance than our own, don't you?"

"I have found hands to be rather useful at times," she said with a grin. "Though your kind has done wonders even without them." She swept a hand out over all the houses below her.

"Working together, my little ponies have indeed made this land a good one to live in. My second reason for coming here was to apologize. My sister Celestia will meet with you tomorrow, but I will not be in attendance. She believed it best, and I agreed, that I immediately leave to scour the land looking for whatever threat has brought you here. With my ability to communicate in dreams, such as I am doing now, it will be easy for me to keep in touch and report back."

"That's an excellent idea! And no apology is necessary, your highness. In fact I'm pleased my warning is being taken as seriously as it is. There have been times when those I've tried to warn have simply brushed me aside." _Like that time with the area senior when I was with Nita._

"Sadly, over the years many ancient and evil creatures have been imprisoned using various methods, so they must all be checked to make sure none have escaped. That task falls to me. I consider it a slight penance, as I was once one of those imprisoned beings."

"I suppose Discord would be another?" _If he exists here, which this will tell me._

Luna nodded. "Yes, just like Discord. For this Darkness, as you call it, to have taken over something and made it more powerful? Imagine what Discord could do with even more knowledge and power, and less restraint or compassion. Though I suppose the same can be said of me. As I said, I know how it feels to lose oneself to power..."

"I know. It's a line I walk myself."

"Ah yes, the letter did mention that you knew us well. Tell me, these stories on your world... am I well received in them?"

"Oh yes! Everyone loves you, just as much as Celestia!"

"I'm glad to hear that. And that my struggle is not lost to you. Friendship, I have heard, can go a long way towards easing those burdens. And a shared experience, like this one, can be the basis for a friendship."

 _Is she saying she wants to be my friend?_

"That is why I search tirelessly for my Luna."

"I wonder... could this Luna you seek be my counterpart for your world? Do such things happen?"

"I'm not really sure how that all works," Susan admitted. "I've come across people with the same or similar name, or name and physical attributes..." _Like Tifa and Tiffania._ "But never what I would call a complete analog. But in all honesty I've seen such a small fraction of worlds, and even then only enough of them to complete my mission before moving on. Scratch the surface of every world and who knows what similarities might be revealed?"

"It was just a thought. You can..." She looked down. "You can keep them safe, can't you? My subjects? They've gone through so much over the years, especially Twilight and her friends."

"I can only promise to try my best. If I might brag a little, my best is pretty good. I've been successful so far, but I won't deny it's partly thanks to the wonderful people I meet along the way. And I know Twilight and her friends will do everything in their power to help. In return I'll promise to do everything in my power to help them. And all those of Equestria."

"Then I can breathe easier," Luna said, turning and looking her in the eye. "Thank you, Susan."

"Of course, it's my pleasure."

"Then I shall take my leave. I will check in with you every few nights, and with my sister every night so she knows my present location. If I am somehow taken down you can at least know the area it happened and send a search party."

"If you do find something, just get away," Susan cautioned. "Better to return with the information than be slain in a meaningless combat. I know you are powerful, that's not the issue. The Darkness will surprise you." _Like with a stupid metal weapon that can hurt you, and a huge robot body to fight you with._ "Your ponies need you, and this is something we must do together. Promise me you won't take any risks, please?"

"I promise. When the Darkness is revealed, we shall stand together on the field of battle. Agreed?" She held out a hoof, and Susan bro-hoofed her.

"Agreed."

"Then I wish you pleasant dreams, young traveler."

The dream dissolved, and Susan snuggled Twilight closer she thought _You know what? I think this world might just work out fine_.


	128. Chapter 128

128

Learning to Fly

Time: Day 2 in Equestria

Place: Twilight's Library

Up bright, but not so early the next day, Susan heard from Twilight that the other ponies stopped in earlier to say that, for the moment, everything seemed normal around Ponyville.

"Good, we may have some time then," said Susan, yawning. "By the way, we have an appointment with Princess Celestia this morning, right?"

"How did you know that?" asked Twilight. "Spike just brought me the letter from her a little while ago."

"Let me answer that question with another question. Did you know Luna- sorry, Princess Luna, can enter pony's dreams?"

"Really?"

"Oh, you didn't know that. I see. Guess I'll have to ask Princess Celestia about that, and make sure something odd isn't going on. Anyway, that's how I knew. Princess Luna came to see me last night, told me she wouldn't be there to meet me because she was checking up on various characters imprisoned over the years to make sure they were still secure. With her ability to dream chat, she could let us know how she was doing every night."

"What a great idea!" exclaimed Twilight. "Gee, how many foes have they defeated and then just locked up, anyway? Seems like some sort of trend."

"I mentioned Discord, and she was understandably worried. If a being like that was chosen to host The Darkness... it's too horrible to contemplate."

"Yes, he's unpredictable at the best of times. Still," she looked out the window. "No chocolate rain, and the sun is up, and we're all still alive, so it probably isn't him."

"Thank goodness for small favors. Where did such a powerful being come from, anyway?"

"I don't think anyone knows. Maybe he was created when the world was new, from the very chaos that later gave rise to magic. Spike, make a note; look into were Discord came from."

"You got it, Twilight," Spike shouted from the next room.

 _I suppose it's part of the narrative imperative. If the big bads had been defeated and_ killed _in the past, they couldn't return as threats later. Wait, is that why Batman never just offs the Joker? So that their story can continue? Sparkle, you really have changed my world view now, haven't you?_

"A chariot from the castle will be around to pick us up pretty soon. You want something to eat? You'll have to look what I have over, I have no idea if you can eat the same things I can... or would even want to."

"I'll make myself something, don't trouble yourself." Twilight watched with interest as Susan used _Create Foodstuff_ to get her some breakfast, and when she was done Sparkle put _Shape-shift_ back on them both so they took their pony forms.

"I've asked for the magic to stick around until we get back here," she cautioned. "Don't forget and invite someone back here. Might be a little bit awkward."

"Yeah."

"Oh, better give you the rundown on how to hold things in that form," remembered Twilight. "Here, let's see if you can pick up this book and turn the pages."

Susan finally got the hang of it, having to make _Adaptive Skill_ checks for whatever she wanted to pick up. The difficulty check to have something 'stick' to her hoof seemed to be a similar progression as her _Telekinesis_ magic, as a kind of touch based spell that didn't need to be actively cast. At least, not for real ponies. But without making the check, stuff just slid off her hoof. But when it stuck, it stuck.

"Just how strong are you?" Twilight asked as she was hefting a bookcase.

"All by myself? Not very," she replied, setting it down again. "But augmented by my magic?" She tapped the bracelet on her front leg. "Strong enough."

"I should say. Oh, I think they're here! Come on."

The three climbed aboard the chariot, pulled by two pegasus ponies in armor, and they took off towards the castle.

"Please try to show a little respect," Sparkle said to Susan as they landed outside the front of the castle. "I know you hate to and all-"

"What are you talking about? I was a perfect lady when Princess Luna came to speak to me, and I'll be a perfect lady now. I _am_ a knight, you know. There are forms to be followed."

"Did turning you into a pony knock your brains around?"

"Come on, Midnight. You saw me bowing to Anrieta before. Because she earned my respect. The pope didn't. Princess Celestia? She totally has my respect."

"It needed to be said. But as long as you think that way, that's... probably the best I can hope for."

"This way, you two," Twilight said, hopping out.

Susan was entranced as she walked through the castle. Guards in armor patrolled the halls, everything shone and Susan could feel the positive energy around the place with her _Spirit Sense._ She smiled as the huge doors to the throne room were opened and the three crossed the threshold.

And then was violently thrown back in a shower of green light and sparks, to land on her back in a most undignified fashion. She was immediately ringed with spears that were levitated by unicorns, looking at her most sternly.

"Whazat?" she managed, a ringing in her ears blocking out exactly what she was hearing. Being connected to her _character sheet_ she didn't actually have to take it out to check it, and mentally reviewed it for any damage.

 _None, I should be fine in a second. What the heck was that?_

"I'm so sorry!" said Princess Celestia, running down the carpeted stairs towards her. "Guards, it's all right, you may go about your duties. I'm expecting her." They bowed and the spears were retracted. Twilight helped her up.

"I... uh..." Susan managed, vision still a bit blurred. _That's never happened before._

"Come out to the courtyard, a little fresh air and sunlight will do you good. I'm so embarrassed!" gushed Celestia. "This way, please."

"You all right?" Sparkle asked quietly.

Susan didn't catch it because of her _Poor Sense: Hearing_ weakness.

"You all right?" Sparkle asked a little less quietly.

"I will be," she replied. "It's... wait." She had a vision of Sparkle also going flying, but not as far and she managed to land on her feet. "Are you okay?"

"Me? Didn't seem as bad for me, whatever that was."

"Oh. Good."

Now seated in the courtyard, Celestia again apologized. "I didn't even think about it," she admitted. "I was rather nervous to meet you, and it just slipped my mind."

"You were nervous to meet me?"

 _You are an extremely powerful traveler from another world,_ reminded The Darkness. _Why shouldn't she be a bit afraid? You could totally take her!_

"I just wasn't sure what to expect."

"But you can raise the sun! You're a thousand years old! I... just can't see you being nervous about anything, begging your pardon, your highness."

"None of that now," she admonished. "Please, call me Celestia. You are all right, aren't you?"

"I think so. No more double vision and my hearing is... well, back to normal anyway. What was that?"

"After my kingdom had been invaded by the changelings, I thought it wise to put up some warding magic around the throne room. Nothing not in its natural shape would be allowed inside, and we wouldn't be caught by surprise by ponies who were not themselves. But it was never intended to do what it did, it should have been more of a restraining effect, not throwing you halfway across the castle. And why didn't you go flying as far, do you think?" she asked, looking at Sparkle.

"Ah. Well, I can probably solve that mystery," answered Susan. "I'm carrying a lot more active and inactive magic on my person. On my pony? How do you... never mind. When the spell went off to detect our _Shape-shift_ magic, it probably also reacted to all the magic I have going all the time." She pointed out her _materia_ bracelet and LUCk raising amulet. "That either caused some kind of feedback effect or they just didn't like each other and boom, I went flying."

"And you're not hurt at all? Please don't spare my feelings if you are, I don't know your customs or anything but please don't feel you need to hold back. I really feel terrible about all this."

"Not to worry, it's nearly impossible to damage me." _Short of stupidly large robots swinging around stupidly large weapons that can pierce_ Invulnerability _of course._

"I am relieved. This really isn't how I envisioned us meeting. I'm sorry-"

"Twilight, if you would? Perhaps we could start over?" Susan said, getting down on one knee and bowing her head. Sparkle followed.

"What? Oh, of course! Princess Celestia, may I present my new friends Sparkling Magic and Midnight Magic. Otherwise known as the human Susan and cat Sparkle."

"You honor me with this audience, Princess," Susan said regally.

"Thank you for coming," replied Celestia evenly. "I have heard from my student Twilight that a great evil may soon threaten our land. All of Equestria owes you a debt of gratitude for coming to warn us as you have."

"I can only hope my warning comes in time."

"Oh, get up already." Celestia laughed. "I think we're way past that now. Come, sit and tell me all about yourself, and other worlds."

 _I suppose after a thousand years, she's eager for stories beyond her realm. It can't hurt._

So Susan told her about the adventures she had gone through, and about the forms The Darkness had taken in the past. Celestia listened gravely, nodding and drawing her out with excellent questions about key points.

 _I also suppose that after a thousand years, she's pretty much got tens in everything because she just needs time to study something rather than XP. So of course she's going to have high ratings in_ Information Gathering _and... what's a nicer way of saying_ Interrogation?

 _Putting the screws to someone?_

 _I wasn't asking you!_

 _Sorry. It's hard to tell sometimes, you only have one inside voice you know. I don't get a separate line in here. 'Call for Susan on line two. Call for Susan on line two. Please pick up any white curtesy phone.'_

 _Cute._

 _Though if you could help me move the pool table about six inches to the right, I bet I could get a jukebox right here. That would be sweet. I wouldn't mind playing my own music, and not just songs that get stuck in your head all the time._

 _How did you get a... Oh wait, I remember, you got that on the world with all the warlocks._

 _I only just told you about it then._

 _Whatever. And you are NOT putting a jukebox in my head. Your voice all the time is annoying enough._

 _Spoilsport._

"So it seems it can go either way," Celestia decided. "As quietly, if you will, as a battle inside someone's very soul, or as noisy as needing to create constructs of stone towering as high as this castle. And you say the host _must_ be killed?"

"That's what I've been told, by a reliable source. I know that's not how you do things around here, and I applaud that I really do. I try to do the same. But this ends only one way."

"Let us hope, then, that The Darkness chooses someone irredeemable to be the host so we do not lose any productive citizens."

"Let us hope."

"Well. For the moment it seems there is not much more to be said. Until The Darkness makes some sort of move or some _event_ happens that it will try to use to its advantage, we can only stay vigilant."

"With Twilight's help, I'll at least check out the town, make sure all the ponies there belong to this world."

"Should probably start in the castle," remarked Sparkle. "Where better to strike from than here, in the very seat of power?"

"I would sleep easier knowing my loyal troops were, in fact, loyal. My wards wouldn't keep out someone simply possessed by evil."

"An excellent idea. With your permission, I'll get started right away."

"Very well. Oh, and Luna sends her regards, but the plan was for her to have spoken to you already?"

"She did, last night. We should be in pretty close contact after this, and I'm looking forward to meeting her after her inspection is complete."

"I'm sure she feels the same. Twilight, would you show Sparkling Magic around the castle? The full tour, mind."

"Yes, princess. Come on."

So the pair scoured the castle, with Susan's ten and Sparkle's five in _Dimension Sense._ The place was clean, and after a hearty lunch prepared by castle staff, the pair widened their search down the mountain to Ponyville. Everypony greeted the new arrival with a smile and a kind word, and Susan remarked she had never felt such a positive energy emanating from a place.

This of course led to a discussion about the difference between _magic, spirit,_ and _dimensional_ senses, which Twilight seemed quite interested in.

 _But is she really interested, or just faking it because she already knows all about each?_ Sparkle wondered.

They came to a field where Rainbow Dash was helping coach fillies through some kind of routine, and Susan figured she should check out even the smallest pony. _After all, The Darkness tricked me once by not being where it should have been. Inside Balor, and instead chose Biddy. Can I put past it hiding in a baby? It would make me that much more hesitant to kill it._

 _Good point, have to remember that one. Note to self: On worlds Susan goes to, always pick the person she least expects. Possibly babies._

"Wait a second, I know you three!" Susan exclaimed. "You're the cutie mark crusaders! On that quest to find out who you are!"

"Hear that, we're famous!" said Sweetie Bell.

"I don't see how," grumped Scootaloo, "I can't even fly."

"Ignore her," said Apple Bloom. "She's been grumpy all day about that. It's kinda getting on my nerves, to be honest."

"Can't fly, eh? Maybe I can take a look, offer some pointers?"

"You'd do that?" asked Scootaloo, hope in her eyes. But her face fell again. "But wait, you're not a pegasus."

"What does that have to do with anything? I've always- I mean... I've often run into peo- ponies in my travels that think they can't do a thing, when in reality the reason they can't do it isn't what they expected." _Okay, I've run into_ one _person like that, but in the show they make a big deal out of the fact she can't fly. Maybe I can figure it out and... Wait a second. When I go back are there going to be stories about a mysterious pony that shows up and does a bunch of stuff around town? Will I see myself, in this form, wandering around episodes? Just how connected is this reality to the stories seen in mine? My goodness this is confusion. Confusing. I am confused._

"Right now I'll take all the help I can get."

"That's settled then. Come with me. Oh, you don't mind if I take a minute, do you, Twilight?"

"No, no," she waved a hoof. "I'd be interested to see what your solution to this problem is. If there is one, I mean."

"There's always a solution. The question is how badly you want it. Anyway, over there looks good."

Susan and Scootaloo walked over to where several other young pegasus ponies were practicing, and Susan called out to them.

"Excuse me! Could you help me a second?"

"What do you need?" the one asked.

"Could you two fly for me? Just hover off the ground if you can."

The two looked at each other. "That's easy enough."

"For some," grumbled Scootaloo.

They did, and Susan reached out with _Magic Sense,_ getting a fourteen. Given these ponies had no "planet rating" or "grade" we'll say that's enough for Susan to feel something going on with them magically. They landed again and the effect stopped. "Got it. Thank you very much."

"Sure?" the two said, confused.

Now Susan walked over to a space with nopony and told Scootaloo to do the same. "Okay, here goes." She barely got off the ground.

Susan got a fifteen that time, enough to realize whatever those two were doing to generate lift, this pony wasn't doing that. In fact, Susan would go so far as to say her magic had been burned out of her somehow. It wasn't just _magical drag,_ but rather _her magic just didn't work._

"Yeah, kind of figured that."

"What?" She stopped straining and fell to the ground again.

"Look, Scootaloo, it's not your wings that keep you aloft, it's pegasus magic. Just like Applejack's apple bucking is her utilizing Earth Pony magic, you don't fly just by flapping your wings. Honestly it would be impossible for any pegasus to get off the ground that way. You're just too heavy. Same as standing on clouds. I mean how would that work?"

"I... I know." Scootaloo looked depressed.

"You know?"

"I've been telling her that for some time now," said Twilight, walking over. "We've done various exorcises to try and kindle her magic, but nothing has worked."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I came along when I did!" Susan said, smiling. "The solution to your problem is rather simple."

"Really?" She didn't seem convinced.

"For me, anyway. Twilight, we'll have to pause our mission for a couple of hours. And can I use that lab you've got down in your basement?"

"Oh, of course."

"Great. Who's in charge here? We'll need to tell them you'll be back soon."

"Rainbow Dash."

"Really? Someone put her in charge of something? Wonders never cease."

"Hey, Rainbow Dash is an awesome pony!"

"She's a great flyer, yes. Loyal? Absolutely. Known for her attention span? Be honest…"

"Well..."

"I rest my case. Come on."

They told Rainbow Dash she would be back, and back _flying_ , so the four walked into town.

"Oh, just a second." Susan got out her book and some money, then cast _Precious Conversion_ to turn it into something shops around here would accept. That done, she went into a jewelry store.

"What are we doing here?" asked Scootaloo.

"What I'm doing needs a focus. Something to hold the magic. Whenever you want to fly you'll need to have it on. I recommend something that won't occasion too much comment, but also that you won't lose."

"Earrings!"

"Better run that by your parents first. I don't want to get you in trouble if they object for some reason."

Scootaloo just looked a bit sad again. "Don't have to worry about that."

 _I guess in the show it's not exactly clear_ who _her parents are. Maybe... she doesn't have any? Did they die or was she abandoned or something?_

"Okay, on your own head be it. See what I did there? Head? Earrings?"

"Very funny. This isn't some kinda joke, is it? Did Diamond Tiara put you up to this?"

"You did see who I was with, right? Do you think _Twilight Sparkle,_ of all ponies, would allow me to trick you in any way?"

"Well... I guess not.

"Then pick out your earrings."

"Okay."

With that she got a sense of how much things cost around here, and went into a potion shop (because that was a thing here) and bought a bunch of stuff the process could 'consume.'

"Where did you put it all?" her new young friend asked.

"Otherspace. Don't worry about it."

"Weird, I didn't see your horn light up. Whatever you say."

As they reached the house, Susan realized the small flaw in her plan.

"Uh, wait out here," she told Scootaloo. "I need to make sure there isn't anything dangerous brewing down in the lab, and then we can get to work."

"Okay."

Susan went in with Sparkle and the magic disappeared, having fulfilled the request it had been asked for. "First time it's really been that inconvenient," she remarked, getting another casting until she left and came back again.

"First time we've needed something for this long."

"I guess you're right."

With that done, she did actually go down to make sure the lab was safe, then brought Scootaloo down and did the standard cheating of _Energetic Accumulation_ and _Augment Skill: Imbuing_ to put a permanent _Flight_ into Scootaloo's new earrings in a fraction of the time it would normally take. With Sparkle having gobs of energy now she could get her rating very high indeed by stealing a bit of her energy, and as the magic was bound into the jewelry, Scootaloo touched them gingerly.

"Never seen anything like that before. I thought Twilight was using advanced magics but this? What was that?" She was looking over at Twilight, who looked a bit impressed herself.

"Oh, just my special kind of magic. Anyway, enough about that, this is about you, kid. Let's go outside and get you flying!"

"You really mean it? I can fly now?"

"You can really fly now."

The four went back outside and found an open enough space. Scootaloo started flapping her wings again.

"No, no, just will it to happen," corrected Susan. "You can flap your wings for show, but this could make an Earth Pony fly. Wings have nothing to do with it."

"You mean like- Yipes!"

Scootaloo rose into the air and gave a whoop of delight, finding she could, at long last, soar like her fellow pegasi.

"That was a very nice thing you did for her," said Twilight, watching her loop about.

"Eh, all in a days work. Now let's get back to it, shall we?"


	129. Chapter 129

129

Into to Super Powers

When: The next day

Where: Outside the castle of the two sisters

"You didn't have to come along," Twilight said to Susan as the group stood looking down at the castle. "Just because it was on our schedule from weeks ago to start the cleanup here, I'm sure there's more important things you would rather be doing."

"Are you kidding?" Susan replied. "See the castle of the two sisters? Poke around? Spend some time with everypony?" She looked to the side where all the other were standing and smiled at them. "I may not be here long, so wherever you girls go, I go. Besides, you're all one of the major powers in these parts because of your connection to the Elements of Harmony. I don't want something to attack you while I'm not around."

"Is that likely?" asked Applejack.

"Yeah, even this Darkness of yours wouldn't dare attack us when we were all together!" agreed Rainbow Dash.

"You have to understand how it thinks. Not that I'm saying I do, even a little, but I do know it likes to conserve energy. If it can take you down with one well timed energy blast instead of six, I think that's what it would go for."

"And there's less witnesses way out here!" said Pinky. "If I was going to kill you all, it's where I would do it!" She bounced across the bridge.

"Something wrong with that pony," muttered Applejack, starting across herself.

The others got across, and Twilight started handing out duties for everypony. "I don't have anything specific for you or Spike to do," she apologized.

"Aw, Twilight, I can help!" he complained.

"Spike, you're with me," Susan said. "After all, those of us with fingers should stick together. I'm sure there's things that are easier for us to do, so we'll just poke around and see what those things are."

"Oh, uh, sure. You don't mind? I mean I'm kinda small." It was true, he barely made it past Susan's knee. She was currently human again, once away from civilization she had Sparkle drop the spell, figuring she would nap anyway.

"I don't judge you by your size. Besides, if we need to I can make you grow with magic."

"Really? Oh."

"By the way," asked Sparkle. "Are you planning on wearing clothes ever again?"

"Not around here. Why should I? Temperature is perfect thanks to the efforts of Rainbow Dash clearing the sky during the day."

"You're welcome!" she shouted from above.

"And clothes protect people from the bumps and scrapes of daily life. I can't _be_ bumped or scraped. Anything that can even scratch me now is likely to be trying to kill me, and clothes would be the least of my worries. And there's always the remote chance somepony will wander by and I'll need to be _Shape-shifted_ again on short notice. This saves me a bit of worry."

"All right, just asking. Gone native, I guess."

"Darn tooting. What's the big deal, anyway? We're all girls here- I mean apart from Spike obviously- but more to the point _completely different species._ It would be like dressing you up in dresses back home. Or putting clothes on dogs before taking them for walks. I mean that would be _weird."_

"I... don't know. I mean you don't need pockets, and what you said is true. I guess I'm just used to seeing everyone in clothes. Ignore me."

"Done! Anyway, show me around, Spike, and we'll see where our segmented joints can be most useful."

"You got it!" he said, slipping his backpack off. "Our tour begins over this way."

The three of them took the tour, with Susan making periodic _Spirit_ and _Magic Sense_ checks.

"There's something powerfully magic and spiritually active around here," she remarked after feeling it several times. "Along with some other minor magics scattered about."

"Oh, the big thing must be the tree in the basement. We can stop there later, we're just looking for stuff to do and there's not much to do down there. The smaller ones... I have no idea. We'll have to find them sometime."

"Sure, before we leave I'd love to see the tree."

So the two got to work. Susan kept doing _Magic Sense_ checks to make sure some innocent looking item wasn't magical and should be treated differently, and suddenly realized one faint magical emanation she was feeling kept moving around.

"Something funny here," she said, making another check. She walked past Spike's backpack, which he had been moving to get snacks and cleaning supplies out of. Suddenly, the magic aura was back the other way, and Susan looked down at the pack. "Spike, are you carrying something magical in there?"

"Huh? Magical? No, not that I know of."

Twilight perked up and came over. "What's this about magic?"

"There's something magical in that bag, I can feel it." She looked this way and that at it.

"Well, dump it out Spike, let's see what it is. Maybe some magical creature crawled into it?"

"I'm telling you, there's nothing magic in there!" But he dumped it out, and held up each object for Susan to sense.

"That's it," she announced, when he held up the comic.

"That?" echoed Twilight, grabbing it with her magic and ruffling the pages.

"That can't be right, I just got that," insisted Spike. "What sort of magic is it, anyway?"

"Far as I can tell, some kind of Pluto spell, relating to either dimension, spirits, or faith. I'm leaning towards dimension."

"You don't think it's haunted, do you?" He backed away.

"Oh Spike, what would haunt a comic book?"

"I certainly hope not," Fluttershy squeaked, also backing away.

"Don't worry, it's obviously a spell, not a spirit," clarified Susan. "You finding anything Twilight?"

"Seems to be perfectly normal," she answered, skimming it. "Good versus evil, bad guy monologs, oddly the good guys seem to be losing here..."

"Losing? That can't be right!" insisted Spike.

"Have you read the whole thing?" Susan asked him.

"Nah, Twilight made me stop last night."

"Yeah, it was way past his- now what in the heck is this about?" She turned the book around and showed them the last page. "This page is blank, the story doesn't actually end."

"Is that some writing there?" Spike asked, looking at the bottom corner.

"If it is, we'll need a magnifying glass to read it," said Rarity. "It looks more like just a scribble to me."

"I think I've seen one around here," said Spike thoughtfully. "Just a second."

He returned with one and read what sounded like an incantation (as it was rhymed) and no sooner did he finish reading it aloud, the book lit up from within and started dragging everypony near it inside.

Not even Susan's STRength checks were enough, and she didn't want to rip out anypony's tail trying to drag them out of the thing, so the ponies found themselves atop a building in what looked like a modern human city. All the ponies. The ponies, who were everyone. They all looked around fearfully.

"Hey, you're a pony again!" exclaimed Applejack, looking over at Susan.

"And what is with that outfit?" added Rarity with disgust. "It's just a patchwork of other... oh my goodness what am _I_ wearing?"

Susan looked down at herself and over at the others, and noticed they were all wearing flashy "super hero" costumes, complete with masks.

"You've turned into the Power Ponies!" Spike informed them. "Except for you, Susan. You've become... uh... A princess, I guess?"

The others gasped. Susan looked back and found she had a pair of wings at her side, and Twilight came over and prodded her horn with a hoof.

"Yup, you've ascended," she agreed. "Or did you do this with your magic?"

Susan shook her head. "No time to. I'm as baffled as you all are. Besides, only Sparkle knows that one."

"So where are we?" asked Fluttershy, trying to look in all directions at once.

"And how do we get back?" asked Applejack.

They all looked at her. "Oh sure, ask the one with the experience traveling worlds... actually that's probably the best thing to do. Well, either this is some kind of shared dream, or the book acted as a portal and you girls have displaced your counterparts in this world. Quite different than the way I do things, but what do I know? If you want I can call my contact back at the..." She raised a hoof and looked at it, but Silverstreak's watch was gone. "Or not. Well, at least I still have my..." My looked at her other front leg. "Oh, wonderful. That's gone too. Can I even..." She tried pulling something from her _sub-space pocket._ "Nope."

"Would you mind going back to talking in complete sentences again?" asked Applejack.

"Sorry, I'm just missing _all_ my equipment, and it seems I can't pull anything else out here. Oh no, I just had a worse thought. _Light."_ Nothing happened. "Yup, I can't do magic, either. We're on our own here. Unless your magic works, Twilight?" Susan couldn't see the glow because her horn was covered by some kind of armor, but Spike's cape moved so she nodded.

"Sparkle will notice we're missing though, right?" asked Fluttershy.

Susan tried to snap, but stared at her hoof in frustration. "You're right. She doesn't have access to my book but worst comes to worst she can research the spell to move between dimensions. She's never done spell research, but she watched me do it, and she's seen that spell so she can remember it and that'll cut the time down. Really it's just sort of implied that anyone who can do my type of magic knows how to research more, so that's not a concern. Or heck, maybe my watch is sitting there on the floor, and she can call this in to my contact. One way or another, I'm sure we can figure out how to get home." There was an explosion down below, making them all jump. "But perhaps first we should see what that's all about?"

They poked their heads over the side of the building and far below, smoke billowed out of the place across the street. It looked as if the entire front of the place had been ripped off from within, sending shrapnel hurling out in all directions.

Several ponies lay hurt and bleeding offscreen, crimson blood pooling beneath them. Their fate was uncertain.

From the wreckage a thick, green, tentacle like mass of hair shot out, followed by another and another, and out from the smoke stepped a dark pony holding a glowing orb. She laughed and looked up at them. "Power ponies? How nice of you to join me!" She started laughing and laughing.

"At least she enjoys her work," muttered Susan.

"That's the Maneiac!" Spike informed them. "Remember what Twilight was reading? That's who we have to defeat if we're going to get out of this place."

"How in the sam hill do we do that?" asked Applejack.

"Use your powers! You are the Power Ponies, after all!"

 _Is that anything like Power Rangers? Go, go, Power Rangers!_

 _Oh, you're still here? Figures._

 _I am you, Susan. I go where you go. Watch out._

 _What?_

 **WHAM** A pretzel cart shattered against the edge of the building, obviously thrown by the Maneiac, who was still laughing her head off down on the street.

"Powers! Now you're talking Spike. Come on girls, let's go help those innocent citizens of... uh..."

"Maretropolis," supplied Spike.

"Yes, what he said. Spike, hop on. You can coach us as we go."

"Can you fly?"

"Somehow, I just know I can."

"Okay." Spike leapt up onto her back and Susan drew upon Weather Magic while flapping her wings. _At least that works. This is so weird..._

She dived.

Sadly, none of the other ponies were in the same rush to engage in combat as she was (she is a bit weird like that) and Susan didn't exactly understand how her powers worked. As she streaked downwards she got more than twice her INSight away from them in meters, and felt all her powers drop away.

 _All_ of them.

That included her wings, horn, special clothes, the power she felt in the others that was somehow in her- everything. She was now falling off a building to her doom, naked, as a plain old Earth Pony. Well, a plain young Earth Pony.

 _Well, it's been a good run, I guess. What's that noise?_

Spike was screaming his head off.

 _Oh, just Spike, probably thinking about his greatest regret. Listening to me. So, am I going to get the highlight reel for 'this is your life' before I splatter to the pavement or... hello, what's this?_

As she neared the Maneiac something strange happened, her hair suddenly got far longer, turned green, and she was wearing an exact copy of the Maneiac's costume all of a sudden. She spent _energy_ on REFlexes ( _thank goodness I can still do that, at least)_ and made the check to gather the hair up underneath her, cushioning her fall, before she hit the ground.

'AAAhahhhhhhhhh... what?" Spike finished. "Oh, we're not dead. Great!"

"Yeah, what just happened?" asked Susan, looking herself over. She felt her hair was now like another limb, and she straightened it out, octopus style, and it was strong enough to hold her up.

The Maneiac walked herself over to Susan on her hair, and stood looking her over. "I didn't know I was twins," she remarked. "Who are you?"

"Uh..." _Okay Susan, think. You need a cool super hero name. Something that reflects what just happened. Am I getting the powers of the ponies around me? Wait, reflects?_

"I am the Mirror Mare!" she shouted. "Prepare to taste justice, evil doer!"

"What does that taste like?"

"You okay?" Rainbow Dash landed near her, and Twilight appeared in a burst of Teleportation magic. _Oh sure, she gets to do her magic._

Suddenly, Susan's costume now incorporated parts of the other two pony's, and she realized she could again shoot elements from her horn or control the weather like Rainbow Dash. _And I notice I have my wings back, too. Huh._

"Don't worry about me, Power Ponies," she said dramatically. "Stop the Maneiac!"

"Ah, so you are against me," she said, reaching for a mailbox. "Pity."

"How?" both said.

"Rainbow, your power is to control the weather. Twilight, you can shoot elemental energy from your horn! Try something like that!"

"How do you know that?" asked Spike.

Susan was too busy dodging the mailbox to answer him.

 _Hey wait a minute, what's my_ Initiative _order?_ _This world really did a job on me._

Rainbow Dash shrugged and concentrated, the lightning bolt around her neck lit up and caused dark clouds to start forming. Twilight powered up her horn, but nothing seemed to happen. Applejack tried to get off the top of the building by swinging down with her lasso, but tied herself up instead. _Okay, maybe dropping us into the middle of this wasn't the best start, comic book magic?_

The Maneiac was laughing again, and off to the side, a tornado started to form as Rainbow's power went out of control.

"How is this helping?" Susan yelled, anchoring herself with the hair. Twilight and Rainbow were swept up into the swirling winds, and suddenly Susan was too as Maneiac got out of range, making her hair shrink back to normal.

"Oh no!"

She grabbed Rainbow as she sped by, and managed to calm the thing down, lowering them both to the ground.

The Maneiac was nowhere to be seen.

"Not the most auspicious start to my career as a super hero," complained Susan. "Someone want to help Applejack down? And where did Pinky go?"

"Here!" something shouted as it blurred past.

"Is it safe to come down?" Fluttershy tried to call down to her friends, but no one heard her. She flapped down, and finally they were together again.

"Twilight, do you know any healing magic?" asked Susan, then realized that, yes, she did. "Wait, never mind, somehow I know you do. In fact you know a lot of magic... far more than I would have believed. What's up with... never mind. Come help me." They tended to the hurt ponies as best they could, Twilight looking at her strangely as she casually used Unicorn magic.

"How are you doing that? Where are we?" asked Fluttershy again.

"I wish I could tell you," Susan replied. "Spike, how many Power Ponies were there originally?"

"Six."

"Thought so. Odd, that, don't you think? Six Power Ponies, six of you? But there was a seventh there today, me. I'm guessing the magic that brought us here didn't know what to do with me, so it just gave me everything. When that something is around, anyway."

"So, darling, you have all our powers?" asked Rarity. "Including whatever magic we know, or being able to fly when a pegasus is nearby?"

"That's right," Susan answered, creating a stretcher that carried a pony to a nearby ambulance. "Spike, why don't you run down the list while I finish up here?"

"Good point."

So he explained that Pinky was "Filly-Second" and could run really fast. Applejack was Mistress Mare-Velous and had a lasso while Fluttershy was Saddle Rager and could transform, Hulk like, into a creature of rage and strength. Rarity could create objects made of a solidified energy that could be floated about, perhaps the best power as Susan was concerned.

As he was explaining it, Twilight looked at her. "So, you know all my magic, huh?"

"Yup. And how _do_ you know so much magic? I mean your talent is magic, I accept that. But you know more magic than I do. And I mean a lot more, which you never seem to use."

"So you don't know everything about me?"

"No, just what powers you have. Why?"

She seemed relieved. "No reason. Just curious."

Finally the last hurt pony was being looked over by medical ponies, and the group wondered about their next move. "May I suggest practicing a bit with our new powers before the rematch?" Susan suggested, as Rarity tried making various things. "Somewhere a bit more private, perhaps?" With the wounded tended to, reporters had started showing up, and flashbulbs were going off. "I don't know if this little adventure is self-contained, or we just messed up the reputation of the real life Power Ponies by letting her escape."

"Sounds good to me," said Rarity. A carpet appeared, which the non-flying ponies stepped onto, and the group took to the air to see if they could a quiet spot to practice.

"But shouldn't we get after the Maneiac?" asked Spike. "She has the orb now, she could power up her doomsday cannon at any moment!"

"Oh Spike, don't worry about it," assured Susan. "It's a story. It won't advance to the next chapter until all the characters are in their places."

 _At least, I hope so. But now that Sparkle has told me all lives are stories, that sort of thing happening at home makes a lot more sense now. Even if I don't work the same here, I bet that does. We are inside a comic book, after all._

The ponies didn't need much time to get the hang of their abilities, and they were off to where Spike said her hideout was.

The shampoo factory… _OF DOOM!_


	130. Chapter 130

130

Taking Down the Maneiack

When: Twenty minutes later

Where: Outside the shampoo factory.

The Power Ponies crept closer to the factory, alert for any guards that might be patrolling the place.

"Guess I'll hang back," said Spike sadly, "unless you see some kind of power in me, Susan?"

"Just what you've always had," she admitted, and blew a flame out of her mouth.

"Oh yeah!" He brightened up. "I did forget about that."

"Anyway, you're hanging back all right. Way back."

"Wha?"

"You're heading around the back of the building. I want you to see if you can sneak in the back and grab the orb while we keep the Maneiack busy. Remember, she's not the goal. Destroying the death ray is the goal. Capturing her is nice, but if we're busy celebrating that, one of her goons might fire the ray!"

"So loud and in her face?" asked Dash.

"You got it. Give Spike at least a minute, then we hit the place with everything we've got."

"Sounds like the kind of plan I can get behind."

Spike snuck off down the narrow alleyway and Susan wondered if any of the ponies had _Timekeeper._ Twilight finally nodded to Dash, who flew up to the building, shouting "Hey Maneiack, come out and play!" That done she fired lighting at the sign outside. It short circuited.

 _Okay, not sure what that achieved._

The large overhead door creaked open, and standing there were four burly ponies with hair related cutie marks, looking tough and ready to rumble. Susan mentally assigned them numbers "three", "five", "four", and "eight." For no reason at all. Behind them were two more rows of ponies, three and then two, that looked completely identical. Same shirt, same color, same cutie mark.

 _Am I seeing things?_

Behind them was the Maneiack, laughing again like she was being tickled everywhere at once.

 _What a happy pony she is. Should we really be taking this away from her?_

 _True, we are trying to steal something from her, and that's wrong._

 _You're agreeing with me?_

 _But she stole it in the first place..._

 _So you're not agreeing with me._

 _But can a pony having this much fun really be bad?_

 _So you are-_

 _But she does want to destroy the city._

 _Make up your mind!_

The toughs stepped out, and the fight was on. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were in the front, Susan had surrounded herself with her friends, Rarity to the left and Applejack on the right. Pinkie was there, but that wouldn't last. Susan wasn't depending on her power given her speed and the range of what she could siphon off from the others. Fluttershy was hanging back, and Spike was already disappearing around the side of the building. Number "four" rushed ahead, and Twilight shot him with her element beam, being not much more than a snowball at this point.

"So maybe I don't have this under control," she remarked. But it least it seemed to stun him, and he shook the snow off his face.

"Six" now rushed forward at Rainbow, who aimed a bolt of lighting at him. It totally went wide, striking into the building beside him, and he didn't even bother dodging.

"Seven" and "nine" moved up, acting in total harmony, and started circling around the sides. But Pinky shot forward and then did a 90 degree turn, rushing across the battlefield and trying to trip up all the ponies now out. She hit "four", "six", and "nine", while "seven" dodged, and Susan was surprised to see "six" and "nine" vanish in a puff of smoke. "Four" went sprawling.

"I didn't do it!" Pinky yelled as she started circling around again. Moving at right angles, of course.

"Five" moved up and circled around to get at Applejack, while "ten" moved forward into the hole his "brothers" left, scowling. "Two" also shot through the gap, heading left. Rarity now went, and as "seven" was right in front of him, she made a glowing box appear around him, or at least she tried, he dodged out of the way.

The Maneiack now moved up, and Susan felt her hair growing again as she moved into range, but concentrated on Rarity's power which she considered the best. She just thought a little bigger. She put a small sphere in the middle of the enemies and expanded it, hoping to knock most of them over. It worked, also making "ten" vanish while "eight" dodged through the door and out of the way.

"Oh!" said Rarity. "I see."

Sadly this was not _Martial Arts,_ in fact it would be considered _Power Combat_ but Susan doesn't know about that skill yet, so she had to take her normal delay, whatever that meant here.

Applejack fended off "five" by throwing some golden horseshoes at him, and he too tumbled to the ground.

Pinky did a complex series of turns and shot past "eight" into the factory, saying "ooooh, what's in here?"

"Stop her!" shouted the Maneiack and clone that was knocked into vanished. "It seems I must do everything myself!" From somewhere she pulled a huge spraycan and started aiming it at Rainbow Dash.

 _Oh, sure, she gets hers, but I don't get mine. What a gyp._

Twilight again tried her ice beam, which succeeded in freezing the legs of "four" together.

Raindow Dash flew towards the Maneiack, pendent glowing. A lightning bolt started to form but the Maneiack spayed her with the can, and she dropped to the ground, frozen in place.

 _Okay, don't get hit by that "beam," I guess._

Applejack twirled her lasso and threw it at the can, probably to try and get it away from her. She deftly moved it aside, and Applejack pulled the rope back.

Rarity again tried for number 7, this time giving him no chance to dodge as she created a dome of force that simply contracted until he couldn't move. He too vanished.

 _What is going on with those guys? Number "four" didn't vanish, only the clones do._

"Get out here, we need more help!" the Maneiack yelled behind her, and Susan took a step and peered between Applejack and Twilight, trying to see past the hair blocking the door. She saw another of the "clone" ponies running from behind something, and wondered if something good wasn't about to happen. She held her action, but next to her, Twilight tried to freeze the spout of the can. The maneiack pressed the button again, and Susan and Applejack tried to dodge out of the way of the spray. They did, but Twilight couldn't because she was attacking. Both attacks hit, so at least the can wasn't a danger anymore.

"Arg, and get me another hairspray ray of doom!"

"Two" had gotten up, and ran over to "four," doing an attack on the ice hoping to shatter it off so he could move again. He spun and kicked, putting a large crack in the ice and allowing "four" to break free the rest of the way.

Pinky came streaking out of the doorway, trying to clip "three" and "five" who was just about to get up. Both again went tumbling with their hooves knocked from under them.

It was at this time that Susan felt a new power come into range, and as that power was used, she activated it as well. Another ten goon ponies appeared around the Maneiack, while another ten Susans appeared around her.

 _Not that I couldn't have done that with my normal equipment,_ _ **if I still had it.**_ _Oh well, at least the mystery of where all those ponies went to is solved. They can only take one hit, but they all get to act individually. In my case, that seems pretty nice indeed._

"What?" shouted the Maneiack. "Who are you? How did you do that?"

"I told you, fiend, I'm the Mirror Mare. Anything you can do, I can do better."

"We'll see about that. Keep them busy while I fire the ray! It should be charged up by now!"

She threw the can, which was enormous by the way, making the Susans scatter to avoid being poofed.

 _And that's the official name for it now, is it?_

 _Seems as good as any._

 _I'm not so sure about that._

The Maneicak climbed aboard the odd looking machine in the middle of the factory, getting settled into the seat. The design was reminiscent of a huge hair dryer, and the pony started laughing again as she pushed buttons and rotated the barrel.

Then she fired.

Or at least she tried, the beam didn't seem to cooperate and come out of the opening.

"What?" she roared.

"Looking for this?" Spike said, holding the orb aloft. He was on a high ledge near a window, and had opened it.

"Give me that!" she demanded.

"Eh, I don't so. Hey Filly-Second!" he dropped it out the window, and Pinky took off, presumably to take it far away.

"After them!" she shouted, and the clones looked at the Susan clones, with the hair of their master, and blocks made of energy floating about them.

"You're kidding, right?" said the one that was probably the original. The blocks expanded to fill the whole space, and slammed down on the goons, knocking them flat. The clones disappeared.

"You're beaten," said Applejack. "Come quietly and maybe you'll get a break come your court date."

"It really wasn't supposed to end like this," said the Maneiack, somehow looking at the original Susan. "Where in the heck _did_ you come from, anyway? You could have ruined everything! Oh well, I suppose it worked out in the end." She looked over at Spike, smugly leaning by the window, and shrugged. "Shut it down."

"What?" everyone said, and they found themselves back in the castle again, the comic nowhere to be seen. Susan was human again, and the ponies were again costumeless.

"All right, someone mind explaining to me what the hay just happened?" asked Applejack.

"Not sure," admitted Susan. "But I do know one thing. I want super powers more than ever now."

The ponies discussed things for a while, and Susan woke up Sparkle and had her put _Shape-shift_ back on. "Let's go see this bookstore Spike said he got the comic at. Maybe that'll give us some clues."

So Susan, Spike, and Twilight stepped through a _Teleportal_ back to town, and Spike led them to the location of the shop. At least, what he thought was the location of the shop.

"I don't get it," he said, scratching his head. "It was here when I bought the book." There was a line of stores there, but Spike said it had been in between two that he pointed out. "It can't have just disappeared."

"Given what we just went through, I have to believe it could," said Twilight. "Who knows what magic there is still in the world that even I have no idea about?"

"Guess you're right. Should we just head back?"

"Doesn't seem to be anything else here we can look into. Sorry Spike."

"Sorry? It's okay. I got to save the day and maybe I'll run into that place again some day."

Back at the castle, the ponies finished for the day and left for home, satisfied both with the job well done, and the adventure they'd had.

"Sorry you didn't get to use your power," Susan said to Fluttershy on the way back.

"Oh, that's okay. I don't think I wanted to turn into a giant rage machine anyway."

 _Yeah, I know that feeling._

"Probably for the best."

Susan spent the rest of that night wondering what super powers she might get, but remembering Silverstreak's warning that she might not be entirely happy with them.

 _I mean I suppose if I got something like that, where I could use the powers of anyone around me, it would be somewhat useful. Who knows what abilities the people guarding my father will have. On the other hand, if it's just robots like the Giant Mainframe monster, I wouldn't get anything. And I can already_ Mimic _stuff. Oh well, no sense worrying about it._

The next day, Applejack stood at the door of the library and asked Twilight and Susan if they could help her with a little problem she was having in the fields, and they both agreed. As the headed out there, she explained.

"Seems my fields have gotten an infestation of Vampire Fruit Bats, and they're ruining my crop. Ravenous little beasts are everywhere. I'm hoping one of ya can come up with a spell to save it!"

"Gee, I'm not sure," admitted Susan. "Most of my magic isn't permanent. But I'm happy to see what I can do."

"I appreciate it."

Arriving at the field, Susan met with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, seeming at odds with each other.

Everyone said hello, and got down to business.

"We have to drive them away, think of the cider!" insisted Dash.

"They have as much right to live as we do," put in Fluttershy softly. "And to live they have to eat. And this is what they eat."

"Can't they go eat wild apples somewhere?" asked Applejack.

"Naturally they would only want the best," said Susan with a chuckle.

"Can't argue with that. So what have you got for me?"

Susan looked over at Twilight. "There might be a spell to make them uninterested in apples, we could try that."

"Uh, isn't that worse than driving them off?" Susan asked her.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean they eat the juice of the apples. If you put them off apples... they'll die. They'll starve in the midst of plenty because they no longer have interest in the one thing they eat."

She seemed taken aback. "I... never thought of that."

"Really Twilight, I'm shocked at you," said Fluttershy. "What were you thinking?"

"Tell them _your_ greatidea," Dash said with a hint of a mocking tone.

"Just set aside some trees for them. I'm sure I can convince them to stay in one area."

"But I need _all_ my current trees to fulfill my orders for the year," complained Applejack. "I keep good records, and I'm pretty good at estimating crop year to year. I only sell to ponies what I know I'll grow. Why do ya'all think I'm so worked up about this?"

"Do you have _land?"_ asked Susan.

"Land? Got huuuuuuge... tracts of land. My family founded this town you know. We marked off tons of space years ago in case we wanted to expand. See those empty fields? Ours."

"And do you have seeds?"

"You want seeds? Just look around you, every apple these little monsters have eaten will have a bunch of seeds in it. Why? Don't know how it happens where you come from, but around here apple trees take many years to grow!"

"Not to worry, Applejack, we've got everything we need. Twilight, can your magic separate the apples and the seeds?"

"Probably."

"Good, that's great. Once that's done, we'll need to spread the seeds out. How many should we plant? A hundred? I mean how much land do you have?"

"Enough. You're really gonna grow that many trees?"

"Yup. Trust me, this will be great."

So the seeds were gathered and Susan handed them out. "They don't have be shoved into the ground, just place them every so often. I have to warn you, the spell I'm going to cast doesn't discriminate, so you might get other trees mixed in. It's for the bats, so I suppose that's fine. Oh, Twilight, I wonder if maybe we can work together on this. I'll need my magic stopped where we _don't_ want more trees to grow. This spell basically extends to as far as I can see, in the end. I know you and your brother can do barrier magic, can you tweak that spell to stop my magic getting out? Or maybe the princess would know something similar, if she can spare us a moment of her time. The spell will only need about a minute to work."

"I'd go and ask her, but I can't teleport that far."

"I can get you there, if you're willing."

"Sure."

So Susan opened her _Teleportal_ to the castle, and left it hanging there so she could get back.

With her gone, the Apple family got to work, with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Susan all walking a line and "planting" the seeds as Applejack suggested. (Susan hit Granny Smith with the _Alleviation_ knife, making her feel better than ever, and she even helped.)

By the time that was done, princess Celestia was standing there watching them, and they all went to one knee.

"Rise, my ponies. Ah, it's nice to get out of the castle once in awhile. Sparkling Magic, I hear you're about to grow Applejack here a new field?"

"To protect the rest of her crop, yes."

"I can provide a barrier, and I'd love to see your magic in action. This," she indicated the _Teleportal,_ "is certainly a wonder. I'll have to research something similar, now that I've seen it."

"I'd be happy to give you the spell diagram, but I doubt it will be helpful. We can talk about that later, I hate to keep you from you duties so if you're ready, we'll get started."

"Of course. Where would you like the growth to stop?"

They showed her and Celestia put a sparkling barrier up she said would contain all magic. As Susan had previously used the _Foliate_ spell (back in chapter 57, to cover the graves of the fallen drow with grass) she simply had to look the formula over to refamiliarize herself with it. That done, she took the two minutes to cast, and held it until the field was full of new apple trees, ready for the bats to move into.

"I see it, but I don't believe it," said Applejack, walking about. "It's like this place has been growing for years!"

"Yup. Oddly it's cast as Moon spell, relating to nature, rather than Saturn, relating to time. But I guess we can't argue the results."

"I'll say. I'll get a fence put up so the bats feel secure, if you can do your thing and get them over here, Fluttershy."

"I'd be happy to," she answered. "And thank you, Spark. I guess you're good for more than just beating up super villains." She winked.

"What's this about super villains?" asked Celestia. "Anyway, Luna's report last night was good, nothing to report yet. Thought you would like to know. Now, about that spell formula..."


	131. Chapter 131

131

Helping Hoof

When: 4th day in equestria

Where: Outside Twilight's Library

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Rarity asked again, looking worried. "I really hate to ask, I don't know what I was thinking, not making arrangements for her. Imagine my parents going out of town at the same time I am! And with all this Darkness business too, but life goes on and this trip has been planned for months and these show tickets are impossible to get and-"

Susan held up a hoof and covered Rarity's mouth. "I don't mind, honestly. Just have Spike send me a picture when you get there so I can reach you if something happens, on this end or yours. He can get me a message if you need me, and I can _Teleportal_ over to you if something happens to Sweetie Belle."

"Which it won't," put in Sweetie.

"Exactly. So please put your mind at ease, and concentrate on your fashion show."

"If you're really sure!"

"Go on, get out of here!" said Sweetie. "Your train leaves soon, doesn't it?"

"Well, all right. You be good, Sweetie Belle." Rarity hugged her sister.

"I will."

"Thank you again."

Susan nodded, and Rarity turned and joined the other ponies headed to the train station. With a final wave they went out of sight.

"So, will you?" Susan asked.

"Will I what?"

"Be good?"

"Of course!"

"I'm going to hold you to that."

"I could take care of myself, you know?"

"Maybe, but that's not the issue here. The issue is Rarity has asked me to look after you, and you're now staying at the library with me. So that is what I'm going to do."

"I mean it isn't that long."

"A whole week is pretty long, depending on how you look at it. I hated taking care of _myself_ the last place I was at, because I was separated from Sparkle here. It was terrible."

"Really?"

"Honest. Don't you have school pretty soon? I can tell you more about my travels when you get back. Do you need to bring anything?"

"I'll go get my backpack..."

With Susan going back inside the _scene_ ended and she was human again. "Aarg that's annoying! I'd make an item with _Shape-shift_ in it but I don't have XP. He could have warned me."

"Not useful outside this world though, but I suppose you could recycle it and get most of the XP back like he showed you." Sparkle replied.

"Right."

"By the way, why do you call The Darkness it but Silverstreak him? Neither really has a gender."

"Huh, you know, that's a good question. And I think of Inari as her..."

"Bye, I'm- Oh!" Sweetie Belle came downstairs. "I will never get used to that."

"Sorry, it wears off at odd moments sometime. I'll see you later, okay? Have a good day at school."

"Yeah, yeah." She left.

"Why do I get the feeling she's not super enthused about the learning process?"

"Were you super enthused about history or herbology? All you wanted to learn was magical stuff."

"That they couldn't teach me. Okay, I see the parallel. So!" She looked around. "These shelves seem extremely haphazard, you think Twilight would take offense if I straightened them out?"

"Actually, I think she might."

Susan paused in mid reach to grab some up. "Actually, you might be right. Better not risk it. We have plenty of time now, though," she settled herself down on the floor and pulled out her book of magic. "How about we try to narrow down where The Darkness will strike from around here? A couple of yes or no _Questions_ might be very helpful, don't you think? And I can work on _wards_ too."

"Sounds good to me," Sparkle replied, going to lay down in the corner.

"Don't go too far. I'll want some _shape-shift_ ones to start, and that's your department. Twilight was kind enough to put that alarm spell on the place so if somepony gets near the door I can transform before they come through, but if you're asleep or not nearby..."

"I know. Get them ready then."

So they worked on those, and Susan shoved them into her _sub-space pocket._ Then she paused. "What do you have in your _pocket_?" she asked.

"Not much at the moment, why?"

"Just a thought." She pulled out all her _wards_ and divided them up. "Not sure why I'm carrying around all of these things. You might need them too. Take half of them, and actually we're going to make a few more esoteric ones you can have, like _Telesummon_ and _Dimension Gate._ After that whole comic book thing, I would feel better if you had some means of reaching me. The next sub-dimension I get sucked into might not give me super powers, after all."

"That brings up an interesting topic," Sparkle said carefully. "I've been thinking about what I wanted to say about that, but I was going to leave it until we got back. But now is as good a time as any, I guess."

"You're against it."

"I didn't say that!" She waved a paw. "There's just something I want you to carefully consider."

"You're my conscience in a way, so I'll listen."

"Do you remember, after Tom visited you in that dream, talking about having his babies."

"The mental image will be with me forever, why?"

"We talked about you 'heading the call to adventure' and what that entailed."

"Getting XP and such, I vaguely recall."

"My point then was, and still is now, the universe gave you something and in exchange, expected a certain amount of 'repayment' so to speak. You're plenty powerful, but you save whole realities so it balances out, I think. Now you're going after something else, and a far bigger thing this time. A type of power not many people get to experience. You've seen worlds of magic, it's actually pretty common. Despite all the wacky restrictions others seem to run into with it, it's still magic. But worlds where people just have _powers?_ The ability to just do things? That's a lot more rare."

"I agree, that's probably true, though one would think with the sheer number of realities out there, powers, high technology, magic- they would somehow balance out. And it's not just a whim, it's by necessity. You didn't see that mainframe thing, it almost killed me! And magic was nearly useless there-"

"But we got through it. And that's the level you're at now. So that's the level of repayment the universe demands of you currently."

"You're worried that if I get more power, the universe will want more repayment?"

"We know The Darkness can step up his game. If he's starting to move material like this weapon metal across realities, how long until he starts moving people, too? In effect, you're both escalating the war until one of you loses. I'm just afraid The Darkness has further to go, as in the end it could sacrifice an entire reality by just blowing the whole thing up with you in it. It would lose the potential energy from that one, but it's losing more not using that option."

"You're saying it won't if I stop getting more powerful? That's nuts! Why would it say 'I will go no further in my pursuit of destroying Susan?'"

"I'm saying that you should be prepared to fight in likeness to yourself. Right now he's focused on magic users and misdirection. Like with Balor, not choosing the obvious thing to take over and surprising you from behind. But if you get powers, he's going to throw powered people at you."

"I thought you said they were rare."

"Realities with them are rare. But in those realities why wouldn't there be lots of people who can use powers? It would take the place of magic, after all, and usually lots of people get magic where there's magic to be had. It may be secret from those that don't, but it's still there, being used."

"True."

"Consider, not many people have your ten RESolve. If it started taking people over, and there's no saying he couldn't take over a bunch of people like he did with the warlocks, it could throw a bunch of people at you. Either by corrupting their power source or just putting lots of shards of himself into people. Do it quietly enough and on a world an agent of Silverstreak hasn't gone to yet, and who knows how many people it could pull out?"

Susan considered. "Because that's what makes a better story."

Sparkle nodded, a little proudly. "You're learning. That narrow escape you had, having to use a card to continue the fight? And then spending all your energy and 3XP to drive the weapon through the mainframe to kill it? Wasn't that a better story than just you going in there, casting a spell, and crushing the thing without a problem?"

"Knowing how reality works is kind of a bummer, you know that?"

"Why do you think I didn't tell you until we got here and it rubbed your nose in it?" _And why I still haven't told you the whole truth._

"I get it. I guess it is something to think about. And better to start thinking about it now rather than when we're about to step through a portal. Thanks for looking out for me, Sparkle."

"Of course."

 _That cat is deluded if she thinks your not getting any more powerful will stop me throwing whatever I can at you to stop you. Sure, I'd rather have you on my side, but having you out of the way is a close enough second I'd settle for it. You'd make a great addition to my team, going around helping subjugate worlds rather than save them. For once you're on the right track, much as it pains to admit it. I will keep throwing stuff at you until something sticks, whatever powers you manage to find or create for yourself._

 _Nothing has so far, and it never will._

 _But I like to conserve energy, you know that. You keep depriving me of realities, and soon the energy cost of stopping you will be less than the energy I would lose if I didn't. So I'd be more inclined to just open a portal to whatever world you were on and pour all kinds of expendable troops at you. Blowing up a whole reality? That cat thinks big. But that would take energy, and that is the opposite of what I want. For now I'm content to work with what the world offers, maybe bring over some metal, that's easy enough to transport. Even a person or two, I've got one in mind, actually, he should be free soon. Keep annoying me though, I dare you._

 _Don't worry, I intend to._

With that in mind, Susan asked _Question_ a few times.

"Will The Darkness reveal itself on this world within the next week?"

 _No_

"Will The Darkness reveal itself on this world within the next month?"

 _Yes_

"From where will The Darkness strike at me?"

 _The moon_

"Who has The Darkness taken over to strike at me?"

 _Unknown_

 _Really, you thought I wouldn't put up blocking magic around myself? What do you take me for? Every third being on this world has a powerful magic at their disposal. Even if mostly what they do with it is float things around._

 _Ah, so you're a unicorn, then!_

 _Or some other magical creature. They aren't the only ones that can do magic on that scale, you know._

"I better send a 'Dear Princess Celestia' letter," Susan said, getting up and getting some paper. "Have Luna check out the moon for me."

"In... Engish.," Sparkle reminded her.

"Crap! Wait, there must be something..." She paged through her book. " _Literacy_ , there is one. And it's only grade three, what grade three spell can I drop and learn this instead?" She looked her character sheet over. "Actually, why do I still have _Barrier Against Spells?_ I have an imbued _Magic Domination materia,_ which is way better. I would rather lock down an area totally than just make myself immune to magic, right?"

"Of course any allies wouldn't be able to do magic."

"What allies? Has there been anyone that could use magic that was actually useful to have around in any combat situation? I don't really recall any."

"I'd have to think a minute."

"Exactly. And this would protect them as well as me, if they stuck close. So is there a grade five spell I'd like to pick up in place of it? Let's give a look see." She paged through her book. "Actually, let's solve a couple of problems we've run into in the past." So she forgot _Barrier Against Spells_ and picked up _Literacy_ for 3XP, _Comprehend Technology_ for 3XP, and _Carbon Copy_ for 2XP. "And I admit, I've not run into any technology I didn't understand, but that could change. And I'm always copying spells out of my spellbook for people, so that tedious chore is done. In fact I could make a copy of this book now to give my dad when I rescue him, so he can have all Silverstreak's stuff to use himself."

"A nice little 'get out of jail' present for him."

"I know! Aren't I thoughtful? Twilight must have some blank books around here, maybe I can find one that's roughly the same size. Or we could get one, these books came from someplace so a blank one shouldn't be that hard. Anyway, let's write our letter."

So Susan wrote to Celestia and sent it off with _Send Object,_ muttering "Could have sworn I knew that one, but from writings is fine." That done she poked around the library as she could now finally read Twilight's books, and had some lunch. About a half hour before Sweetie Belle was going to get out from school there was a knock at the door and Susan hastily put her pony face on, requesting the spell 'until my interactions with whoever is at the door are done for the day.'

It was a pony she had never seen before. He was an Earth Pony with a dark brown coat, a black mane, and a paintbrush cutie mark.

"Oh, I was expecting Twilight," he said. "Is she in?"

"I am Twilight. _New_ Twilight. Don't let the fact that I look, sound, and act totally different throw you off. Looking for a book? Sorry, we're fresh out."

He looked about. At all the books. "So you ate Pinkie Pie and morphed into a new pony, is that it?"

Susan laughed. "Actually, she's on vacation in Manehattan for the next week. I'm minding the place for her. Sparkling Magic at your service. Are you looking for a book?"

"Some advice, actually. I might need some magic done, too. And she's usually amenable to helping ponies out."

"This is your lucky day! I am also known to get my hooves dirty from time to time."

"It isn't dirt so much as water I'm worried about. My basement is flooding and I have no idea what to do about it!"

"That does seem odd, given the rain around here is rather carefully regulated. I'm happy to come take a look, but I'm watching Sweetie Belle and I expect her home soon. Give me your address and we'll stop over when she's back."

"Thanks. I'm Bristle Brush, by the way." He gave his address, and Susan said she would be there soon so he left.

"How was school?"

"It was okay, I guess."

"Okay? Not super duper learntastic?"

"Uh, no?"

"What is the matter with them? Well, hope you're up for- wait, do you have homework?"

She sighed. "Yes."

"I'm sure it can wait. Bristle Brush stopped by, said his basement was flooding. I'm going over to take a look, so how would you like to come with me? I'm still not sure where everything is around town, after all."

"Okay."

So the two went over there and Brush let them in, then showed them the basement.

"This is one flooded basement all right," Susan said, looking around. She was standing in about knee high water, and Sweetie was splashing around.

"What's so strange about it is I've never had a problem like this before. Always been bone dry."

"I can get rid of the water easily enough, but I'm not sure that would solve your problem. Sweetie Bell!"

"What?" she looked guilty and stopped splashing.

"What would you do next to solve this mystery?"

"Wha? Me? You're asking me?"

"Shouldn't I? What if this was your house, what would you do?"

"I don't know." She looked around a moment. "I guess the water had to come from somewhere, maybe see if anyone is missing some?"

Bristle Brush snorted, but Susan nodded. "Good idea. Let's check for any nearby ponds or wells. Something raised the water table around here, let's go see if we can figure out what. We're too far from the stream that runs through town, so it's not that. I'll be back."

"So which way should we start looking?"

"I don't know. Maybe that way?" she pointed off in a random direction.

"Why that way? What's your reasoning behind that direction?"

"You talk an awful lot like Twilight, you know that?"

"Thank you. Now answer the question."

She looked around more seriously. "Okay, maybe this way?"

"And?"

"Because water runs downhill?"

"Good reasoning, it does look a bit higher there, doesn't it? Come along."

The pair didn't have to walk long before they came to a well that was in somepony's backyard. "Now here's a good suspect."

A pony pulling weeds looked up at them. "Can I help you?" She had a light green coat and a waffle as a cutie mark.

"Having any problems with your well?" Susan asked, tapping it with a hoof.

"Went dry about two days ago, so that's certainly a problem. Why?"

"Oh, just tracking down something for your neighbor, Bristle Brush. He's got a flooded basement, you've got a dry well. What do you think about that, Sweetie?"

"Maybe the course of the water changed? It's running down that way now?"

"Could be. Now the way to tell would be to go down and have a look. Problem is, I'm probably too big to fit down a well like this. But you could go."

"Me?" she squeaked.

"Sure. I'll give you some flying magic and the ability to see in the dark. You can go down and see what the problem is."

"What if I get stuck?"

"If you're not back in a minute I'll just teleport you back. There's no danger."

"Well... I suppose I might get my cutie mark in well inspecting. I'll do it!"

"That's the spirit." Susan put the spells on her, just making the difficulty for _Darksight_ thanks to a minimum roll, and Sweetie hopped down the well after getting the hang of flying.

"No wonder Scootaloo wanted to fly so bad. You have this spell and you don't fly everywhere?"

"Twilight can teleport, but she walks everywhere."

"Oh yeah. Funny how that goes, isn't it?" She ducked into the well.

A moment later she was back. "It's the weirdest thing," she reported. "It almost looks like a tunnel was dug and diverted the water!"

"What would do that?"

"I have no idea."

"Strange. Well, I guess the thing to do would be to block it back up again. Think you can handle it?"

"You mean lift rocks? I can barely lift a flower, much less seal up that passageway again!"

"I wonder..." Susan touched her with her horn again and cast _"Augment Skill: Unicorn Magic,"_ on her, and given her low rating even with the magic she had going, it was enough. _Sweetie Bell should now be at least above average at magic, as she doesn't have "planet ratings" either. That's a thought though, wonder if I could learn Twilight's magic now, given I can read her books. She must have books on magic, and I have an_ Adaptive Skill. "Go down and try it now."

"If you say so."

Again, a few moments passed, and a wet Sweetie Belle came flying out of the well.

"I did it! I did it!" She was dancing on air, literally. "I can't believe I did it!"

"Great job, kid. Now we go drain out the basement and see if this guy's water problem is solved."

"Do you think it will stay dry?" Sweetie asked as Susan _Teleportaled_ the water out and into the well.

"Not sure. We still have a mystery, don't we? Did that passageway you found always exist, and the water just eroded into it? Or did something make that tunnel? Always look for the root cause, Sweetie Belle. Ask yourself what caused what until you run out of things to ask about."

She looked thoughtful and nodded.

 _What, that was it?_

 _What did you expect?_

 _You made the kid do all the work!_

 _I gave her a chance to succeed at something and she did. Sure, my magic helped, but this was a solvable problem for her. I felt she was a little down going to school this morning, so I'm glad this came up. She'll have a story to tell her friends about the mystery of the well, and how_ she _solved the case. At least up to this point. That's no bad thing._

 _Ugh, it's this place, isn't it? So full of friendship and goodness and pony power. It's infecting you with friendship disease. Making you more thoughtful and want to be all 'what do you think' and 'how can I make this pony feel better.' Yuck. I'm not even sure I want the energy from here anymore._

 _You'll leave? Really?_

 _…_

 _…_

 _Nah. But I'll have to see what I can do to take these ponies down a peg. And you too, of course. I wouldn't leave you out of it._

 _You're all heart._


	132. Chapter 132

132

More Minor Adventures in Being a Pony

When: 7th day in Equestria

Where: Twilight's Library

The next few days passed uneventfully, and Bristle Brush's basement stayed dry, so that was a plus. She fed Fluttershy's animal friends, and looked in on the other's houses to make sure everything was okay. (Crime wasn't really a problem, but it was Ponyville so one ever knew what might pop up.) Luna came to her and said everything seemed fine, which Susan didn't admit to already knowing given the _Question_ she had asked. She did ask about the moon, though.

"I walked every inch of that place for a thousand years," Luna said sadly. "There was really nothing up there but me and my seething anger that my sister had betrayed me. Little did I know she was hurting just as much. Celestia can go there if she wants, and I will raise and lower it as is my duty, but never again will I willingly step upon the surface. I know every rock there, all of them mocking me for my weakness. Uh, by that I mean in giving in to the evil thoughts I had, not that I actually did not succeed in taking over."

"Oh, yes, I uh, figured that. All right. As long as you don't know of some other creature that's been sent there since then, I'm sure you would have run into anything else that could be a threat today. So we'll just have to keep our eyes open."

"I expect so."

"Thanks for all your hard work, and being away from the castle. It can't be easy."

She laughed. "I do not get out nearly enough, this is an excellent excuse. And you should see the night life in some of these- ahem. Yes, hard at work. Farewell for now."

The dream dissolved.

Susan read up on (and tried) Unicorn Magic, sharing what she learned with Sweetie and helping her get the hang of _Telekinesis._ (It was more just plain encouragement, as it seemed Unicorns had the same "magical muscle" that her friends back in Hogwarts had once talked about. So basically just practice and you'll get it, sort of thing, rather than her using _Magic Sense_ and offering specific advice.) She also helped, where she could, with homework but couldn't help staring at her while she held a pencil in her mouth.

"Why do you hold it that way?" she asked at last. "I mean you can stick things to your hoof, right?"

"I guess it's kind of hard this way," she admitted, spitting the pencil out. "And you can't talk to people while you do it. But it's how we learned writing."

"Try it the other way."

"Okay." With the pencil firmly stuck to her hoof she managed to write pretty well. "Of course, when I'm better at magic I can just float it around."

"True. But imagine showing the crusaders your new technique and having it picked up over the whole school. And you'll be the one that started it!"

"I will, won't I?"

Of course that got her thinking about what _else_ a pony could stick to, and when Sweetie Belle came home the next day she found Susan carefully walking along the wall of the library.

"Do I even want to know?" she asked.

"It's fun!" Susan exclaimed back. "Try it! You just have try picking the wall up and holding onto it. Now the back hooves are a little trickier because you probably don't pick much up with them. But it works. I bet you could stick to other things, like surfboards or... hey, what kind of tricks could Scootaloo do if she was never in danger of falling off her scooter?"

"Are you trying to get us killed for some reason?"

"Hey, your talent could be wall walking. Can you take the chance and miss out on your cutie mark?"

"That's a low blow, is what that is," she grumbled, but put her hooves up on the wall to give it a try.

Later that evening they went to buy groceries, hoping to make Twilight something special when she got back from her trip. She wanted to try it first, of course, as pony cooking and human cooking were slightly different. Sweetie was making some suggestions as they walked, and Susan happened to look up.

"Bubbles!"

"Who?"

"That mare! Bubbles! Hey Bubbles!" She waved her hooves.

"Are you talking to me?" Bubbles said, surprised, as she landed.

"That is your name, isn't it?"

"Most everypony calls me Derpy, or Ditzy Do. Sometimes they call me Muffin, which is weird. I mean I enjoy a good muffin same as the next pony, but I'm not muffin crazy. I mean if someone offered me a muffin button in my house, like I just hit a button and a muffin appears? Okay I'd probably take it. But I wouldn't press it _all_ the time. And now you're looking at me like I'm crazy. What were we talking about? Oh, my name. Yeah, I don't even know what my real name is anymore, people call me so many things."

"That's terrible!"

"Eh, I know myself, isn't that all that matters?"

"True, she has her cutie mark," muttered Sweetie.

"Say hello, Sweetie."

"Hello!"

"Hi! So, you need to send a letter or something?"

"No, actually. I have an offer for you. An offer and a question."

"Okay?"

"How would you like me to fix your eyes? And by fix I mean straighten, I don't want to imply that you're broken- they're broken, or anything like that. I just thought since I knew a spell that could do it I would offer."

"Wow, you could really straighten my eyes out?"

"I've done it before, and it worked then."

"When you did straighten my eyes out before? Am I repeating time again and forgot? That happens _so much!"_

"Uh, no. I mean I straightened somepony else's eyes who had a similar condition. Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear."

"Oh! I get it. Gee, thanks for the offer, but I think I'm going to decline."

"You're what?" asked Sweetie Belle, and Susan couldn't really believe what she was hearing either.

"It's like she said," she said to her. "My eyes aren't broken, I just happen to see a little differently than other ponies. I've gotten used to it, and hardly anyone teases me about it anymore."

 _Apart from the whole not knowing your own name thing._

"Being the way I am makes me who I am. If I change that, am I even me anymore? Is fixing my eyes killing who I am and replacing me with a pony that looks like me and has my memories, but who isn't me?"

"No, I don't think so," Sweetie replied after a moment. "It's just fixing your eyes."

"Still, I think I'll remain the way I am. But I do thank you for the offer, and the spirit in which it was given."

"Sure."

"You said there was a question, too?"

"Oh, yeah! What's your cutie mark mean? That isn't rude to ask, is it? Watching Sweetie Belle here has put them on my mind."

"You really want to know? Nobody asks me that. Wow. I'll be glad to tell you. Can we meet over in that cafe in about twenty minutes? I'll even buy you a muffin. I need to finish my deliveries for the day."

"Sure, that'll be fine."

"Great! I'll see you then." She waved and took off again.

"There goes the strongest willed pony I've ever seen," Susan remarked, watching her fly away. "I don't know if I could have turned me down with the offer I made. The person I cured almost did, but saw sense in the end."

"Strongest willed or dumbest?"

"Be nice. She's made her choice, and we should respect it."

 _Though I think I see a way to help her not regret it, should she change her mind later after I'm gone..._

They quickly got to the store and shoved the stuff back through a _Teleportal_ to make it to the cafe on time, where Bubbles ordered them muffins and tea and told her story.

Half an hour later the two ponies staggered out, and Bubbles flew off, a big smile on her face.

"Okay, better warn Twilight," Susan said at last. "She can warn everypony in town. Never ask Bubbles what her cutie mark means. Or maybe they know and that's why no one has to ask anymore?"

"Yeah. Who would have known it meant _that?"_ Sweetie Belle's eyes were wide, and she kept jerking them to the sides as if something was going to jump out at her at any moment.

"And that she could describe it in such, uh, graphic detail."

"What if I get something similar? I'm not sure I want to be a crusader anymore."

"Now, now, I'm sure she's... I'm sure it's not all... You should just... Your cutie mark will fit you, just like everypony. You'll love it, I'm sure."

"Are you sure?"

"Ummm..."

Still, once at the library and leaving some time for the shock to wear off, Susan sat down to write.

 _Dear Bubbles,_

 _I hope this letter finds you well, and that you will allow me a second opportunity to selfishly offer to help you. Enclosed you will find five sheets of paper with a funny symbol on them. These contain a healing spell, the same spell I offered to cure you with. As you will never have the opportunity to experience this magic again, I thought I should offer it to you one last time just in case you ended up regretting what you said to me the day we met._

 _It's a long story. You can ask Twilight Sparkle about it if you're interested. Suffice to say that when you read this, I will be gone from the world. (Not dead, don't worry!)_

 _To use them, simply touch the person you want to heal with the paper, envision them being better, and say "healing." It will heal just about anything, from broken bones, poison, disease, anything but curses. You will notice I included five, I didn't want to send you just one and have you save it for a future need but then never use it and feel bad about that later. Or you do use it, and the next day you wish you had it back because something comes up._

 _Please use the five as you see fit. They are yours now and the decision is yours, as it always was. You are a strong and deserving mare, and you have my respect whatever your decision is._

 _A true muffin fan,_

 _Susan Felton (A.K.A. Sparkling Magic)_

She sat and made five _Alleviation Wards,_ then put them into an envelope and addressed it to Bubbles. _I'll just tell Twilight to put it in the mail once I'm gone._

The next day Susan was reading something over for Sweetie when there was a banging on the door. She got her pony face on and heard the tail end of a speech that went a little like this:

"Come out, Twilight, for the great and powerful Trixie challenges you to a dual to show that once and for all that she is- You aren't Twilight."

"Trixie Lunamoon? Is that really you? Hey, it is! I wondered if I would see you around here anywhere. Come on in!" She pushed the door open wide and stepped to the side to let her through.

"Uh, the great and confused Trixie... is confused." But she stepped through the door anyway.

"Hi Trixie," Sweetie waved from the table.

"Hello. Is Twilight around?"

"Sorry. She's away another day or two. Manehattan. You'll have to make do with the adequate and well traveled Sparkling Magic." She gave a bow.

"After Trixie came all this way, she isn't even here? My grand entrance was wasted? Trixie is somewhat upset!"

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about that. You may choose to be upset, or not, as you please. If you'd like to stay in town I'm sure Twilight will be happy to answer your challenge when she returns."

"She never has before," grumbled Trixie.

"You're too showy. If you really want to challenge her, do it away from prying eyes. I know, I know, that's not your style. But then again, your style is failure, so perhaps not trying the same thing over and over would be in order, yes?"

"Well, Trixie... Just who are you, anyway?" She looked Susan over.

"I told you, Sparkling Magic. Let me take your hat and cloak and we can have some tea. And the cookies should be done momentarily as well."

"I helped!"

"Trixie will allow this."

Susan levitated her hat and cloak over to the hatrack and she sat down at the table. "I'm watching the place, and Sweetie Belle here, while the others are gone. But I know Twilight pretty well, and she does not like showing off. She's terrified that if people knew how powerful she was, they wouldn't like her anymore. Now me, on the other hand, I don't mind showing off. _For the right reason._ If I can help somepony or do a good deed, I'm more than happy to let everyone know how powerful I am."

"She's telling the truth, believe me," said Sparkle, walking in in pony form.

"May I introduce my daughter, Midnight Magic? Midnight, this is The Great and Powerful Trixie."

"Nice to meet you."

"You may just call me Trixie."

Susan grinned. "So, you really want to challenge Twilight to a magical duel, huh?"

"Trixie must regain her reputation!"

"I wonder. Midnight, Sweetie? What advice would you offer our friend here?"

"Give it up," said Sparkle at once. "Not worth the hassle."

"I disagree," said Sweetie. "I think, if done properly, Twilight might accept."

"Go on." Trixie leaned closer.

"Twilight... she's like Spark here. She doesn't learn magic to show off or be better than everypony. She does it to make sure she can keep her friends safe. I mean this is Ponyville, you never know if a manticore is going to wander through or the town will be overrun by Parasprites. But if there's a crisis, you can bet Twilight will be there doing everything she can to see everypony through."

"What are you saying?"

"I think I know what she means. You want to know what kind of challenge I would accept, if I was in Twilight's horseshoes? Make the duel to magically help as many ponies as you can in a twelve hour span- without them knowing. You each take a half of the town and you don't announce your contest at all. Anypony that catches you trying to help them doesn't count. You have to find out a problem they're having, solve it, and get away without being discovered. It's got everything. Who knows the most magic so they can solve the most problems? Who can use the least amount of that magic possible so there's less risk in being caught? Magic isn't just explosions, you know."

"Trixie doesn't know _what_ you mean. However, perhaps your idea does have merit, little filly."

"And that's the cookies!" Susan said, as the oven dinged. "Time for a break, Sweetie. You want milk?"

"Uh huh."

So the four sat and talked, and had cookies. Even Sparkle, who had developed a taste for them, at least in a pony body. Trixie was somewhat nice, when she wasn't posturing and making grand claims.

"And you say you can climb right up the wall?" she asked Sweetie, who couldn't help bragging about the odd things Susan had taught her. "Just by focusing on trying to pick the whole thing up?"

"That's right. And my writing is improving since I've been holding the pencil with my hoof instead of my mouth."

"Extraordinary. And you say this sort of thing just comes to you?" she asked Susan.

"The wall thing was just a passing fancy that happened to work out. I have no idea why other ponies haven't learned writing that-"

She was cut off by a crashing sound nearby, and everyone jumped.

"That can't be good!" Susan exclaimed. "We should go check it out."

Trixie got her hat and cloak back on and joined the others, and there was a crowd gathered around a house that seemed to have partially collapsed.

Susan pushed her way through and made a _Spirit Sense,_ getting a sixteen.

"There's somepony under that rubble!" she exclaimed. "Everypony who isn't a unicorn, get back, now! You!" She pointed to a random Earth Pony standing there, "This town has a hospital or something right?"

"I'll get someone right away!"

"Get back I said! Unicorns to the front." There weren't many, but even Sweetie Belle stepped up. "Start lifting that rubble. Carefully, we don't want it to collapse again. Come here Sweetie!" She got a quick _Augment Skill: Unicorn Magic_ again, and then started to help lift as Susan directed. She and Sparkle did what they could as well, Susan having mastered at least this much Pony Magic though _Adaptive Skill,_ and though Sparkle had only half the rating, she was at least average at it and could help. Slowly the collapsed house was tossed aside, piece by piece, and finally the limp form of an Earth Pony covered in dirt, scratches, and blood was gently lifted out.

"Get him onto the cart," said the medic that was on scene. "We'll take him from here."

Susan couldn't exactly whip her knife out, and another _Spirit Sense_ combined with a _First Aid_ of seventeen and nine told her that his spirit energy was still strong, and he probably wouldn't die of his wounds.

 _And if I need to, I can sneak over to the hospital later. Don't want to make a scene here, after all._

 _Are you sure? You always want to make a scene._

 _This would be a bit hard to explain, I'm trying to keep a low profile around town. Let the medical ponies do their job, I'm sure they have healing magic._

 _Fine, whatever. I'm not one to tell you what to do._

 _Since when?_

 _Since always! But then, I don't really see time the way you do._

Susan made sure before they left there were no other ponies trapped, and they sped off to treat the wounded pony.

"How did you know he was under there?" asked Trixie.

"His life energy. I can sense it, it's no big deal."

"No big deal? Trixie would love to learn this skill if... Could... you teach me how to do that?"

She shook her head. "I think if ponies- if other ponies could do it, they would already be doing it. I'm the only one who seems to be able to that I've ever met."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I'm more interested in why this house suddenly collapsed like this."

"Doesn't that sort of look like a tunnel?" asked Sweetie Belle, pointing with a hoof.

"Maybe a tunnel that collapsed? Oh, and nice job helping, you did good."

"Thanks. Hanging out with you certainly is exciting. Oh, oh!" She spun around, trying to look her hindquarters. "Did I get a cutie mark for rescuing ponies from collapsed houses?"

 _Little bit specific, don't you think?_ Susan laughed. "No, sorry. Keep trying." She carefully made her way through the wreckage and yes, it was possible a tunnel had been dug under this house that got a little too close to the foundation. So it did what all things do in gravity- fell.

"You don't think this is The Darkness, do you?" Sparkle asked on the way back home. Crews were already at work putting up a fence around the area and discussing the best way to repair the damage.

"Awfully roundabout way of going about things. That pony didn't even die, so it didn't get any energy. And unless he was Thor Pony or Dr Whooves in disguise, what does collapsing the house of one random pony accomplish? And what's it taken over? Some kind of giant worm? You don't have giant worms around here, do you?"

"Not that I've ever seen," replied Sweetie. "Are you going to look more into it?"

"Probably. But I'm not too worried yet. After all, once is odd, twice is puzzling, three times is enemy action. Just because two underground related things happened doesn't mean my enemy is up to something. What would be the point? It wants to turn or destroy me, and then take this world's energy. I don't see how a bunch of tunnels accomplishes that. I mean make the library collapse when I'm asleep? Sure. Make some random dude's house fall on him? I'm not buying it."

"I hope you're right."

"Trixie... I would like to hear more about this, if you don't mind," said Trixie. "Helping that pony back there, I see what you were talking about. Using magic to help others, not just for the sake of saying you know a bunch of magic. Perhaps I can help further? And you seem to be fighting some kind of darkness?"

Susan considered "We could always use another powerful spellcaster. Okay Trixie, I'll give you the run down. First of all, when I get back to the library, something you might consider odd is going to happen..."


	133. Chapter 133

133

Cure Quest

When: 9th day in Equestria

Where: Train Station out of town

And so Twilight and the others returned, and Sweetie went home. Susan reported, quite truthfully, that she had been a delight, and Sweetie couldn't stop talking about all the adventures they had. And what she had learned. However, almost immediately Twilight made plans to leave again which got Susan thinking what exactly she did to make money.

The others were more or less obvious. Rarity had just come back from her 'job' and she was constantly at work either making or coming up with clothes to make. Given how often she traveled and had designs featured in shows, her stuff must go for some hefty bits, so she probably wasn't hurting any. Rainbow Dash was the resident "weather pony" and literally controlled when the sun shone and when rain fell. She was probably paid by the town, out of tax money. Pinkie Pie was an official party planner, and her services were always in demand from what she had heard while walking around town. (Several ponies approached her to ask when she would be back, as she was by that time known to be a part of the group.) Applejack- too obvious to even mention. Keeping the town in apples, baking things to sell with apples, making cider, in fact that pony needed to hire some help! She ran herself ragged!

Fluttershy... now there was an interesting case. Did she run some kind of animal day care? Susan wasn't even sure. And Twilight herself, was running the library her "job?" Because as libraries go, it wasn't all that big. But the building had been there before she arrived so the books and things inside weren't exactly hers. They belonged to the town. So perhaps that _was_ her job. Enough ponies came and went during the day the week she was out, and Susan had collected some late fees, but not enough she could have made a living with them. Still, she felt it rude to out and out ask and hoped perhaps the answer would come along if she kept her eyes open.

In any case, Twilight and the others met her sister in law, Princess Cadence, at the train station. The pair planned to spend a day together at a nearby festival that was going on.

 _Something about a traveling museum? To some famous wizard, I guess. Maybe I'll pop in later, see what it's all about. Meanwhile I may as well keep taking care of the library, I should get her salary!_

With her guards dismissed and the train pulling away, Cadence took Susan off to the side. "Luna has contacted me in a dream," she said. "So I know who you are. I've got ponies in the Crystal Empire looking out for anything suspicious, so nothing will come from that corner if I can help it."

"Thank you, that makes me feel better. Have a good visit with Twilight, okay?"

"Will do."

The two marched off and the others stood a moment talking about how great it was for them to spend time together. That's when Pinkie Pie noticed the whirling shape falling from the sky.

"Get behind me!" shouted Susan, "Sparkle, get ready to drop _Shape-shift_ if I need to hold a sword."

"You got it," she replied, taking up a position behind Susan. _I'm ready to fight at your side now, and show I'll you what a martial arts using cat with my energy total can do!_

"There's no need for that," said the spinning shape, crashing into a tree. "Ow. My left antler!"

"That voice sounds familiar," both Rainbow Dash and Susan said.

Something in the tree sneezed, and the leaves burst into blue flames, burning away to nothing.

"Discord," the ponies shouted. Susan said it as well, but it was with narrowed eyes and more than a little concern.

And it was. The serpentine form of the 'lord of chaos' was there in the tree. Two different kind of antlers, one buck tooth and a tuft of hair hanging from his chin. Four different claws, even his eyes and eyebrows were different sizes, like no part of him could be symmetrical. The being that had ruled Equestria, the _entire planet_ , before Celestia had finally sealed him in stone and put him on display in her garden as a further warning to others that might get any ideas. (Or something, who knew why she put him there?) Discord could snap his fingers and reshape reality in any way he wanted, apparently without limit. Susan felt as vulnerable as she had ever been looking up at him. Before this creature of magic and "whimsy," all her spells might well be her just wishing really hard for something to happen. As effective as driving to a store to buy something you knew _was only available at another store._

She had done a _Dimension Sense_ as the spinning form approached _,_ getting a twelve, and she felt he shouldn't belong there.

 _But is that because he doesn't, or because that's The Darkness?_ _Either way, that is probably the most dangerous creature I've ever been in the presence of._

 _Hey! I take offense to that!_

 _No, I know what you want. And what you can do in these lower dimensions and counter it. This guy... he can just snap his fingers and make basically anything happen. Plus he's so random, it's hard to pin the guy down to what he wants. Not power, he already has that in spades. No, I'm worried you've taken him over and now he'll just snap his fingers and turn me into a duck or something. I don't want to accuse him because if I'm wrong he might take offense. But if I don't, well, what could I really do about it in any case?_

 _A surprisingly defeatist attitude, coming from you. I like it. I admit, the thought had crossed my mind. But there's someone around here much more my style. I think you're going to be surprised when you see them!_

"In the flesh," said Discord, sniffling. "At least I think it's all there. Can someone check?"

He dropped out of the tree in a heap.

"I don't recall him being blue though," she whispered to Pinkie Pie.

"Yeah, why in tarnation are ya blue?" Applejack asked him.

"I'd have thought that was obvious!" he exclaimed. "Can't you see I have the- wait a second. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven." He counted on his seven fingers, though usually he had only three (and a thumb). "Usually there's only six of you little ponies, and I don't see my dear friend Fluttershy among you. You haven't... **gasp** **wheeze** replaced her, have you? With this angry looking pony here?" His one arm suddenly shot forward to point at Susan.

"No, she's just off doing her own thing," replied Rainbow Dash. "Are you really sick? I bet Sparkling Magic could heal you, couldn't you?"

"Yes, how is it possible for you to be sick?" asked Susan, taking a hesitant step to the side and away from the offending limb.

"Ah, you must be Sparkling Magic. Charmed!" He sneezed and a house that was nearby started floating around. He pulled his hand back, got up shakily, and gazed down at them.

"Same here. Are you all right?"

"Oh, just the blue flu. I'll be fine in a year or two. I guess. Maybe."

"A year?" stammered Rarity. "What kind of disease is this?"

"You get used to it. Of course there is a cure, but I'm more interested in this... pony here. And that pony there." He pointed to Sparkle. "They're a bit different, aren't they? Their magic isn't the same, I can tell that from here."

"You can... of course you can. Why wouldn't you be able to?" asked Susan.

"Even in this state, I am still myself. Let's just see then, shall we?"

He snapped his fingers, and Susan was astonished to feel her connection to her _character sheet_ somehow break, and he was holding it in his hand!

She was too shocked to even move as he looked it over.

"Oh I see," he said at last. "That all seem to be in order then." He sneezed again and handed it back to her, dripping wet.

"Uh..."

"Oh, yes of course. How rude of me." He pulled a line out of the tree next to him and clipped the papers to it. "I'm sure they'll dry in no time."

"How did you even do that?" Susan blurted. "You can't just... I mean you did but it's... How..."

"It seems your new friend is at a loss for words. Chaos magic, of course. I am sort of a master of it? It's a bit on the fritz now though." He snapped, looking at the house that was floating and it was put back, upside down. "Ah, close enough."

"You mean there's a branch of magic that really can show me another person's character sheet? Or some equivalent?"

"Interested?" he asked with a grin. "I could give it to you."

"Hey, I don't trust this," said Rainbow Dash. "Knowing you there's some kind of catch."

"Rainbow, I'm hurt. Aren't we all friends here? I was just getting to that."

"So there is a catch," put in Applejack.

"If you call it that. She'll just lose her mind."

The ponies gasped.

"I don't mean right away, of course!"

"Why would I lose my mind just using this so called chaos magic?"

"Oh it does funny things to others," he replied, snapping again and restoring her connection. "Taking in the magic of the Chaos Moon will forever corrupt all other magic you do. And each time you cast a spell, a little more of yourself is given over to chaos. Soon, well, to put it simply and in your terms, you either die or become an NPC. No longer would your will be your own, magic would rule you. It's pretty handy though, think it over."

"Thanks but no thanks. Even if I could see character sheets-"

"It's not just that. You can trade in cards, see someone's exact _delay,_ even go back and retroactively prepare for something you weren't prepared for the first time. It's quite useful."

"And all it will cost me, in the end, is my sanity? Thanks, I have one being already after my mind, I don't need two."

"Too bad. You could have been my first Chaos Priest, and spread my words to other realms."

"As interesting as this all is," Applejack remarked, "did you come here for a reason?"

As if remembering, Discord sneezed again. "As difficult as it is for me, I'm here to ask for your help," he said pathetically. "As I remember now that Fluttershy is on that trip of hers to see the Breezies, it falls to you ponies to take care of me. I mean we are friends, right? And friends do take care of each other?"

The ponies shared a glance, as if trying to convince themselves that the others hadn't run off in terror and thus, they shouldn't either.

"Can you cure him?" asked Rarity.

"Oh no!" said Discord, as if shocked. "She knows full well the sometimes awful effects of mixing different types of magic. Imagine her magic pitted against something that can make _me_ sick! And don't think of using _dead magic_ to cure me either, thinking a magical disease will simply go away if you do. I'm basically made of magic, you'll kill me, instead!"

The ponies looked to Susan. "I don't know," she said with a shake of her tail. _Hey, finally got the hang of that._ "I have spells to cure disease, but that assumes regular, every day stuff. Not something magical in nature itself. Could it fight back somehow? Would every single microorganism get a resistance check against it? There's a lot of variables there."

"Best not to chance it," said Discord. "You never know what my magic might do, if you tried. No, I should let it pass naturally, in the company of my good friends."

And so the group found themselves in Applejack's barn, which she fixed up with a spare bed she had laying around. Susan, of course, had to send the _teleportal_ back for Discord because he said he was too weak to go much further from that spot, but finally he was laying back.

"There must be something you can do," Applejack pleaded. "I don't want to lose my barn for a year!"

"I don't want to antagonize him," Susan admitted. "In a clash of our magics, I'm pretty sure his will win. He doesn't seem to have any limits; energy, magical... I've been feeling him out, and his magic does feel _weird._ I can't protect myself, or you guys, if he decides he'd rather have me out of the way. I seriously dread the thing The Darkness has taken over, if it isn't him."

"Who's more powerful than Discord?"

"I'm afraid we'll soon find out."

"I couldn't help but overhear," shouted Discord, his ears shrinking back down from enormous size, "but if you are all serious about curing me, there is a way. Didn't I mention that before? I thought sure I did..."

"Let's hear it, this should be good," said Rainbow Dash.

"To the far south east, past the badlands where the dragons roam, there is a cave. Through this cave is a tunnel fraught with peril. At the end of this tunnel is an opening. Through the opening four pillars stand, carved with runes by long forgotten ponies. Past the pillars is a chamber, lit with eerie light. Past the light is a metal grating, ageless, timeless. Past the grating... is a breeding ground for a certain type of mushroom. Pluck a mushroom and bring it back here, and it can be used to create a potion that can cure this blue flu of mine."

"Why can't you just snap your fingers and wish yourself there?" asked Applejack.

"In my condition? I would never get past the guardian, of course."

"Guardian? Who guards a cave full of mushrooms?" asked Rarity.

"No one knows who put the guardian there," he replied in a whisper. "But it makes sense, doesn't it? To protect these mushrooms that only grow there? Obviously somepony, long ago in history, wanted to keep the place to him or her self."

"Pretty convenient you finding out about it, then," sneered Rainbow Dash.

"You do know how long I've been around, don't you? I wasn't always a stone statue, after all. And I have to do something to keep myself occupied, so I travel. See the sights. Poke into things. You never know what you might find, am I right?"

"So how are we supposed to get there?" asked Applejack. "Susan, can you do it?"

"Never seen the place, so I can't go there, not directly anyway. Sorry."

"Oh, not to worry!" Discord said happily. "I can show you where to go. If we get started now we'll just make it by sundown."

"You mean fly all the way past the badlands?" said Rainbow Dash. "Even for me that's a bit of a stretch."

"Not to worry," Discord said with an evil grin. "You have everything you'll need with her around."

Discord had snapped his fingers and created a sort of golden chariot, complete with harness for one. "I'm supposed to pull that? It's huge!" she complained.

"I think I see where he's going with this," Susan said, shaking her head. "But seriously, did you have to make it out of solid gold?"

"I could have used depleted uranium. Under the circumstances I showed admirable restraint."

"What's that?" asked Pinkie.

"A very heavy metal. Plus it'll kill you. Slowly."

"That wouldn't be fun."

"No, it would not." Susan got out two anti-gravity units she had stuck into her sub-space dimension and giving them a twist, stuck them to the chariot. "Okay, Rainbow. It should be lighter now, but here," she slipped off her bracelet, feeling weight return to her, and handed it over. "This will make you a lot stronger. Plus we'll put some buffing magic on you, to make you faster. Hopefully that should be enough to help get us there before tonight."

"Is that what that does?" asked Rarity. "I thought it was rather gaudy, but I didn't want to say anything. It being magic explains a few things."

"It's a memento of another world, and some good friends of mine."

"What are those numbers that just appeared?" Rainbow asked after she slipped it on.

"How healthy we are. Touch that light purple one there and say "Speed Up" to raise your speed. Sparkle?"

"Yeah, yeah, your favorite spell and mine. _Acceleration."_

"And now for mine- _Augment Skill: Pegasus Pony Weather Magic."_

She zipped from one end of the barn to the other. "Do you see how fast I am now? This is great! And you could walk around like this all the time?"

"Not if I didn't want to bump into stuff. Impress us with your flying power, not just running around. Come on."

So everyone piled into the chariot and Rainbow zipped into the harness, shooting into the sky and carrying everyone.

Susan got out her book and looked over _Tireless,_ and cast that on her too.

"Good thinking," said Sparkle. "Who knows if she could keep that pace otherwise?"

 _She probably believes she can._

And so the group landed at the cave, and the magic fell away from Rainbow. She handed the bracelet back, too. "Thanks," she said, trying not to let her excitement show. "For a while there, I was the fastest thing in Equestria. It's not something I'll soon forget."

"Actually, Discord can just snap his fingers and be anywhere. So isn't he still faster?"

"Thank you for that vote of confidence, Pinky Pie," sniffed Discord, wiping a tear from his eye.

"I mean that actually move from place to place in a straight line."

"Well, go on, straight through," said Discord, waving a claw at them. "You can't miss it."

"Come on," said Susan, glad to be away from Discord at last. "Let's go see what this 'guardian' is all about."

So they trooped through the tunnel. Susan was expecting traps or something of the kind, but the passageway was rather short, and there, as Discord had said, was a chamber. Odd light filtered down from above, shining through what looked to be various crystals, and there were the four pillars.

And three guardians. They appeared to be made of stone, three dragons with wicked looking spears in their claws. They were upright and tall, and each had a glowing crystal set in the forehead. One was set in front of the portcullis protecting the mushrooms, the other two at opposite ends of the room and within striking distance of the pillars.

"I don't like the looks of this," said Applejack, pacing around nervously. She put a hoof out to tap the statue, and jerked it back. Nothing happened.

"They are magic," said Susan, getting a fourteen on _Magic Sense._

"Here's the mushrooms," said Rarity. "What stops us from just floating them out to us?" Her horn lit up but then so did the crystal on the dragon by the portcullis, and she gasped. "It's redirecting my magic to itself!"

"What does that mean?" asked Applejack.

"It's like I'm trying to lift that whole statue by myself, rather than just a tiny mushroom. Twilight's the one you need for heavy lifting power, darlings, I'm more about quantity."

 _It's true, she's seen on the show levitating an impressive number of things at once, something my magic would struggle to do. No, that my brain would struggle to do. I often wondered how she multitasked so well._

"There's writing on these pillars, does it mean anything?" asked Pinky.

Susan touched it and cast _Literacy,_ and the gibberish resolved itself. "Apparently we need to have four ponies atop these pillars, that will open the gate. Hopefully I can then get past the guardian before the others can reach you and get out with a mushroom."

"What about just smashing them before they come to life or whatever?" asked Rainbow, whacking one with a hoof.

"Oh, yes. That would be the smart thing to do. Why does no one try that in movies where statues are obviously about to come to life? Good thinking."

"Of course! How about that, I'm starting to think like Daring Do already!"

So Susan became human and got out her sword and _Avatar of War_ state, and even remembered to get out a _Time Anchor ward_ and activate it. She smashed into the front statue with all her might and sparks flew.

The statue was undamaged.

Sparkle threw _Destruction_ at it, but the jewel just glowed again and redirected it to a nearby piece of stone.

"Okay, that's different."

"How about _Phase?"_

"I'll try it." Again, the magic was redirected and the statue itself was phased, which didn't help them much.

"Wait, try your magic now!" suggested Susan to Rarity, who tried plucking a mushroom.

The gem still lit up, and the statue stayed where it was.

" _Dimension Step?"_ wondered Sparkle.

"I hate to push it. Whatever that gem is, it seems determined to negate everything we try."

"Then I guess it's pillar time," said Rarity with disgust. "I guess you'll have to lift us up there, Rainbow Dash?"

"I'm already on top of mine," yelled Pinky.

"How in the world..."

"Just climb up!"

"But when- Never mind. What do you mean, climb up?"

"I can show you," said Susan, a bit sadly as it seemed Pinkie already knew about it.

"Everypony ready?" asked Rainbow Dash, about to land on the pillar.

"Ready!" everypony called. Susan was in position just in front of the statue. Sparkle was to hang back and defend the others with _Deflection_ or try to take the statues out by busting their legs or whatever with her Ryūdō.

Rainbow landed on the pillar, and Susan expected to roll _Initiative_ against the statue.

Nothing happened.

"Is it broken?" asked Applejack. "It has been here a spell. Get it. A _spell?"_

Susan rolled her eyes. "The gems still work, I don't know why the pillars wouldn't it."

"It specifically said ponies had to be atop them?" asked Sparkle, looking up at the ponies.

"Yes."

"How does it know?"

"I figured weight or something, you think-"

"I got mine!" shouted Pinky, and Susan turned. Hers was lit up with pink energy, the runes now glowing.

"How in Equestria did you do that?" asked Applejack, surprised.

"Just put magic into it. It's easy."

The others concentrated, and the four pillars lit up. As they did, the metal bars began to slowly rise with a scraping sound, clearing the way forward into the chamber. The eyes of the dragon statues seemed to glow, and as one they stepped forward, smoothly bringing their spears to bear.

Susan shot forward, hoping to at least get on the other side of her statue so she could be in position when the bars were fully retracted.

 _Wait a second, I know_ Deflection, _I should have had Sparkle dart under the bars, put a mushroom in her sub-space pocket, and get out again. Shoot._

The statue swung its lance in a wide arc, gouging the floor and making sparks fly. Susan jumped back away from it being missed by centimeters.

Sparkle held her action, waiting for the statues to make their move. She didn't have long to wait. _"Deflection,"_ she cast, as both stabbed towards the ponies nearest them. The spell went wild as their gems glowed, and both were forced to dodge or be skewered. Applejack simply pivoted, planted her front hooves and lashed out with her back hooves, knocking the weapon aside. Rarity did a most unflattering flattening of herself to the pillar while squeezing her eyes closed and yelling at the top of her lungs.

 _Like that's going to help,_ thought Sparkle. "Defensive magic is out too!" she shouted, "Get in there!"

Sparkle and Susan were up again, so again Susan tried to get past the statue but it moved like a serpent and blocked her path again. _Doesn't matter, the bars still aren't all the way up._

Sparkle cast " _Entangle!"_ but the plants were redirected to the entranceway, doing nopony any good.

Then the statues went again. _My goodness those things are fast!_ Sparkle thought, watching them act as one and again try to make pony kebabs. Rarity, eyes still closed couldn't exactly dodge this time, and cried out as the spear sunk into her. All heads turned towards her.

"Rarity!" everyone shouted, and Rainbow's wings pumped once, shooting her off the pillar and into the statue. She was trying to smack it away from Rarity, but as soon as she cut the flow of magical power to the pillar, the portcullis smashed down and the statues meekly took a step back and assumed their former positions.

"Are you okay?" Rainbow asked anxiously, holding her up.

"I'm afraid this is the end for me, sweet Rainbow Dash," she said dramatically. "Never again to see the light of day. Or make another dress. Or scold Sweetie Belle for doing something that she means well at trying but screws up in every. Possible. Way. Tell Twilight and the others that I love them all, and they were such good friends of mine-"

"If you can talk that much, you must be fine," said Susan, by that time standing next to her on the pillar. (It wasn't actually that high for a human, and Susan can jump really high now, remember?) She stuck the knife next to the wound and it healed right up, leaving just a red mark on her flank.

"Oh, I guess I'm fine after all," she said, getting up. "Goodness, that red does look fetching against my white coat, doesn't it?" She gasped. "I just had the most wonderful idea! What about instead of making clothes for ponies, why not just _paint_ clothes on? That would show off a ponies' physique and look simply dashing! Plus it would wear off so they would have to come have it applied again and again- the bits would just roll in! Oh I can't wait to try it!"

"Yeah, you're fine," said Rainbow, rolling her eyes. "But we need a new plan. That did not work."

"No it did not," Susan agreed. "We'll have to think more defensively next time, give you all armor rather than rely on spells cast on the fly. Because we saw how well that worked."

"Yeah, what were you doing? I could have gotten by that statue thing easily!"

"You could, could you?"

"Like it was nothing."

"Maybe you'd like to face it down this time, and I'll stay on the pillar where it's nice and safe."

"Why don't you do that?"

"Maybe I will!"

"Actually," put in Sparkle, "that's not such a bad idea."

"Huh?" both said.

"Think about it. They went for the closest targets, this pillar and that one. What if we were on those pillars instead? That would be way safer, we know how to _dodge."_ Rarity just sniffed. "Rainbow keeps the third one there busy with her aerial acrobatics and when the gate is up, she just zips in and out with a mushroom."

Susan considered, looking over at a grinning Rainbow Dash who looked eager to try it. "That's not a bad plan," she admitted. "We can defend ourselves better, no offense Applejack, that was a nice hit on your part."

"Naturally."

"I was going to suggest you going to get the mushroom, but you're in the same amount of danger either way. I can't think of any major problems with it, and if you're willing Rainbow Dash, we'll get it set up for the next run."

"Let's do this!"

So this time two armored "ponies" sat atop the two nearest pillars, and Rainbow was flying around the room. Susan held her sword with Unicorn magic, which apparently was enough for the pillar which was already glowing. Sparkle nodded she was ready and put power into it, so the others activated theirs.

This time things went much better. The statues were just as fast, but this time they faced opponents with lots of combat experience. The one even had his spear snapped off by Sparkle hitting it with Ryūdō, but it continued to flail about as though it wasn't broken so she just had to stand there, head cocked to the side like 'what are you doing?' Apparently it hadn't been 'programmed' with what to do should that happen. Rainbow Dash was as good as her word, getting into the room with little trouble, and held a mushroom up amidst the cheers of her friends.

"You did good, Rainbow," Susan admitted, ruffling her mane. She was back in human form, that _scene_ now being over. "You really are twenty percent cooler than me."

"Of course- wait, you even know about that?"

Everyone laughed in relief, and they presented the mushroom to a Discord who seemed to have gotten over his illness with an unmatched speed. He seemed pleased as well.

"Oh, well done all of you!" he congratulated them. "Especially you, Susan. Making that sacrifice for the good of the mission, why, I wasn't sure you had it in you."

"It was a good plan, and are you telling me this was some kind of test?"

"I had to _know,"_ he said at a whisper.

"You dragged us all out here for nothing!?" demanded Applejack.

"Not nothing. I saw your faces in there, you all felt great for having worked together and overcome a significant challenge. I might even go so far as to say you're just a little better friends now, or am I wrong? A little shared danger will do that, I've noticed."

No one had an answer.

"So we weren't in any actual danger?" Rarity asked, noticing the red on her coat was gone.

"I'll leave that up to your imagination," he said with a wink. "Now, a word in your ear, Susan, if you don't mind?" He was holding her ear and she slapped a hand over her head where it used to be. "And don't worry, the others won't hear this. Something is _coming._ Something I don't even know if I could stop, if I tried. You sacrificed something small this time, your place in the spotlight, and let someone else come up with the plan that worked. But the next time your sacrifice will have to be a bit larger, and again you're going to have to trust somepony else to come up with the plan. I hope you're up to it." He let the ear go, and it flapped over to Susan and reattached itself. "Let me know if you change your mind about being a chaos priest, Susan. We could do marvelous things together! Ta Ta, everyone! I'll be seeing you!"

He snapped his fingers and the chariot, the cave, the mushroom, and he vanished in a burst of light.

"Guess I'll just get us home then, shall I?" Susan said with disgust. "Thanks for the consideration, Discord."


	134. Chapter 134

134

Ain't no Tunnel of Love

When: 12th day in Equestria

Where: Library, With the CMC, with books

That afternoon, as "Twilight Time" was finishing up, Apple Bloom cleaned up her potion making equipment and came over to Susan.

"Uh, Susan?" she began.

"What's up, Bloom?"

"My sister has to go deliver some pies two days from now, and she's gonna be gone for nearly two days after that. She doesn't want me staying on my own but Sweetie Belle said she had fun staying with you so I just wondered if you weren't doing anything maybe you'd like to come and stay at my house so she feels better about the whole thing because I know she trusts you-"

"Slow down, Bloom!" Susan laughed. "I'd be happy to stay on the farm with you. Unless, Twilight, you know of something going down soon?"

"Let's see. In the past couple of days we've had Rainbow Dash's Birth-a-versary-"

"I still say Cheese Sandwich sounded familiar. I wish I could place that voice! But what a great singer he was!"

"Yes. Watched the Pony Tones perform after healing Big Macintosh, and helped me with teaching the Crusaders. The Breezies are supposed to head through town tomorrow, but honestly if you could just put your _Teleportal_ at either end they won't even have to go through town. That would only take you minute."

"True. I could just give somepony who's seen where they have to go a _ward._ Then I wouldn't even have to be there."

"So no, unless The Darkness shows up, we're set. Why do you keep glancing out the window, Scootaloo?"

"I just have the strangest feeling my entire class is going to show up for some reason. I can't shake it."

 _Great, did I somehow screw reality up for these ponies?_

"Don't worry about it," Twilight made a brush off motion with her hoof.

And so with the Breezies safely in their home without incident, Susan stood with Applejack and Big Macintosh before their apple pie carts on the 14th day in Equestria.

"And you're really okay with this?" asked Applejack.

Susan chuckled. "I'm basically freeloading off you ponies, and until The Darkness makes a move I can prepare here or anywhere. I'm glad to give you some piece of mind so you can get your pies where they need to go."

"Not that I couldn't stay here on my own," Apple Bloom insisted.

"You know, Sweetie Belle said the same thing to me." She turned to Applejack. "Must be about that age, you know?"

"I remember when I was her age. Well, all right. But it's not just her, there's a lot of work to be done on a farm."

"I saw the list. It's no big deal, honestly."

"Yeah, go on, big sister. We both know who this is, can you really say she couldn't handle it?"

"I suppose not. All right." She went and stepped into her harness. "I'll see you two in a couple of days."

"See you then."

That day went smoothly, Susan doing the harder chores around the farm and leaving the easier ones to Apple Bloom. The next day she asked if they could go and Susan could give her some tips on bucking apples. Susan said sure, so the two of them went out to the fields to practice.

"Now remember," she said, setting some baskets out under the tree. "Move your magic through your body and into the tree. Imagine it lightly striking all the apples and knocking them into these baskets. It's not about how hard you hit the tree, it's about how well you control your power."

"Here goes."

They practiced for a half hour or so and finally all the apples were off that tree, and they moved to the next. "All right, I'll get more of them at once this time!" Bloom insisted, delivering a mighty kick to the tree. Susan shook her head, about to remind her it wasn't about STRength when the tree ripped out of the ground and fell over. Both ponies stared at it.

"I guess I don't know my own strength," remarked Bloom. She turned to look at her flank. "No tree kicking cutie mark, what does it _want_ from me?"

"Uh, I don't think that was you, completely," said Susan, looking over the site.

"What do you mean? I bucked the tree and it fell over. Even I know about cause and effect! Man, my sister is gonna be mad I ruined a tree..."

"What I mean is, look for yourself."

She pointed down at the hole ripped open where the tree used to be and there seemed to be a tunnel under it. "What would have caused that?" she asked, walking around the hole for a better look.

"I don't know, and I think it's time I did. This is the third tunnel I've found around Ponyville since I got here, and it's starting to worry me."

"You mean like the well thing? Sweetie Belle told me about that."

"Exactly. Then there was that collapsing house, and thankfully the pony that lived there wasn't seriously hurt. If this problem gets worse there could be major structural damage to the town before long."

"And if we can't buck trees because they'll fall over, it's the end of Sweet Apple Acres. Are we waiting for my sister to get back?"

Susan shook her head. "I want to get to the bottom of this immediately. Go and get Sparkle, would you? She should be sleeping around here somewhere. We're going to see what's digging all these tunnels."

"Sure thing."

She returned with Sparkle in tow, wearing something odd on head with another one slung across her back.

"She really did buck a tree down," remarked Sparkle, looking down the hole. "And we have our third time."

"Which is why we three are taking a journey to _the center of the earth!"_

"You really think it'll go that deep?" Apple Bloom asked excitedly.

"I hope not, my insurance only covers holes less than six feet."

"Oh, here, take your lantern."

 _Lantern. Get a load of this kid!_

 _Hey, she hasn't been conditioned to think with magic like we have. And it makes sense, why be at a penalty when something technological will do the job?_

 _What the- you're actually impressed, aren't you? That she thought ahead. I don't believe this._

Susan took it and strapped it on her head, then moved the tree out of the way so they could get down into the hole.

"You think you can put it someplace else?" Bloom asked sadly, as Susan lowered it to the ground out of the way.

"Sure. I have a spell to dig a hole. When we get back and see where these tunnels aren't we'll plant it again. It'll be fine."

"Great!"

Beams on, the three wandered through tunnel after tunnel. Sparkle was in the lead, having the best dark vision, then Susan, then Bloom. The tunnels seemed endless, and there were multiple branches going off in every direction.

"I'm getting a bit worried," said Bloom, as they passed another intersection.

"Like claustrophobic worried, 'oh sweet Celestia I'm underground and there's no escape and I'm going to die' sort of thing, or just 'all these tunnels under Ponyville can't be natural' kind of worried."

"The second one. Who or whatever has been doing this has been at it a long time."

"I hear you. Where do you think we are now? The farm is pretty far from the town, you think we're at the city limit yet?"

"Maybe. We've come pretty far."

"These tunnels are awful big, too," Susan said, starting to walk again. "I mean I don't even have to bend down or anything. Where is all the dirt going? These walls are pretty even too, I don't think this was some kind of huge worm. It would leave debris and stuff as it scraped along. Unless it had some kind of acid skin, and was just dissolving the ground. That would be a scary thought, some kind of huge worm taken over by The Darkness, and I can't even hit it with my sword because it would just eat through it. And I couldn't throw magic at it because The Darkness would shut it down. But we did learn a trick, if Sparkle and I both cast something at the same time it can't get both. Would that really be something even Discord couldn't stop? There's another branch of tunnels, they really do seem to go for miles. Shoot, there's a spell that will provide a map of an area if you walk along it. I should have gotten that going when we dropped in here. We haven't made any turns, I'm going to get some paper and rush this corridor again, maybe do some mapping down here. What do you say, Bloom, do you mind staying with Sparkle for a minute?" She turned around. "Apple Bloom? And I'm talking to myself…"

And she was, there was no longer a filly following her. _Only the grim specter of her own failure for letting Applejack down when she discovers you let her sister die._

 _Knock it off, Darkness, I don't need a macabre voiceover._ "Sparkle, hey wait, Bloom is gone!"

She whirled and ran back. "Gone? It's a tunnel, where could she go?"

"She wouldn't be stupid enough to go down a side passage without me, right?"

 _Making a lot of assumptions right now._

Susan dug a trench across the tunnel with a hoof. "Just so we know not to go past this if I get turned around. Come on, she can't be far." She ran two steps then stopped again. "Ugh, I'm an idiot. Been hanging around people like Harry too much. _Telesummon."_ No small pony appeared.

"Oh dear," said Sparkle.

"Either she fell down a shaft, and so she's not in a general 'that way' direction anymore or..."

"She's dead."

"Yeah, let's not jump to any conclusions. Come on."

The two peered down a nearby juncture and Sparkle made a _perception_ check, getting a seventeen. "Look, signs of a struggle!" she pointed out, running forward a bit.

"So she didn't fall. Come on, we can catch up to whoever did this and maybe get some answers!" She dug into the ground again, then marked an E for 'exit' pointing the way they came, and the two were off.

This passage didn't go far before it split again, and Susan made another mark and pointed to the right. "This way."

"What, you see something?"

"No, I know something. She couldn't have gone _this_ way because my spell would have pulled her out. She must have gone parallel to us down this passageway."

"I guess I can't fault that logic. Come on."

The tunnels branched again and again, making Susan with her _no sense of direction_ completely lost. She was forced to stop and spend the two minutes per time asking _Question_ if Apple Bloom had gone down this way, but finally caught up to the perpetrators. She peered around a corner and into a larger chamber where a group of what appeared to be humanoid dogs were arguing about something.

 _Diamond Dogs,_ Susan recalled, from the episode where a couple of them had abducted Rarity for her gem finding spell. They basically lived underground and searched for shiny things, to what end though wasn't clear. Rarity turned the tables on them because they were kind of stupid, and she was a mane character (get it?) but these looked a little more rough and tumble.

There were six of them of various sizes, and they all wore a sort of vest with crystals shoved in the pockets. They all had a collar on, the largest one wearing one with better looking gems stuck into it. They had some lights going so the place was lit, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. In one corner Bloom was stuck in a cage seemingly made of rock.

 _So I'll just go in there, bash them around a bit, and rescue her,_ was Susan's first though. But then she had a second one. _That won't solve the problem. Remember chess. What's my objective right now?_

 _1) Rescue Apple Bloom without harm_

 _2) Figure out why these tunnels are being dug_

 _3) Stop them from digging more_

 _Just beating them up, they won't tell me anything. This calls for more strategic thinking._

 _What? Not solving a problem with outright violence? I grow more disappointed in you by the day around here it seems._

 _Then maybe for once I'm on the right track._

 _Grumble grumble._

 _Did you just say- never mind._

"Here's the plan," she whispered to Sparkle. "You go _Invisible_ and get past them. I'll keep them focused on me and you can get her through a _Teleportal_ and back home. You have a _ward_ for that, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. I'll see if I can get them to tell me what they're up to, and meet you back there."

"Got it." She backed off so the light from the spell didn't fall across the entrance to the chamber so much and vanished.

Susan got out her _Enhance Sword_ , not bothering with the _Crystal Blade_ because she didn't want to look _too_ scary and just make them run off. She needed them to think they had a chance and stuck around long enough to spill the beans.

She gave Sparkle twenty seconds or so and stepped into the light, sword floating next to her.

"I'll be taking my filly back now," she announced.

"Told you she would come," one smacked the other on the back of the head.

"How did she find us?" he replied, rubbing his head.

"Where did she get that?" asked another.

"Must be a trick," said the fifth.

"Quiet!" said the big one. "You are in our territory now, mare," it sneered. "You cannot make demands of us."

"We are many, you are one," said the smallest one, while still trying to hide behind the big one.

"You do see the size of my sword, don't you?"

"You see the size of our clubs, don't you?" one said, picking up some kind of snapped off stalactite. The others reached for theirs and grinned at her.

"Perhaps we could come to some kind of agreement," Susan said, hoping she sounded a bit nervous.

"Now she wants to talk," said the big one. "Not so much bluster now!" They all laughed.

"What are you all doing down here, anyway?"

"Doing what diamond dogs do," said the smallest one. "Digging! Looking for treasure!"

"What? Under an apple orchard?"

"Diamond dogs very thorough. Big treasure here someplace!"

"Really? Know that for a fact do you?"

"Told it! Told it! Won't share it with you, Diamond Dogs did all the work!"

"I don't want your treasure, you've certainly been busy down here. It must be a lot of work to create so many tunnels."

"It is, it is!"

"Quiet!" said the big one. "We tell you nothing!"

"Not even who told you about the treasure? I mean I would hate to think you were looking for nothing. Are you sure someone wasn't just tricking you?"

"Who told us? Who did tell us?" The big one looked at the others, who gave him a blank stare back. "Was it you?"

"I thought it was him."

"It wasn't me. It was him."

"It couldn't have been me!"

They went on bickering until the big one shut them up again.

"So you don't even remember," Susan said with a sigh.

"It's here someplace, and diamond dogs will find it!"

They howled.

"I'm sure you will."

Meanwhile, Sparkle had made her RESolve check to not freak out while walking past the dogs, (because of her _Phobia_ weakness) and got a fourteen, accounting for the -1 penalty for Invisibility.

 _I'm invisible, they can't see me. I can sneak past them, they aren't even looking this way. They aren't even dogs, they just happen to look like dogs but they live underground like dwarves. That's all they are, is dwarves. Without beards. Or axes. Or helmets. Or rousing drinking songs. Or a universal antagonism with elves._

She finally made herway over to Apple Bloom, who was waiting to see what Susan would do. _I could easily bust her out of there with_ _Ry_ _ū_ _d_ _ō_ _, but that is_ Spirit Energy _based and does make a flash. I don't know how sensitive to light these dog things eyes are, they probably have a better sense of smell than anything else. But should I chance it?_

"Apple Bloom," she whispered. "Hey, Apple Bloom."

She made her equivalent to a REAson check, getting a ten. "Sparkle, is that you?" she whispered back.

"Yeah. Look, while she's busy you need to get out of there. I can get you home but the magic will make a light. We need to go around the corner and out of sight."

"I'm kinda stuck in this cage, if ya hadn't noticed."

"Try using Earth Pony magic. That cage is made of rock, and you've been practicing using your magic to do certain things. Well, send it into the bars and snap them off."

She considered. "I guess if I can make an apple fall off a tree way over there when I'm on the ground, I should be able to make a bar fall off a cage when it's right here. Okay, I'll try it."

"No, not yet. Wait until they're totally distracted. I'm going to set the _teleportal_ up out of sight over there. You can't see me pointing. You see that passageway opposite where Susan is?"

"Yeah."

"Down there. Smack your way out and run towards it."

"Got it."

Just as the dogs howled, Bloom delivered a mighty kick to the bars of the cage, trying to force magic through them. With a two rating and five energy put into the attempt, she got a seventeen to bust out, and sprang free. She stuck her tongue out at the dogs and fled down the corridor, through the hole in the air and back to the farm.

Sparkle was waiting for her. "Good timing, now we wait for Susan."

"Will she be all right?"

"I'm more concerned about those creatures, even if they are mostly doglike."

"We will!" replied the dogs.

"I just have a sort of request though. Can you dig a little lower down? I don't mind so much you digging the place up, but doing it so close to the surface is causing the ponies trouble. And believe me, you don't want to cause ponies trouble."

"Trouble? What trouble?" asked one.

"Things falling into your tunnels, like houses. If ponies start getting hurt you know they're going to come, in great numbers, and make sure no pony gets hurt again. Where will that leave you?"

"We aren't afraid of a few ponies!"

"Really? What about a dozen royal guards, in full plate armor and trained in battle? A single unicorn is standing here, unafraid to face you, what do you think twice your own number would do to you?"

"We could still win!" insisted the big one.

"Not likely. Believe me, dig deeper and fill in the tunnels you've already dug. Besides, it's for your protection as much as the ponies. What if you're digging under something heavy and it falls right on top of you just then? You don't want that, do you?"

The group got into a huddle, and had a quick discussion about it.

"We'll think about it," the leader promised, turning back to her.

"That's all I can ask. Well, you boys have fun, okay?"

She turned to go.

"Hey, what about your little pony friend?"

"What pony friend?"

"The one we captured!"

"I don't recall any such thing."

"She's right- she escaped! You tricked us!"

"I did? When? I was just standing here and talking. One of you must have been assigned to watch her. Don't blame me if you can't do your jobs."

"It was your turn!" one said to the other.

"No, it was his turn!"

"No, I had a turn last time!"

Susan just shook her head and backed off down the tunnel. One quick _teleportal_ later and she was standing back with Apple Bloom and Sparkle and putting her sword away again.

"I'm glad yer okay!" Bloom said, hugging her.

"I'm glad you are!" Susan replied. "Nice escape job, I watched you bust out of the cage. You did good."

"Thanks."

"Now, let's see about getting this tree replanted, and then we'll head down to the mayer's office. I want to know what she has to say about diamond dogs digging up her town."


	135. Chapter 135

135

Ponies Learning Stuff

When: 17th day in Equestria

Where: Library

"So that's the story," said Applejack, as the sun was being lowered and the moon was going up that evening. "I hate to ask you for more help like this, Apple Bloom can't stop going on about how you moved those trees that were in danger of falling into those tunnels made by those no good diamond dogs. But this is serious!"

Twilight and Susan shared a look. "I remember those two, the Flim Flam brothers," said Susan. "They had a good invention, and if they hadn't pushed it past what it could actually do, they might have won that cider making competition."

"Don't remind me."

"The trouble is, there's really no law against selling a tonic, as long as can't hurt anypony," said Twilight. "As far as their claims, well, we would have to prove it in a lab, and nopony has time for that."

"But what about claiming it's magical when it ain't?" asked Applejack.

"There you might have a genuine grievance. I think we could stop down to their tent tonight and take a look for ourselves."

"Trixie would also like to come," said Trixie, who had finally cornered Twilight about the "duel" Susan had suggested, and they had been talking about the logistics when Applejack had arrived.

"It couldn't hurt," admitted Twilight. "Two known experts in magic and you, Susan, who has been seen around town now a little while. Ponies are getting to know who you are."

"Only because I fell in with your group."

"No, because the crusaders can't stop telling everypony about you," she replied with a giggle. "But even so, you're the only one among us that can tell if this so called 'elixir' is actually magic."

"Ahem!" said Sparkle.

"Sorry, one of two among us. But I don't think they would believe a filly... or a cat. Sorry, Sparkle. Even around Ponyville, that might be a bit too much to ask."

"Discrimination! Here, of all places! I can't believe it. One of these days it's going to be the world of the cats and it'll be humans serving us."

 _Wait, isn't that any world with cats?_

"Anyway, let's go before the show is over for the night!" insisted Applejack.

"Trixie, I have a mission for you," said Susan as the ponies walked out the door. "Find a police pony and have them meet us down by the tent. I want an official presence there if possible. Everypony knows you studied under Princess Celestia, Twilight, but that still doesn't mean you can arrest anypony, should it become necessary."

"That's true."

"Trixie will not fail you!" She galloped off.

"Come on, tent is just outside of town."

 _Why am I not surprised._

So the group, Apple Bloom included, went down to the tent and saw a white pony with gray hair singing his way out.

"That pony looks familiar," said Apple Bloom.

"That's the pony that got cured last night! What's he doing back here?" asked Applejack.

"Let's ask him," Susan said simply, since the cycle of suffering is sadly circular.

But he saw the intense looking group making a beeline for him and tried to scamper.

"Running now?" said Susan, having _Spirit Stepped_ in front of him and causing him to bump off her. "You must be feeling better."

"Wha- what do you want?"

"The thing I always want. Answers."

"I don't have to talk to you!"

He tried to dart around her, but two unicorn magic force bubbles appeared around him, and lifted him off the ground.

"Maybe not, but you do have to come with us," Twilight said, and Susan passed control of the struggling pony over to her. (Meaning, she dropped her part of the magic.) "Let's go inside, shall we?"

The group, now plus one, pushed into the tent and the two brothers stopped the money collection process midgrab.

"Now what's all this?" asked the pony with the apple slice cutie mark.

"It seems highly irregular," said the pony with the apple minus one slice cutie mark.

 _Which one is Flim and which one is Flam? Oh well._

"We've come to see if the claims for your product are true," Susan said, forcing her way through the crowd with ease. (Partially due to the fact she was far stronger than anypony here, and partially because most of the crowd was the sick, infirm, or aged. They couldn't fight back if they wanted to.)

"Ask him," said the pony Susan was now going to think of as "Flim." "He'll tell you, we all saw it right before our very eyes!"

"Oh, I can do you one better than that," insisted Susan. "Applejack, when did you say you saw this pony before?"

Applejack gave her the time. "Excellent." Susan jumped on stage and faced the ponies gathered there. "Hello friends, just one moment of your time and I guarantee, you'll be an angry mob in- I mean we'll get to the truth of this matter in no time. What you're about to see is time, yes time my friends, replayed here right before your very eyes. Let's see what Applejack saw just earlier this day, shall we? _Time Area!"_ With a fifteen result, time started replaying, and there was a ghostly copy of the brothers onstage, and this very pony was seen taking the 'elixir' and getting down off his crutches.

"Same glasses, and same... overalls to hide the obvious cutie mark."

"Just a coincidence," assured 'Flam.'

"Uh huh. What do you say, oh crowd?"

They started shouting for more proof, and Susan looked over at the brothers.

"Say now, you can't just come barging in here and take over our show. We'll have the police after you!"

"You're in luck," Susan said, as Trixie and a pony with a police cap came in from the entrance. "We can have this out right here." She waved for silence and the crowd complied.

"For now, you all go home. If this tonic works, it'll be here tomorrow. You can come back then. If it doesn't, well, these fine boys will either be behind bars or singing a different tune."

"Move along here!" ordered the officer pony. "Clear this tent."

"There's no law against selling our tonic!" insisted Flim when the tent was empty.

"But potions are regulated," shot back Twilight, floating a bottle of the stuff over to her. "And I don't see any ingredients listing on this bottle. That's flouting the law as well."

"For this very reason," explained Susan to Bloom, who nodded. "Plus, if a pony was allergic to one of the ingredients, the brothers could be sued if they died after taking it. So it protects them as well as the consumer."

"Potions? Who said our tonic was a potion? We made so such claim, did we brother?"

"No we did not, brother!"

"Now just a dog gone minute. I heard you say your cure was magical! Su- Sparkling Magic can use her time spell and prove it."

"Ah, now there you're mistaken," said Flam. "We said our cure 'sounded' magical, but we made no claim as to be actually _being_ magical."

Her mouth dropped open a little bit.

"Is that right, miss?" asked the officer.

Applejack grabbed the bottle and looked at the label. She looked around the tent. All that was there was signage relating to the name. It didn't say magical anywhere. "I guess it is. But it's awfully underhoofed, leading ponies on like that."

"We're sorry you misunderstood. Now, perhaps if this matter is cleared up?"

"There's still the issue of the product label," said the officer, grabbing the bottle for himself. "And the claim this pony has been seen cured twice. How do you respond to that accusation?"

"I've... never been here before tonight?" hedged the pony, who was still floating in the air.

"You claim that isn't you?" The police pony pointed to the still image of the pony on stage, frozen where Susan had "paused" the magic.

"Yes?"

"Somehow I'm not convinced."

"How do we know that isn't some kind of illusion?" asked Flim.

"I was here," said Applejack. "As was my sister, my brother, and my grandmother. We'll all give an official statement this is the scene we saw earlier."

The officer considered. "It's still a bit of your word against theirs, but if this filly here will come with me to the station and cast the same spell, perhaps we can verify it truly does show the past."

"Happy to oblige!" said Susan.

"Then let's go, all three of you."

"Wait!" said both brothers. "There must be some sort of agreement we could come to here?"

"Yes, a meeting of the minds. Anything!"

"Scared?" asked Susan. "All right officer, let's say these boys made an honest mistake and were looking to rectify the situation to avoid jail time. Of course they would have to refund all money so far taken in."

"Of course."

"Label the bottles properly."

"Goes without saying."

"And I can't help but notice..." She rewound the _Time Area_ and let it play again. "The claim of how quickly the product works. I mean that pony was cured like magic." _Like my magic. I could cure all those ponies that come here, and then spend my life doing nothing but that. I didn't realize in such a magic society ailments like that even could exist. Weird. I suppose I shouldn't feel bad. I do plan on doing something similar back home, once I find Luna and rescue my father._

 _And leave all other worlds to burn, is that it? Suits me fine._

 _Oh, right. Darn, what am I going to do..._

"What are you driving at?"

Susan shook her mane to clear her head. _Time to consider that when I've actually done the two things I'm trying to do._ "I'm saying they must offer a 100% money back guarantee. Let the buyer take the product on stage. If they're cured, fine. If they aren't..." she looked over at the brothers.

"What if we toned our act down a bit, just said the juice- I mean tonic had certain health benefits? That it wasn't a cure all?"

"That would be acceptable."

"You're willing to drop the charges against them if they do that?" he asked Applejack.

"Refunds, better labeling, and less wild claims? Yes, that'll be fine."

"Very well. I'll be round in the morning to make sure you're keeping your end of the bargain."

"Of course, officer. Of course!"

"Then I wish you ponies a good night."

"Woohoo!" said Applejack as the group came out of the tent. "That showed em! Thanks for your help, everypony."

"Did we?" asked Susan. "Lately I've been trying to think more about solving the problem instead of just the short term solution." _Like this Darkness problem I'm having. All these worlds, is this really the best way to about things?_ "And I have to ask myself, what would I do in their hooves?"

"You heard them... oh. Well, what would you do?"

"Pull up stakes in the dead of night and be gone by morning. There's lots of towns out there but only one Applejack to get suspicious of them. They start up in a new town and no pony questions it, we haven't solved anything."

"You think they didn't mean a word of what they said?"

"I think that's a distinct possibility."

"I'll have some officers stake the place out tonight. If they try to run, we'll catch them."

 _Oh yeah, I was thinking I would have to come out here tonight myself. Rough them up a little if I caught them leaving. But we have the law on our side this time. Why am I a bit disappointed and why does that scare me?_

"But what would you charge them with?" asked Twilight. "Just leaving isn't against the law."

"Ah, but the deal with Applejack here was they do certain things. We can still arrest them for fraud and unsafe food handling if they aren't going to uphold their side. Packing up shows clear intent to defraud. You can come down to the station and make your statement now, if you'd like. Just so we have everything nice and tidy for the morning."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Come along, Apple Bloom. The rest ya'll, I'll see tomorrow."

"See you, Applejack."

The next morning, Twilight slipped a paper over to Susan and showed her the picture on the front page of the brothers being led away in hoofcuffs. "They tried to run," she said, pointing to the headline.

"Now we've solved the problem," said Susan with a grin.

Later that day she heard some kind of rhythmic thumping coming from upstairs and suddenly a drum was added. It cut off rather suddenly, but Susan had _Curious_ so she went up to see what was going on.

She found Rainbow Dash sitting on a simple stool, and Twilight in front of a chalkboard with some ponies drawn on it, separated by chalk lines.

Twilight looked annoyed. Dash looked bored.

"Hey Susan!" called Dash. "You don't have a spell to help me learn stuff, do you?"

"Sort of. What's this?" Susan walked over to the board and looked it over.

" _This_ is my lecture on the history of the Wonderbolts," she growled. "But it seems Rainbow Dash here would rather goof off than learn it."

"Why do you want to?" Susan asked her.

"I don't," was the reply.

"Seems a bit of wasted effort then."

"She _has_ to learn it," Twilight insisted. "If she wants to pass the test and become a reserve member of the Wonderbolts."

"Ah. I see. Aren't they just, like, stunt flyers or something?"

"They have a lot of functions, actually," Twilight explained. "Their role has evolved over time. Maybe _you_ should listen to my history lecture!"

"I'd love to. But then, I don't have to pass a test about it, so my interest would be purely to satisfy my curiosity. Not to actually memorize a bunch of stuff. Two very different things."

"But you could," asked Dash slyly.

"I have a good memory, and still one point left in _history_ from my _history of magic_ class. I could probably make that check if I put my mind to learning- why are you grinning at me like that."

"You could turn into me and take my test for me!"

"Uh, no. Sorry Dash, but that's not going to happen."

"Why not? You seem to like learning new stuff, just like Twilight. I just want to fly."

"And therein lies the reason they probably make you do it."

"Huh?"

"Look, Rainbow Dash," she grabbed the stool and sat down. "What does a flying group need with ponies learning history anyway?"

"That's what I said!"

"Because it isn't about learning history. And that's the point."

"I say again: huh?"

"Look, they need to know you have a certain discipline about yourself. But they can't really test for that directly, can they? I'm sure being a Wonderbolt isn't all lounging around and getting wing massages. It's a lot of hard work. One way to weed out candidates who might just give up is with things like... a history test. Can you demonstrate at least a passing willingness to do something you don't want to do in order to do something you do want to do? In your case, fly with the Wonderbolts. If you can, great, you've shown your mettle in a way they can quantify. If you can't then your desire isn't strong enough and you're out."

"I guess I can see that. But what am I supposed to do? Listening to Twilight drone on about stuff that happened over a thousand years ago is boring!"

"I do not 'drone,'" Twilight said in a huff.

"That long, huh? I guess that's the downside to having an immortal ruler. They think their own personal history is the length of time ponies should learn about." She waved a hand. "But that aside, you have two... no three choices. The first, and easiest; give up. Do you want to give up?"

"No!"

"Then you have two choices. The first is buckle down and endlessly repeat the facts to you, as given by Twilight, and force them into your brain. Keep them there long enough to pass the test and hope you do all right. This is called 'cramming' by the way."

"I don't recommend it," put in Twilight.

"Eh, it has it's place. Unless you're going to be retested sometime down the line, it could get her through."

"And the other option?"

"Goes back to what you said about us. We like learning stuff. We're curious about things for various reasons. Me, because how different worlds have evolved over time is rather interesting. I would look for parallels to other worlds in a history lecture, maybe your Wonderbolts have some parallel to groups from worlds I've been to. Plus I'm just curious about stuff. You aren't. And you're never going to learn about something you aren't interested in. That's just a fact. Take me and _Astronomy,_ back when I was growing up. I wanted to just learn magic, and spells, and about my abilities that no one seemed to have but me. So I basically cheated. I put a single point into the skill and when test time came, I put _Augment Skill_ on myself and passed them that way. I didn't want to learn it, I was never going to learn it. But I was somewhat okay with putting points into _Animal Handling_ or _Imbuing_ that I did all the time. I learned- the stuff I had a desire to learn. _Could_ I have learned _Astronomy?_ Sure, like I said, I have a good memory. But it was the desire to learn that drove my ratings. It's the same with you. Either get interested, come at it from a point you can relate to, like how flying formations have changed over time, or forget it. Because no amount of learning will happen for those that don't care."

"Maybe that's where I went wrong," mused Twilight, magically picking up her clipboard. "I've been focused on Rainbow's _style_ of learning, but not the _content_ of the lesson. Maybe I should have tailored it a bit more."

"Oh, by all means, the style is important," agreed Susan. "She may be a kinesthetic learner, and given her obsession with flying that's probably the case. Trying to get her to sit still like this probably is torture for her. Get her moving. Have her act out the history you're trying to learn, rather than just passively absorbing it. You're not stupid, Dash, you can learn this. Just find your way."

"I'll keep trying, it seems I have no choice."

"Just be thankful you have such a good friend in Twilight here, who is willing to go the extra mile for you. I'm sure she has other things she's rather be doing."

"Oh. Yeah. Thanks."

"It's okay," she replied with a grin.

"Good luck."

"Wait, what did you mean when you 'sort of' had a spell to help me learn things?"

"Oh, that you remember? I can transfer my rating in something to someone else. If I sat and learned everything I could instantly pass it on to you. I'm not, so don't ask. This is your struggle. Embrace it!"

"I know. Let the... learning... begin."


	136. Chapter 136

136

What Else Am I Good For?

When 19th day in Equestria

Where: Train into the Rainbow Falls

"Wow." Susan stood on the train platform and looked up at the cascading water that flowed, seemingly from every corner. Somehow there were a multitude of waterfalls in this part of the world, and each one seemed to have a rainbow of color shot through it. It even looked like the source of water for the town was a waterfall, hanging in midair, that fed a small pond and stream that then further went tumbling to the ground below. They had come rather a long way up the mountain, but Susan had to say, this was a pretty unique view.

"So?" asked Pinkie Pie, waving a hoof. "Aren't you glad you came along?"

"This is an impressive sight," she admitted, "but how do they stay up? I mean that one seems to pass through a cloud, of all things."

"Magic, silly."

"Ugh, now I know how others feel when I say that. It's magical all right. Thanks for insisting I come."

"Of course. Plus, I think you're going to be needed today!" she said with a wink.

 _Oh yeah, I wanted to actually do some tests to see if Pinky was some kind of Seer. I... have no idea what those tests would entail, but it completely slipped my mind. She's effective enough without me knowing for sure, and maybe that's all part of her gift too. Not being pinned down._

The group was headed to a "swap meet," and Susan figured she probably wasn't going to 'swap' for anything. Most of what was in her _sub-space pocket_ at the moment were either gift/memento type objects like the stuffed Moogle and huge Shuriken, actual weapons like her shotgun, or totally dangerous like that cask of basilisk venom she was still carrying around. She wasn't about to give up any of it, not for anything she might find around here.

But the others seemed excited, and it seemed Celestia herself was there as some kind of arbiter of the whole thing, so at the very least she could stop by and talk to her.

It wasn't a half hour after they got there that Rainbow Dash dropped out of the sky next to Susan.

"There you are!" she said. "Quick, you've got to come with me!"

"I do?" She found herself being pushed along. "I guess I do." She found herself in front of a booth filled with, of all things, statues of Discord. Holding a light bulb. "Oh, it's a lamp!" she said, looking one over. "Say, did you make these?" She looked over at the pony behind the counter and noticed something odd. What wasn't odd was the fact he was a pegasus, or his black and purple mane. No, the odd thing was being strapped into something like a cart, with large wheels on the back. _He must be paralyzed?_

He nodded.

"Not bad, you've actually captured him very well."

"Thanks."

"I thought you might be able to cure him," whispered Rainbow Dash. "That would be worth a stupid lamp, right?"

"You want a Discord lamp?"

"I don't. That guy with the Orthros does. Then I can trade the Orthros for the book I want!"

"Ah. Well, I'll offer." _What's an Orthros?_ "So my friend here wants a lamp, and I have a rather unconventional trade to offer you."

"She said it was the chance of a lifetime, which sounds a bit suspicious."

"Well, unlike certain brothers I could name, my cures are actually magical. Plus they, you know, work? Would you trade a lamp for never needing to be in that brace of yours again?"

"That's impossible," he scoffed. "I have a spinal injury from an accident years ago. I'll never walk, or fly, normally again."

"And that's where you're wrong. I can heal you."

"Really."

"Really."

"I'll give you all my lamps if I can fly out of here. Give me the sky back and I'm not sure what I would do."

"Did you hear that?" squealed Dash. "Make with the magic so I can get my lamp."

"How's your studying going, by the way?" Susan asked her.

"You're asking me this now?!"

"I'm not just a magic dispenser, you know."

"I thought you liked helping ponies with your magic."

"I do. And I'll help this one here. I just want to be sure you appreciate it and your studies are going well. Tell me some historical facts about the Wonderbolts and we'll call this even."

"I do appreciate it, and we don't have time for this! That book could be traded away at any moment! Please! I'll tell you some later!"

"Okay. Stand still, sir, this will take a few minutes." Sparkle cast _Accelerate Magic._ "A few less, now."

Five minutes later, after an impressive light show that drew a few curious ponies to see what was going on, she unbuckled the harness keeping the pony on his wheels and he shakily stepped out of them. _I could have used the knife, but these ponies are used to magical glows, if not the circles my magic makes, but that's something he knows and can accept. I spent a few minutes at the beginning to save an hour of trying to explain a healing knife at the end._

"I'm standing," he said, awed, then flexed his wings. With a mighty push he went into the air, and gave a whoop of delight. "I'm flying again!" The ponies nearby clapped for him, and he came to a heavy landing. "Everything seems to be in order, I... I can't believe it. How? How did you do this?"

"You watched me. I used my magic."

"Can I have my lamp now?"

"My booth is yours," he said, not one to go back on a promise.

"I just need the one, thanks Spark, bye!" She grabbed a lamp and flew off with a woosh.

"Sorry about her," said Fluttershy, taking off too. "She's just really excited about this book."

"NERD!" Susan shouted after them.

"I really can't thank you enough," said the pony. "I was told not even magic could fix me, but here I stand. This... this is the best day..." Tears were filling his eyes.

"My magic is a bit different than most," Susan admitted. "And I'll just take one lamp myself." She chose one of Discord upright. "You don't have to give me your whole stock."

"Oh, but I insist! That was the deal!"

She slipped it into her sub-space pocket, laughing. "Then I'll make you a new deal. I'll trade _my_ lamps for _your_ old cart. Seeing as how you probably don't ever want to see it again."

"You want this?" He gave the thing a kick.

"Yup."

"I guess if you think that's fair."

"It is for me."

"Take it. I can't thank you enough, honestly."

"Have a good day," she said, taking it. She stuck it into her _Pocket Dimension_ from writings _,_ which was empty at the moment, as it was pretty big. The cart, not the _Dimension._ That was limitless, unlike her _pocket._ She didn't need it cluttering up that space. _If I need a pony cart, I'll take the extra time and energy to get it out._

"Why did you take his cart?" Sparkle asked when they were away from the booth.

"Well I didn't want his lamps. One is fine, imagine showing an actual Discord lamp to my friends... _that I can say I actually got in Equestria, made by a pony! It would have infinite value!_ Plus, he needed other stuff to trade, I hated to make him leave empty... hoofed. _"_

"Yes, I suppose. But why the cart?"

"That's another kind of reminder."

"Oh."

"There you are! Quick, you've got to come with me!" Susan found herself being shoved again.

"What the? Did someone change the Matrix?"

"What? Come on!"

"Gonna be that kind of day."

Susan was now standing before a stall displaying a book, and Fluttershy was holding the leash of a two headed dog bigger than she was.

"Oh, that's an Orthros."

"She said she didn't want it anymore unless Fluttershy goes to live with her in Manehatten until it's trained!"

"Well I can't make you another Fluttershy, Dash. This reality isn't large enough to hold that much cuteness."

"Oh my gosh!" said Fluttershy, coloring and putting a wing over her head.

"I mean just the one is almost too much! She's making _me_ cuter just by standing here next to her."

"Stop!"

"No, no, I thought you could do that spell, you know, the one you said could transfer knowledge? If you gave this lady Fluttershy's knowledge of animals, she would be happy."

Susan looked over at this pony. She was an Earth Pony, unless that hat of hers was covering a horn. Orange and yellow mane, light yellow coat, and three teddy bears as a cutie mark.

 _Do they call them teddy bears, here? That would be an odd parallel._

"What about it," asked Susan. "If I gave you Fluttershy's knowledge of animals, plus the Orthros, would that a fair trade for the book?"

"You can do that?"

"Yes I can."

The pony looked between Susan and Dash, who was nodding her head jerkily. (Not like a jerk, I mean up and down really fast.) "This I have to see."

So Susan got to work magnificently managing more magic. She made a _ward_ from her book with _Unlock Potential_ in it, then handed it over to Fluttershy.

"What's this?"

"The spell. Touch this pony and think about transferring your knowledge of animals to her. Then say 'illuminate.' It'll be done."

"I thought you were going to do it," said Dash.

"The spell transfers knowledge that the caster possesses. I can't suck her knowledge out, she has to do it."

"Oh. However it has to work, I guess."

"But I don't want to lose my knowledge of animals!" protested Fluttershy.

"No, no, it's making a copy of your knowledge. You won't lose anything, believe me."

"And you've used it before?"

"Once at least, if not a couple of times. What, after all this time _now_ you don't trust me."

"No... I do. Okay."

"Well, I do seem to know everything there is to know about training an Orthros," admitted the pony. "And bears. And squirrels. And birds. And bunnies. And-"

"You don't have to go on all day! Can I have the book now?"

"It's yours."

"Woohoo!"

"Thank you, Susan," said Fluttershy. "I've never seen her this happy." Rainbow was zipping around the sky, leaving a colored trail wherever she flew.

"NERD!"

"I don't even think she can hear you."

"Probably not." Susan chuckled. "It is nice, seeing her like this, isn't it? Anyway, glad I could help."

"Told ja!" said Pinky hopping along.

Susan just shook her head.

Two days later, Spike barged in to the library and shouted for Susan, who came up the stairs in a rush.

"What? Is it The Darkness? Is it attacking Ponyville? What's wrong Spike?"

"No, it's Rarity. I think I... uh, may have accidentally driven her insane."

"You did what?" asked Twilight, coming up behind her.

"She was feeling down so I went to the castle of the two sisters because you said there was other magic there and I found this book which had a spell and now it seems to have taken her over and she's gone nuts!" He took a deep breath.

"Say that again, and count to five between each word."

"The puppet master for the fair yesterday didn't like her cart. She doesn't take rejection well, apparently, and I wanted to cheer her up. So I went to go find her something magical, something that could help. I found a book and gave it to her, and it allowed her to remake things however she thought of them. Or just wish stuff out of thin air. She started small, but now she's going around 'improving' everything and she hasn't slept or eaten since yesterday."

"We better check it out," said Twilight.

They didn't have to go far. Just outside the library the road had been turned into solid gold, and a nearby tree had been turned into some kind of crystal. "I think you may have a point, Spike," admitted Twilight.

"She wanted me to keep it secret, but I didn't know she would go this far! Please, you have to do something."

"I guess so," agreed Susan. "The question is what."

"If you just get the book away from her, maybe that'll be enough."

"Easily. But she could be anywhere now."

"Just look for- there!" Spike pointed. "There's Owlicious. I asked him to keep a watch on her from above. Let's go."

As the group got near, Susan activated her _Magic Domination_ item so Rarity couldn't cause any trouble, and walked up to her trying to do something with her magic.

"You!" she shouted, spotting Susan and the others coming. "You did this!"

"And it seems not a moment too soon. Rarity, why don't you take a nap for a little while, huh?"

"Sleep, at a time like this? I have so much to do!"

"That wasn't a request. _Somnolent Smog."_

Rarity dropped like a brick.

Careful not to wake her, Twilight slipped the book out of her pack and opened it.

"This book is blank," she said, showing it to the others. "Are you sure it's this one?"

"It's what she turned the book into when she first got it. I don't understand."

"It's not even magical anymore," Susan said, getting an eleven on _Magic Sense._

"There was some sort of green light that went into her horn as she was reading it. Maybe the magic left the book and went into her?"

"I hope not. I don't want to have to cut her off from magic. Let's bring her back to the library, at least. Maybe she'll feel better after a little nap."

They let her sleep for three hours, then Susan locked down magic again and they woke her up. Naturally they had a shackled by the back leg to the desk down there. "Traitor!" she yelled at Spike. "You gave your word to me that you wouldn't tell anyone about the book."

"He gave his word to Rarity, yes," said Susan. "But I don't think you're her anymore. Who are you?"

"I'm Rarity, who else could I be? Now let me go, I must share my sense of design with the entire world! And where is the book, I must have it back!"

"Are we going to have to keep her here until it wears off or something?" asked Spike. "We can't just keep her prisoner down here."

"It's blank," Twilight said to her, picking it up and showing her.

"Then I must not need it," she decided. "The magic is now a part of me. Release me and let me go about my business!"

"A part of her... I wonder if that's true. I do have a spell to project my soul into someone else's. I wonder if I could do that and tear it out of her that way."

"We've got to do something," said Spike, as Rarity was trying to move the desk and break the chain.

"You're _sure_ this doesn't have any sort of easier solution?" Twilight asked pointedly at Spike.

"You're the magic expert, not me!"

"Like telling her the truth?"

"How would that help? That isn't magic."

"Never mind then. You don't mind trying this spell of yours, Susan?"

"Mind? Using magic? You must have me confused with someone else."

So Rarity got put back to sleep again, and Susan cast _Soul Projection_ on herself while touching her. She found herself in a very green place, not green with grass and trees and such, but green with a sickly light that came from up ahead. Not that the place wouldn't be green with grass, but when Susan bent over to see what was jabbing her in the foot, she found the grass had been turned into crystal, each blade distinct as a jewel.

"Wonderful," she said to no one in particular, and carefully made her way to the path and then towards the light that was up ahead. She passed the sort of thing one might find in Rarity's soulscape, like pretty gazeboes set for tea, and picnic baskets set on the hillside with glasses of champagne waiting to be enjoyed.

 _Do they even call it champagne here? That would be- never mind._

She crested the top of a hill and there was the source of the light: a blob of green hanging in the air. Beyond it things looked normal- normal grass, normal trees, normal blankets. Looking back she saw everything before that was modified in some way, and believed that her soul was being taken over by the magic somehow. _If that light had managed to corrupt this entire landscape, I'm not sure anything would have gotten her back._ The light was just hanging there now, and seemed to be shining a light ahead of itself, which was currently turning the grass into that crystal stuff she saw earlier. _So just how aware of me is it?_

She decided to test it, and as was normal for this sort of situation, thought about her sword and was unsurprised to not find it in her hand. _She hasn't seen it, after all. But you know what she has seen?_ She concentrated, and her bracelet from the Power Pony adventure appeared. She willed the blade to appear through _that,_ and was rewarded to feel the reassuring weight of it in her hand. "Thanks Rarity," she said, dashing forward. The light didn't seem to notice her approach and she felt no resistance as she brought the blade up and sliced it in two. "How do you like that, weird magic orb?" she asked, about to turn her back and walk out of there. The orb didn't answer, but neither did it fall to the ground or disappear. It just sort of closed up again and kept going.

 _Rather one track mind, huh?_

Susan then tried various things to stop, slow down, or turn the orb from the task of corrupting Rarity's soul. She tried her magic like _Immobilize,_ and unicorn magic to no avail. She tried crushing it, entrapping it, putting walls around it, even grabbing it with her bare hands. Nothing worked. It just slowly and steadily fired that beam of energy that was slowly sweeping forward and converting everything in here to some shinier form.

"What do you think you're doing," she screamed at it in frustration. "This soul was far better before you started making all these changes."

The orb stopped, and the light beam from the front of it died away.

Susan brought her blade up, wondering how shouting that had gotten the things attention. (She had been shouting at it all along in frustration.)

It winked out, and the landscape blurred a bit and when Susan looked again, the changes were undone.

 _What just happened? The application of force was meaningless but telling the thing I liked her better before shut it off? What kind of magic was that?_

When she opened her eyes again the real world, she found herself staring into Rarity's pretty, jewel like eyes.

"Darling," Rarity said, "I've just had the strangest dream. And if you could, might you tell me why I'm shackled to a desk in Twilight's lab?"

A bit later, Rarity left with a wave.

"Thanks," said Spike. "And don't worry, I've learned my lesson."

"Bring obviously magical things to a magical expert to be looked over before just handing them over to somepony?" asked Twilight.

"Er, yes, that too. Well, gotta start the packing, we leave for the Games tomorrow!"

 _And then the fun begins._


	137. Chapter 137

137

Eqestrian Games

When: 21nd day in Equesita

Where: Crystal Empire

Ah, the Eqestrian Games! Where ponies and griffins from all over the lands come together in a spirit of friendly competition and togetherness.

Susan was worried.

For one thing, time was running out on her _Question_ deadline of The Darkness appearing within the month. For another, there were thousands of beings running around now, and Susan couldn't hope to check even a fraction of them. If The Darkness started making trouble here there could be a lot of collateral damage, and that was the last thing she wanted.

 _Well, the last thing would really be for it to suck all energy from this reality and all nearby ones leaving them a husk of their former glory and empty of life._

She sat with her friends and watched the Cutie Mark Crusaders perform their routine on the field, Scootaloo flying high with the _Imbuing_ of _Flight_ Susan made for her. Spike had a bit of trouble lighting the torch, but that was sorted by a spell cast by Twilight. The three princess; Cadence, Luna, and Celestia, presided over the games from the top box along with what looked like leaders of other lands. Susan was hopeful she would finally get to meet Luna in person at some point in the near future, given they were not very far apart at the moment. She had last been visited the night before and told all was quiet, and that security around the Games was higher than ever before.

"Of course, I had to call off my journey to arrive in time for the Games," she said, looking none too pleased. "It would look bad and enflame rumors if I wasn't there. Of course, with you there, I doubt this Darkness would really try anything, but we can't be too careful."

Susan agreed.

 _Of course security has to come from somewhere,_ The Darkness had said to her after that. _And while you're here, and a bunch of security forces are here, and I know that... where do you think I'll be during this time?_

 _Not here._

 _Exactly. Enjoy the Games!_

So saying Susan was worried was a bit of an understatement.

Then the games began, and Susan finally saw the kind of magical contests she would have expected in her own world had Quidditch not come into fashion. There were various feats of Earth Pony Magic shaping, like throwing rocks or smashing them to pieces. Pegasus ponies had arial courses to get through, or creating a cyclone of a certain size. And of course Unicorns had lifting contents or multitasking challenges, like floating a number of balls through hoops simultaneously. And there were more normal events like races and such, that would have not been out of place on her world in the Olympics. (If the contestants hadn't been ponies, that is.)

That day ended uneventfully, and Susan went with Twilight to go see the princesses.

"Nice to see you again," said Cadence.

"I feel better having you around," said Celestia.

"..." said Luna, because she wasn't there.

"Oh, Luna?" said Celestia, "She'll be back. She wanted to personally inspect the guards around the stadium. I have to say, she's been taking this whole thing very seriously. I think, and this is just between us, she's trying to make up for all the lost time she spent on the moon. She wants to show she has our best interests at heart, and help protect Equestria the same amount she troubled it in the past."

"I'm sorry to keep you two apart," Susan said honestly. "But I know The Darkness will show up soon, possibly in a matter of days, so we can't be too careful."

"What is its goal?" asked Cadence. "I've had my subjects looking out for odd happenings, but maybe if I knew more about it, I would know better where to look."

"It wants to kill you. Not because it has anything against you personally, just that you have something it wants. The trick is, it wants to kill you in the most energy efficient way possible. So that's why it just doesn't show up and start killing you directly. If it can take over something that was going to kill a bunch of you anyway, it'll use that power rather than its own."

"Bringing energy down from another dimension must be somewhat difficult."

 _Difficult to do with precision,_ clarified The Darkness. _Too much and your lower dimension goes poof. But I'm getting better at moving things from one reality to another, so I've got that going for me. Even if I might not be able to use my power on you directly, there are plenty of powerful people in the multiverse I can harass you with._

"I suppose if you think about it a certain way, it would be like us looking down at a lower dimension. How careful would we have to be when trying to interact with beings that, to us, are flat as a piece of paper?"

"I see your point. I don't mean to be rude, but I'll be somewhat relieved when this threat is over and you can move on."

"I know. I've had a lot of time to get used to the idea. When I show up I have to tell whoever lives there 'hey, other realities exist, and yours might be blown to pieces unless we, one single girl and her cat, can stop it.' Not the easiest thing to hear."

"But we do want to thank for you everything you've done," Celestia added. "Twilight has been writing me, and we couldn't ask for a better visitor. You don't demand anything for saving us, you don't make trouble, you just get on with helping where you can and letting us live like we always have."

"I'm honored to save a land like Equestria. I never thought, when I started this journey, that I would actually get to meet you all. That is thanks enough."

She stayed a little longer, discussing the things she liked best about the land and went back to her rooms. She was a little surprised Luna hadn't come back yet, and she had something of a growing suspicion as to why given the answer to her _Question._

 _After all, Biddy seemed all helpful at first too. If only I could get close enough to do a quick_ Dimension Sense _on her._

 _Told you._

 _What? What did you tell me?_

 _Some time ago I told you how paranoid you would get. How you would want to sense everything and everyone. Just like every other person that_ Wanders. _You didn't believe me. Who's laughing now?_

 _I'm just being cautious._

 _Keep telling yourself that._

The next morning, Susan saw concern on the faces of the guards at the hotel, and she was directed to see the head of security, which she did. This was a large, light blue stallion with a nightstick as a cutie mark.

 _So, w_ _hat, his special talent is beating ponies up with a stick? How do you even find out a talent like that? Any ideas?_

 _Be nice._

"Sparkling Magic? Good. I've been told to inform you of anything odd that goes on around here. Two trains from Ponyville have not made their scheduled stops here since last night.

"Two trains in a row?" Susan's blood started to chill.

"No, that's just it. There was a train that came as normal between those times. It had a stop in Ponyville, so we didn't think anything of the first train being late. We figured it had broken down or something. But when the third train didn't come, we thought you should know."

"Thank you. I'll look into it."

"Just doing my job."

Susan went to find her friends and tell them she was going back to Ponyville. "If it's nothing I'll be back. If it's not nothing I'll be back with an angry expression and you better be ready to come through the _Teleportal_ back there because it'll be bad."

"We'll be ready," promised Twilight.

Susan and Sparkle stepped through, looking around. Things seemed quiet.

"A little too quiet," remarked Sparkle.

"Train station doesn't seem to be on fire or anything."

"A little too... not on fi- that doesn't even work!"

"Come on."

The streets seemed strangely empty, but no one was shouting about running for their lives, so Susan was confused.

"Of course the streets are going to be empty, everyone is at the Games," Sparkle reminded her.

"Sure, but _this_ empty? Let's poke around some more."

They passed an outdoor cafe that was serving breakfast, and a cream colored pony sat, looking depressed, at a table. She had a pink and blue mane and tail, and what looked like three wrapped candies as a cutie mark.

 _Wait a second, I know that pony._

"It's Bon Bon, isn't it?" Susan asked, walking up to her.

"Yes?" She looked up blearily at Susan.

"Is something wrong? You look down. And don't I normally see you out with somepony?"

"Yes," she sniffed. "Lyra. But something happened to her last night."

"Something? What happened? Please, it's important!"

Bon Bon looked her over. "You're that new pony in town, who was watching the library when Twilight went on vacation, aren't you?"

"That's me, Sparkling Magic. Now please, what's happened?"

"I don't know," she said, close to tears. "For some odd reason Lyra insisted on taking a walk late last night. She never has before, but she got out of bed and said 'I'm going for a walk, I may be some time.' I tried to tell her it was too late, but she wouldn't listen, and left the house. When she didn't come back for two hours I got worried, and went out after her. That's when I ran into them?"

"Them?"

"Ponies with the same story as me! Like all the unicorns in town just up and decided to leave."

"Were they found?"

She nodded sadly. "They were taken to the hospital. But it's terrible, something terrible happened, and I don't even know what. You can't even get near the place now, so I don't even know how she's doing. I just don't know what to do."

"Look, you have no reason to trust me but I'll head there now. They'll let _me_ in, one way or the other. I'll see what's going on and let you know about Lyra, okay? Just stay put."

"You would do that, for me? Oh, thank you!"

"Which way is it from here?"

"Down that way, turn left-"

Susan looked at Sparkle, who nodded. "I can get you there."

"She remembers," Susan said. "I'll be back just as soon as I can."

"What do you think happened?" Sparkle asked as they raced towards the place.

"I don't know, but she seemed pretty worried. I don't get it, is this the start of The Darkness attacking? What's it doing?"

"Staying away from you, maybe? Like you said, you weren't here, so it was the perfect time."

"Yeah. Look at- oh great."

The reason Bon Bon said 'you can't get near the place now' was not because of some quarantine procedure or something, but that the place was mobbed with ponies, though not a unicorn was to be seen.

"Guess we know why the streets are so empty now," remarked Sparkle. "Could it be some kind of disease?"

"Hey, a unicorn!" somepony shouted. "It's that new pony! Maybe she knows what's going on!"

The crowd turned, and Susan was now faced with a scared, possibly angry mob that wanted answers. _And me with my pitiful two rating in_ Speaking. _This'll really go well._

"I don't know what's going on," she shouted as they crowded around her. "I just got back into town this morning. When I heard something happened to unicorns I came running. I'm hopeful I can help the doctors figure out what's happening before... uh, before something happens to me."

"Is my baby all right?" screamed a woman a few rows back. "Will she get better?"

"Can anyone tell me what they know?" she shouted back.

Scared voices all blended together, and Susan waved her hooves for quiet again. "One at a time," she tried to say, but no one listened. (Her minimum check, a three, made this the natural result.)

" _Phase_ me, we're going in," she said to Sparkle, who jumped and landed on her back.

" _Phase,"_ she cast, and they ran ghostlike through the crowd and the doors, appearing in the bedlam inside which seemed just as bad as that outside. Ponies scurried this way and that, while those in the waiting room looked like they had been there for hours.

"Keep it up," Susan said to Sparkle, "we'll just be in the way if we go solid again. We'll find Lyra, might as well kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

"In this case, one pony is as good as another," Sparkle agreed, nodding. Susan walked the hospital, freaking out more than a few ponies when she passed through them, but as she couldn't exactly talk to them she couldn't reassure them she wasn't a ghost. Her fifteen LUCk check meant she had to look a little longer than she would have liked, but it wasn't minimum so she found a dull gray pony who had the name Lyra on the door lying in a bed. She had Sparkle drop the spell and looked her over.

Her mane was limp and dull, and even her coat was now only slightly green, being more a gray than anything else.

"Just like the others," Susan remarked, stepping closer.

"Every unicorn in this place looks like this," Sparkle agreed. "But why?"

"Poor thing." Susan stroked her horn, which almost seemed _fragile_ now, and she stirred.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" asked Susan.

"Who..."

"I'm... look, my name is Susan. I know it's not a pony name, and you're not dreaming. But you're going to have to trust me. I ran into Bon Bon on the way here, and she's very worried about you. I said I would check up on you. Please, can you tell me what happened to you last night?"

"Susan?"

"Yes, that's my name."

"Sounds like... human name..."

Susan paused, but figured it couldn't hurt. This pony might not live out the day, why not give her a little hope? _Actually, do they have stories about humans like we had stories about them? Didn't see any at the library but that doesn't mean anything. It would make sense that was the case, and... maybe she's a_ storyteller, _and she's going to write about humans so that's how she... however she knows about us..._ "Yes, Lyra, humans are real. I'm one and here to help."

She weakly chuckled, finally managing a "Knew... it."

"Can you remember what happened, Lyra?"

"Show me... hands..."

"My... fine." She checked the door, and everypony running past didn't seem interested in this room, so she locked it and drew the curtain over it. "Let it go." Sparkle let the spell drop, and Susan held up a hand for Lyra to see it.

"Hands..."

"Yup, these are my hands. Happy? Now please, what happened to you?"

"Cutie... mark..."

"I don't have a cutie mark like this, only you ponies get them."

"My... cutie mark."

"Your... I'm going to lift the covers, okay?" She nodded. Susan lifted them off and her face hardened. "It's gone," she breathed, "it's gone."

"I know..." A tear fell from Lyra's eye. "Help... me."

"I will," said Susan, putting the sheet back down and stroking her head. "I'll do everything in my power to make you better again, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Pinky promise."

"O... kay."

"Just rest now. I'll tell Bon Bon... No, I'll bring her here in a moment. I want to look you over first."

"K."

Lyra closed her eyes again, and Susan got to work.

 _Her health level is unchanged, at least most ponies have health in that range. Her Spirit Energy is still strong, it's her magic that's messed up. (Eighteen on Spirit, eight then thirteen on Magic) No, more than messed up, it's missing. Her magic is missing. This isn't a disease, at least, I don't think it is._ She pulled out her knife and held it to Lyra, but nothing happened. _No, it's almost like her magic was stolen. With no magic, there's no cutie mark. In fact I'm surprised she can even speak. I mean isn't how saturated this place is with magic that talking ponies would have evolved in the first place? But I suppose even if I lost my_ Spark of Magic _I could still talk. It might just be the shock of losing it that put her into this state, and she'll recover otherwise. Apart from never lifting... no, holding anything again! Even that's magical, she wouldn't be able to pick anything up._

As a last test, she did a _Dimension Sense_ but didn't feel anything amiss there. Her _aura_ was in poor shape, which was to be expected, and with that there wasn't much else Susan could do. _There's no way I can restore her magic, I can only move_ Spirit Energy _around. Even if I could give her some of mine, it isn't like my energy. I convert energy into magic to do a spell. How would I convert some and give it to somepony else?_

"For now, this is all I can do," she said softly. "Pony me." Sparkle turned them back into ponies and Susan opened a _Teleportal_ back to the cafe.

"Bon Bon," she hissed, hoping nopony saw this.

Bon Bon nearly fell out of her chair when she looked over at Susan, as she was looking at a hole in the air into the hospital. Susan walked out.

"Go through, she's stable for now and she may recover on her own. She's lost her magic, but physically she's fine. I'm going back to talk to the princesses now, we'll figure this out. The staff might be a bit surprised to find you in there, but that's your problem. Oh, and the door is still locked."

"How are you- no it doesn't matter. Thank you." She gave Susan a quick hug and leapt through. She made sure her tail was through and dropped the spell. _No time for subtlety._ Susan opened another one right then and there, and stepped back through to the hotel. She found her friends, who were meeting with the two princesses.

 _No Luna._ "Where's Princess Luna, I have the most urgent news."

"You didn't see her in Ponyville? She told me there was a tremendous spike in bad dreams there last night, but didn't want to trouble you getting her there. She said she could reach there by morning on her own."

 _Great, did something happen to her too, or is something else going on?_

"What did you find?" asked Twilight.

"All the unicorns in town were attacked last night by something. Darn it, I should have had her show me where and looked back in time! I didn't even think of it."

"Are they... dead?" Rarity asked.

"No, they're alive, just- what are you doing?" she asked Sparkle, who was casting a spell. Before them stood Lyra in her 'damaged' state, if she had been standing there. "Oh, an _Illusion."_

"This is how you found them?" Celestia demanded. "Pale, gray, weak, no magic?"

"Yes, exactly. Has this happened before?"

"It has. Everyone, I'm afraid Tirek has returned."


	138. Chapter 138

138

Tirek Is My Foe

When: Just then

Where: Princess's room

"Wait, you can't mean Tirek! Centaur? Changes ponies into dragons? Rainbow of Darkness?" Susan had, of course, sought out the original Pony episodes, and the enormous tone shift between the pilot and subsequent episodes could not be denied.

"Rainbow of What?" asked Rainbow Dash, taking offense.

"I do not know of any Rainbow of Darkness, but Tirek is indeed a centaur. He and his brother Scorpan came to our land a long time ago, in the age of Starswirl the Bearded. They came with conquest in mind, but only Tirek remained in that mindset once among us. With his help we were able to foil Tirek's plans, and locked him away."

Everypony looked to Susan, who shrugged. "The story I know of Tirek is very different, and comes from another pony story altogether. Not part of your... continuum... you might say. Strange that the being would be so similar, and yet so different. But wait, how is he still alive?"

"Who is to say what his natural lifespan is," replied Celestia. "Plus, his ability to absorb magic may grant him some form of natural longevity."

"Wait, absorb magic? You better start from the beginning."

"This is the beginning. Tirek can grow physically stronger the more magic he absorbs. Right now he is probably weak from his long imprisonment, and can only absorb from the most strongly magical among us. Unicorns. Soon he will be able to draw the magic from all pony races, and become powerful indeed."

 _So that's why Discord was frightened. Could this being, if powerful enough, steal his magic as well? And what would that mean? Can he steal_ my _magic? And what would_ that _mean?_

"So let's stop him!" said Rainbow Dash.

"It's not that easy, now," Susan cautioned her. "If that's The Darkness, and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be, it now has two different ways to shut me down. When I cast a spell it knows how to simply splinter my magic, and now it seems if I get too close it'll just suck my magic right out of me! What if that means my _imbued_ items crumble to dust? You have no idea how much work I've put into them."

"I've felt their power, I have some idea," put in Dash. "Letting them do what they do couldn't have been easy."

"You got to see three of them," said Susan, "I have seven on this bracelet. You don't know what they can do."

"Oh."

 _That's an idea though, could I_ Mimic _his stealing of magic? Pull some of his into myself? I doubt_ Magic Domination _would work, he would just absorb the magic from beyond its range. This is going to be tough._

"Plus we can't kill him," said Sparkle.

Pinkie Pie nodded. "That's- wait what?"

"I think a being like this I wouldn't mind killing," said Susan. "He's clearly evil, and the first thing he did after breaking out of prison is to go back on the same rampage that got him in prison the first time. I don't think Fluttershy will be able to redeem him."

"I wouldn't mind trying though."

"No, I mean, if he is The Darkness now, and we kill him, that energy goes with it. It has implied as much in the past. Something about cutting his losses and just taking what he had gotten, remember?"

Susan paled. "That means that if I kill him, all the unicorns he's stolen magic from would never recover. We have to move fast."

"Can you take him down without killing him?"

"I have a couple of spells, like _Hypnotic Field_ that he might be dazzled by. But I would only get one shot if he can absorb magic. I'd have to cast it away from his range of shutting my magic down, then somehow force him into it. And he'd get resistance against it, so there's no guarantee it would work. Do you know what his REAson is? I don't. At least he can't spend energy on it..."

"What happened the first time?" asked Fluttershy. "He must have stolen pony magic then too, right? He wouldn't have given the magic up voluntarily."

"My memory of that time isn't clear, perhaps Luna would know more. Or books at the time might have some record. We can look."

"I'm sure there's a spell that can transfer the power back," Twilight said with confidence.

"It's illegal on my world, but I have a spell. It can force someone to do something, and once in the _Field_ he wouldn't be able to resist. I could make him do it."

"That assumes it goes both ways," cautioned Sparkle.

"True, they may have just been magicless until they died."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," chided Celestia. "First we must find him. When we know the general area he's in we can see how much power he's taken and perhaps close the area off somehow."

"Good point. Now, unless someone has a likeness of the fellow, I don't think my seeing a low resolution youtube video of a different version of the guy in another reality is going to be enough for my _Descry_ magic."

"I think my ears are broken!" said Pinky, banging one. "I didn't get half that."

"Never mind," said Twilight. "There is a way to track him, isn't there, Princess Celestia?"

"Yes. I will go and summon him, then you can discuss strategy." She turned to leave the room.

"Him?" asked everyone.

"Discord."

That shocked everyone there but Susan. They were all talking about what that meant, but she already knew. _Right, he could tell my magic was different, and said something like even in the state he was in or something, right? Even with a limited rage, he could pop back and forth between major cities and scan the area._

She didn't waste time, instead started reading over her book and looking for useful things.

"I can think of one thing, off the top of my head," said Sparkle, coming over to her. "Remember what you used to block off the _Weapon_ attack on Midgar?"

"Something Barricade, right?"

 _"Bolstered Barricade._ Read that over for me again, will you?"

"Sure." She turned to it and looked it over, and decided she was right. "Put into a _ward_ this could be just the ticket. I only need five, my current Sun rating could get that. Put energy in and they could be DTR 10. It's L range, not S but okay, I could work with that."

"Nope, never mind. I see the problem," she said sadly, shaking her head.

"What?"

"It's maintained. I hoped it was permanent. No such luck. He could just drain the magic out of them."

"Oh. Yeah, we need something else. Something I never thought I would want to cast. _Elemental Storm._ "

"Going for overkill, are we?"

"Am I? Make it _Knockout,_ and nopony will be seriously hurt. But knock him out and at least I can get close enough to use _Dead Magic_ on him."

"And thereby destroy any chance of him giving the magic back directly."

"How confident are you that you can come up with something?" she asked Twilight.

"Very," she answered.

 _Right, she's probably dealt with this many times before, in different ways. She wants to see how we'll handle it. I suppose as long as she doesn't strenuously object to any plan, it's good enough. Still, does she know our magic well enough to know what we're talking about?_

"Okay. I think we have some kind of plan then. We just need to get him into an area the storm can hit him... and keep him there for the eighteen minutes it'll take me to cast this spell."

"Nine minutes. I don't use it often, but I do have _Accelerate_ _Magic_ for this very reason."

"Nice! What else do we have... I have an _Unfailing Resolve._ And some useless stuff like _Love Interest_ and _XP Bonus,_ which I suppose I can always use. Seriously, these cards are supposed to be keeping me alive, and I already love Luna."

Everypony gasped.

"My Luna, not your Luna."

"Oh."

"Why does it even exist? It's not going to keep me from getting killed."

"I'll do you one better, want to betray someone?"

"What? You get that card so much! Never betray your teammates. _EVER._ "

"I do get it a bit. This is more useful, a _Power Overwhelming_."

"Oh, spending forty or so energy in one action to get a nine minute spell instantly? Yes please."

"Course, if you wanted the guy dead I could just hit him with Ryūdō for 20d10 damage."

Susan stared at her. "You're a dangerous cat now, you know that? I'm glad you're on my side."

"As you should be."

"Who's a dangerous cat now?" asked Discord, walking in. "This guy right here."

"But not to us, your _friends,"_ Fluttershy reminded him.

"Oh no, I mean only to those that would try to break up our friendship. How are you, by the way? Did you have a nice trip?"

"Oh, very nice, thank you."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Discord, we have called you here to help us pinpoint the magic stealing being known as Tirek," said Celestia, following him in. "Find him. Do not engage him in combat. If he were to take your magic to supplement his own, I fear he would become unstoppable."

"Yes, no doubt. Tell me, where is that other princess of yours? I don't see her here anywhere."

"We aren't sure at the moment. Let us worry about her, for now, please do as I have asked."

"But of course. Your wish is my command." He snapped and was gone.

"I better start reading this spell over, see if I can understand how to cast it," said Susan. "Then I guess we have our plan."

Susan and Sparkle both read it over, Sparkle _assisting_ Susan with her check of an entire nine. As Susan got only a twelve, and needed fourteen, she shrugged and spent the one XP for a bonus. She then rolled _Magic Theory_ and got an eighteen, which was more than enough.

"What exactly are you going to do?" Celestia asked nervously, hearing them talk.

"It's non-lethal. No property damage either. Well, minimal, but only like trash cans blowing around. Anyone struck will just be knocked out, I promise. I don't care who he is, bolts of _Knockout_ raining down from the sky will take him out. And he won't be able to absorb the clouds, right?"

"No, if he could do that we would all be in trouble."

They then explained the rest of the plan.

"At the very least, he wouldn't be able to use his stolen magic," Celestia agreed. "Stealing it, that may just be something he can do, and not magical at all."

"Leave that to me. Once he's unconscious we can set a few things up."

"I'm not sure I'm really appreciated around here," said Discord, popping back up again. "Did you even think to look in the last place you knew he was?"

"He didn't move from Ponyville? Why?"

"I don't know. You didn't want me near him, so I didn't stop to ask. Will there be anything else?"

"Actually, yes. You need to lure him somewhere he can't easily take cover under something. Can you trick him into thinking you want to join him, and get him someplace out in the open? Vanish as soon as the clouds gather though. I'm going to be casting a spell hard and fast, and I don't want you out in it."

"You do care!"

"Until the moment you betray me. But you wouldn't betray a friend, right?"

"Perish the thought."

"So can you do it?"

"Trick someone? Please, you forget who you're talking to."

"All right. I'm going with Discord. You don't mind taking Sparkle and me there, do you? Someplace away from him, like the opposite side of town or something?"

"I suppose not."

"Great. Just one thing..." She pulled out a _Time Anchor_ and used it. "Great. Give me some sign he's in position and I'll start the spell. And Discord?"

"Yea?"

"Thanks, for your help."

"Oh. I mean, oh. Of course."

He snapped, and they were gone.

"Good luck!" everyone said.

"Wait, shouldn't we be, like, helping?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I mean she just ran out on us!"

Susan found herself in Ponyville somewhere, with Sparkle by her side. "You'll know my signal," said Discord, and vanished again.

"You want the card?" asked Sparkle.

"Let me see if I need it," she replied. "We may need that one for later."

"You got it. Uh, how are we going to avoid the _Storm,_ if I might ask?"

"I still have wards with _Magic Immunity_ in them. We can use a couple once it's cast."

"Ah."

So Susan quickly calculated how difficult it would be to cast the spell instantly, and found she didn't need anything special at all.

 _I can use the card and get an effective 10 REAson. That makes my minimum result a seven. I am at a nine penalty for the time, meaning an effective minus two. I need a fourteen to get it, and sixteen plus minus two is fourteen. Throw one more in for the spell itself, a seventeen, and I can't fail._

 _So_ Sparkle just maintained _Accelerate Magic._ She had put _Acceleration_ on them both, maintained by the _magical focus_ she had made previously, for that very purpose. Susan had the book out and ready, and the moments ticked by.

Suddenly a claw started waving in front of her, and she nodded. "That's the signal. Don't let me down now." She threw her max energy in, which was only three away after all. _May as well get a slightly better rating in the skill._

She got a twenty nine out of a possible thirty six.

Clouds instantly appeared and blocked out the sun, and thunder was heard across the land. Immediately, bolts of magical force a full meter across rained down upon the townsfolk, exploding in a twenty four meter radius blast that, had it been fire or something that could physically damage things, would have flattened the town in short order. Wind picked up, blowing small things around, and the daylight turned to dusk as all sunlight around Susan was snuffed out. If somepony didn't know better, they might think the end had come. And for one being, it had. _You messed with the wrong girl. But you already knew that, didn't you, Darkness?_ It said nothing in reply, so Susan shrugged and calmly pulled a _ward_ out of her _sub-space_ pocket and activated it, while Sparkle did the same. Then she slipped her book back in. "Let's go see if we can find him," she shouted.

"What?"

So Susan, aided by some glowing arrows that had appeared, made her way to where Tirek lay, unconscious. Bolts still fell all around him, so he didn't appear to be faking it, but Susan didn't want to take any chances. She immediately cast _Dead Magic_ on him, only then did she let up and release the storm. Immediately the sun came back out, but silence filled the space where before the thunder and explosions of the bolts hitting the ground were the only things that could be heard.

 _Have to apologize to Fluttershy, all her animal friends will be knocked out too. Probably scared them a fair bit, but maybe they won't even remember that. It would have happened pretty quickly._

With that done, Susan needed answers, and didn't want Tirek, even somewhat powerless, to have any opportunity to make trouble. She cast a quick _Shrink_ on him, taking his current +2 size modifier and turning into something small enough to pick up. That done she finally did a _Dimension Sense_ on him, and as she feared, he belonged there.

"We didn't get him," she angrily said to Sparkle. "This isn't the host."

"Then who is?"

"I'm afraid to guess. Still, let's take care of some business first."

She tossed him to the ground again and got out her shotgun and knife. With the shotgun barrel pinning him down, she hit him with the flat of the blade and woke him up.

"What's going on!" he screamed, trying to thrash his way out from shotgun. "That storm... wait, what are you?"

"Your death," Susan answered. "Unless I hear some answers I like."

"You're Susan!"

"You know me? But you aren't The Darkness, I can't be better at that skill, and I got a twenty four on it. How do you know my name?"

"I was warned about you. How powerful you were. How you had come to this land in the guise of friendship, but how you would betray it, as I was betrayed all those years ago! Let me go this instant! What is this?"

"It's a weapon from another world. It can turn you into a bloody smear in an instant. Now talk! Can you give the unicorns back their magic or not?"

"Why do you care? Do you want their power for yourself? Do you want it transferred to you? I won't give it to you, you hear me! I will fight to rule this land instead of you!" He tried to do something, Susan felt, but nothing happened. "My power. What have you done with my power?"

"Turned it off. You can no longer use magic. Do you need it to return the magic you stole, or is that just something you can do? What about stealing more? Can you still do that?"

"I won't answer. Destroy me, then! Go ahead. I tried to take over this land and failed, you think in the end you'll do better? Someone will betray you, and you will fall like I did. Count on it."

"I suppose I could use the card," Sparkle said, looking at her character sheet.

"That's not funny."

"Oh, you remember humor? Look at yourself, is this really who you are? That creature is terrified, and it's not The Darkness. So what exactly are you doing?"

"Making sure... Making... He can't..." _I could have kept him unconscious. Twilight was confident she could transfer the magic back. He wasn't The Darkness, and given what he was saying he may have thought he just needed to protect himself from me. That isn't evil, just misguided. Maybe he wouldn't have been evil after breaking out... was he let out? As a distraction? What am I doing?_ "I don't know. I think-"

Susan's _Ninjutsu_ and _Spirit Sense_ warned her and she dodged back as a blade of darkness went spinning past her. She brought up the shotgun and looked around.

"Nice reflexes," said Nightmare Moon.


	139. Chapter 139

139

The end of Ponyville

When: Just then

Where: A Ponyville field

Susan didn't think, didn't consider. She knew who her enemy was now, and it had given her something nice.

"Mimic," she cried, flinging a bolt of darkness back at the pony who had been Luna.

"Really, Susan," she said at it splintered to pieces around her. "Did you think I wouldn't be immune to my own attack? I kept my promise, I hope you notice. The Darkness has been revealed, and here we are, standing together on the field of battle. You just didn't think it would be on opposite sides." She laughed.

"Get out of her," Susan growled through clenched teeth.

"No, I don't think so. I rather like this body." Nightmare Moon stretched and furled her wings. "And you do too. I told you I might go inside a princess next time."

"Don't think I won't kill you."

"In front of all your little friends?"

"Friends?" Susan turned, and there were the six ponies she had gotten to know. Six. Six ponies. "Where's Celestia and Cadence?"

"Probably dead," she mused, "they didn't see me coming, after all."

"You monster!"

"Sticks and stones, Susan. Tirek, how are you doing down there?"

"Save me, master!" he shrieked. "This otherworldly creature means to destroy me!"

"We can't have that, now can we? He's such a loyal beast." Suddenly he was teleported out from the ground where Susan was, and into the air near Nightmare Moon.

"You seem to have lost weight, Tirek dear. Have you been binging on diet soda again?"

"Master, you are changed. What has happened to you?"

"Yes, I've taken my real form once again. These ponies," she indicated the six, "believed their little light show some time back 'cured' me or whatnot. Elements of harmony, indeed. But I was simply biding my time. Until you came along, actually."

"I am undone, master. She has taken my power!"

"Oh, don't make such a fuss. I can give it back to you." Susan felt her connection to the _Shrink_ spell break, and darkness swirled around Tirek. Suddenly he was standing tall again, and seemed to be gathering energy for a blast.

"Not quite yet, Tirek," Nightmare Moon said, holding a wing in front of him. "There is one more _little_ surprise I have for Susan here, before we get started."

"What are you planning now?"

"You recall that charming metal I hurt you with on the last world? Of course you do. I found a way to hurt you even more on this one. You are rather fond of this place, aren't you?" She pointed to Ponyville, where unconscious ponies lay in the street. "I mention it because I brought something different to this world. Look upon it now, and know despair." She reared up and smashed the ground, and a ring of darkness spread out from her, shooting past them and across the land in seconds. The ground started to shake, and in horror Susan watched as concentric rings of Ponyville exploded and collapsed. "Explosives, in the tunnels the Diamond Dogs dug for me! Isn't it wonderful when a plan works out so well?" The town was in ruins, the tunnels doing their jobs of directing the blast around the entire town, which was collapsing as the helpless ponies stood and watched. Finally the rolling booms died down and the ground stopped shaking. The town was rubble.

Susan was livid.

She swapped her shotgun for her _Crystal Sword,_ becoming the _Avatar of War_ and charging Nightmare Moon. She had used her _off hand_ to draw the blade, and was now holding it in two hands.

"Is that what you want to rule, just devastation?" Sparkle said to Tirek, who also looked a bit shocked at what she had done.

She was up next, but held her action until Susan reached Nightmare, because she's smart like that.

Tirek changed up some kind of attack, a ball of energy appearing between his horns.

Rarity of all ponies acted, sending as large a rock as she could lift at Nightmare, who chopped it to pieces with a blade of darkness that appeared next to her.

"You're throwing rocks at me? Please."

Susan reached Nightmare Moon, and raised her sword to deliver a mighty blow. Sparkle stopped holding, casting _Elemental Line: (Wind)_ under both Tirek and Nightmare, who were still next to each other.

She got a twenty six and Susan got an eighteen, both which smashed into the barrier created by Nightmare. Susan realized she was only one off from piercing it, and spent an XP, smashing through it. The barrier went down as both were hit with quite a bit of damage from the _Line_ and Susan rolling a one on her hit location table. She put a huge gash in Nightmare's neck, and she went down. Susan positioned her sword over the wound.

"Leave. That. Body!" she demanded.

"And take who instead? Tirek?" Nightmare wheezed. "Just to ease your conscience a little? I don't think so. Look me in the eye and end my life." She spoke more softly. "You took me down in one action, you and your _cat,_ acting as one. What an ally you would make."

"I won't ask again."

Stronger now. "And I won't refuse again. Kill me. My work here is already done."

"Master!" said Tirek, his ball of energy complete but unable to fire for fear of hitting Nightmare.

"Is she worthy of being your master?" asked Sparkle, walking up. "You saw what she did. Blew up a whole town. That's what the thing inside this body will do, to the whole world, if it got the chance. Whatever it promised you, your life would be drained just as the life of every creature on this world would. Susan is fighting to protect the world. Even you! Because you have the right to exist too."

"Master, is... is this true?"

"I hadn't decided. If you showed promise I might have allowed you off world with me before I destroyed it."

"You admit it!"

"What of it? Are you going to betray me now? You know what that's like, don't you? Kill her! Kill Susan now! Don't worry about me, I'll gladly give up this world to see her die right in front of me."

"No," said Tirek, his ball of energy disappearing. "I see now I was just being used. Susan, I'll make you deal."

She made a RESolve check, getting an eighteen, and growled "What?"

"Allow me her magic. With that I at least won't be a husk anymore. I'll return all the other magic I stole." He looked over at the remains of the town. "At least, to any that are still alive. You have my word."

Susan remembered, or maybe it was Discord whispering in her ear about sacrifice and somepony else coming up with the plan when it went down.

"It's your world, Twilight, what do you want to do? I don't... want... to kill your princess!"

"Do it," said Twilight, causing the ponies around her to gasp.

"Are... are you sure? I can't take it back. Even if I reload, it's her. She... I can't..."

"You said yourself, there is no other way, right?"

"But there has to be! I can't, I just can't kill Princess Luna!"

"Do we have a deal?" asked Tirek.

"We have a deal," said Twilight. "But you're going to help us rebuild, and learn our way of life. Even with Susan gone we can stop you one way or another. Don't think we can't."

"It is agreed then." He held up a hand and magic started draining from Nightmare's body. Her hair stopped being all starry and turned back into normal hair, which hung limply. "It is done." Susan glanced over, and yes, her cutie mark was gone.

"So now only one thing remains," Nightmare said, smiling. "Me. What will you do, Susan? Have your _cat_ deal the final blow? She could now, I know what skills she has. Or will you make an innocent little pony do your dirty work for you? I'm waiting!"

"Last chance!" Susan wasn't sure if she was shouting that to Twilight or Nightmare.

"It's okay, it will all work out. End this!" shouted Twilight.

 _Of course,_ thought Sparkle. _Though the next loop, none of this will have happened. No one will even remember this loop apart from Twilight. And I'm sure she's seen worse. But I can see it's agony for Susan. Is it time to tell her? But she's so vulnerable right now, emotionally. What would that knowledge do to her?_

"Goodbye Luna. If you're in there, I'm sorry!"

The blade came down.

And Luna was no more.

"No!" Susan shouted, throwing her blade away from herself. "Why do I have to do this? And don't you dare say this is what the universe wants for giving me my power. It wants me to be a killer? Answer me, Sparkle!"

"No one has those answers," Twilight said softly. "Now pull yourself together. We have a lot of ponies to save."

Susan mastered herself with difficulty, that high RESolve once again serving her well. "I understand." She held out her hand and the blade came whistling back, and she reabsorbed it.

 _Don't worry, it'll be easier next time. And the time after that. And the time-_

 _One more word. Go ahead. Say one more word._

 _HAHAHAHAHAHAH_

Susan was in awe. Twilight showed a level of power even she believed would be off the charts, as she picked up basically entire sections of Ponyville at a time to look for survivors. _How in the world?_ But it was not her place to question, it was her place to help. So she hit them with the knife, and they got up to help, speeding the recovery even more. Naturally they dug the hospital out first, and Tirek was good as his word, returning the magic he had stolen which diminished him in size. After hours of work, long into what would have been the night, (there was no one to lower the sun and raise the moon) the two princesses appeared, looking rather startled.

"You're alive!" gaped Susan, looking over at them.

"I may have sent them a few hours into the future," remarked Twilight. "I do know some time magic, after all. Just as Nightmare moon struck I got them to safety. She couldn't do anything about what I had done, so she just teleported us all here to watch her destroy everything."

"What's happened here?" demanded Celestia.

"Did we win?" asked Cadence quietly.

"We won," Susan answered angrily. "If you can call it that. Come on, there's still sections we need to check."

It wasn't long after that Twilight announced everypony was accounted for, and started organizing temporary shelters so ponies could get some sleep. The majority of the townsponies were fine, having been knocked out actually worked in their favor because after being buried they didn't panic and make their situations worse. So Susan saw very few she couldn't heal completely in a few seconds, which made her feel only a little bit better.

As ponies rushed this way and that following Twilight's orders, Susan slipped away with Sparkle.

"Not even going to say goodbye?" asked a voice behind her.

"Pinkie Pie." Susan didn't turn around.

"That's me. I was the first to meet you when you came, it makes sense I should see you off. I'll let the others know... after you're gone."

"Thank you. Tell them I'm sorry for what happened. For what I had to do."

"They know. Don't be sad," she said, putting her hooves around Susan. "Our whole pony reality is safe now, right? All sorts of different versions of me will never know the fear of The Darkness, because you came here and defeated it. Luna's still out there, right? Another one that we did save with the Elements. That wasn't all mean and just pretending to be our friend."

"I hope so, Pinkie. I'd like very much to believe that."

"We'll rebuild, better than before even. And I heard Twilight saying Tirek should raise the moon now, to remind him of the responsibility he took on when he took her magic. So, no tears, okay?"

"You first."

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. All of you. I'm sorry, I have to go."

"I know. Find your friend and tell her all about us, okay?" She let Susan go.

"I will."

Susan hit the button and an agent of Silverstreak appeared. "I'm ready to come back."

"I'll open the... is everything all right?"

"I'm ready... to..."

"I understand."

A door of light opened before Susan, and she stepped through it.

"Goodbye..."

Susan found her way to the room and threw herself down on the bed, not even responding to Sparkle, who really didn't know what to say in any case.

She padded out, then went to find Silverstreak.

"Sparkle! And... no Susan. What's... it was bad wasn't it? Darn it, I hoped seeing the ponies would give her some... what happened?"

So she gave the full report, and asked Silverstreak's advice about what to tell Susan.

"I understand your concerns," he agreed. "Telling her about the loops might ease this pain, but might send her into a tailspin of not caring about anyone she killed. Let's give her some time and I'll tell her what I tell all _Wanderers_ like her."

That time came two days later, when Susan dragged herself out of bed and made herself presentable again. This included clothes, a novel experience after not having warn any for like the last twenty days or so. She then went to find Silverstreak.

"Feeling pretty bad right now, huh?" he said to her, after they had greeted each other.

"Sort of an understatement."

"I know. Thinking maybe you want to quit, maybe it isn't worth it, going to a world where you know you have to destroy a life before you can leave again. And that one, I should have been more explicit, or explained more about the stories thing before you left. That one was my bad. You just seem so capable. Not that you seem less so now," he hastened to add. "To see someone you had basically come to know through their stories corrupted like that... It's probably the hardest thing you can experience."

"But what do I do?"

"You do what all my _Wanderers_ do. You keep going, because the alternative is even worse. You do the job, and you come back here and feel miserable for a couple of days. And I say 'good job saving that world,' and you feel even worse. And you train. And you feel lousy. And you think, "maybe that should be the last one." But I'll tell you which should be the last world you visit."

"Which?"

"The one you come back from and say 'yeah, that wasn't so bad that time. I'm ready for more.' I think you can see why."

"Because by the time that's my attitude about this, I really will be too far gone. And it'll be another Wanderer like me that has to feel bad about taking me down."

He nodded. "So for now you're still okay, right?"

"I'll live. There are other versions of her, right? Other leaves?"

"Of course! A single reality has countless ways it can go. Branches upon branches spring from the main branch, and each one has many leaves. Those worlds are safe because of your actions, Pinkie Pie was right about that."

"Do you-"

"Sparkle told me."

"Oh. Guess I don't have to report then."

"Nope. I do have some good news, if you're ready for it."

"I could use some."

"I found you a good world with a metapower individual. The outfit you get when you change is a bit... leggy. But apart from that, it should be acceptable."

"Leggy outfit for powers? Look, are you sure I should be going after that sort of thing?"

"Only you can know that. Maybe having powers would have helped in the last world, maybe not. Luna was always going to have to die, from before you arrived. Like I said it's hard to know what you would have but it wouldn't have been worse. Right? Having more options is always better. You were lucky no ponies died in the attack, but it could have gone the other way. Powers might help keep others safe where magic can't."

"Until you get too many and get paralyzed by the paradox of choice. But I hear you. It's just something Sparkle said, like it's just a heavier weight I'll have to bear."

"I can't say that last world was the worst it's going to get. The Darkness can be quite inventive when it wants to be. And almost certainly you'll need powers, not magic, to rescue your father. Better to get them early, learn what you can and can't do with them, before you absolutely need them."

"You're right. Very well. Let me spend some XP and we can-"

"Actually..." he held up a hand. "Might want to hold off on that. Some skills like _Spirit Sense_ will carry over, but some won't. Remember, you'll lose all access to magic, apart from these." He pointed to the bracelet. "Skills relating to powers you'll then have to learn. Like hitting people with attacks, as the magic itself won't aim them for you. Now you won't be able to put many points in, training on your own, but unless you have something you're burning to get, you might want to wait this time, see what powers you get, and look at the whole picture when you get back."

"Sensible. Okay, back into the fray. Tomorrow. Give me one more day to bum around here."

"Take as much time as you need. In fact, it will probably be pretty close to nighttime when you arrive there, so take a day and a half."

"Who should I ask for, by the way?"

"Just do what you always do, and ask around for Luna."

"This isn't you being all coy and thinking we'll all have a laugh about it later, is it?"

"What? Ahem, no, this'll work out. Trust me."

"It better."

So Susan and Sparkle stepped through the gateway to the next world, and as Silverstreak had said, it was nighttime, with a large crescent moon in the sky. Both looked around, but the streets were deserted. It seemed a fairly modern city, with electric lights and cars parked everywhere.

"Just ask around for Luna, he says," grumbled Susan. "I'll ask him around for- that doesn't make sense."

"What's that?" asked Sparkle, and they watched a young girl dash into a store across the street.

"Seems as good a place to start as any."

"Hey, there's another one," she said, looking up. A man shaped figure was heading in through an open window high above.

"Things might get interesting quick around here," Susan remarked, calling her _Enhance Sword_ out. "Best get to it."

They leisurely made their way across the street, and as they did a bunch of people stumbled onto the street with them. They were pretty average folks, apart from their huge, glowing red eyes, that is.

They went past Susan like she wasn't even there, and she watched them curiously.

"What do you suppose is going on here?" she asked. "Zombie jamboree? Helloooo!? Hello? Anyone home?" They filed past and also went into the store.

"I think that girl is... she fell down." Sparkle said, looking in through a window in the store. "Those glowing eye people are attacking her!"

"Then I guess I better-"

That's when every window in the place shattered, and Susan saw the girl in the middle surrounded by powerful waves of energy. _Now that's power!_ She was screaming her head off, bleeding from a scrape on her leg, and looked utterly out of place as the odd creature standing behind the counter winced and covered her ears. Sparkle couldn't get closer, but Susan didn't mind, and came up behind the girl, who looked surprised to see a girl with a huge sword on her shoulder strolling around at night.

She stopped screaming.

"Thank you," said Susan, wiggling a pinky finger in her ear. "Now, someone want to tell me what the blue blazes is going on here?"


	140. Chapter 140

140

Power UP!

Where: ? A store someplace?

When: Nighttime

"Get her!" the inhuman woman shouted, pointing at Susan. "Kill them both!"

Susan looked her over, and her mouth was about twice as wide as a normal person's, her eyes didn't have any whites, just red with a tiny pupil, and her hair was pink and frazzled. She had a funny symbol on her forehead, like an X inside a box with no top. Sort of a stylized L X I, if one were to look closely at it. Her clothes were torn like she had busted out of them.

The girl she was standing next to, by contrast, was wearing a white leotard and blue skirt, red boots, white gloves that ended with poofs at the elbow, and had a blue sailor collar on. Various other bits of jewelry like a choker, broach across her bow, and earrings completed the getup.

 _Now I know what he meant when he said leggy. Me-yow._ Having not been a combat action, that took no time, and Susan vaulted over the counter where the woman was standing. She yelped as Susan pinned her with one hand, and brought the sword to her neck with the other. With that, she made a quick _Dimension Sense_ and realized this creature didn't belong here. _Unless_ this _is The Darkness, which can't be the case. Right?_

"I'm going to give you a chance," she said evenly. "Run and tell your master that Susan Felton has come to this world. It already knows, but tell it anyway. Tell it I'm coming for it. And if it has had the audacity to take over someone innocent this time I will find a way to rip it out of the host and destroy it."

 _Good luck with that._

The woman struggled, and the girl looked on, but against Susan's STRength there wasn't anything she could do. The sword touched her throat.

"All right, I shall report to my master," the creature agreed, relaxing. "Release me."

"Release those people first," she countered, looking over her shoulder to where the zombie people were starting to rise again after the sonic attack.

"Of course." She lifted a glowing red... something... it was a glass tube with metal ends on it, and a sort of ball of energy in the middle. It stopped glowing, and the people fell over again.

 _Right onto the broken glass. Classy, Susan. Real classy._

"Now drop it. Unless it explodes when you drop it, in that case don't do that."

"It doesn't." She dropped it.

"Now go."

"My master will destroy you." It vanished.

"Good luck with that."

Susan turned to look at the girl. "Is it serious?" she asked, pointing to her knee. It was the polite thing to say, she already could see it was only one lethal damage.

"Who are you?"

"Susan Felton!" said a voice high above. "And Sailor Moon. I'll be sure to remember." The figure slipped out the door and Sailor Moon followed, followed shortly by Susan. It was a guy in a tuxedo, and Susan was pretty suspicious of any characters hanging around at this time of night. She considered going after him with _Spirit Step,_ but the guy had just jumped off a freaking _street light,_ and those suckers were _tall._ She didn't think she could even jump that high. Not without magic, though she could fly after him of course.

She found herself being grabbed by Sailor Moon. "What's going on? Can you tell me? Am I dreaming? What's with that sword? Who is that guy, do you know him? I just want to go home!"

 _Girl or guy? Girl or... yeah like there's a choice._

"Wow, rough night huh," said Sparkle, and Moon looked down at her. "Another one. Maybe it's not that I'm dreaming, but that I've gone nuts."

"You're not nuts," Susan assured her. "But your life just changed. I hope you're strong enough to handle it. Look, before we get into the whole 'who are you' business, do you know a Luna around here someplace?"

"I'm Luna," said a voice, and Susan looked over at the talking cat who came out of the store. "How do you know my name?"

"Seriously?" said Susan. "You think this is funny?"

"Funny? I don't follow."

Susan turned to shout at the sky. "You think this is _funny?_ Go ahead, rub my nose in it some more! I _dare you._ Am I going to have to... arrg, this is..."

"I'm so confused," wailed Moon.

Susan looked at the hundreds or perhaps thousands of whatever they used for money here worth of damage to the windows in the... _Oh a jewelry store, how nice._ _Wait, what level of technology do they have here? Are we on a million cameras right now?_ "Look, we can't stay here, cops are going to be all over this place. Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"If I can finally get some answers, yes."

"Then lead on."

Sparkle and Luna sniffed noses. "Figures. First talking cat I meet on this trip is too young. Next one I meet is female."

"You could do what I do," Susan said with a grin.

"Throw yourself at everything vaguely cute and female?"

"I stayed well away from Fluttershy as you well know!"

 _Says the girl who was sleeping in Twilight's bed._

 _Quiet you. Nothing happened._

"..." said Sparkle.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Someone's feeling better."

"Not really, but it's either this or..." she indicated the sword. "I should get rid of this, actually." She swished the sword and put it away in her _pocket._

"What's going on?" wailed Sailor Moon again, her eyes wide at the sword Susan was no longer holding.

 _It's going to be a long night._

So the two girls and two girl cats climbed into Moon's bedroom, and Susan looked around. And it was fairly girly, with some jewelry on a stand, a mirror, a bed, cute little things scattered about. Somewhat of a bunny theme. Moon sat down on the bed, her clothes changing into a less flashing version of themselves, and her accoutrements (the word here meaning everything not actual clothing) vanishing.

"Whoa."

"I'm shaking," said the girl, looking at her hands. And she was shaking. "What is happening to me?

"You keep saying that. How long have you had powers?"

"Powers? What powers?"

"What-" She looked over at Luna. "Maybe you should start at the beginning?"

"Maybe you should," said Luna. "For all we know you could be an enemy!"

"Right," Susan drawled. "Who just happens to have a talking cat companion and totally saved Moon's butt back there, along with the rest of her. You saw my sword, do you really think this girl could stop me if I wanted her dead?"

"Well..."

"Look, I want to help. And I want some help in return. Moon, let's help each other, okay? When you understand, you won't have to be scared anymore." _Or maybe you can just be more scared. Your choice._ She took Moon's hands in hers. _She's like ice._

"My name is Usagi. Tsukino Usagi."

"Nice to meet you, Usagi. I'm Susan. Now, how did this all start?"

She glanced over at Luna. "Well, about a..." she looked over at a clock. "...half an hour ago, this talking cat showed up at my window, and gave me this brooch."

"Wait, you've had powers for, like, twenty minutes now? That's _it?_ No wonder you're shaking, what were you thinking?" She said the last to Luna.

"I didn't plan it this way, you know. She should be thanking me, without me coming at this exact time her friend might have been killed."

 _Narrative Imperative, right._ "Friend?"

"Who I went to go save... no, that came later. Don't get me all mixed up, it's hard enough as it is. She gave me the brooch."

"Brooch, right."

"She told me to say some words, and I did, and I changed. When I did my hair… things lit up and I heard Naru-chan. She's a friend of mine from school, so I went to go see if she was all right. That's when I was attacked by that... thing that looked like her mom, and then you showed up."

 _So, he sent me here before anyone here actually transformed? How did he know the transformations would be leggy, then? Does his equipment have a greater control of time than he let on? Or is moving between worlds infinitely more complex than I can understand and I shouldn't jump to conclusions about it? Yeah, probably that one._

"Wow, that's pretty brave, you just rushing off like that."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. You were basically unarmed and, while you didn't realize that would happen, you rushed to save a friend without even thinking about it. That's... something special."

"I just hope Naru-chan was all right."

"I looked her over," said Luna. "She was just unconscious. She'll be fine."

 _Shoot. I didn't even look over those people I knew would probably be injured when the fight was over. What's wrong with me?_

"Thanks."

"So now let's hear your story," said Luna.

"Fair enough. So the first thing you need to understand is, there are others worlds parallel to this one..."

Susan told her 'welcome to the multiverse' story, and Usagi looked more perplexed than anything. Luna just looked troubled.

"So you've come seeking me, a being with this so called _metapower,"_ said Luna, "because The Darkness you're fighting probably has your father locked up on a world without magic, which is primarily what you use to do things with. You want to transform like Usagi."

"Exactly. That will convert my magical" _backgrounds_ "power into just plain superpower. Like you had, shattering those windows with your scream. That wasn't magic, just something you could do. I mean you've only had powers, well it's more like an hour and a half now, who knows what else you could do?"

"Why would I need to do that again?"

"Like I explained, your world is under attack. Right this minute, by The Darkness. If we don't stop him, your entire reality will vanish, and it'll get stronger."

"I'm just in high school," Usagi complained. "I can't be running around fighting monsters!"

"There are other guardians to help you, like Sailor V. We need to find them. You won't be doing it alone."

"Still..."

"Look Usagi, it's late. Get some sleep. Susan, can you come with me?"

"Sure thing."

"We'll check back in with you tomorrow."

"Sure, sure. If I wake up and this wasn't all a dream."

"Come on."

So once again Susan and Sparkle went out into the night, some kind of tower shining in the distance illuminating the sky.

Luna was walking ahead of them, so Sparkle jumped up on Susan's shoulders.

"Did you feel what was in that canister she had?"

"Felt like _Spirit Energy._ Think she was collecting it?"

"Seems reasonable. Is whoever doing that The Darkness or a local force it'll use as a catalyst?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Think it might start gathering local power now, to better fight off Wanderers?"

"You've done the same, with that energy drain spell. Fighting things and then taking their energy. It's a strategy that works."

"True. Wanted to finally convert that _Added Effect Materia_ and link that spell up to it. Take a swing at something, hit it, get some energy. Silverstreak said hold off though, so we'll see what this world gives me."

"It could be better, I suppose."

"I suppose."

Luna stopped in front the "Crown Arcade" which seemed to be in English. Most other stuff around here seemed to be in Japanese, if Susan was guessing right.

"In here," Luna said, somehow opening the doors. She then went to a specific machine and did something, and it slid away revealing a staircase.

"Neat, you even have a secret base. Kind of conspicuous to get into though, during the day."

"Hopefully we won't need it during the day."

The three descended the stairs, and Susan whistled. It seemed to be a platform, suspended in space, with a huge bank of computers wrapped around the center. Of course, the stairs were simply pure light, and Susan peered at the computer, wondering what it could do.

"It's old moon based technology," said Luna. "But that's not important now." She hopped up on the stool in front of the main screen. "Can you train her? And then the others, when I find them?"

"In what? Fighting? Sure, I'm decent at hand to hand, sword, pistol. Hopefully my, uh, unique heritage will let me learn powers quickly, too." _In other words, being a Paragon I should get some kind of grasp of things numerically. I hope. And I can 'accelerate training' by spending a little extra XP. So if I need to I can pick stuff up pretty quick._

"You'll help us, and do what it takes to defend this planet? Or I guess I should say reality now?"

"It's a lot to take in at once, sorry."

"No, that's okay. I want to trust you..."

"But you can't. I get it, sometimes I can hardly trust myself. I rely on Sparkle here a lot for that."

"I suppose you do hang out with a cat, so you can't be all bad." She chuckled. "But there's a problem."

"What's that?"

"The girls I'm looking for, their transformation is _back_ into what they were before. There's a complicated history surrounding them, and even I don't... quite recall it all yet. But I'm not so much giving them powers as waking the powers they used to have up again. So I have no idea what will happen if I try do to the same for you."

"The being that sent me here felt you were my best chance. I trust his judgment, and by extension, you. I'll take whatever I can get."

"I don't have a lot of choices here," Luna muttered nearly to herself. "I saw that when Sailor Moon had no clue what she was doing back there. But you just ran in and controlled the whole situation. Weapon and everything. She's, and I don't want you telling her this, totally unsuited for the role she must play. I've been watching her, and she's lazy, and whiny, and klutzy. But she was all I had, until you showed up. You say you have 'magic' and I'd like to watch you, make sure you're really on our side. That you can really be trusted to help us. But you travel with a cat..." She looked over at Sparkle, who looked back at her similarly. "Very well, I'll try it."

"Thank you," said Susan, getting excited. "What do I have to do?"

"Just come here and kneel down." Susan did, and Luna touched a paw to her forehead. She seemed to concentrate, and a light played around Susan, getting too bright to look at and forcing her to close her eyes. When it subsided, she blinked.

"Did it work?"

"I'm not sure. Something obviously happened. There, what's that?" On the floor between them was an orb, about the size of a large marble, and smooth. It seemed to have a swirl of every color imaginable running from one end to the other, packed together in a spiral. Sparkle came over and sniffed it, careful not to touch it, but looking it over from every angle. "Usually they're pens, but I suppose being from another world, we can't expect you to be the same. I know your transformation phrase though, and it's strange as well. I guess just pick it up and we'll see what happens."

"Sounds good to me."

Susan reached for it. A second after she did, power again exploded around her, making Luna and Sparkle cry out. A sphere of energy shimmered around her, making her rise into the air, and within, Susan's brain was being stuffed with knowledge. _I understand now. What Sailor Moon's power is, what that dark beam The Darkness keeps using on me, everything. I-_

The effect died, and Susan was dumped to the floor.

"Susan!" both cats called, running to her side.

"I'm okay. I get it now," she said with a smile. "It's so simple, I don't know how I didn't see it before."

"Get... what?"

"Powers. Natures. Techniques. Don't you see, I can use them all! Not all at once, of course."

"What are you talking about, where's the orb?" asked Sparkle.

"What? Right-" Susan lifted her hand, but the orb was gone. "Did I drop it? I hope that's not going to happen every time I touch the thing." She started looking around. "It didn't roll away, did it?"

"I didn't see anything," said Luna. The three started looking around.

"I still remember it all, like I have the potential to do so much. I just don't... I know where it is."

"You see it?" asked Sparkle.

"I feel it. Here." Susan touched a spot on her chest, about four inches down from her neck. Her eyes widened. "It's here."

"What?" both cats chorused.

Susan stripped off her shirt, and there was the orb, now imbedded in her chest.

"I didn't expect that," said Luna with a shake of her head. "I guess you won't lose it, it any rate."

"Does it... hurt?"

"No," Susan touched it. "It's warm. I think it's a part of me now."

Sparkle's eyes narrowed. "I want you to be very, very cautious about using that orb," she said carefully.

"Why the sudden warnings?"

"I looked it over carefully, and it didn't have that black streak in it before."

"Black?" Susan couldn't see it very well from this angle, but Sparkle was right. It now had a prominent black streak running through it along with the other colors.

 _You just have to corrupt everything I do, don't you?_

 _Corrupt? Susan, I keep saying this, we are one. Why struggle so against your inner nature? Wouldn't it be easier, far easier, to just stop fighting me?_

 _So you can make me your instrument of destruction? No thanks._

 _You would feel no more guilt. No more sadness. Just the satisfaction of a job well done._

 _Shove off._

 _As you wish. But I must thank you, there are some interesting possibilities in that orb. I can't wait to explore them. With you. I can't wait to explore them with you._

"It saying anything?"

"Just the usual drivel. I'm getting tired of it, honestly. So, what's this transformation phrase you were talking about? Let's test this sucker out!"

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"Wise? Look, it's part of me now. I mean really, Silverstreak let me come here and get it. I need to know what I can really do before I need this in combat and am trying to figure it out on the fly."

Luna looked at Sparkle, who hesitated, then nodded.

"Your unlock phrase is 'light of the multiverse, make up!'"

"See, that sounds promising. So I just have to say that?" Luna nodded. "Okay, here we go." Susan pulled her shirt back on, then tried to ready herself for anything. "Light of the multiverse, make up!"

When the light cleared, Susan was floating above the floor. Where Sailor Moon had regular boots, Susan had stylized armored boots. Where she had elbow length gloves, she had gauntlets. Her skirt was metal interlocking plates, so it hung and she could sit down in it, but still provide protection. And her 'leotard' and collar were similarly armored. The final piece was a helmet in place of her tiara, with a sort of valkyrie, winged, motif. In effect, the only skin she showed was from her elbow to her shoulder, and from her knee to her skirt. All along the metal, glowing blue runes seemed to be carved, and the pattern of light 'under' them shifted and changed.

"Wow. Unreal. This is amazing!" Susan cried, brimming with three hundred and twenty energy. "I feel incredible! Yes, yes, yes! I can win! I feel great! I. Can. Do. THIS!"

"What are you doing?" asked Sparkle.

Susan looked over at her.

"What the heck happened to you?"

Susan current powers 24/24 points spent:

Armor 2 (basic armor)

Energy Regen 2 (regenerate per minute or via active action)

Energy Well 5 (standard energy * 4)

Flight 2 (fly)

Healing 2 (spend energy to heal with a touch)

PiNature: Force 2

Nature: Metapower 2

Nature: Time 2

Sudden Step 1 (basically the power version of Spirit Step)

Teleportal 5 (basically the spell)

Renewal 1 (don't have to eat, drink, or sleep)

Sailor Moon's Powers

Ancient memories 1 (remember things from a past life, learn those skills with no time requirement)

Healing 2 (Heal by touch with energy)

Jump 1 (Jump long distances)

Longevity 1 (Won't age while powers are active)

Resiliency 4 (Twice as tough as normal)

Resistance: Darkness 1

Nature: Sound 2

Nature: Healing 2

Nature: Mind 2

Telesphere (with the other scouts) 1

Unrecognizable 1 (Others that see her won't recognize she's Usagi)

Weapon 1

No Primary Nature -1

Transformation: Full -3


	141. Chapter 141

141

Bumming Around

When: Just then

Where: Sailor Scout Secret Base

Susan stared at Sparkle, who she barely recognized under all that armor she was now wearing. Cat armor. As in armor. On a cat. It glowed with the same pale blue gibberish runes hers did, and even had a segmented portion for her tail.

"Apparently," she said dryly, "when you change, I change too. Nice of you to mention it."

"I didn't know. How would I know?"

"You were the one saying how all the mysteries of the universe had resolved themselves to your satisfaction just a moment ago."

"About powers, yes. Powers that I could choose when I transformed, and by extension what powers others had been using against me. But not... this." She indicated Sparkle with a wave. "What is this?"

"Armor. When you changed I realized I had a split second to grab some of the powers you did, so I took a couple. I wasn't sure what 'sudden step' was but armor seemed clear enough."

"Is this bad? What's going on?" asked Luna.

"One second, Luna. You don't have access to magic anymore, do you?" she asked Sparkle.

Who shook her head. "Not a spell. In fact I couldn't even begin to tell you how to use magic, which is somewhat scary. I really hope it comes back when we change back."

"I'm sure it will. To answer your question, Luna, it's not bad, just unexpected. I hoped to at least have some access to magic when I was transformed, but I guess that's out. When the being who sent us here said I would lose magic he wasn't kidding. But you just choose from what I've already chosen? That's a bummer. We had separate spells, we could at least get separate powers!"

"Maybe now that I know it's going to happen, we can work on that. Maybe I can choose everything too, it's just what you choose sort of went by in a rush so I grabbed it before I got nothing."

"If you took nothing would you keep magic?"

"I don't think so. I would have no magic backgrounds and no power backgrounds either."

"Oh."

"So why do you look like that?" asked Luna now that there was a break. "I've never seen a Guardian in armor before, and you said something about having _all_ powers? What powers?"

"A lot of information seems to have been dumped into my brain, it'll take me some time to sort through it. I can tell you a few things, based on what I've been told and what my heritage makes plain to me. Now, I look like Sailor Moon because that's what your power does, wakes up Moonies or whatever."

"Sailor Guardians."

"Right. But you said it yourself, you're waking up the power they already had. But I didn't have any powers before, and the transformation has to do something, so basically it offers me everything. But I only have so much magical power to convert into the other kind." Susan made her _character sheet_ appear. "Yeah, all my magical backgrounds have been converted into _power points,_ two for every one I had before, which I then 'spent' on my new abilities. With each ability assigned a point cost based on... well, I didn't come up with them. For example-" She waved a hand and a _Teleportal_ appeared, showing the opposite end of the base. "The power to create these cost me five of my twenty six points. So did boosting my energy up four times. The armor cost me two. And so on. I took it on a whim, just to see what it would do. I wondered if it would totally change my outfit, but no, it seems I'm going to look like a Sailor Guardian every time I transform." She noticed something on her sheet. "Hey Sparkle, you've been upgraded. No longer are you the plain, vanilla _companion._ You are now a _power companion._ Nice, huh?"

"I could get used to it," she said, looking over her armor.

"Do you know your attacks?"

"Oh, I get to create them on the fly. Basically all the spells I knew before going away converted the points it cost to buy them into potential for techniques. Basically when I transform I get three things, in addition to a powered cat. First is powers, just things I can do, like flying. Well, I guess technically natures are powers, but whatever. Like Sailor Moon obviously has a sound nature, meaning she can channel her energy into sound techniques. And that's the third thing I get, techniques. I don't have any at the moment because I haven't thought of any, but I will. As long as I have spare points I can just think of one and then call it out. I could spend XP on them, too... Natures determine techniques. Like if you want to throw fire at someone, you need a fire nature. Sparkle, you can think about it like everything the planets govern has been broken out into a separate category, and you have to take them individually. So you don't take Uranus to get Acid, Earth, and Electric attacks, you have to take each one, at a cost of two points apiece. Or one if you only want up to grade five techniques... we can go over it, you'll see."

"I hope so."

"In any case, what I did seems to have worked," said Luna. "Despite the oddness surrounding the whole thing. Binding orbs and whatnot."

"Beyond my wildest dreams. Luna, I am forever in your debt. Thank you."

"Of course. What will you do now?"

"Play around with my powers, see what I can do. I don't want to wreck this place up, so we'll just go high in the air where no one will see us. You did take flight, didn't you?"

"Yeah, kind of obvious what that was."

"So we'll throw some stuff at each other and see what sticks."

"Will you need a place to sleep tonight?"

"Sleep? Ha! One of my powers is _Renewal,_ I don't have to eat or sleep with it going."

"I didn't get that one," Sparkle informed her.

"Oh. Too bad. Well, points are points. Here's something interesting though." Susan opened another _Teleportal_ at her level. "Recognize it?"

"It's... the cabin? Your _personal dimension?"_

"Yeah. Apparently this version of _Teleport_ can go between dimensions. Well, I suppose mine can too, if you get a thirty on your check. But there's no check with this, so it just happens that way. Neat, huh?"

"Yeah. I can take a nap in there when I get tired."

"I have no idea what you two are saying but okay. Come find me tomorrow and we'll discuss our next move."

"Right. And really, thanks again. You have no idea how much this changes things for me."

"Just... don't turn on us, okay?"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

So the two flew through a _Teleportal_ to above the arcade, and then flew higher. She then spent an hour or so throwing techniques at Sparkle, and dodging Sparkle's techniques back. With her _Force_ nature she found she could project typical 'force blasts,' 'shields' and even an equivalent to the _elemental weapon_ spell. Of course if she wanted a 'force sword' and a 'force lance' and a 'force knuckle' it was three separate techniques. Unlike _Elemental Weapon_ that could get her any close weapon when she cast it. _I only want a sword though, really._

With her _Metapower_ nature she found she could turn specific powers in Sparkle off, and then hold them off like maintaining a spell. And a _Metapower_ barrier could stop techniques, where a _Force_ barrier seemed to just stop physical stuff. Anything she maintained put her at a minus two, which she was somewhat miffed about.

"I mean it's _powers,_ why this negative two all over the place?" she complained.

"You still have to somewhat concentrate on keeping it around. Besides, you shouldn't complain, no more trying to figure out from the 'grade' of the spell what the penalty is."

"True."

And of course her _Time_ nature allowed her to somewhat replicate the _Acceleration_ spell, simply adding to her REFlexes the result of the check she made. Or slow time down in a certain area, or even cause it to loop.

Her powers, while mostly passive, she also played around with. _Energy Regen_ was truly a steal at only two points. It allowed her to regenerate one energy every _minute,_ or simply will it and get back her RESolve, a ten, per _action._

 _So if I'm figuring this right, I could go from zero to full energy in less than a minute?_

This, along with another little quirk she found she got for free of being able to charge energy as if she was under _Energetic Accumulation,_ created an aura of _Force_ around her so it wasn't subtle. She went above a cloud to do that, to avoid people taking a midnight stroll from seeing her powering up and shooting energy blasts.

 _Probably because I choose_ Force _as my primary nature. If I had chosen Fire, I would have gotten a fire arua._

"I'm going to bed," Sparkle said at last. "This has been fun, and let me know what else you work out, but I'm done. Unlimited energy or not, which is _criminally broken,_ especially for you, I still need to sleep."

"I know. Aren't you excited?"

"Thrilled. Open it up."

"Here you go!"

One downside of the _Teleportal_ was she couldn't stick it somewhere and keep it there. It shrank at a steady rate. _Oh well, that's a small price to pay._

With Sparkle gone she set up a technique to make a small target a few meters away from her and practiced throwing force bolts at it. She realized she was rolling it untrained, and at least managed to get one point in _Technique Attack._

 _Have to put some points into that quick, good thing I saved all I got in... yeah. There. I can spend one or two for 'intense training.'_

Other things she wasn't going to have to put points into, like _Spirit Sense_ became _Power Sense_ and _Spirit Manipulation_ became _Power Manipulation._ She spent some time figuring out if they were different, and decided while similar, they weren't exactly the same. _Power Manipulation_ actually seemed a bit more useful, which was all to the good.

The rest of the night Susan poked around the city, flying about. She stood on the top of the metal structure she had spotted earlier, which reminded her of the Eiffel Tower. Of course by the time the sun started coming up she was completely lost so simply opened a _Teleportal_ back to the outside of Usagi's house and then got Sparkle out, who had been getting bored waiting for her.

"So what do we do all day today?" Sparkle asked. "We're going to have to power down to get me some food, as I'm not keen on checking out garbage cans."

"True. It's a pity she's so young, she has to get to school I bet. I suppose we could hang out in the base, _Question_ will work anywhere. We'll have to see if I can get a reading on The Darkness around here, see what we're up against."

"Not that _Question_ usually can tell us anything about it."

"Usually, no. But there's no magic here, so how would it protect itself?"

"Magic and _natures_ are similar, right? So there must be some kind of information gathering powers."

"Seer nature, yeah."

"I'm sure there's techniques to defend against that sort of thing too. It would block _Question_ as well."

"True. Though it's a good point, I should try out other natures too. Seer, Dimension, Spirit... Who knows what they could tell us?"

"Nothing better to do."

Susan watched with some amusement as Usagi dashed out the door, obviously late, and saw Luna's head poking out the window. She didn't look pleased.

"Aren't you glad you don't have to keep an eye on me like that?"

"All I do is keep an eye on you!"

"Fufff!"

Once back at the base, Susan went back into "normal" mode and made some food for the both of them. That done she settled down with _Question_ and asked a few things. When she was finished, she was more confused than ever.

"Was the woman I scared off yesterday connected to The Darkness?"

 _No_

"Who is the woman I scared off yesterday connected to?"

 _The Tenma_

"Do the Tenma and The Darkness work together?"

 _Unknown_

"Where is The Darkness hiding on this world?"

 _Unknown_

"Will The Darkness reveal itself within the next month?"

 _Yes_

"Okay, who or what is a Tenma?" asked Sparkle, as Susan sat pondering.

"I wish I could tell you. You've never head the name?"

"Never."

Susan looked over at the computer. "I wonder." She got up and looked the controls over. "No time like the present. _Comprehend Technology!_ See, told you that would come in handy. Okay, this, then this..."

Susan had to maintain _Literacy_ as well, to read what it presented to her, but this database she was in seemed to have no information on any Tenma group. Or really on anything, that she could see.

"I guess we'll just ask Luna directly," she decided, turning the screen off again. "Odd that questions directly relating to The Darkness got an _Unknown_ but a question about the future got an answer, even though it touched on The Darkness."

"I suppose even it can't block out the future."

"So if I asked what form I would meet The Darkness in the future, would I get a result?"

"But that relates to The Darkness, not time. The spell could see you getting information but not what that information is."

"I'll just try it, rather than speculate."

"I suppose you have unlimited energy, outside of combat. I don't like the thought of you transforming too much, though."

"What, are you worried about that black streak? Nothing bad happened, forget it!"

"I wish I could."

But Susan got no better response, and poking around MoonPC wasn't that fun as it had no Internet access, but even worse- no games, not even solitaire. "Nine thousand gigs of RAM, and it can't entertain me at all! Though there was a Sirius/Severus fic I never got around to writing..."

"Does it really have nine thousand?"

"It has OVER NINE THOUSAND!"

"Now I know your brain is broken. Why does a computer this huge have no apps but that one database one that just has Usagi in it?"

"I have no idea. Maybe I'm the guest user or something, like I know how to use it but Luna is automatically logged in? And we never asked Usagi what year this was. They might not even _have_ an internet."

"Don't you have an iPad, that gets charged from the solar panels in your _Dimension?"_

"Oh yeah. Be right back. The crystal Hermione made for me won't work here, but I did load it up with apps before we left."

So Susan entertained herself for a bit, remade her _Spell Symbols_ on the bracelet which seemed to have disappeared when she changed, and checked her others. "Odd, they're still fine."

"Probably because they weren't in the world. The connection to magic was reestablished when you pulled them out. If you had pulled them out when transformed, they wouldn't have been."

"You're probably right. Anyway, better remake the ones we used back in... we used recently. Yeah." She stuck the bracelet in her _sub-space pocket,_ as "No sense just letting them vanish again when I next transform. I can pull it out any time."

That done, Susan figured it was about time for Usagi to get out of school, and stepped out of a plain old _Teleportal_ while _Invisible._ She found a place to step out from after dropping that, and went to a park that seemed to be between the school, which she had found poking around earlier, and Usagi's house. (Of course she got turned around twice and had to ask someone. Twice.)

She didn't have to wait long, (she got a twenty one LUCk check) but Usagi didn't seem to see her sitting there, as she was looking intently at a piece of paper as she walked.

 _Low LUCk, low INSight, or some combination of both?_ "Is she muttering to herself?" Susan asked, watching her lips move as she passed.

"Yeah. She might be more crazy than you."

"Hey!"

But she did look up when a girl crossing the street ahead of her gave a cry as Luna jumped out of a tree nearly on top of her. She ran to catch up and Susan figured she might as well make an appearance as well. As she got closer the only thing she could think was: _Hotness._

"So introduce me to your cute friend," she said, coming up behind Usagi.

The two girls stared at her. The newcomer had blue hair, short and in a sort of pageboy style. She pulled it off. She had blue ball earrings, and pale blue eyes. She pulled those off too.

 _There's something else I might like her to pull off. Growl! I have a girlfriend, and she is so blue._

The silence went on a little too long, and Susan looked back at Usagi.

"Usagi? Are you in there? Hello?"

"I hoped I had dreamed you."

"But I'm straight out of a nightmare instead, I know. Sorry. I'm Susan, nice to meet you," she said, holding out her hand.

"Mizuno Ami," said the girl, taking it. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too."

"Uh, you said that already."

"Did I?" Susan grinned at her, giving a little laugh.

Behind her, Sparkle starting making hairball making noises.

"Oh my goodness, is that cat all right?" Mizuno said, dropping Susan's hand and bending down to look at her.

"Sparkle? She's fine. Aren't you, Sparkle!" Susan swept her up. "Yes she is! Say hello, Sparkle!" Susan waved one of her paws.

Sparkle looked up at her like _did you forget your brains in the last world or something?_

"Two people with cats wandering around outside. The odds must be astronomical."

"And we just met yesterday, too," Usagi put in, finally hitting control-alt-del and killing that process that was hanging her brain up. "Under circumstances nearly as strange."

"I'd love to hear about them!"

"You would!? Oh, that's... well. I'll tell you all about it on the way to the arcade! It's near where you're going, right?"

"Yes, I suppose it is."

Usagi was now trying to come up with something plausible, and Susan was a step behind them. Sparkle dug her claws in, knowing it wouldn't actually hurt Miss _Giant's Soul._ Or considering where they seemed to be, _Giant's Soul-san._

"What?" she asked, dropping back a few more steps.

"Like I said, vaguely cute and female."

"Hey, I don't have _lecherous._ I'm very picky. She's much more than vaguely cute."

"Do tell."

"She's cute _as a button._ I mean come on, look at her! Besides, I'm not taking her right here in the street. I have as much right to admire a pretty face as anyone."

"As long as that's all it is."

Mizuno turned around so Susan caught up. "So Susan, that's not really Japanese, are you just visiting?"

"Why yes. I got into town yesterday and almost immediately ran into Usagi here. Like she was saying. We had a lot in common, both hanging around with cats was just the start, so we sort of hit it off."

"Your accent is perfect. I can't believe it, have you studied Japanese for long?"

"Oh, I dabble in a lot of languages, actually."

"What if I speak in French?"

"You know French?"

"You understood me, at least. But can you speak it?"

"Uh... hey, we're here!"


	142. Chapter 142

142

Training Montage

When: Just after leaving the arcade

Where: Walking back to Usagi's house

"She was nice," Susan said to Usagi, who was still humming over the pen she got out of the machine by shaking it. _What's her LUCk, anyway? Not that I would become a Chaos Priest to find out, mind you, but knowing would be nice._

"She's not like the others said at all," agreed Usagi.

"Others?"

"Kids at school. They say she's cold and mean, because she's always studying and never talks to anyone. But that's silly. She's just smart so they're jealous."

"I guess. Anyway, when does your mom expect you home, anyway?"

She sighed. "Soon. She'll want me to do my homework, but usually I get distracted by stuff and... squirrel!" She looked over at squirrel running by. "What was I saying?"

Susan rolled her eyes. "How about we surprise your old mom for once and come home with it done?"

"How are we going to do that? My house is just up there and getting it done between now and then doesn't seem too likely."

Susan wiggled a finger. "That's because you don't know what I do. We'll head around the back and I'll show you what I mean."

Usagi, Luna, and Sparkle all wondered what she had in mind, but they followed her around to the back of the house.

"Light of the multiverse, _Make Up!"_ Susan shouted, grabbing a totally different number of powers and natures this time.

2 Energy Siphon (spend more energy than normal)

2 Energy Regeneration (regenerate per minute or via active action)

5 Energy Well (standard energy * 4)

2 Nature (Sound)

2 Nature (Electricity)

2 Nature (Metapower)

2 Nature (Technology)

2 Nature (Time)

5 Teleportal

1 Sending (Talk with someone over long distances)

 _That is never going to get old._

"Copying my style, now?" asked Usagi, pointing to Susan's new hair accessories.

"No, your _nature_ ," she replied, opening a _Teleportal_ to her _Personal Dimension._ "Come on, we have work to do."

"That sounds like work," she complained, but jumped through with the two cats.

"Oh," said Luna, looking around. "I guess yours is nicer."

"Maybe. Come on. I'll give you the tour as a reward for this training exercise." She opened another one internally to where she wanted to go (as it opened to the same spot with magic or powers, a slight distance away from the cabin) down into the caves under the mountains.

"What are we doing here?" asked Usagi, looking around.

"Training, like I said," Susan simply replied. "We need to get you using your powers consciously, and not just flailing about breaking every window in the vicinity. And I won't have you tearing up my nice trees outside, so this seems ideal."

"But like I said, my mom expects me home, and I still have homework to do!"

"Don't _worry_ so much, _worrywart._ I've got that covered." Susan spent twenty energy and shouted " _Temporal Sidestep!"_

There was a play of energy about the place, and the others felt a little odd, but Susan got a twenty eight, giving the girls five hours inside the cave for every one hour that passed outside. She explained how her _Time_ nature could create techniques to manipulate time, and this is what she came up with for training purposes.

"You mean to tell me that if I stepped out of this cave," Luna asked, fascinated, "I would start moving super slowly, compared to you?"

"Exactly. If I was doing this out in the open, or as some kind of battlefield space I would try and put _Dimension_ nature into it, so we could have a separate dimension _and_ time, and not mess up the place I was fighting in. But I ran out of points. I want to try something while you practice so I needed a bunch of other natures."

"I wondered why all the natures," Sparkle remarked.

"So, transform and let's see what you can do, Usagi!"

She did, and Susan started coaching her on techniques. "Basically, just think about what you want the technique to do, put energy into those," she tapped the red "speakers" in Moon's head, "and call the technique out. I suggest something small to start? Like this." She turned to the wall and thought about a level 2 technique, medium range, instant only. _This one's for you, kid,_ she thought, thinking about her favorite agent of chaos. Or really the only one she knew. _"Discordant Note!"_

There was a screechy tone as her... (what are those things called? Barrettes? I'm calling them focus jewelry.) focus jewelry vibrated and a small bit of the cave wall she was pointing at flaked off. "See? There you have it."

"And you think I can do that?"

"Moon, I watched you shatter every window inside that jewelry store just... today, actually. Or late last night, however you want to think of it. Redirect that power into a narrow beam and you'll really have something. But like I said, for now, start small so you get the hang of it."

"But why do I have to!?"

"Of course you have to!" both Luna and Susan said at the same time.

"Please," said Susan, conceding the floor. "You have the prior claim."

"You have to find your fellow Guardians, and protect the princess," Luna explained. "And that creature that attacked your friend? It won't be the last. I don't know what would have happened if Susan hadn't appeared at that moment, maybe that fellow in the tuxedo would have stepped in. But you can't count on others. _You_ are Sailor Moon, champion of love and justice. You have a responsibility to use these powers and keep people safe."

"And remember, it's worse than she thinks," reminded Susan. "With me here, The Darkness isn't going to sit around and hope I go away. It will attack, one way or another. You need to be ready for it."

"I just... why me?"

"Why not you? Do you think you can't handle it? Are you afraid you'll fail? That your friends will lie there, in a pool of their own blood? Glassy eyes staring up at you, accusing you, crying out for a vengeance you're too weak to..." She stopped as the others were looking shocked. "Ahem. I mean, if you don't want that to happen- train. So you won't fail. I know you can do it, Moon." _I mean I don't know. You could suck. But what sort of message does that send if I said something like that. Good thing I don't have_ Compulsive Honesty.

"I guess I have no choice."

 _That's right, you don't._

So while Moon tried to work out how to willingly activate her technique, Susan got to work on something she thought might come in handy. It took several steps, and all of her current natures (except _Time,_ which she was using to maintain the time bubble around them) but she was quite pleased with the result.

First she used a _Technology_ technique to create a small, circular handheld device with a button in the center. That button unlocked a switch that could be flicked on the side. She spent a moment just grinning at it, amazed at how easy it was to have just wished this item into existence.

Step two of the procedure was giving it power. This required both _Electricity_ and _Metapower_ natures, and a technique that shoved power into it. It couldn't hold a lot, Susan wasn't making a bomb or anything, but she managed to shove enough in for several uses. _And I can always recharge it later._

Thirdly she used a _Metapower_ technique of _"Power Transfer"_ to shove her _Power_ of _Sending_ into it, which worked just fine. All this didn't take very long, and Susan went back to coaching Moon in moving her power around. With _Power Sense_ she could feel that Moon wasn't doing it properly, and tried to get her to remember back to what she was feeling when she shattered those windows. She also got in a bit of discussion about _Overcharging_ the technique to do more damage, and _Power Control_ to spend more energy per action.

Finally she managed it, and her _"_ _Discordant Note!"_ produced a result, and smiles from Susan.

"Well done!" she exclaimed. "You just used your first technique. Now do it again." Moon used the attack several more times, and wanted a break. "Are you sure? Because 'taking a break' means 'getting a start on that homework,' you know. I want you to do the technique over and over so you can do it under pressure, but I figure now that you know, it should come easily."

"Oh."

"Hey, don't look so down. I made you something." She handed the unit over.

"What's this?"

"I put my power of _Sending_ into it. Basically, if you get into trouble you can use this to call me. Just press the button and slide the switch, and announce who you want to talk to. In most cases, me, as hearing your voice out of thin air might startle other people. You can tell me where you are and I'll come help!"

"Wow, thanks. Is that what you were doing? You can just make stuff like this?"

"It takes most of my points, but I guess so. I'll probably try making something a little more complex next time, but this proves it works. Oh, and it will drain energy with every use, so don't use it too much. I can recharge it later, though."

"Okay. Why the complex switch and everything?"

"That's so you don't carry it around activated by accident. As hilarious as it would be to hear you innocently talking to your school friends, let's avoid that, shall we?"

"Ah. Well, thanks."

"Sure thing." Susan opened a _Teleportal_ over to the cabin. "Let's have a seat, perhaps a snack, and get a start on that homework."

"Sorry, all I heard was snack."

Susan recreated the _Temporal Sidestep_ at the cabin, and Usagi, with a lot of whining, did her homework. Susan couldn't help much, given she had taken some very different classes at Hogwarts, and couldn't power down and use _Augment Skill._ But Usagi did her best, and the four stepped out of the _Personal Dimension_ a relative half hour after they went in.

"She'll be suspicious if I said I did it at school. I never do homework at school."

"So mess about as normal for an hour and show her you did it. You _did,_ after all. You only cheated time."

"I guess. Where will you be if I need you?" She slipped the disk out of her pocket.

"Good question. I can't go back there, that power won't reach me there. Usually I shack up with someone... I'll probably just go hang out at Luna's place. I can use _Creation_ and make something as simple as a sleeping bag, and my magic can make food. I'll be fine."

"Okay. See you on the way home from school tomorrow. And Susan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For, you know. Pushing me to do stuff."

"Any time, Moon Head."

The next day, Usagi was looking around for Susan, who waved to her and ran over.

"How was your day?"

"Weird," Usagi said, looking troubled. "A lot of people are wandering around mumbling to themselves, and after I invited Ami-chan to get ice cream with us, she looked really excited. Then she just zoned out and wandered away."

"That is strange. Did you follow her? Did she say where she was going?"

Usagi shook her head. "Didn't have to. I know where she's going." She slipped a CD-ROM out of her backpack. "Crystal Seminar. The disk is hers, she left it behind in her haste to... shuffle off like a zombie. Huh. Did she leave this on purpose? Trying to tell me something, or just get rid of it for some reason? I mean I doubt she makes a habit of forgetting things, she's top of our class so her memory must be great."

"Then I guess our next step should be to take a look."

On the way home, a woman was handing out flyers and Susan grabbed one, showing it to Usagi. "Look, they use her on their promotional material. Hope she's getting paid for it."

"That is her! Wild, but I suppose if you pick the best, the rest will follow?"

"I'm not even sure what that means."

"Somehow I don't either."

Neither paid any attention to the well dressed young man in glasses who was watching them.

At Usagi's house, Susan slipped into her room while _Invisible,_ and all four crowded around her laptop. She shoved the disk in, and it seemed to be perfectly ordinary.

"It seems to be perfectly ordinary," Usagi remarked. She was looking over the questions it presented.

"It does seem that way," agreed Susan. "The question is, what can we do to prove it one way or the other?"

They looked it over a moment. "Is the little light here supposed to be flashing?" asked Sparkle, pointing at the optical drive LED with a paw. "I mean the program loaded, so why is this still doing something?"

Susan rolled a twelve on _Computer Use,_ and figured maybe it wasn't? _But what,_ she thought to herself, _would make a CD spin? Perhaps some kind of audio that's playing?_ "Usagi, I want you to transform for me for a second, okay?"

"Okay? I guess I can shout the words... quietly?"

So she did, and Sailor Moon stood there.

"Now, you have _Sound_ nature. I want you to listen to this CD. I mean really listen to it, and see what you come up with."

"What a good idea," said Luna. "I wouldn't have thought of that. Sound nature, who would have guessed?"

"Is that uncommon?"

"Usually it's more like water or fire-"

"I'm trying to listen!" grumped Moon, hands cupped over her ears.

"Oh, sorry."

The group fell silent.

"There is something... _Audio Enhancement!"_

A strange sound issued from the computer speakers, enhanced by Moon's power. Laid atop it was an equally strange message. _"Hyperlarcovite. Find it. Calculate the position. Give up your energy to us. Obey the Tenma."_

Susan paled.

"You know what it's talking about?" Luna asked, concerned.

"I'm afraid I do." She pulled out her chunk of it. "This... is hyperlarcovite. It's from another world, and I've been putting energy into this chunk to fulfill a deal I made with The Darkness. Many lives saved, one world spared without a fight. I figured now, with my virtually limitless energy supply, I could easily put the required amount in. But I was still wary, because I wasn't sure what it could really be used for. To think it exists here, too. And Tenma? I was going to ask you about them, actually."

"Never heard the name," admitted Luna. "Or this hyperstuff. That crystal though... it looks like something I... no, I can't remember. But it frightens me."

"Sorry." Susan put it away again.

"Can't remember?" asked Moon, cutting off the technique so the voice stopped.

"In order to be here, I had to go into suspended animation," she explained. "I'm not as long lived as the people of the moon kingdom. There are still some gaps in my memory."

"Actually, I have a spell that can bring back memory," Susan offered. "I could read it for you and cast it no problem!"

Luna shook her head. "That's not important right now. The point is, where have you heard of this Tenma before?"

"I asked my magic if that woman/creature we saw at the jewelry store was related to The Darkness, as she felt like she didn't belong here. But it said she worked for this Tenma group instead."

"Wait, if that's true," put in Moon, "then people who go to Crystal Seminar are getting what I heard pumped into them. No wonder they're so zoned out." She gasped. "Ami!"

"Exactly," said Susan, standing up. "We need to get over there."

"Mom, I'm going out for a little while," Moon shouted down the stairs.

"Have you finished your homework? I don't want you breaking that... one day... streak you have going."

"Yes!" she yelled back. "Actually, I haven't," she whispered to Susan. "But I can borrow your time technique later, right?"

"Of course."

"All right," her mother yelled. "Don't be out too late."

"I won't."

"I'll go _Invisible_ again until we're past the door, don't want her seeing me."

"No time for that," said Moon, opening her window and jumping out.

"Well!" said Susan, grabbing up Luna and Sparkle and following her. "Fine. What the..."

Sailor Moon had fairly flown out the window and seemed surprised herself. _Did she get the_ Jump _power? My STRength can carry me pretty far, but jumping out this window might wreck the frame, now that I think about it. She's jumping with powers, I'm jumping with raw STRength, and equal and opposite reactions and all... how in the freak do I know that? Oh well, worry about that later._ She jumped lightly down to the ground and took off after Moon.

The girls raced to the Crystal Seminar building, which Susan noticed had two guys in suits and sunglasses standing in front of the door. _And why do you need to have serious looking guards in front of a... what did Usagi call this place? A cram school?_

"What do we do?" asked Usagi, "I don't want to just hit them with a sound technique, it's too loud!"

"I've got this." Susan used _Spirit Step_ to appear instantly between the two men, who turned and said "Huh?"

"Hello, boys," said Susan, making a grab for each of them, called shot head. She put max energy into COOrdination, because she was past worrying about _that_ sort of thing anymore. She got a thirty four and a twenty two, touching both because they didn't manage their dodge. That was counted as _Martial Arts,_ giving her the reduced delay, and she simply smashed their heads together, holding back by "choosing to inflict OTR 1 damage at no penalty." They would not be able to roll a twenty two on a CONstitution check, and both went down in a heap.

"What did you do?" shrieked Moon, running up and looking to see if anyone saw.

 _Oh, now she's not worried about making noise._

"I thought we were in a hurry?" Susan asked, opening the door and ushering her inside.

 _What just happened?_ Sparkle asked herself. _Why didn't she just use_ Elemental Burst: Knockout _or something? She physically bashed their heads in? Something's... not right here._

The girls ran through the corridors, Susan transforming as she ran, but allowing herself to be led by Moon. "This way, I can hear her!"

 _Wow, having_ Sound _nature is really coming in handy! And I thought it would be useless. Huh._

Susan choose her original power set, with _Armor_ and _Metapower,_ just in case.

Sailor Moon threw the door open and there was Ami, struggling to break free from a woman in a business suit. The pen she had won from the Sailor V video game a few meters away from her, obviously tossed.

"What's this?" the woman demanded.

"Let her go!" Moon demanded right back as Susan also burst onto the scene. It was rows and rows of computers and the place wasn't very well lit, but she could see okay. Apart from Ami the place was empty. She let Ami break free and grab her pen, and she backed off.

"I've heard of you two," she said, calmly stepping over to the middle row where there weren't any desks. "A _sound_ user and some ridiculously strong girl with a sword. You disrupted our operation before, but we'll see about that this time. Where is that sword of yours, anyway?"

"It's around. The more important thing is, I know you..." Susan said, pointing at her, "are a Tenma." She pointed to her own forehead, where on the woman she could see that same funny symbol.

"You know us? Then why are you stopping us?"

"Why am I- That girl was being attacked! And you were draining life energy out of people. Of course I'm going to stop you."

"So you're the local agent, huh? What did she tell you?" she asked, looking at Moon. "That maybe if you helped her, your world would be spared? It doesn't work like that."

Moon looked over at Susan. "What?"

She shrugged. "Lady, I have no idea what you're talking about. Now, are you going to leave this poor girl alone, or are we going to have to do this the fun way?"

"Fun? Typical. We fight for... never mind, you don't care. Come on then, I'll take you both on!"

The lady transformed, becoming something inhuman, and the battle was on.

Susan, not under any magic or technique to accelerate her, actually got beat in _Initiative_ by both, who went simultaneously. The Tenma woman gestured, and paper flew off the desk towards Sailor Moon while she balled up her fists. _"Discordant Note!"_

The Tenma laughed as the papers formed a solid column, pinning her to the wall.

"Why do you think I was chosen for this assignment?" she asked with a laugh. "I'm immune to _sound_ nature!"

"Really?" asked Susan, looking her over. "Let's see what we can do about that, k? I don't want my pupil to get discouraged now, do I? _Deny Power: Immunity Sound."_ She snapped her fingers, and energy swirled around the Tenma, then coalesced into a ghostly lock attached to her leg.

"Metapower?!" she screeched. "Typical!"

"Hit her again, Sailor Moon!"

"I can't use my arms!"

"Your attack comes from your head!"

"Oh yeah."

"I won't give you the chance!" She gestured, and another set of papers rose and streaked towards Susan. " _Wings of the Light Hawk!"_ she yelled, throwing her arms wide and activating a _Force Barrier_ technique. Brilliant wings, bright blue and spread, appeared behind her. She crossed her arms and they moved to enfold her, blocking the papers.

 _"Discordant Note!"_

The Tenma was forced to dodge, not being immune to _Sound_ anymore, and let the technique go that was holding Moon in place.

"Nice job!" Susan shouted to her.

"You won't get away with it!" said the Tenma, claws flashing. "I'll kill you all!"

"Stop this!" yelled Ami, clearly distraught, and Susan looked over to see her now shining with a radiance to match Susan's own.

 _Well, how about that?_

"Quick, Ami, yell 'Mercury Power, Make Up!" yelled Luna.

Susan had to give Ami credit, she didn't hesitate to do what the _talking cat_ had suggested. She had an expression like "well, a bunch of bizarre stuff just happened, might as well roll with it."

She transformed, and Sailor Mercury stood there, looking cute and embarrassed in her short skirt.

"Oh great, another one," yelled the Tenma. "Our intelligence on this place was totally off! It seems like there's powered people all over the place, not none. I have to report this. But don't worry," she said, looking over at Susan. "You we'll be sure to take care of." She turned back to the other two. "You locals can't fight what's coming. Whatever she's told you, it's a lie."

She _Teleported,_ and the girls stood there dumbfounded.

"What just happened?" asked Sparkle.

"I knew you were misleading us!" Luna shouted at Susan.

\- Techniques used in this chapter -

Discordant Note

Sound

Level 4 (2+2+0) (Attack, Medium, I)

Create a small burst of sound which does 1d4 damage to the target when struck.

Temporal Sidestep

Time

Level 14 (10+2+2) (Effect, Medium, M)

Cause an area of time, centered on yourself and extending to M range, to pass more slowly than that outside the technique. For every 5 rolled on the check, that number of hours passes outside while only 1 hour passes inside the technique.

Deny Power

Metapower

Level 10 (6+2+2) (Effect, Medium, M)

This prevents affected creatures from using a power, chosen when called out. Each creature to be affected must be within range of the user, based on level chosen. Each creature may make a RESolve check to avoid the effect.

Wings of the Light Hawk

Force

Level 10 (8+0+2) (Barrier, Personal, M)

Susan showing off. It's just a regular barrier technique that she made look fancy. This is a typical defensive shield, which is treated as an ESPer barrier (Main rules, page 143). The level of the Barrier determines the DTR, while the DC is HDL(level).

Sailor Mercury's Powers

(The same powers as Moon will not be described.)

(Basically the scouts get most of the same powers, just their natures are different)

Ancient memories 1

Defense Boost 2 (Raise DTR with energy when struck)

Jump 1

Longevity 1

Nature (Ice) 2

Natural Defense 3 (DTR 3 naturally, also raises her health)

Primary Nature (Water) 2

Resiliency 4

Telesphere (with the other scouts) 1

Unrecognizable 1

Transformation: Full -3


	143. Chapter 143

143

Voicing Concerns

When: Moments later

Where: Empty conference room on a lower floor

"I'm a what?" asked Mercury for the second time, despite having heard Luna explain things quite clearly.

"A Sailor Guardian," Luna said patiently. "In other words, the reincarnation of a warrior from the long gone Moon Kingdom. Born again to find and protect our princess and the Illusionary Silver Crystal, or what Susan here I believe calls Hyperlarcovite."

"Wait, isn't that more than you knew before?" asked Susan.

"It is. It seems that perhaps my memory hasn't been lost, but rather _sealed._ Sailor Mercury's recent awakening seems to have jarred something loose. I know now that the Silver Crystal is very dangerous, and must be kept out of enemy hands."

"Anything about the Tenma?"

"Yes, let's talk about the Tenma," Luna said, turning to her. "What was that woman going on about, anyway?"

"I assure you, I have no idea. She was almost talking like I was the bad guy, stopping her doing her important work of harvesting human energy. And that nonsense about 'the local agent,' that must refer to me being an agent of Silverstreak. That's the guy who sent me here, he's basically my contact after Inari, a similar being, sort of shoved me into the multiverse with no explanation of anything. This guy actually _wants_ to help me, help him."

"But she said that you told us working with you, our world would be spared. What did that mean?" asked Ami.

Susan explained, for the second time here, about her roll in cutting The Darkness off from various worlds. _Have to remember to print up a pamphlet._ "By the way, how many Sailor Guardians are there?"

"Five," Luna answered confidently. "Or I guess six, if we count you."

 _So I'm going to have to give that speech another three times? Pamphlet, definitely._ "Okay. So yeah, working with me _is_ going to spare your world. I don't know why she was acting like that wasn't the case. It is. She had that Tenma symbol on her forehead, and who knows what she was having you do, Mercury, but-"

"What symbol?"

"The... what?"

"Symbol?"

"That weird symbol on her forehead. Glowing? Kind of hard to miss?"

Mercury shook her head. "I don't recall seeing anything like that."

"I saw it," put in Moon. "If that means anything."

"May need powers to see it? But that's a minor mystery, and it explains why she could fit into human society. Someone with a glowing symbol on their heads would have attracted attention at the best of times. What was I saying? Oh yeah, she may not be part of The Darkness, but something's up with her group. Stealing energy and brainwashing people, that's not the behavior of a kind and loving organization. But the main point is to stop The Darkness, everything else can wait."

"We've had proof of that," put in Sparkle. "Every world we've been to, there's been The Darkness, who has taken over one being or another and is using them to enact some kind of destruction on a wide scale. So that'll happen here, too. Though I suppose you just have our word on that."

"I wouldn't go around helping you now only to betray you later. That wouldn't make sense. Why build you up just to smack you around in the future? I could have easily crushed Usagi and Luna when I first got here, and that would have been the end of it. I want you to find these other Guardians." _As that seems to be the path this world would have taken if I had never come here._

"We'll continue to trust you," assured Luna. "We have no choice if it came down to it. You are training Sailor Moon, and hopefully you'll continue that training for Sailor Mercury as well."

"Of course!" Susan agreed, a little too quickly as she grinned over at Mercury.

Sparkle wondered if she should make the hairball sound again.

"I know this is a lot to take in," said Luna. "But we're here for you. Please don't hesitate to ask us any questions you may have."

"And later we'll figure out a nice technique for you!" said Susan.

"Yeah, better get home," said Moon, standing up. "And Ami-chan can help me with my homework today! Yay!"

"I guess we're friends now..." she said hesitantly. "And Crystal Seminar is a total bust… I mean that's what friends do."

"Hurray!"

"Then let's go." Susan opened a _Teleportal_ back to the Tsukino house, under the window they had jumped out of. She stuck her head through and made sure it was clear, then had the girls jump though. They went back to their unpowered forms, and Susan made sure the portal closed. "I'll go through the window. You go in the door and introduce Ami to your mother. She didn't see you leave, she should at least see you come back. Then we can get to work."

The girls did their homework in "alternate time" and spent the rest talking about school and getting to know each other. Ami wanted to be a doctor, like her mother, and Usagi... was Usagi. Personable, but a bit air headed. Soon it was time for the Tsukino family to eat dinner, and Ami went home.

"We'll see about your first training session after school tomorrow," Susan promised her. "For now, just get used to the idea you have powers, and think about what sort of attack you might want. Water related, if what Luna said holds true. See you later!"

Susan went back to Luna's base and changed her powers again, wanting to get to work on something more complex this time.

"Must you keep changing like that?" Sparkle complained. "I don't like it."

"Nothing's happening, it's fine. Just like magic, these powers are a part of me now. Besides, if I can make a few things, I won't have to transform as much. The technology will have the power... though I can't recharge it without powers. Oh well, there's no harm in it, I'm fine."

But Sparkle wasn't convinced.

Susan spent some time creating a shotgun that had a freeze blast attack, having taken _Ice_ nature instead of _Time_ for this one. She let real time go as it usually did, and many failed rolls later (putting energy into objects, at the level Susan wanted, was pretty hard) she looked her new toy over. It was a sleek looking gun, modeled after Jenny's acid shotgun, and glowed with an inner light. It had three "batteries" she could slip in, and the strength of the glow served as an indication of how much charge they had. It was an imperfect process, making an item that could hold energy, and seemed to depend on the result of the technique she used. Thus, all three batteries held about 90 energy, and each shot used twelve of it. Giving her six or seven shots per battery.

"That took a lot of energy," remarked Sparkle, who had been watching with interest.

"I know. I think usually a team of people would make something like this. We don't have that luxury. Good thing I can regenerate it so fast now."

"What does it do, exactly?"

"When I pull the trigger, ice pellets shoot out. They do 2d8 damage to four locations, and if they fail a STRength check based on my attack roll, whatever gets hit is encased in ice."

"Sensible."

"Thank you. I thought it was a nice touch myself. Recharging the batteries is a pain, but hopefully most things won't take more than one shot to destroy or cripple."

 _What happened to doing non-lethal damage?_ Sparkle thought.

Susan powered down. "If I gave up 5 XP to synchronize with it, I could mentally command it to overcharge, like I can. Build up power to make the damage greater. But we'll see how it works out in practice before I start using XP up." She swapped this gun for her regular shotgun, and put that one in the _Pocket Dimension._ "Let's eat and get some sleep. Losing and gaining all that energy so fast made me feel weird."

 _And yet you still insist you're fine..._

That night, while Susan slept on the cushion she had made earlier, Sparkle padded over to her and gave her a poke. She stayed asleep. _Good. Her_ Deep Sleeper _weakness is actually going to work for me, for once._ She went around to Susan's wrist, and touched the watch, making it light up. Then she realized the little flaw in her plan. _No fingers. How do I touch just that tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny dot that means the comm app? Wait a second..._

"Connect me to the Hub," she said to it. It lit up. _Ah voice activation, thank you Silverstreak._

"Hello... agent?" said the hub agent. She looked sideways at Sparkle, as the watch was tilted, then slightly to the side of her own screen. "Ah, Sparkle, right? What can we do for you? Odd to see _you_ calling, sorry, it threw me for a second."

"Don't worry about it. Is Silverstreak available? It's not an emergency, but it is urgent. I'd like to speak to him before local sunrise."

"I'll see if he's free and transfer you."

"Thank you." The screen went to a 'waiting' screen, then lit up again.

Silverstreak also bent sideways. "I take it something happened?" he asked.

"Yes, I'd like to talk to you about it."

"One second." The watch lit up, and a tiny hologram was projected out of it, which sat on Susan and looked over at Sparkle. "There, much better. What's up? I take it this is about Susan, as she's asleep at the moment." He jerked a thumb at her sleeping form.

"Yes. I'm concerned about her, she's not acting like herself lately."

"In what way?" he asked seriously.

"Like earlier. We needed to get into a building guarded by two men. Usually we would just _Phase_ through another wall, or go into the _Astral_ using my magic, or heck, she could have looked for an open window someplace they weren't. She didn't. She just went up to them and smashed their heads together, knocking them out. I mean that's nuts, especially for her."

"I see. Anything else?"

"She's making weapons with her powers, oh, and don't get me started on those."

"What did you girls get? Something useful, I hope!"

"Everything. Every time she transforms she can pick new ones. And she transforms... a lot."

"I suppose that's only natural."

"Is it? Look, the orb that serves as her _focus_ was all rainbow colors and stuff, but when it bonded to her it got this dark streak through it. Tell me that doesn't concern you!"

"Wait, bonded? Start from the beginning."

Sparkle explained how Susan had gotten her transformation item from Luna, and what happened afterwords.

"I see. This is somewhat troubling, and perhaps somewhat expected. She does have Darkvoid inside her, so some change is inevitable. The rest, well, it could be explained quite mundanely, if you think about it."

"How is smashing people's heads 'explainable?'"

"Consider your last world, and what happened. Susan was ecstatic to be there at first, right?"

"Yes."

"Living a story, meeting characters she didn't even think were real, talking to them face to face- it was all a great dream. She even got to walk around as a pony for like a month and blend into that world. But then Darkvoid took that dream and twisted it. Took over someone she admired, someone who wasn't evil, shouldn't have been harmed, but nonetheless needed to be killed. And who had to do it? She did. She's _grieving,_ Sparkle. For that world and what she had to do to it. That's going to take some time to get over. Now, not using magic as much, how do we explain that? Simple, again, if taken in context. Her magic failed her, in her mind. With all her power, and all her items, and all her magic she was still helpless. She did what needed to be done, but what did that cost her, inside? I don't know, but I'm sure whatever it was is just as Darkvoid intended. So maybe she's turning away from it for a bit. She does still use it, right? She hasn't sworn off it and is _only_ using powers?"

"No, she used it tonight."

"So you see? I think she's just trying to adjust to her new reality. That magic isn't going to be enough. That powers won't be enough. It's just her, and you, traveling between worlds and knowing at the end of each, she's going to have to put someone to the knife. Maybe someone she's heard stories about, and who doesn't deserve it. That knowledge broke a little something inside her, and that's going to need to heal. More than ever, you need to be there for her and help that along."

"I see what you're saying. It just feels wrong."

"And I don't discount that. You have various skills of your own, and you two have been together forever. I'm not brushing you off, I'm just saying it's too early to tell. Now, I can send another agent there, keep an eye on her. Or bring her back if you're that worried about it. We can poke around in her soul, see if something's changed... but how you would feel if she did that to you? If you felt betrayed by her for something you were going though that made you act a little different? People express grief in many ways, and she has to learn to handle it. She doesn't have a group to help her cope, just you. The others she meets might sympathize if she told them, but they could never really understand."

Sparkle considered. "Don't send anyone yet. I'll keep an eye on her, as I always have. I just wanted to let you know I was concerned."

"I will note it in the file."

"File?"

"What? You didn't think I kept files on all of you? Wanders get powerful, either though combining tech from different worlds, or just like you're doing. The old fashioned way of just learning a lot of skills from having so much experience. Or EXPerience, if you prefer. We keep rather careful track of where they go and what they do. We don't just wave goodbye and never think about them again. I'll leave that to Inari."

"That is somewhat reassuring. All right. If she gets worse I'll let you know."

"Fair enough. Oh, and just a second..." He seemed to be typing something into a panel Sparkle couldn't see. "Locked on. You should get it any second now." There was a swirl of energy, and a watch, minus the band, appeared next to Sparkle. "There. Now you have your own. Should have thought of that earlier, sorry I didn't. Especially after you two got separated that one time. You should have your own way of contacting me, and not have to wait until she's asleep."

"Thanks." Sparkle put it into her _sub-space pocket._

"Of course. Anything else for the moment?"

"No. Yes. Do you know who the Tenma are?"

"Oh no," he put a hand over his face. "Don't tell me."

"I guess you do."

"I do. They're a rather minor group in the scheme of things, but they can be annoying. They come from a world where most everyone has powers, that's how they can step between realities like they do. They're sort of like multiverse scavengers, hopping about seeing what they can take."

"They seem a bit more active here than just that."

"A splinter group, or maybe they're stepping up efforts for some reason? I don't know, they keep a pretty low profile so I just know what they ship between other worlds and theirs. Minor stuff, I've never felt the need to quarantine them or lock their world off. Their technology is pretty advanced, it's mostly ideas for things to make rather than whole starships or whatever. They can make that stuff on their own. If you find out they're up to something there, let me know, and maybe I'll have to take further action against them. They don't go around murdering people, if that's your concern. Are they going around murdering people?"

"Not that I know of. We've just had a few run ins with them so I wanted to see if you thought it would escalate."

"They've always backed off in the past, when my agents showed up. Seem to want to keep to themselves."

"We'll see if they do that here, then. Both times we've seen them they scurried off pretty quickly."

"More than likely they'll either leave or wait until you do. Anything apart from that?"

She shook her head. "Nope, that's it."

"Okay. Talk to you later. And thanks, for keeping an eye on things."

"Of course."

So the next day, Susan, Ami, and Usagi went back into the _Dimension_ to practice, and work out some techniques for the two of them. Ami wanted something to trap and hold enemies rather than hurt them, but Susan suggested perhaps having both. Ami realized that would be prudent, and practiced _Deep Aqua Incarceration_ which put a bubble around them for a few seconds, and _Judgmental_ _Rainfall,_ which caused high pressure spears of water to appear in the air above her and shoot out where she directed them. Usagi she had working on a barrier.

"But how is a barrier of _sound_ going to help?" she asked. "Anything can pass through sound. It's not even really there. I don't need to be Ami-chan to know that."

"It's not really a barrier of sound. It's an energy barrier that has the _nature_ of sound. So energy attacks would still bounce off it. Now I'll admit, those papers she was flinging around probably wouldn't have been stopped, they were a physical thing, but you have to work with what nature has given you. Get it? _Nature_ has given- come on, that was great stuff right there!"

"I better get to practicing."

"Come on!"

After Mercury practiced with her attacks, and Moon could create a passible barrier, Susan excitedly told them of her next idea.

"Let's just use my _Question_ magic to find out who the next scout is! I guess it would be Venus, as we have Mercury and Earth. Odd, now that I think about it, my magic doesn't have 'Earth' so to speak it has 'Moon.' And you're not Sailor Earth, you're Sailor Moon. Oh well, just one of those things, I guess. What do you think?"

"It could be helpful," admitted Luna. "But there is something you should know. The scouts have to _awaken_ to their power, like Mercury did. You can't just walk up to the person who is Sailor Mars, who incidentally would be next, Sailor Venus is already awake, and hand them their item."

"That's what you did with me," protested Moon. "You just came into my room and handed me the broach. Why did I get a broach and not a pen like the Mercury? Are they all going to be different, like Susan got that orb?"

"No, go back to Sailor Venus being awake already," insisted Susan.

"Never mind all that. The point I'm making here is, you didn't know it consciously, Sailor Moon, but your friend was in trouble. You hearing her voice just after you transformed proves it."

"I guess that's true."

"Still, knowing who she is means we can keep an eye on her, and be there if something happens she reacts to." _Though in a story, I suppose the girls would all meet up one way or another, right? So I suppose all of them would go through something that put them in danger and thus, woke them up._

"I can't argue with that. Do whatever you have to do."

So Susan used her magic and asked "What is the name of the girl who will awaken to become the Guardian Sailor Mars?"

 _Hino Rei_


	144. Chapter 144

144

Burning Ring of Fire

When: The next day, after school

Where: Leaving the Crown Arcade

"Cram school?" Susan said, unbelieving. "Your last cram school turned out to be run by the Tenma for some unknown purpose."

"That doesn't mean I should stop going all together," Ami countered.

"No, I'm not saying that, but wasn't that one shut down? I mean the so called 'instructor' has now 'gone missing' unless she's back and we need to go do something about her again."

"No, that one closed. I'm going someplace else now."

"How many of those things are there?"

"In Japan? There's cram schools all over the place."

"It's one of our national exports!" Usagi said with a grin. "But I'm with Susan on this one. Don't we have more important things to be doing?"

"Well said," put in Luna.

"I can train with Susan in her time bubble later. Just because I'm a Sailor Guardian doesn't mean I should stop pursing my dream of becoming a doctor."

 _Uh, yes it is. That's like me learning about my father, but saying I wanted to become a singer first, and have a couple of hit albums out before I left. But I hate to disagree with Ami, she might not like me as much._

"No, you're right," Susan said with only a slight pause. "And I admire your dedication to your dream. Just call us if your new instructor starts handing out CDs with brainwashing programs on them." She pointed to the wrist communicator Usagi had gotten out of the Sailor V machine for beating a certain level.

"Of course. Here's the bus."

The three got on, earning them a funny look as two people carried cats aboard.

"What?" Susan snapped at the driver. "It's the latest trend, carrying your cat around. It's all the rage in Paris right now."

"That so?"

"Oh yeah. You hadn't heard?"

"You have a Paris, right?" she asked when they sat down.

"What world doesn't have a Paris?" asked Luna.

"You'd be surprised."

"By the way, why did you girls follow me onto this bus?" asked Ami.

"We're checking out the shrine, remember? Our next Guardian seems associated with it, so we're going to check it out. My magic gave us the address, and this is the bus to take to get there. Do you mean why can't I do it the other way? Can't until I've seen it."

"Oh, right."

So Susan and Usagi, cats in tow, got off at the same stop as a beautiful girl and checked the map they had made to where to find this temple. Naturally, Susan went in totally the opposite direction she was supposed to, and with _Overconfidence_ that she was right.

Half an hour later they went back to the place they had gotten off and went a few dozen meters to where the actual entrance was.

"I could have sworn it was that way," Susan insisted for the third time, looking up at the stone gateway that marked the entrance to the Hikawa Shrine.

"At least me made it here... while it's still light out," Luna muttered that last part. "Shall we?"

"But of course. After you."

"I think it's wide enough for all of us."

"Oh, sure."

Susan was looking around at the place when suddenly the same girl she saw riding the bus threw open a door and shouted "Evil spirits, _begone!"_ and threw some kind of paper at Susan. Caught totally by surprise (and because of narrative imperative) she didn't get a dodge, and the paper smacked into her forehead.

Susan screamed as what appeared to be dark electricity poured from it, enveloping her body. Agony unlike any she had ever felt tore along every nerve as her very being tried to rip itself apart.

"Susan!" yelled the others as her scream went on and on.

"I will not be bound!" she finally managed to yell, and she activated her _Spirit Aura,_ which was now a dark force rather than the aura of light she normally generated. The paper burned away, and Susan dropped to one knee. Her voice seemed different- lower, and more hostile than Sparkle had ever head it, even when she was shouting at Professor Umbrage for almost killing Luna. It even seemed to echo strangely in the sudden silence. The area around her seemed darker, as if the sun had gone behind a cloud, but it hadn't. "Do that again, and I won't hesitate to destroy you."

"Susan!" Sparkle admonished, not believing what she was hearing. _Maybe I should have had Silverstreak send someone after all._

"What?" Susan seemed to come back to herself and looked around. The area brightened, and Susan seemed puzzled. "What's going on?"

The pretty girl meanwhile had backed off, and was staring at Susan like she had just grown another head.

"What was that?" asked Usagi, also taking a step back.

"I'm not sure," answered Susan, rising again unsteadily. "Seems to have passed though. What did you do to me? What was that?"

"Just an Ofuda," said the girl, "but I've never seen anything like that happen before. Who are you? What do you want with this temple?"

"Susan Felton. And yes, this is a temple isn't it? Not exactly how I expected to be greeted at a _temple._ You throw Ofuda at everyone who comes here?"

"I felt a dark presence, and I just reacted. I've never felt anything like that before, I'm sorry. I just felt I had to act. It's gone now."

"Oh, you don't think..." Usagi asked Susan.

"It's the only explanation," Susan replied.

"But to think anyone could do something like that! By the way, who are you?"

"Hino Rei, my family owns this shrine." The two girls looked at each other knowingly. "Mind telling me what's going on? Neither of you is talking in complete sentences at the moment."

"Oh, uh, how to explain?" hedged Susan. "I've sort of been host to an evil spirt since I was born. Nothing to really worry about, but that's probably what you were feeling. Whatever that Ofuda thing was, it probably just targeted the spirit inside me and that's what caused the light show earlier. I'm actually more impressed that it did anything, you aren't just a normal priestess, are you? Sorry to have concerned you."

"I'm even more concerned now! How can you just casually talk about having an evil spirt inside you?"

"I tried writing some emo poetry, but it just didn't work out very well."

Rei stared at her.

"That was a joke, by the way. Believe me, what you can't change you learn to live with. And I put up with mine because I have no choice. Simple as that."

"Has anyone tried any kind of cleansing ritual for you, anything like that?"

Susan shook her head. "Wouldn't work. Our souls are one, I'm afraid. I keep trying to change the thing rent, and it keeps saying the check is in the mail. I tell it I only accept but..."

"Do you know what she's talking about?" Rei asked Usagi.

"Not a clue. I'm Usagi, show me around your beautiful temple!"

"Yes... I guess I'd be glad to." She closed the door without turning around and led Usagi off.

"What was that?" Sparkle asked her when Rei was out of earshot.

"I don't know. Felt like I was on fire though. And not the basketball, 3-pointers can't miss from anywhere on the court on fire either. Real, actual cannibal Shia Labeouf, fire. It wasn't pleasant."

"I meant what you said afterwords."

"What did I say afterwords? I don't even remember."

"You don't."

"Nope. I just remember zip, open door, girl, thwap, burning, ouchies, you yelling my name. That girl, I didn't even get a dodge against that, was I caught flat footed or something?"

"Don't change the subject. You really don't know what you said?"

"No, I really don't. What? Did The Darkness say something? Man, that would be scary, if it could start putting words in my mouth. Hopefully it takes something extreme like what she did to make that happen."

"Yeah, I hope so too."

"And it worked. Do you think she's transformed on her own somehow? That would be neat. She must have some kind of powers apart from being a Guardian to do something like that. I didn't like it. Anyway, keep an eye on me I guess. If it hasn't totally receded you'll be the only one to know. Not that I would want to go through another 'shock therapy' to punish it."

Sparkle nodded, worried that maybe it was already too late, given her recent behavior.

"So what other powers do you have?" Susan asked her, catching up to them.

"Powers?" asked Rei, one eyebrow raised.

"Abilities. Skills. Whatever you call them. What else can you do that others can't?"

"Do you really want to know, or are you just going to get creeped out like everybody else I try to do things for?"

"What, do you think I won't believe you? I just get electrocuted by a piece of paper and didn't bat an eye telling you I had an evil spirit in my soul. You think anything _you_ say is going to throw me for a loop?"

She considered. "Very well. I can read the fire and sometimes tell when things are going to happen. Though this sometimes happens in dreams as well. I've been having one dream in particular lately..."

"Go on."

"I meet a girl and colors swirl all around her. She is lost as darkness overtakes all the colors and obscures her. The next day I see that same girl trying to separate a mongoose and a snake in a park. The girl doesn't know if she should side with the mongoose or the snake. Both want to eat the same mouse they found, and the girl... I think she wants the mouse for her cat, I remember seeing a cat there too. Then all I see is fire."

Susan looked over at Sparkle. _Somehow sounds familiar._ "You think the girl sets the park on fire or something?"

Rei shook her head. "I don't know. I don't think so. She is something from beyond this world... I don't know. Power swirls around her. But I think the fire comes from me."

 _I think we have a winner. As if my magic could be wrong._ "I'll have to keep an eye out for this girl, she sounds interesting. Taking on a mongoose and a snake at the same time. Sounds dangerous."

"Yes, I think so too. Look, are you sure there's nothing I can do for you? I'm willing to make the attempt."

"It's nice of you to offer, but really, there's no help for me. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I've lasted this long, after all."

"That... almost seems exactly what an evil spirit would say, if it didn't want me to make the attempt. Still, I can't force you."

"True that. Well, we better go. Come on, Usagi, we've seen what we need to see here."

"Nice meeting you, Hino-san. See you later!"

"Yeah." Rei stared at the girls, puzzled, as they left the shrine and found a quiet place to open a _Teleportal_ from.

"So how do we wake her up?" Usagi asked Luna, who hadn't taken her eyes off Susan since they got back to Usagi's room so she could do her homework.

"What? Oh, I don't know. I'm sure something will come along."

"Didn't you two hear her dream? I'm sure it'll be soon. I mean the girl she was talking about, that's obviously me. She was talking about my orb, that's the colors." She tapped it. "Though it hasn't been overcome with that black streak, but whatever. It seems something is going to happen at a park around here soon, so we just need to be ready for it."

"You don't think there will be an actual snake and mongoose, do you?"

"Well, with me around you really can't tell. The other part of her dream seemed pretty literal, but I don't think Sparkle needs me to fetch her mice. So that part I don't get."

"She may have just assumed it, based on the fact she saw a girl with a cat. And it could just as easily be me, I have Luna."

"But no colors or darkness around you."

"True. I guess we'll find out."

As the next day was Saturday, Susan and Usagi hung around the largest park in the area, Shiba park. Within sight of Tokyo Tower, the place was well maintained and well used, so Susan got to see a cross section of life in Japan. She felt a bit out of place, as people were always coming up to her to practice their "English" but as Susan couldn't turn off the ability to communicate granted to her by Lady Inari, she really couldn't help much. They just heard her speaking Japanese no matter what she tried.

Ami eventually joined them when her Juku (cram school) let out for the day, and the group was sitting on a bench when they heard people start screaming and carrying on some distance away, followed by explosion noises.

"I think that's our call," Susan said, standing up and stretching. "Shall we?"

They pushed their way past people running the other way to see a curious scene. Two people Susan had never seen before were squaring off, and the immediate area around them was either frozen, smoldering, or basically torn up. Many people here huddled together behind statues and things, too afraid to move.

The one guy was wearing all gray, from his pants to his shirt. His shirt buttoned on the side rather than down the front, and had a blue stripe running along the edge, otherwise it was fairly plain. He had yellowish hair and everything opposite him was coated in ice.

He was standing glaring at a man in a white outfit, wearing baggy pants but large, golden gauntlets over his arms. His hair was purple, and a gold band held up his sleeves that were separated from his shirt, leaving his shoulders bare. He had a glowing Tenma symbol on his forehead.

The two started attacking each other again, the purple haired guy yelling "White Crusher!" and throwing a ball of energy at the yellow haired guy, who teleported to the side and yelled "Frostbitten Agony!" while throwing more ice at his opponent.

Rei screamed and held a child close to her as the cover she was crouching behind exploded from the energy blast going wild.

"I don't believe this!" Susan growled angrily, pulling her sword (the Enhance Sword, from her _sub-space pocket._ Not the one of fire and death that lives in her hand.) She _Spirit Stepped_ in between the two. " _Thrust!"_ she cast on them, taking advantage of their surprise at seeing her appear out of nowhere. She got an effective twenty six on her check, taking into account her penalty for two people, casting instantly, and using twenty energy.

Neither went anywhere.

 _Oh come on, I couldn't have gotten a better result there. What sort of energy can these guys throw around, anyway?_

"Seems you've gotten an ally, thrall," said Purple Hair. "I recognize that sword from the description Emzie gave me."

"I'm no thrall, interloper!" Yellow Hair shot back. "I serve my queen faithfully, out of loyalty to her ideals."

"Keep telling yourself that. Two on one, huh? That's fine with me. Bring it."

Susan looked between them. "Dude, don't know if you know this or not, but I've never seen that guy before in my life. But if he's against the Tenma, then perhaps he is an ally."

"And I've never seen this girl," said Y.H. "Who are you, barging into our disagreement like this? And with a sword of all things."

Susan pointed the sword at the destruction around her. "You call this a disagreement? Don't let me get in the way of an actual _argument._ As for me, Susan's the name, clearing out words is my game. I barged in because your carelessness in attacking could have hurt innocent people!" She pointed to Rei, who stared at her and her sword.

"Who's that?" asked the kid she was protecting, now looking interested rather than frightened.

Her reply was lost as both sneered at her. "Who cares about them?" They went back to glaring at each other.

P.H. broke eye contact first. "Clearing out worlds? Odd to hear euphemisms from one such as yourself. Usually your kind are far more direct, and they don't care about young girls either."

"Hey, I'm your opponent! You have gotten in the way of my plans for the last time!" Y.H. shouted to P.H. "Enough talk- stranger, if you know something of these Tenma, as you call them, let us join forces and crush them between us."

 _Ew._

The other two scouts finally caught up. "That guy seems familiar to me somehow," Usagi remarked, pointing over at Y.H.

"Really? Do we help him, then?"

"I guess?"

"More of you? Fine. I guess I'll call in some reinforcements of my own! Emzie! Alishia! Come to me!"

The two women Susan had seen before appeared, in their transformed state. The looked around. "You called, master?" said the one.

"Traitors!" shouted Y.H. pointing at them. "I thought you had perished honorably in the service of our majesty. But no! You went and joined them? Yes, I see you now carry their ridiculous mark upon your forehead. I sent you to accomplish a task, and instead you just disappeared. How could you just turn on me like that?"

"I offered them a greater purpose," said P.H. "Powers, and a life of their own. What could you offer them but slavery to your dark god?"

"I serve a queen, as I must keep reminding you! You two, I will destroy you with my own hands."

"Try it, _former_ master. We've been learning some new tricks since you found us."

"Gladly!"

The three launched into combat.

"That just leaves you three," P.H said to the girls. "I can feel your corruption from here, rover, and you have some strange power, I'll give you that. But those other two, are you sure you don't want them to take a step back? They seem to have no powers at all. Or are you recruiting on this world and they have some kind of potential you can offer your dread master?"

Susan stared up at him, unsure how to respond to this latest... taunt? _Why would anyone call Silverstreak a dread master? He seems pretty nice, actually. Wait, what did-_ "Did you just call me a dog's name? Rover? What does that even mean? I can give you some tips on combat banter if that's the extent of your prowess. Fido."

"That wasn't much better," observed Ami.

"I was making a point!"

"Oh, okay?"

"Enough of this! _White Crusher!"_

 _"Deflection!"_

The ball of energy P.H. shot at Susan deflected off, but this time it was Susan putting others in danger as the ball sped towards Rei.

 _Whoops._

She might have been wondering if she could use another reactive to cast it again, as she had cast it reactively in the first place, or maybe she was just curious what was going to happen, as she just sort of stood there.

But you didn't need to worry, as Y.H. teleported in front of it and knocked it away somehow. "Don't you dare lay a hand... on... this girl..." He looked confused, and Rei looked at up at him.

"You saved me," she breathed.

"I- no. I was just... You just reminded me of..." He leaned over, caressing her cheek. "You're so beautiful. You aren't hurt, are you?"

Rei looked mortified, face going bright red. _We got a real smooth talker over here._

But what none of them expected was her shout of anguish, as though she was remembering something painful in the past, and red energy enveloped her just as blue energy had for Ami when she became aware of her powers.

"She's awakening!" called Luna. "Somehow? Quick, Rei! Take this and shout 'Mars Power, Make Up!"

From somewhere Luna threw a red pen at Rei, who caught it in a daze. "I do know you," she said to the man. "But how? I can almost remember. But I do remember this. _Mars Power, Make Up!"_

And in a flash of light, Sailor Mars stood before them.


	145. Chapter 145

145

Magic vs Powers

When: Seconds later

Where: Shiba Park

"Impossible!" scoffed P.H. looking down at Sailor Mars. "That girl had only the merest trace of power, now I'm feeling she could be the equal to any Tenma soldier."

"I told you," said one of the woman, both having gone to P.H's side while Mars was transforming. Y.H. was also looking at Mars, but like he knew her, and was struggling to not rush over and hug her / plant a knife in her back. It was a little hard to tell. "Your intel about this world wasn't very good."

"Them I can understand," he pointed over to Y.H. "They obviously have abilities so it makes sense they could block our Seers, but these girls? Where is she finding them? And how is she unlocking this power within them?"

"Could it be the destroyer's power?" asked the other woman.

"Never has awakened people like this before. Usually it just brainwashes people who already know their powers. Quicker that way. I guess these might be less resilient to coercion..."

"There you go, saying stuff I have no clue about," Susan said, walking over to Mars, who was looking down at herself. "Welcome to the Guardian Club. I'm sort of an honorary member, those two are full members. _If_ they decide to transform and maybe help out. No rush. Just two highly dangerous people in the area... well, three, if you count me. I mean two possible enemies."

"What's going on? Why is this happening?" Mars asked her.

"Too much to explain now. If you can come up with an attack or something, stick around. Otherwise you might want to take five, throwing you into combat right after transforming isn't what I had in mind for you."

"I... think I remember an attack. I'll try it, but who are we fighting? He protected me."

Susan looked over at Y.H. "For now, just the ones with the funny symbol. I've caught them stealing energy from people, Mr Yellow over there I'll give the benefit of the doubt to, given he was- wait a second. Hey, Mr. Yellow!"

"My _name_ is Jadeite," he sneered. "Remember it."

"Fine, Jadeite then. Didn't Mr. Gauntlets over there say you created those two over there?"

"I am General Dolands, rover. Not Mr. Gauntlets. Though they are very nice, aren't they?" He held them up for inspection.

"Yeah, yeah. So answer the question."

Dolands seemed perturbed to be ignored, but let him speak.

"That's right. I recruited them, gave them certain powers, yes. Never thought they would turn on me though."

"For what?"

"What?"

"Why. Did. You. Recruit. Them? He said he offered them a 'better deal,' what were they doing for you?"

"Gathering energy, of course. In the service of my queen, though a pale substitute for the true power we seek."

"Yes, never did thank you for starting that little operation," chuckled Dolands. "Saved us some work when we arrived, finding what we wanted was already being gathered by you."

"Okay, wait. Time out. You're both fighting over the same thing? Just human energy? Do you _know_ how many humans are on this planet? If either of you had just gone somewhere else around here, you probably would have been unopposed. How you even ran into each other around here is a mystery, Japan is still pretty large. I mean come on, do either of you have an explanation?" Both glared at the other then looked embarrassed. "Fine. I can sort of see why the Tenma would go to the trouble, I've taken energy from people or animals myself a time or two when I was low. Why do you guys want it?"

"That is none of your concern," answered Jadeite.

"I guess we're fighting all of them," Susan said to Mars. "I had hoped at least Jadeite would be on our side, given what he did, but it seems not so much."

"Can we take them? I'm not that sure about all this, and in case you didn't notice, I'm wearing heels all of a sudden. Jumping around is not in the cards right now."

"Oh, you sure are. Huh, Mercury and Moon ( _any time girls!)_ both got sensible boots. Weird."

"I'm not transforming here!" insisted Usagi, looking around. "Besides I don't want to get into a two way brawl."

"We shouldn't fight until we learn more," added Ami. "There's still a lot about these two groups we don't know, and attacking them would be wrong."

"Ami, one of those constructs up there brainwashed you into doing who knows what while in 'crystal seminar.' You've admitted to not being very clear on the whole thing. Are you just going to let her get away with that?"

"But maybe she's doing it for a good reason."

"A good... reason? Ami, I... I just... what... I can't even talk to you right now."

"So can we get back to it?" asked Dolands, looking around from where he was flying. "People are starting to come back and you were pretending to care about them? I don't want to blow your cover or anything."

Susan looked, and he was right. With the explosions ended and people hanging in the air shouting insults to each other, the area was becoming somewhat of a curiosity rather than something to run away from.

"I do care about them," she countered back at Dolands. "And more than you do, as you probably just see them as a source of energy."

"Right, right. They aren't all doomed when your owner yanks your leash and takes this whole place. Still, if you're going to all get in my way, I guess I don't have to hold back anymore." He raised a hand, and a tiny spark of light, like the glowing end of a sparkler without any actual sparkler, appeared in his hand.

 _Oh great, now what?_

Susan rolled _Initiative,_ wishing she had either saved or had _Acceleration_ put on her before now. _I keep forgetting about that save thing. Too many years not able to do it, I guess. Plus it's pretty long to cast, I hate to use up my_ wards _but why make them if I don't use them?_

Oddly enough, she went first, but held her action to see what Dolands was going to do. Jadeite looked between the two and realized he was the only one that was alone, and put his hand out in front of him. "Come, my servant!" he said, and a form started rising out of the ground.

"We're really fighting?" asked Mars, also looking between her two groups of opponents. "I won't attack Jadeite unless he attacks me!"

"Fine, stop whatever gauntlets is doing!"

"My name is Dolands!"

"I don't know about this." She snapped a hand up and one of those paper _Ofuda_ appeared in it. " _Evil Spirits, begone!"_ she shouted, and flames shot up at Dolands.

 _Not exactly the snappiest attack call out, but acceptable._

Dolands didn't move, he saw he didn't have to, as the fire went wide.

"Where are you aiming?" he asked.

Ami did something useful, calling for the people that had been coming back to get away, and started running towards them flailing her arms.

 _And that's useful? I could have used some more attackers, and ones that have at least practiced hitting something with their powers._

Dolands shook his head. "What a farce. _Shining Detonation."_ And threw the tiny speck of light down at them.

 _That sounds like an explody type thing. This wasn't meant to be used in combat! "Teleportal!"_

She cast it instantly, spending fourteen energy to get it as she was at a minus ten for the casting time. She didn't need it to go far, just above Dolands. It zipped through the _Teleportal_ she created and impacted him in the back, exploding with force and light.

 _Got him!_ she thought triumphantly. But when she looked again, he was still just hanging there in midair. "Like I haven't seen that trick a million times," he scoffed. "Please."

" _Scattered Debris,"_ yelled the one lady, and Susan had to make a dodge as the nearby statue pieces flew at her. She dropped the _Teleportal_ that wasn't doing her any good at the moment as a free action, and made it by two.

 _"Acceleration,"_ cast Sparkle, making her fast again.

 _Ah, thank you._

The other woman shot electricity at Jadeite, who countered it with a cold attack. The powers clashed and sparked, but neither side could push the beams forward and both broke it off.

Usagi took the opportunity on her action to bravely, and I mean bravely, _run away._

Susan stared at her as her retreating footsteps reached her ears.

Dolands started laughing.

 _"Accelerate Magic,"_ cast Sparkle, who, thanks to _Acceleration,_ was up again. Susan had already taken her _delay_ for her last action, and needed to take another before her accelerated state was any use to her. She made it by five, and Susan nodded her thanks.

"You're doing that, not her!" exclaimed Dolands, looking past Susan to Sparkle. "I've heard about animals like you, but I've never seen one. Perhaps if you aren't tainted I can come save you from being her slave sometime. For the moment, _Meta: Time Negation."_

Susan was shocked to feel her _Acceleration_ drop, and Sparkle looked as shocked as she felt.

"They both just went down," Sparkle informed her. "What did that guy do?"

"Some kind of _metapower_ technique," snarled Susan. "And it worked on magic? I don't believe this!"

"I, uh, didn't spend energy on RESolve," Sparkle admitted. "I didn't think it would work either."

"Oh."

Still, Sparkle was up again, and decided since she couldn't exactly attack the flying guy at the moment, why not attack the person she could reach? She didn't want to kill him, even by accident, so she used _Spirit Step_ to get behind Jadeite, and reached out to touch his leg and attack it.

But then she had to made a dodge, as Jadeite looked down and aimed a kick at her. She deftly dodged, being small, and actually got to use reactive _close combat_ delay, which thanks to her skill at _martial arts_ was one lower.

The servant Jadeite was creating became fully formed. "Orders, master?" she asked simply.

"Destroy those two traitors," he commanded, pointing at the two flying woman next to Dolands.

"I don't think so!" said the one. _"Extreme Pop Up!"_ The newly formed minion gave a shriek and flew high into the air.

"It's just not your day, is it?" Sparkle remarked.

Mars was trying to shoot fire at Dolands again, but again he just watched as it flew past him, not even close to where he was.

"Seriously, are you even trying?"

This time, the lady in the sky shot lighting at Susan, forcing her to dodge, and made her wish she had _Acceleration_ back. She missed it by seven, and the attack slammed into her. And by slammed I mean "gently caressed" because honestly, at their level and Susan dividing damage like she does, even rolling maximum damage wouldn't really hurt her.

 _Guess that answers that question. Had to dodge, who knows what that attack could have done, but it seems to be just a standard low level NPC attack. Nice to know._

"Let's try this again," said Dolands, generating his little spark of light. _"Shining Detonation!"_ He threw it.

 _Oh come on!_

 _"Tuxedo la smoking bomber!"_

 _What the?_

An energy beam lanced out of nowhere, and struck the tiny mote of light while it still less than a meter away from Dolands. He winced as it exploded again, covering his eyes against the glare. When it cleared he looked down to see a man in a white tie ensemble standing there next to Susan. _And how do I know what sort of formal wear the man has on?_

"Thought you could use a little help," said the man, looking up at Dolands.

"Oh great, another one we apparently missed," grumbled Dolands.

"Your Seers are crap," said the one woman flying next to Dolands.

"Yeah, total rubbish," said the other.

"Maybe he's transformed too? That why we didn't pick anything up? I'll go ask. You know what, I don't even care anymore. She's right. We'll just go somewhere else. See you."

He held out his hands and the two woman clasped them, and they all disappeared.

"Hey, I didn't mean right this second!" yelled Susan. "Darn it. What about you, then?" she yelled over to Jadeite. He looked back at the forces now only arrayed against him.

"No thanks, I'll pass," he said, and vanished himself.

"Great, can everyone around here teleport? And where the heck did Usagi go?"

"She, uh, sort of ran off that way," said the man, pointing away from the scene.

"Not the greatest introduction to all of this, Mars," said Susan, putting her blade away again. "Sorry about that. Welcome to... whatever this has turned into. And where did you come from, anyway? And what was with that bizarre attack call out?"

"It just sort of came to me. I must have looked pretty cool doing it, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. Thanks for the assist, but how _did_ you get powers anyway?"

"About that..."

"Yes?"

"Gotta go!" He dashed off.

"You want to catch him?" asked Sparkle, running back over to her.

"Oh, let him go if he wants. He's only hurting himself by not not cooperating with us. I do have to wonder how many other powered people will start popping up around here."

"He was pretty cute though," Sailor Mars admitted. "I'd date him."

"Aren't you, like, fourteen? He looked to be in high school at least."

"And?"

"Okay, moving _right_ along. Let's get out of here before the authorities show up and I have bust us all out of the slammer. Ami, did you see which way Usagi went?"

"No, why did she just run off like that?"

"Didn't see you helping very much."

"Sorry, didn't want to just transform in front of everyone here. I was getting people to back off, that helped."

"I suppose. Come on, let's go hunt down our wayward bunny."

The danger now past, Sailor Mars turned back into Rei and once Usagi was found, Rei got the whole welcome speech by Susan and the others on a bench some distance from the are where the battle had taken place. Then Susan looked over at Usagi.

"If you both had helped back there, the sides would have been even, maybe even in our favor if we attacked only Dolands at first, ganging up on him. So let's talk about the difference between a strategic withdrawal, like that performed by Dolands and Jadeite, and running away like a scared little girl."

"I am a scared little girl!" protested Usagi. "I mean a talking cat tells me to transform, then I wind up in the middle of other worlds, energy stealing monsters, stuff blowing up. I'm a kid, I'm not like you. I don't have any combat training, if I'd have stayed I would have just gotten in the way."

"None of us do, really," admitted Rei. "I missed that guy twice. He didn't even have to move, I'm a liability. If he hadn't been floating around in the air I might have hit something on the ground and done more damage than he did."

"I don't know, I didn't like the looks of that _Shining Detonation._ That sounded pretty nasty."

"Still."

"I know what you mean. Don't worry, I can slow time down for you and you can get some practice in tonight. All of you. And you're right, Usagi, it's silly for me to expect my level of performance in you, who just got your powers. I wasn't even that effective, honestly. Course I was _vastly outnumbered..._ "

"You kept that thing from exploding in our faces," Sparkle reminded her. "That's a big deal. And being outnumbered didn't hurt us as much as losing _Acceleration_ magic did. We could have taken them with that up."

"Let's review how that happened, as you've brought it up _._ The person with _more energy than myself_ didn't think to actually spend any and failed a RESolve check to hold onto it? Really?"

"I'll know better next time. I didn't know powers and magic could cancel each other out like that. We've never had them at the same time. At least I got the check. Better to learn it now than in some bigger fight where everyone doesn't decide to just teleport away."

"True. I have to wonder if my _Magic Domination_ item would work the same way? Cut their powers but leave me magic? We can try it later. Hey Luna?"

"Yes?"

"Did this latest transformation unseal any more of your memories?"

She shook her head. "Nothing pertinent."

"Pity. I was hoping you could shed some light on who those jokers were. Like that Jadeite, and this queen of his. What's up with that?"

"And why did that guy keep calling you rover?"

"Girl, I do not even know. Trying to make me lose my temper or something?"

"How in the world did he know doesn't take much?" asked Sparkle sarcastically.

"Oh hush, you. Something about those Tenma, I don't get their whole deal. Maybe Silverstreak knows something about them. I'll ask him." She went to use her watch.

"Don't bother, I asked him before," said Sparkle. "He said they were small time, move between worlds and basically see what they can swipe."

"Is that all? So not really evil?"

"He didn't seem to think so. That guy did try to wipe us out a couple of times. Still, the way he was talking made it sound like he thought he was doing the world a favor. Talking about your evil master, and insinuating I was your slave."

"I know. Really want to just sit down with that guy for five minutes and get his story. And then he just left when Mr. Formal Wear showed up! Like a couple of girls were no threat, but oh, there's a _man_ here, I better get away. Come on."

"Who was that guy, any of you know him?" asked Rei.

Both Usagi and Ami shook their heads. "At least he seems to be on our side," remarked Usagi.

"Or he was nearby and just didn't want to get blown up by Dolands. Where he got power from though, that's the question."

"There were other people with abilities, apart from just the Sailor Guardians, way back when," explained Luna. "He could be a reincarnation, just like you girls. Perhaps something triggered his memories and he's had his old powers back. We can't assume you're the only ones that have been reborn in this time."

"That's a good question right there," Susan decided, snapping her fingers. "Where did these powers come from originally? I mean people now don't have powers, but you say they did in the past. Where did they go? Were people just born with them?"

"I think they were actually sealed somehow," Luna hedged. "Because of what happened- don't ask me exactly what I'm not sure yet. But something terrible. Perhaps the queen decided powers were too dangerous and when the Moon Kingdom fell, she used her powers to lock them away in everybody else. But now that the Guardians have been reborn, that seal is weakening and now those powers are coming back to people."

 _Whew, to have metapower on that kind of scale? Wait-_ "Did you say queen? Jadeite spoke about a queen too, you don't think it's the same one, do you?"

"I hope not."

"It's possible though. That explains Jadeite. He's another one of these people you say had powers before. Yeah, it fits. Your queen either didn't die or put herself in suspended animation like you, Luna, or she's reborn into this time as well. However it happened, The Darkness took her over. Now she's... got that guy draining people one person at a time. No, doesn't fit. Not unless he was lying, or wrong, or that isn't The Darkness at all."

"We've been there," admitted Sparkle.

"Yes we have, and it's annoying. I really hope it chose someone clearly evil, and ready to announce themselves as The Darkness whenever I get near them."

"Good luck with that."

"So what now?" asked Ami. "Training I get, but what's our next step? We need some kind of checklist. It's just too bad whatever brought us to this situation happened so long ago. There's no records of it or anything we can look into. I want something to _research,_ not just hope I get my old memories back."

"There's still one more scout we have to awaken, Sailor Jupiter. Keep an eye out and scan for people getting their energy drained, I guess," answered Luna.

"And I'll ask my magic about stuff. If Dolands really does leave for another country, we'll have to get after him. I won't let him just do what he was doing here because I was too lazy to ask the _Question_ of where he went from here. But at the moment, training comes first. Rei, let me show you my _Personal Dimension_ and we can get started."

Sailor Mars' Powers

Ancient memories 1

Defense Boost 2

Jump 1

Longevity 1

Resiliency 4

Nature (fire) 2

Nature: Limited (seeing) 1 (Limited natures have specific requirements, like Rei needs to read the fire to use any seeing techniques)

Nature: Limited (Protection) 1 (she must use Ofuda to channel protection techniques)

Telesphere 1

Unrecognizable 1

Natural Defense 3

Transformation: Full -3


	146. Chapter 146

146

Mousetrap

When: That night

Where: The secret base

Sparkle watched though eyes glowing from the reflection of the monitors set into the "over 9000 gigs of ram" computer system and regarded the sleeping form of Susan. She was clutching a mini Sailor Mercury doll she had created as a "test" of her _Creation_ nature and techniques, which worked just fine. But that was only part of Sparkle's concern.

 _I need to keep my head,_ she thought bitterly, remembering how she simply ran over to that guy with the intention of smacking him with a paw. _I've said this to Susan before, that to a certain extent her will is mine. But running to physically_ attack _that man? What was I thinking? Showing off? I've never been like Susan, and wanting to show off. I hope that part of her never rubs off on me. But it's still troubling I took off like that, basically without thinking. We needed answers, and I know a spell to put people to sleep. I should have at least tried it._

 _Granted, usually I'm backup for Susan, and maintaining things like_ Acceleration _for her, but she wouldn't have needed that spell if we had both just tried shutting them down. In fact, if she had used_ Hypnotic Field _and I used_ Somnolent Smog, _could they have made both checks to resist at once? They're resisted with different stats, but as free actions. Isn't resisting two things trying to look in two directions at once? We should try that- and then berate ourselves for never thinking of it before._

 _In any case, we let them get away and now we still know nothing about them. Who this Jadeite is or what the Tenma group wants. Of course bringing them somewhere to interrogate really isn't an option. We could tell if they were lying, but if they didn't want to tell us anything, what would Susan do? Start cutting bits of them away with her sword? Cast some kind of pain spell, like they had back home? Would I have to remind her it was illegal? The Sailor Guardians, would they just stand there and let her do that? They're fourteen year olds, for crying out loud, one of them just today_ ran away from a battle. _This just isn't right. Susan, on some level growing up, knew that as a_ Paragon _she would be forced to have adventures so she could get XP. By the time she was fourteen, she had many years of learning magic and having adventures. These girls have just been thrown into it, they can't help being scared in combat. And let's face it, the girl is not normal._

 _And I don't want to give Susan any reason to say "well, I_ have _to use this spell because you aren't talking. I don't want to, but you're forcing me to." That's straight from the Big Book of Evil Mastermind right there. The way she's been acting lately, she might just do it!_

 _Somehow we're going to have to get them talking on their own. Susan's Seer_ Nature _didn't help, nor did_ Question _magic. They're both protected against that sort of thing, naturally enough. But we do have something the Tenma want- that chunk of crystal Susan's been putting energy into. What if we showed them that and made them come after us, instead? That could allow us to control the battlefield and maybe get some answers out of them. They couldn't get it out of the sub-space pocket, so it would be safe to let them know we have it. Would it put the girls in danger? Like taking them as a hostage to trade for it? But Susan would insist on seeing them during a trade, and could just magic them away..._

 _I wonder if there are any good options left us at this point._

The next day, Susan asked her magic who the final scout was, and got back

 _Makoto Kino_

That done she wandered around town somewhat depressed as there seemed to be less action here than her current standard for inaction, Nita.

"I mean I ragged on her for laying out in the sun for one day, but am I being any more effective here?" she complained to Sparkle.

"You've been trying, at least. And it's only been a couple of days. You know information about The Darkness is going to be hard to come by, it knows how to protect itself. You've got to let whatever was going to happen in this world happen."

"I guess."

"Plus, these Tenma are obviously experienced at moving between worlds. They're not going to take any chances."

"And we need to get two more Guardians together before whatever was supposed to happen here begins. I mean I can't imagine a story that has five supporting characters not allowing all the characters to make an appearance."

"Now that's thinking like a true _Paragon._ So relax! Enjoy Japan a little bit. It doesn't seem much different than our world, apart from the whole Moon Kingdom thing. I wonder if our world had a Moon Kingdom?"

"There was apparently some kind of cataclysm they've clawed their way back from to their current level of technology. Seems strange to think if something like that didn't happen on our world, why is our level about the same?"

"Good point."

"You there! Foreigner! What are you doing wandering around?"

"You think I could use powers and fly to the moon? I mean I've seen it, but that was another world. Wouldn't hurt to try it, I'd love to go poke around the ruins up there. Wonder why no one has spotted them from the ground with-"

"I'm talking to you!" Susan found a hand on her shoulder, which tried to spin her around. Naturally, it failed miserably. She slowly turned her head, eyes narrowing. First she looked at the hand. She considered how many ways this hand could be separated from the arm it was attached to. She turned her head more to see who it was attached to.

"Can I help you?" she asked the man coldly.

"I asked you a question. What are you doing wandering around?"

Susan stared at him, not comprehending the question. She glanced to her right and left, and it didn't seem like she had wandered into a construction site or someplace she shouldn't be, like a gang's turf. She was just on the street. She took in the image of this brazen fellow, this mere mortal, this man- who in this case was _the man._ A uniformed officer of the law. A bobbie. A cop. A member of the fuzz. A "smokey the bear" if you will.

"It's a public street, I don't have to answer to you."

"You do until the princess leaves this area. Now I'll ask one more time. What's a foreigner like you doing wandering the streets at this hour?"

"It's ten o'clock in the morning!" she protested, looking at her watch.

"That's beside the point. Wait, what is that?"

"What is what?"

"This!" He grabbed her wrist and looked at the watch, which was obviously a technology far in advance of what that planet could produce. (Being in the early 90s tech wise)

"We foreignerscall them watches."

"Don't get smart with me, girl. Or I'll take you in and hold you on suspicion of plotting something against the princess."

Susan couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing.

"Oh, think that's funny, do you?"

"Yes, I do. Take me in, that's rich. With what, your tiny stick?"

"If necessary. You're coming with me." He snapped open his handcuffs and Susan watched with some amusement as he "cuffed" her. First her wrist, then to his own. "You're coming with me for questioning."

"No, I don't think so." She grabbed his wrist with her other hand and _yanked,_ making a STRength check to bust out of the cuffs. She got a thirty three, more than enough to do the impossible, and they shattered.

The man screamed, as even having his arm held steady against that kind of force, having a handcuff ripped off like this is going to do a little more than sting.

"Do you even _know_ how powerful I am?" Susan asked with contempt as he took a step back. "Can you even imagine the ways I-"

Sparkle put a paw on her leg and Susan looked down. She seemed to remember where she was, and shook her head. The officer started shouting for assistance, and other officers started running towards her. Susan gathered up Sparkle. "Just be glad I don't want to cause a scene here." With that she _Spirit Stepped_ down the street to the mouth of an alleyway, which she then _Spirit Stepped_ down and jumped over the wall, coming down on the other side with a thump.

She looked around. "You know, now that I look, there is a lot of police activity around here." Cars were being stopped, and cops were crawling the area looking at everyone suspiciously.

"Perhaps noticing that sort of thing earlier next time?" suggested Sparkle.

"Well, I didn't get up this morning thinking I would be accosted by a police officer. The nerve of that guy."

"Who was just doing his job, may I remind you? And what was all that about you being super powerful? Not something we usually go around shouting to the world, now is it."

Susan looked a bit embarrassed. "Eh, that sort of got away from me, huh? Just chalk it up to my general frustration with this place. My only contact is a middle schooler, so most of the day is spent waiting for her to get out of class. Then there's homework to do, I mean it's insane. These are Sailor Guardians, reborn from a long dead moon kingdom. I don't think they need to learn geometry or whatever, just like I didn't need to learn astronomy."

"Hey, math can come in handy, ask Ron."

She snorted. "I guess. Come on, better get off the streets. _Foreigner_. Like it was a disease or something."

One _Teleportal_ later and Susan settled down to wait for Usagi to get out of _school._

Meanwhile cops combed the area looking for Susan, and scratched their heads as to where she could have gone.

"So that's what all the security is about," said Susan, nodding. They were sitting in Ami's penthouse, or more accurately her mother's penthouse where she also lived. It was a pretty nice place, and Susan could see why Ami wanted to be a doctor if her mother lived like this. _On the other hand, she doesn't seem to be here to enjoy it very much, like right now when she's still at work and her daughter is home._ "And that cop did say something about a princess. Go figure."

"I get a bad feeling every time I look at a picture of her," admitted Rei. "I think we should investigate her a little."

"My magic is at your command," assured Susan. "But how could she even be a part of this?"

"She is a princess," explained Luna, "and she's supposed to be unveiling some hidden treasure tomorrow. That could be our Silver Crystal."

"Worth the energy to check into it," Susan agreed. "Okay, let me get out my _Question_ spell." She did, and asked three things of the universe.

"Is the princess in this picture," she had a picture of the princess from the paper in front of her, "related to the Sailor Guardians in any way?"

 _No_

"Is the hidden treasure, scheduled to be unveiled tonight by the princess in this picture, hyperlarcovite?"

 _No_

"Is the princess in this picture in danger from either the Tenma group or any others that seek the hyperlarcovite?"

 _Yes_

"Good."

"Good?" repeated the girls.

"Indeed. It seems either the Tenma don't have Seers or don't believe them, or didn't ask, and may also assume the secret treasure is this crystal of yours. We know it isn't, so we can hang back and wait for them to arrive. As Sparkle has spent the better part of a day chastising me for not capturing someone from either side, I'll get another chance tonight. This time we'll try and get a little more information about either group instead of just trading blows or letting them escape."

"But they can teleport," Ami reminded her.

"And they think you're the enemy," Rei reminded her.

"Are you the enemy?" asked Luna. Susan glared at her. "Well I still can't be sure."

"Right, my sitting here helping you isn't proof enough. I get it. What would you suggest?"

The girls thought for a moment. "Logic dictates one of us speak to whoever shows up, rather than you," Ami began. "As the Tenma think you're a threat to them, maybe we can get another side of the story without you around."

"Obviously I would be around, in case you ran into trouble. I could just be invisible."

She waved a hand, brushing that off. "However we do it. We would have to offer them something though. Something they wanted, so they just didn't run off."

"I don't think I like where this is going..."

"You have something I think they'll want."

"You want to put my chunk of hyperlarcovite out there, don't you?"

"It's the only thing we have to bargain with. And you're willing to place this princess in danger, but not a rock?"

"It's not a rock. It's a promise. I don't eventually give that to The Darkness, and he kills a number of people equal to the number of warlocks he had control over on the world before I went to go get it. If they get it away from... wait a second, there's a spell." Susan grabbed her book out of her _pocket_ and started paging through it. "I used it on Severus once, to make sure I could always track his movements. Here it is, _Tracer._ Should have put this on anyway, it's only grade four. Not that it normally comes out of the _pocket._ "

"What's it do?" asked Ami.

"Basically makes it so no matter what, I can always track this object down. Even across dimensions or through magical protections. I wonder how that would work though. _Descry Object_ just gives you a direction and a distance, which are meaningless if it's in another dimension. Wait a minute, wait a minute." More ruffling of pages. "I could use _Clairsentience,_ that can show me an object... 'on my current plane.' Huh. Does the one spell override the other? It's grade nine, that's about the best I can actually get. The only higher Jupiter spell is _Curse,_ and _Curse of Ultimate Justice,_ so there is no better scrying spell."

Sparkle was sitting there shaking her head, and Susan looked over at her.

"What?"

"Use what magic you already know, rather than all this complicated stuff. Just _save_ before you head inside. They could hand it over for all you care, and once they tell you what you need to know- poof. You're back outside and know what they're going to do hours in advance _and_ have the information they gave you without even knowing they gave it to you."

Susan's eyes got wide and she grinned. "Knew I kept you around for a reason. Sparkle, that is amazing advice. We have our plan, ladies."

"Just one thing to keep in mind."

"What's that?"

"You couldn't transform with it running if you cast and maintain it. And if you use a _Ward, Spell Symbol_ isa P type spell _._ You transform and it would go away. So just don't forget and go charging into the fray or anything."

"That's fine, anything goes wrong we just reset and try again. If they don't buy it we try another tactic. We repeat until it works... or I run out of energy casting the spell. I suppose given a twenty minute casting time we could actually cast it two hours ahead the first time, then our second try twenty minutes after that, then forty minutes. We could get six chances total not to blow it."

"Just use the wards you already have, remake them later. It's not like you can't dump energy into the check and then get it back. And I can have _Accelerate Magic_ going, and get my magic back. It wouldn't take long."

"Weren't you the one advising me _not_ to transform so often?"

"And has that stopped you?"

"Well, no. I need to find out all what I can do, and I'm bored just hanging around the base."

"So are you willing to do it?" asked Ami.

"Without hesitation. I can explain the whole procedure for you girls later, in case one of you dies or something. You wouldn't believe how this one pair was going _on and on_ about dying this one time we were trying to break into a city. They just _kept_ getting killed, sort of funny in retrospect, but annoying at the time."

"Uh, maybe this isn't such a good idea after all?" Rei suggested.

"Nah, it'll be fine. Trust me!"

"It's up to you girls," said Usagi. "I'm no strategic planner or anything. And speaking of boredom, I'm bored. Can we do something else now?"

"I would have to consult the fire first," admitted Rei, "before agreeing to a plan I rely on some ability of yours, Susan. No offense, but we did just meet and I have no real idea who you are. But the plan seems sound enough if you're that confident."

"You better believe it. Now, what do you want your dresses to look like?" She was rubbing her hands together most disturbingly.

And so Susan entrusted her chunk of hyperlarcovite to Ami, and that night the girls put on the dresses Susan had made with _Creation_ and headed to where the party was.

"Why couldn't I be entrusted with the crystal?" grumped Usagi.

"Yeah, no. I think I'll just leave it with the brains of this operation instead of the... heart. Yes, heart."

"Oh, you really think I'm the heart?" Usagi brightened, smiling.

"Uh, sure. Sure. You brought these two together, didn't you? They certainly didn't move in the same circles before, but now I think they would call the other friend, right?" She pointed to Ami and Rei. They both nodded, looking at the other and smiling.

"Wait, what does that make me?" asked Rei.

"Lungs. Yeah, lungs," Susan improvised. "Fire needs air, right? Unless you want to be the stomach?"

"Is that some kind of crack about my weight?"

"What, no. Did you want to be the ankle? Or the boob? Some kind of gland? An eyeball? Oh you want to be the a-"

"Girls, please," said Luna, who was trailing behind them. "I know you're all a little nervous, but please don't start squabbling."

 _I'm not._

"Sorry," said Rei. "I guess I am nervous. How are we even getting in? Even knowing this all might not even happen because Susan can just wish us back to hours ago, I've never really done anything like this before."

"Don't worry, everything will go fine, you'll see. I'll handle us getting in. You all wait outside the gate, and I'll get in while _Invisible._ Sparkle will be watching the whole place from the _astral,_ by the way. When I find a quiet spot I'll send the _Teleportal_ back for you. We'll mingle, keep an eye out for anyone with a funny symbol on their foreheads, and be in business."

This part of the plan went smoothly, and once inside Usagi ran off up some stairs to go find the ballroom.

"Does she even remember why we're here?" asked Rei, shaking her head.

"Probably not. You here, Susan?" asked Ami.

"I'm here. Don't worry, I'm sticking to you until this is all over." _Though not as close I would like, heh._

"Okay. Let's find some people here and walk around."

Of course this got Susan humming _Blue (Da Ba De)_ to herself, but that's not really important to the story.

The three girls and one cat wandered around the place, with Susan swiping bits of food when no one was looking, which wouldn't break her _Invisibility_ because she wasn't affecting another creature. Soon enough, however, there was the sound of breaking glass and a scream, and then the sounds of combat coming from upstairs. The girls raced up there, throwing the door open.

The window had been smashed in, and locked in a grapple were Dolands and some other guy with long brown hair they had never seen before. The princess was on the floor, clutching a box, and two security guards were down, wounded and possibly dying. The two men looked over at the girls.

"You two again?" asked Dolands. "That figures."

"You know them?" asked the mystery guy.

"They were hanging around- I'm not telling you anything!"

"Wait!" cried Ami. "This princess doesn't have what you want, we do!"

"Really?"

"Yes. This is what you want, isn't it?" She held up the chunk of hyperlarcovite, which she whipped out of her clutch. The two guys both lunged for it, but got in each other's way, and started to struggle to overcome the other again.

"Stop this!" Ami yelled. "There's no need for this!"

"You'll hand it over?" asked Dolands. "That doesn't seem possible."

"Look, it took us a lot of effort to get it away from that girl who said she came from another world, and we want to know what her real story is. This is our token of sincerity."

Dolands looked to the other guy. "Truce? If what she says is true, this isn't what we're after. It could still be in that chest there."

"It could. But how can I trust you?"

"Take her hostage." He nodded towards the princess. "She's the one with the box."

He considered. "I suppose I could, at that. But no one leaves this room until I'm satisfied."

"I think we both know we can both teleport."

"You know what I mean!"

"Very well."

"Truce then, for now. I'd be interested in hearing about this girl myself."

 _Yeah, so would I._

"Truce then, for now." Both parties eased up and broke apart, still poised to take action.

"I'll have a construct possess the girl, don't take it the wrong way. I'll command her to stay here while we talk."

"Very well, I can follow her easily enough if she's possessed, as you say."

"Fine. _Youma Possession!"_ A weird energy shot out of the man's hand, and struck the princess. The girls gasped, but it faded and she got up, now looking assured rather than terrified.

"Orders?" she asked.

"Remain here while we talk. Perhaps our other worldly friend here will tell us something interesting."

"Perhaps," said Dolands, moving back a bit so he could watch the whole room. "But first, before it gets too noisy... _Barrier!"_ He pointed towards the door, and an energy barrier cut the room off from the hallway. "Now, let me have a look at that crystal."

"Very well." Ami tossed it to him underhanded, and he caught it, then brought it up to his eye.

"This is hyperlarcovite, but it's not anywhere near the energy levels our Seers promised the one found around here would be. Plus it doesn't belong in this reality, I can tell that much. So I guess your story checks out." He held it up. "You want this back? It's useful stuff, but common enough if you know where to look. Crystals with low power are hardly worth the effort, so if you need it..."

"Actually, perhaps we should return it, just so she doesn't become suspicious when she finds it's missing."

"Fair enough. I'll give it back when we're done here." Ami nodded, telling him that was fine. He did something and it vanished. _Probably put into his sub-space pocket, or a pocket dimension he made with powers._ "Okay, you tell me what you know of this girl who has been messing up our plans here, and I'll tell you the real truth about her."

 _Yeah, this should be good._


	147. Chapter 147

147

Sob Story

When: Seconds later

Where: The fancy dress party

"I want to make something clear," said Dolands, looking over at the guy in the gray uniform. "I'm only telling you this because I can tell you're supposed to be here. So you're not the world destroyer directly. You want my advice? Live it up, because soon there won't be anything left of this world."

"We will rule this world!" he insisted. "At the feet of our glorious queen."

"Uh huh, not gonna happen. Okay, here's the deal. What did your 'friend' tell you about the world destroyer?"

The girls looked at each other. "She called it something else, but basically it goes around trying to suck the energy out of various realities, causing them to fall apart."

"Well, the truth for once. Must be trying a new tactic, or right, it's got you on its side. Naturally it would use the truth. Very well. That happened to our world. Little background; don't know what sort of creation myths you have around here, but our universe was created by a bunch of angels working together. Trouble is, their opposites were created at some point, and we called them the demons. Darkness, War, Evil, Chaos, Death, and Destruction. The angels accepted them as a balancing agent but still didn't want them roaming around causing trouble. Many, many years ago they were all sealed in combat into these small orbs and given to the elemental worlds to protect. All of them except Evil, who took over our Queen, Yasha. She originally started the Tenma to rule the galaxy. Nice work if you can get it, right?"

"Wait, she was evil, like, literally?" asked Ami.

"She was. Still is, I guess. She just found something a bit more evil. Look, I'll get to that. Her general, Daku, put plans in motion to find these orbs the demons were sealed into, and unleash them for his own gain. He found four- Darkbolt, War, Death, and Destruction. He then went to our version of Earth, a place like this where nobody had powers, and basically was going to bond them into humans because he figured they wouldn't have the will to fight back."

"I'm sensing this is where the story takes a bit of a turn," correctly surmised Rei.

"You better believe it. Little did Daku know that the Demon of Darkness, Darkbolt, wasn't the only thing inside that orb. When it was bonded to a girl named Naoko he unleashed the world destroyer instead of Darkbolt who incidentally would have been bad enough. This being began the systematic eradication of all life in the galaxy so it could take our energy. It's winning."

"Why are you here, then?" asked Luna.

"Queen Yasha, knowing that no matter how evil she was, if she lost the battle with the world destroyer she would cease to exist too, dedicated the Tenma organization to fighting. We knew about other worlds, of course, because have summoning and dimensional techniques that let us go there or pull creatures from them. What Tenma scientists didn't count on was whole different realities, like this one. Realities that didn't _have_ a demon of darkness. Or a Tenma. Not even close. So we were tasked with looking for anything that can help in our fight against the destroyer. We have powers and technology, so we haven't found much we couldn't already do. But one thing that helps- human energy and hyperlarcovite. Using that crystal we can easily transport massive quantities of energy from doomed worlds, like this one, to help save our world. By using this 'borrowed' energy our troops can fight longer, harder, and use higher level techniques than they normally could. I don't know if we'll ever be able to beat Darkbolt back and reseal it, but we're doing everything we can to try."

"So if you get your hands on the Illusionary Silver Crystal," postulated the other guy, "you'll save yourself a lot of time because it's already charged."

"Exacta! These crystals can absorb energy from nearly anything, but dumping spiritual energy in is the most efficient. If there's one around here that's been absorbing energy for thousands of years, even the inefficient way, it'll be pretty powerful. That's why we can't actually leave this area, our Seers have said it's around here someplace."

"We have information to that end as well," admitted the other. "Seems it's a race, then."

"You won't help, even hearing our story?"

The man laughed. "And this is all it is, a story. I have no proof at all you're not lying to me. I admit you don't seem to be from around here, but that too could be a cleaver ruse."

"Believe what you want. But I'm telling you, this world is doomed, and it seems you're helping that along. Take a long, hard look at what this queen of yours is having you do, see if our story doesn't add up a little more than hers does. As far as you girls go," he turned to the Guardians. "Just stay out of our way, and don't hang around that girl if you don't want to be stabbed in the back. I'm sorry about your world, but there's really nothing that can be done."

"Yes, about Susan," said Luna. "Is she really a threat?"

"Probably. Look, there are people that go around and, for whatever reason, try and save worlds from the destroyer. Call themselves _Wanderers_. Sometimes they help, sometimes they make things worse, sometimes they just get killed. Mostly we stay away from them, we don't need their interference in our mission. But just like the balance in our universe, there's one constant that remains. Those captured and corrupted or just plain coerced by the destroyer to do the opposite. Of course there are those the destroyer finds that don't mind helping it destroy worlds, for the kicks. All these travel between worlds and destroy these _Wanderers_ , or just help the destroyer along if _Wanderers_ haven't reached there yet. We call them Rovers. We thought about _roam_ ers but figured Rovers sounded more insulting. So it stuck. That's what that girl is."

"How can you tell?"

"I'm very good at sensing dark powers, and that girl radiates them. What else could she be?"

"She's been nothing but helpful to us, even training us," insisted Ami.

"Don't be fooled. The destroyer is always trying different things to throw us off guard. It'll be no different here."

"So there's no possible way she could be a _Wanderer?"_ asked Luna.

Dolands hesitated. "I suppose it's _possible._ I mean anything is, the worlds I've seen. Maybe she's fighting off the influence or maybe she doesn't even know it's corrupted her. She might even think she's doing the right thing. But she'll turn on you, mark my words."

"In the meantime, you'll continue draining people's energy to shove inside crystals and take back to your world?" asked Rei.

"That's the plan. I know it sounds callus, but consider my perspective. I'm actually helping by keeping a little energy away from the destroyer. And it's helping us fight it back in my world. Win/Win, for us at least. Don't worry, usually people don't die from the procedure."

"Usually?" the girls exclaimed together.

"We can't tell exactly how much people have. And the draining process isn't exactly a numbers game. Plus we don't usually care, as like I said the people here are doomed anyway. We're just keeping them from being devoured by the destroyer, that's all."

"How many have you murdered in your travels between worlds?" demanded Rei.

"How many lives have their sacrifice saved on mine?" Dolands shot back. "Wouldn't _you_ give your life to save others, if you could?"

"Well, I mean..."

"Uh huh. So that's our story." He tossed the crystal back to Ami. "As agreed. I don't expect you to help us, or anything, but as you two seem at odds, perhaps you can at least keep them away from us?" He pointed to the other guy.

"Oh no," said the man. "We're going to be hounding your steps even closer now. If you do happen to discover the Illusionary Silver Crystal you'll just take it off this world completely. We can't have that."

"Well, good luck with that," stated Dolands. He gestured and the barrier across the door came down, and he teleported away.

The girls and the man in gray looked at each other. "I don't suppose there's anything valuable in that box?" he asked, looking past them. The girl in the thick glasses opened it to show a statue of some kind. "Worthless. Very well, release her and let's go."

"Yes master."

A dark form detached itself from the girl and both disappeared. With that, people started pouring into the room, demanding to know if the princess was all right. Ami looked the guards over, who seemed to be in critical condition but medical personal were close by and so they were taken away swiftly. The girls were hauled off and demanded by the officers on scene to know what happened, and they honestly said two guys fought over the statue, it wasn't what they wanted, so they both left.

"Out that hole in the wall?" demanded one.

"If that makes you feel better, yes," replied Rei. "Out the hole. If you run you might still catch them."

He radioed for the grounds to be searched, but the girls knew that was a futile effort.

Eventually things calmed down and they were released, and Usagi finally found them and said she was sorry she missed the action. She didn't _sound_ sorry, of course, and kept blushing and getting giggly, so Susan wondered if something had happened while she was dancing or whatever she was doing while totally failing at her job as a Guardian.

With Susan visible again and Sparkle dropping from the _astral,_ they started towards Ami's penthouse to get changed again. Ami, having the best memory, explained to Usagi what the men had said as they walked.

"So what do you have to say about what he said?" Luna asked.

"I've already told you I have a piece of The Darkness in me. That must be what he's sensing. Would love to learn that technique, it would make finding The Darkness a bit easier. Instead of just relying on telling if something is native to a world or not."

"Do you think he was telling the truth?" asked Ami.

"Lots of different worlds, and forms The Darkness could take. I think he has a skewed perspective because The Darkness found something really powerful in their world to take over. I mean I couldn't beat something that can take on whole armies. Though I took on a whole army once... but I did have help."

"How much help?" asked Usagi.

"One other guy. Long story. Point is, seems on their world powers are the norm rather than the exception. Not so here, or in most places. The Darkness, at least on the worlds I've been to, has a limited selection to choose from. That's why I've been able to beat it. It has to follow at least most of the rules of the world it finds itself in. Just like I do, like with those random encounters and such with Aerith. So it can't be _totally_ unbeatable. Killing people on other worlds for their energy though, that's harsh. I mean okay, you think they're dead anyway but come on. Shouldn't you be saving them here, where you have way more power than the locals? Leave your world behind and fight where you can win. Though maybe they can't send too many through, like a mass exodus, and just leave that reality empty." _I suppose something like that would catch Silverstreak's attention._

"But that just leaves the Darkness with that reality's energy," countered Sparkle. "And those people figured a way to cross realities without magic or Silverstreak's portals. What stops this Darkbolt demon from crossing into another reality when it's finished with the one Dolands came from? A reality not even as well equipped to fight back as they are."

"Oh. So he's holding the line, is what you're saying? Trading lives here in the hope the demon goes no further."

"It's probably crossed his mind."

"I guess I can see that sort of mentality. Sealing things in orbs though, have to remember that one. Well, it's your world, girls. We can ignore them, help them, or fight them. He admitted to not being that broken up about his energy draining process killing the odd person or two. Despite what you know he fights for, and does with the energy he collects, will you fight to protect your world?"

"That's a tricky question," admitted Rei. "Saving lives here may mean the loss of their reality. And the demon being freed. But on the other hand, can we allow him to kill people here?"

"And on the gripping hand, do we even know he's telling the truth?"

"Didn't you have the _Truth_ spell going?" asked Sparkle.

"Sure, but that doesn't mean _he_ isn't being duped into doing this job. Maybe this queen of his is just having a big laugh at his expense. I mean he implied she had been taken over by the demon of evil. What if she's behind everything and he's just gathering energy for her so she can become more powerful? That this Darkbolt is still sealed, or that the queen herself isn't The Darkness. And in reality _he's_ the Rover and he doesn't even know it. Or she's working with The Darkness, for what Dolands called 'the kicks.' There's a lot of possibilities."

"I think we have to do what's best for our world," Rei finally decided. "That's what we can see. It's our people he's killing, and even if it's for the best of intentions, I won't stand by and let people be drained. What if his next target is my grandfather, or your parents, Usagi-chan? Would you sacrifice them on the off chance he's telling the truth? That his world needs that energy more than you need your parents?"

"No way!"

"Ami?"

"I agree with you. Plus if he isn't what he says, and he finds this crystal everyone seems to be after, it might really be the end of our world. We might need its power to destroy The Darkness here."

"Eh, you've got me, but I see your point. We don't want it falling into the hands of those with unknown goals. I guess we're agreed then. Either groups appears before us, and we treat them as enemies."

The other girls sadly nodded.

"Very well. We don't have to reset, so that _save point_ is gone, let's get some sleep and get back to training tomorrow."

"Aw, not more training!" complained Usagi.

The next day, Susan saw Usagi walking to the arcade from school with a girl she had never seen before. A tall girl with brown hair done up in a ponytail. She had on rose earrings, a different school uniform, and despite chatting with Usagi, she seemed to be scanning her surroundings for potential dangers, her eyes darting about and never still.

"Hey Susan!" said Usagi, running over to her. "Glad to see you here. This is Makoto Kino, who I just met today. _Makoto Kino._ She's already saved me twice, just today!"

"Nice to meet you," Susan said to her. "Makoto Kino, huh?"

"That's my name. Do I know you? She had the same reaction, like someone had just given her chocolate on white day."

 _I don't know what that is..._ "Oh, I don't think so," Susan said lightly. "Just a name I heard in passing once. So you've been taking care of our bunny, have you?"

"She nearly got ran over by a car this morning," Makoto explained. "And just as I was eating lunch, she pops up behind me and nearly gets smacked with a baseball."

"Wow!" Susan laughed. "She's not normally _that_ much of a trouble magnet. Anyway, I'm Susan, you two heading to the arcade?"

"Gonna play the Sailor V game," Usagi said with a wink. "The _Sailor V game."_

"You don't mean... the _Sailor V game?"_

"That's the one."

"Okay, are you two making fun of me somehow? What's this all about?"

"What?" Susan seemed shocked. "I've only just met you. Why would I make fun of you?"

"I have no idea. But you're both acting really weird."

"Ha! Shows what you know. Usagi, yes, she's acting a bit out of the ordinary. But me? How would you know, you just met me too, remember? Besides I was offered a position as a chaos priest once so really my behavior can't possibly be considered weird because that's my default state. Come on, I want to hear everything about you while we walk."

"Karate? That's great, how long have you been studying it?" Susan asked, interested.

"Couple of years now."

"That's great!" _Someone who won't be completely useless in a fight. How extraordinary._ "I might not look it, but I've actually been trained by a ninja. Come to think of it, I might be the only ninja knight in existence. Knight ninja? Something like that."

"Oh really?"

"Really! I'd love to spar with you sometime." _I've gotten my rating up to a five, that's average so I should at least be able to hold my own against plain old_ karate, _right?_

"I suppose it's your funeral if you're lying. But seriously, what do you study?"

"Ninjutsu. Seriously. I can give you some pointers if you want."

"Sure." She looked skeptical.

She proved adept at the Sailor V game until the part time worker there distracted her and caused her to die.

He was standing there chatting with (up?) the girls, when suddenly everyone turned because they heard a bunch of sirens in the distance. These of course were not the temptress singers of old, they were attached to police cars, half a dozen of which streamed by the place on their way to somewhere. In a hurry.

"Maybe we should check that out," Susan suggested to Usagi.

"Aw, do we have to?" Susan stared at her. "Oh, all right."

"Look, if you see a pretty girl with blue hair or an elegant looking girl with really long black hair can you tell them where we went?"

"Okay," said Makoto. "Hey girl with blue hair and girl with really long black hair! Susan and Usagi went to check that out!"

"They're right behind me, aren't they?"

"Yup."

"Do you really think I'm pretty?" asked Aim softly.

"No question, Aim. Makoto- stay here, this could get messy."

"No way, I'm coming with you. If something's going on, I want to help."

The girls shared a look between them, all thinking the same thing. _And so the Guardian group is complete._

Well, Usagi was thinking about how she was probably not going to get that ice cream she had been looking forward to on the way home any time soon, but you get the idea.

The girls dashed out the door, leaving Motoki scratching his head about what that was all about.


	148. Chapter 148

48

Communications breakdown can mean only one thing

When: A moment later

Where: Same random street in Japan

Pandemonium had erupted in the streets as Susan and the other girls watched, astonished. Vaguely female forms, faceless and naked, swarmed over everyone they could reach and pounced on them. The person would glow, scream and carry on a moment, and then fall limp. The creature would then vanish, to be replaced with another who repeated the process so that there was an ever advancing line through the streets.

"What's going on?" asked Makoto, eyes wide. "What are those things?"

"Some kind of constructs, and it looks like either the Tenma or the queen's forces are done waiting. They're attacking in force."

"Look!" shouted Ami, pointing off in the distance. "There's someone flying over there."

"And there," Rei said, pointing in the other direction.

"And even there," Moon said, pointing in yet a third direction.

Susan shook her head. "They aren't messing around. Girls, I know you haven't had long to train, but do you think you can at least hold these creatures back? Even I can't be in several places at once." _And you think I could, given powers or magic. Must research that one of these days._

"You want us to split up?" Usagi gasped.

"We have to," agreed Rei. "We each have to take one group of these things. I don't like it, but this is what we've been training for. And we have our old memories, don't you feel it? We _can_ do this, we are the elite guard of the Moon Princess herself, and that means we're the best! We may not have a princess to guard yet, but this is our city, and I won't let these things take one more step inside it!"

Ami nodded, but Usagi looked more frightened than anything.

"I'll back you up as soon as I can," Susan promised. "Once I take care of these here. Usagi, you go with Ami, Rai, you'll have to handle yourself-"

"I'll go with Usagi," said a deep voice, and that guy in the fancy evening ware stood there. "No harm will come to her, I promise."

"Ah, Mr. The Smoking Bomber. I'll hold you to that. Usagi, stick to him, I don't see any Tenma symbol on his forehead and he's not wearing the queen's uniform. I think he's an independent agent at worst, on our side at best. Somehow I believe what he says."

She seemed to steel herself, clenching her firsts that were at her side. "Okay. I'll do my best."

"That's my girl. If you do get into trouble, send an attack into the sky and I'll drop what I'm doing and get over to you, okay?"

The girls nodded. "Good luck," the all said at the same time, grinned, and turned to run to their assigned corners of the city, transforming as they went.

"What about me?" asked Makoto.

 _Shoot, I should have had her go with Usagi, but three people in one group and one in the others would have really been uneven._ "You're with me for the moment. Don't mess around with these things, take them down hard. If they get you pinned, well, you've seen what they can do."

"I guess. You all are taking this very calmly."

Susan snorted. "Welcome to Minato ward. Hope you like fighting, it's basically all our group has been doing lately. I'll explain later, come on!"

"Okay."

The two girls threw themselves into the fray, and Makoto was as good as her word, holding her own even as Susan got _Acceleration_ put on her by Sparkle, and started doing called shots to the things with her sword. They seemed to ignore being shot by nearby police officers, but went down for good after being chopped up by Susan. Sparkle, of course, didn't hold back against what were basically robots created with powers, and sent _Elemental Line_ through them as she could.

Problem was, there seemed to be hundreds of the creatures, and they soon learned to stay away from Susan and her circle of death that _slash-all_ could reach. They went after Makoto who was putting up a valiant effort, but was starting to get overwhelmed.

"There's no end to these things!" she shouted, knocking another two off her. "Isn't there anything else we can do? You have another one of those swords oh my goodness what's happening to me?"

 _If only it was the-_ Susan glanced over at her then did a double take. Makoto was shining with power, and the symbol for Jupiter was glowing on her forehead.

"You feeling okay?" Susan called to her.

"I feel strange, do you think they're doing something?" she had a panicked look about her.

"Uh..." _No, that's all you. Crap, and Luna isn't around to give her a transformation item. I knew she should have stayed here, but of course she wanted to look after Usagi and make sure that tuxedo guy didn't do anything to her. What happens to a Guardian that can transform but doesn't? Do they lose the chance? Does their power burst out uncontrollably?_

 _…_

 _Wait, don't I have metapower now? Why can't my power serve as a catalyst, at least temporarily? Luna does some weird_ Creation/Metapower _thing to make those items, but it's really just temporarily returning the girls to the powerful woman they used to be. Why couldn't I do that?_

"Sparkle! We're doing a mode change. I have an idea! Get ready to get our buffs back up."

"You got it boss."

"Light of the multiverse, _make up!"_ Light shone around Susan as she lightly touched all the powers she could use so Sparkle could choose what she wanted without having to get exactly what she did, and made her selections.

Energy Regeneration (2)

Energy Well (5)

Flight (2)

Nature: Healing (2)

Nature: Force (2)

Nature: Spirit (2)

Primary Nature: Metapower (2)

Speed (4) (Speed multiplied by 1 + number taken)

Sudden Step (1)

Teleport (3)

Unseen (1) (people with powers can't see the person)

Sparkle took

Energy Regeneration (2)

Nature: Protection (2)

Nature: Air (2)

Primary Nature: Time (2)

Speed (2)

Sudden Step (1)

Telekinesis (1)

Susan now stood in her Sailor outfit, and the constructs had backed off to see what she was doing. She _Sudden Stepped_ over to Makoto and grabbed her up.

"This may be a bit forward, as we've just met. I hope you'll forgive me if this works. I hope you'll forgive me if it doesn't. _Awaken Guardian Powers._ "

"If what wor- mumfh." Her last word was muffled as Susan grabbed her head and brought it down so she could kiss her.

 _I suppose as a_ touch _based technique I could have just touched her, but this seems more appropriate somehow. Yeah, that's it._

"Vaguely cute and female," Sparkle grumped, wondering if she should throw up a _Protection_ barrier to make sure they didn't get interrupted. (Or perhaps start making the hairball sound again.) It didn't take long as electrical power surged around Makoto and engulfed her, leaving Sailor Jupiter standing there.

"What do you know," Susan said, pleased. "It worked."

"What just happened? What are these clothes?"

"Welcome to the fight, Sailor Jupiter. Not much time to explain now. Behind you!"

Jupiter whirled and smashed the side of her fist into the head of the construct that was leaping for her, bashing it into a car several meters away and causing all its windows to shatter.

"Nice hit!" Susan remarked, impressed, as the thing melted away.

"How did I do that?" Jupiter asked, looking at her hand.

"Is the show over already? Go back to kissing!" said a male voice from high above. Both girls looked up to see a man in the queen's colors standing atop a low building nearby. Susan missed Jupiter's blush as she turned and lifted her sword.

"Ah, another queen's man," she remarked. "Thought you would be sitting back, letting this little army of yours do your work for you. Decided to show yourself, huh?"

"Came to see why energy being gathered from this section was grinding to a halt. I guess I have my answer. Sailor Ridiculous Blade here."

"That's really the best you can come up with? You people need, like, combat banter lessons or something. Despite not being Tenma I guess your purpose is revealed. You want energy too. And it seems you're not going to be subtle about it."

"That's right, why should we be? As there's only four of us we decided to create an army. This was before you Guardians woke up of course, but we figured losses would be acceptable even with you around. Perhaps we might even take one of you down, which would have been a nice bonus. I never dreamed you could resist so well."

"You haven't seen anything yet."

"No? Here's a question- what would happen if you weren't fighting me, but instead that girl you were kissing a second ago?" He pointed to Jupiter.

"Why would I fight her?"

"I wonder. _Illusionary Ally Reversal."_

"What? Yipes!" Susan made a dodge as Jupiter lunged for her, shouting "What did you do to her? Bring her back!"

"The what?" Susan risked a glance up at the man, but the uniformed man was no longer there. "Aw, dang it. Look out!"

Another one of the constructs came up behind Jupiter, who didn't even try to defend herself as the creature knocked her to the ground.

 _Guess I might as well try this, I took_ Spirit _for a reason, after all._ " _Soul Disconnection,"_ she said, aiming an attack at the creature. She overpowered it to roll 3d8, spending sixteen energy. Sadly, it didn't matter what she rolled because she got a two on her attack. So the creature didn't even know it was in danger. (It would have been totally destroyed, by the way.)

 _"Velocity Matrix,"_ cried Sparkle, giving it a single overcharge and rolling 2d10. She got dead average, at least reducing their delay by a little bit.

 _Magic seems much better at that, maybe I should make an imbued item I can cast that spell from._

Three more of the construct creatures now made a move for Jupiter, who was still not struggling so much to get the creature off her as she was struggling to get at Susan. And there wasn't a thing Susan could do about it until her action, so they pilled onto her.

 _"Rose Petal Hurricane!"_ shouted Jupiter, blowing them off her and causing a swirling cloud of rose petals to slash into everything around her. _What a glorious attack! If only it wasn't aimed at us too!_

 _"Flowers Immunity,"_ cried Sparkle, protecting herself.

Susan didn't bother activating anything, figuring Jupiter, who just got her powers, couldn't access any more energy than a normal person at this point, and couldn't put much oomph into her attacks. At least not enough to cause her worry. _And she didn't take an action to charge, that's for sure._ She was correct, though the constructs took a beating and were thrown from her.

Sparkle was up again, and dropped her immunity while using _"Negative Pressure!"_ Air rushed away from Jupiter, leaving her suffocating.

"Now you're doing that? I hate that!" Susan chided her.

"Don't have anything else non-lethal to hit her with. Maybe I could stop her in time, but she could probably resist."

"Me either. Ugh, when I find that guy... Give me a second, I want to try something."

"A whole second? We're in combat!"

Susan glared at her, but spent her next action changing energy. An aura of her primary nature sprang up around her, and as this was _metapower_ it shimmered and flickered with all colors of the rainbow.

Sparkle held her action, which meant Susan, construct "two" and "four" and Jupiter were all acting at the same time.

Jupiter decided to ignore her lack of air and sprang at Susan, who was busy throwing all forty energy she could into _"Reaper of Souls!"_ so she couldn't dodge or resist in any way. She got her technique off, overpowered three times and rolling 8d8 (with a -20 penalty for the number of constructs in range.) She ended up with a fifty, and all twenty constructs in range dropped to the ground, lifeless. Susan went down to a hundred and five energy. (Having been at about half when she transformed, so she was then at half her total as it scaled up.)

But she now had a new problem; Jupiter. She could technically make _wrestling_ checks against her, and probably win, but that wouldn't solve the problem of her continuing to attack.

"You don't think that guy is still around, do you?" she called to Sparkle as they grappled. Jupiter was proving to be _very_ strong, and Susan was beginning to wonder if she _could_ make a successful _wrestling_ check against her.

"He does seem the type to stand around to see his handiwork. Give me a second."

"A whole _second?"_ teased Susan, but Sparkle just closed her eyes and concentrated. She got a twelve, and spun. _"Air Detonation!"_ she called out, overcharging it once. She got a 2d12 burst of air near where she felt the man maintaining the technique on Jupiter was, and he tried dodging out of the way, becoming visible as he did so.

"Well done," he called out, clutching at his leg which looked pretty bad. "But I can hold onto that technique no matter where I am." He vanished.

"Great, now what?" asked Susan, still struggling with Jupiter.

"Do you have _Mind?_ You could try some kind of _Hypnotic Field_ technique."

"If I had _Mind_ I'd just bust her out of this!"

"Oh yeah. How about your second favorite? Drain her energy."

"Oh, that I could do. _Energy Drain!"_

This proved somewhat difficult, and Susan didn't get much because she had to keep overcharging the technique to beat Jupiter's RESolve check, but finally she managed it and Jupiter went unconscious.

"You think that broke the technique?" Sparkle asked.

Susan started to answer, but Jupiter suddenly became plain old Makoto again. "Guess it doesn't matter for the moment. That bizarre STRength she had should be gone at this point, so even if she does attack, it won't do much. Cover me, I'm going to recharge and take out the rest of these constructs. A sight radius technique with a bit of overpower should do it, since I saw the lesser one worked before."

"You got it."

So Susan used her _Energy Regeneration_ and got back to full power, wiped out the rest of the nearby constructs, and recharged again. Then Sparkle recharged and both looked down at Makoto.

"I hate to put her in the sub-space pocket, she's pretty big and I've got a lot of stuff in there. Duh, I took _Teleport."_ She picked her up and vanished, then was back again a second later. "I put her down in the cabin's bedroom. I don't care what kind of technique it was, it should be broken by her being in another dimension."

"I agree. What's that?" Sparkle turned as an energy beam lit up the sky in the direction Usagi had gone in.

Susan held out her arms and Sparkle jumped into them. "Let's get over there." They vanished.

They appeared near where Sailor Moon was standing over Tuxedo Mask, yelling _"Discordant Harmony"_ which seemed to be an area effect attack, as all the constructs in range winced back in pain. Windows shattered around her, and even the pavement cracked as the energy lashed out at everything several meters from her. _Hey, not bad Moon, we'll make a true Guardian out of you yet._

"Come on," said Susan, hefting her sword. "Let's lend a hand."

Susan covered Moon, who discovered she could heal with a touch as she roused Tuxedo Mask. She was touching him and wishing she could heal him, when suddenly his wounds started closing up and Susan felt power coming from her. He staggered to his feet and they made their way to a more fortified position, as they were out in the open when Susan had arrived. Susan covered their escape, the constructs desperately trying to take her down.

 _Guess there's more to these girl's powers to discover after all. Like why did Jupiter get so darn strong? I don't think their natures are the only thing different about them, I think they have slightly different powers too._

These constructs too soon learned not to rush into Susan's _slash-all_ radius, so she let them pound on a barrier made by Sparkle while she gathered energy for another round of

" _Reaper of Souls!"_

That accomplished, she recharged, put some energy into Moon and Mask with another _Spirit_ technique, and _teleported_ them over to where Ami was fighting. She looked exhausted, though it was hard to tell as she was inside a thick ice barrier that the constructs around her were trying to get through. Susan couldn't feel any power coming from it with _power sense_ and figured as some sort of last ditch defense she simply created a thick shell of ice with her power rather than try and maintain something. _Why didn't you signal me? Or did I just miss it? Sorry, Ami._

Susan told the others to conserve their energy and blew the reminder of the constructs away, there actually being rather few of them compared to what she had found still attacking Sailor Moon. With her speed of "yes" and _Sudden Step,_ she could move about the battlefield like nothing that world had ever seen so they couldn't get away fast enough from _slash-all._ Eventually they were all down, so she _teleported_ into the ice sphere and then out again with a shivering and wounded Mercury.

"G-g-g-guess I'm not i-i-i-immune to c-c-cold," she managed to say with a small smile.

Susan put a finger over her lips. "Don't talk, we can laugh about it all later. You just get warm. Mask, your cape, please?"

"Of course!" He swirled it off and Susan wrapped it around her. "You did good Mercury. You saved a lot of people today, and all on your own, too. Well done."

"Thanks."

"You two, warm her up," she said, passing the "Mercury burrito" over to the others. They both wrapped their arms around her. "I'm going after Mars. Then we can see what the aftermath of all this is."

They nodded, and Susan again vanished to go find Mars. She saw her sitting on a bench, looking rather pleased with herself. People were milling around, not sure what was going on, and the police in the area were trying to get everyone to go home.

"What took you so long?" Mars asked smugly.

Susan looked around, and there seemed to be a lot of ash piles nearby, and down the street too. In fact pretty much everywhere you looked. Some were even still on fire.

"So, no trouble then?" she asked.

"Hardly. Another one of those guys in that gray uniform showed up, but I shot some fire at him and he backed off. You know, I could get used to these powers, I really could."

"Glad to hear it. Come on, Mercury half froze herself to death, maybe you can warm her up."

Mars stood up and stretched. "Let's go."

As the Guardians recuperated, Moon and Susan went around healing people and giving them a little energy so they could get moving again. Susan had both _Spirit_ and _Healing_ natures, so she could do both, while Moon mostly took care of scrapes and bumps people got from the constructs grabbing them. Her healing was limited by the energy she could throw into it, and she was getting tired. Re-tired, as Susan had already given her energy once today.

Of course it wasn't long before news vans full of reporters showed up, filming the aftermath of unpowered construct corpses, ruined vehicles, hysterical people blabbering about aliens and whatever else general weirdness had resulted from the attack. Naturally, everyone pointed out the Guardians, and the reporters descended upon them like certain cats I could name descend on food dishes when mealtime comes along.

Naturally they were all shouting and asking questions at the same time so nobody could really hear anything, until Sailor Moon fired off a simple _Sound_ blast that shut them up.

 _"One at a time!"_ she yelled at them. "You!"

 _Guess she's taking the lead on this one._ She smacked herself in the head. _I took_ Unseen _this time, so they can't see me at all. Ah well._

Techniques used in this chapter-

Illusionary Ally Reversal

Mind/Illusion

Grade 10 (4+2+2+2) (Effect, Effect, Medium, Maintained)

Plant an Illusion into the mind of the target and mentally confuse them so they believe an ally is an enemy they have seen. They will pursue this "enemy" before all others and with unnatural fury, not bothering to defend themselves in any way.

Soul Disconnection

Soul

Grade 8 (4+2+0) (Attack, Medium, Instant)

Target the animating force of a summoned construct. If the attack hits, roll damage as normal. The target rolls a RESolve check, difficulty equal to the amount of damage sustained. If successful, no damage is done. If failed, the animating force is expelled and the body is rendered lifeless.

Velocity Matrix

Time

Grade 9 (5+2+2) (Effect, Medium, Maintained)

As standard _Velocity,_ increasing the target's REFlexes by the amount rolled on the technique. This technique, however, can be used on others out to medium range, taking a -1 penalty for each target to be accelerated.

Rose Petal Hurricane

Nature

Grade 6 (6+0+0) (Attack, Personal, Instant)

Create a flurry of sharpened flower petals in a cloud around yourself. They swirl and do 1d12 damage to 4 body locations to all creatures within 8 meters. Targets may dodge for half damage if they can escape the area.

Flowers Immunity

Protection

Grade 4 (2+0+2) (Effect, Personal, Maintained)

Make yourself immune to any _Nature_ attack while maintained.

Negative Pressure

Air

Grade 6 (2+2+2) (Effect, Medium, Maintained)

Push the air away from a space in Medium range.

Reaper of Souls

Soul

Grade 10 (8+2+0) (Effect, Medium, Instant)

As _Soul Disconnection_ but as an area effect attack, centered on the user, rather than a targeted one. Technique suffers a -1 penalty for each additional target beyond the first in the area.

Air Detonation

Air

Grade 9 (6+3+0) (Effect, Long, Instant)

Standard air explosion attack. Creates a rapidly expanding burst of air at the target location.

Energy Drain

Metapower or Spirit

Level 9 (6+1+2) (Effect, Touch, M)

This technique drains Energy from another character. Only 1 character can be affected at a time, and must be grappled. Energy drained is the difference between the RESolve check and the technique result.

Sailor Jupiter's Powers

Ancient memories 1

Jump 1

Longevity 1

Natural Defense 2

Nature: (Nature) 2

Nature: (Electricity) 2

Telesphere (with the other scouts) 1

Unrecognizable 1

Power Stat (STR) 2 (Putting energy in is not 1:1, it's multiplied by ½ the energy spent)

Stat Adjustment (STR) 8 5 (Her natural STRength of 7 is increased by 8)

Transformation: Full -3


	149. Chapter 149

149

Reporting the Facts. (But who makes the facts?)

When: Just then

Where: Random street

"Can you explain what's been going on around here?" asked the reporter, as flashbulbs strobed and reporters held out tape recorders to get her response. Others started drifting over, and soon a large crowd was gathered around them.

"We were fighting the enemy," Moon said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Who is the enemy?" someone else shouted.

"That would be us," said another gray uniformed man, stepping out of nowhere. "Kunzinte, of the dark kingdom, at your service." The Guardians all went into attack poses, but he held up his hands. "Goodness! You aren't thinking of just attacking an unarmed man, are you? With all these innocent people around who could be hurt if an attack went wide? For shame."

"What do you want?" Rei demanded.

"I'm here to tell our side of the story," Kunzite said simply. Susan looked him over, and he was a pretty tall guy, with snow white hair and a cape, with green trim on his uniform. "The truth of what's really going on here."

"Tell us! Tell us!" the reporters chanted.

"Ah, to speak of the great tragedy that befell the world before, and will soon come again thanks to these greedy children. It pains me." Kunzite was overacting the whole thing, but they seemed to be lapping it up while the scouts all stared at him.

"Get out of here," shouted Rei, "tell your lies to someone else."

"Lies? Me, Sailor Mars? Listen everyone, and mark my words. You see here the reincarnated villains of the Moon Kingdom, destroyed thousands of years ago for their sins. Yes, truly, they have been born again, to bring their wickedness into the world once more. We, of all the so called 'dark kingdom' are the only thing that stands between them and all of you being enslaved to their will!"

"What?" Moon said, looking shocked.

"Yes! Enslaved! Will you strike me down, now that I have revealed the truth? Will you show your true colors at last, Sailor Moon? Go on, I am unarmed and defenseless! Show these people what you are truly capable of!" He spread his arms wide and squeezed his eyes shut, like he was truly ready to be struck down.

 _I suppose I could just chop his head off, they wouldn't even see what did it._ Susan stood there considering.

"You see, even she wouldn't dare," he went on, opening his eyes. "But the time has come for the real story. Long ago, the 'moon kingdom' had a terrible secret. A crystal, to be exact the Illusionary Silver Crystal, which is the most powerful artifact in the known world. So powerful, those that bathe in its light will never die." The crowd gasped. "I know! Think of it! Eternal youth, granted by a simple stone. But the so called 'moon princess' was greedy, and locked the stone away from the people of the time. What would it have cost her to make all the people of the world immortal, as she was? Why, nothing! But did she listen to the cries of the people? For fairness, and the sharing of that gift from the gods? No, she did not."

"Is that really true?" one of the reporters asked Moon.

"No, no, it can't be true!" she insisted. "I mean the crystal exists, that's true..."

"But you don't really remember that time, do you?" countered Kunzite. Sailor Moon and the scouts looked down. "I thought not! You see! It was the resistance, led by the dark kingdom, who took that name with reluctance to oppose the 'kingdom of light' or 'moon kingdom.' Yes we, who wanted to bring the power of the crystal to all people, that attacked and overthrew the moon kingdom of so long ago! But now these 'Guardians' have returned, and once again are poised to become immortal. When they do they will take over Earth once again, and those tragic days of your enslavement will return."

"How do you know this?" one person (rightly) asked.

"Look, all of you!" He held out a hand and a ball of darkness appeared. "In those days, many people had powers, just like this! It was the interference of the moon kingdom that sealed away the power of the common man. But some few of my ancestors, those of the dark kingdom, managed to escape. They went into hiding, and passed down their powers and this story so that if the evil moon kingdom should ever rise again, we would be there to drive it back once more."

"This is all wrong!" shouted Sailor Moon. "We would never do something like that!"

"Wouldn't you? Then what's your version of events, hum? What do you say happened? Why did your kingdom fall?"

"I... We haven't remembered that yet!"

"Or is my story the truth, and you have no better answers?"

"..."

"Look, all of you. I can prove it." He pointed to the sky. "When next the moon rises in the sky, take out your telescopes. Send your ships that can traverse the great void of space. Look to where I tell you and you will see the ruins of the royal palace. Would a good kingdom fall without a trace? Did Rome? Did Atlantis? No, their names are still known today. But when was the last time you heard of the moon kingdom? Never, am I right?" There were various nods, and Kunzite rattled off some coordinates. "Look there, and you'll see. The reason you haven't heard is because in that time, the people turned their back on the moon kingdom. They wanted no book, no record, no whisper of those cruel and evil people that ruled, literally, on high. Imagine those days, all of you. To always look up and see the beautiful moon, but to know that on the surface was the palace, full of immortal people while you aged another day, died a little more, here on Earth. Is it any wonder their kingdom was broken? After so many died liberating the people from their rule, every mention of that despicable kingdom was destroyed. Their civilization fell, and yours, yes, the one you built with the strength of your arms rather than with powers, emerged. You should be proud as you look around and see all that you have built." Everyone looked around, nodding, and stood a little straighter. "Now you know the truth, that she has returned to take that all away from you again. To hold her own power over your heads, and enslave you once more."

"Down with the moon kingdom!" someone from the back row shouted, and threw a rock at Moon. Susan intercepted it with her sword, smashing it to pieces with an eight roll, as whoever threw it only got a three on their _throwing_ check. (I mean who has an average _throwing_ skill, amiright?)

"And then there's this girl!" Kunzite went on. "Why, she's not even a real Sailor Guardian. Look at that uniform, it's completely different."

Susan looked down at herself. It was true, even without the _Armor_ power, her sailor fuku seemed to be slightly different each time she transformed. The color was never consistent, and certain elements were stylized differently each time. She hadn't thought much of it, figuring it was just a quirk of how her power worked. She didn't seem to have any real control over it, so she ignored it. To the extent she was able, running around in that short skirt.

"I mean what's with that huge sword she's swinging around? What is this, the era of the samurai?"

The reporters were now looking very confused, as they were searching the area high and low for this sword wielding Guardian Kunzite was talking about.

"By the way," she mentioned off handedly, swinging her sword up to her shoulder, "one of my powers is not being seen by normal people. They don't realize I'm here."

"And I look like an idiot. Thanks a lot."

"Not a problem, you did it to yourself. Look, why don't you just run along now? You've had your fun, so make like a tree, and get outa here."

"Wait a second, I can turn this around. Good people, it's worse than I thought!" He turned back to the crowd. "She has made herself invisible to your eyes. She could be anywhere, inside your home, inside your car, even standing right next to you in the shower. _You would never know!"_

 _This guy- he's incredibly quick witted. He turned that around immediately, what's his rating in_ Speaking, _anyway?_

The crowd seemed to get more anxious. "Protect us!" shouted someone. "Kill her!" shouted another. "Kill them all!" shouted yet another.

He held up his hands. "Please, we will do what we can, but for now you should just go home. We are exhausted from fighting their construct army, which tried to sweep over the city in their search for the crystal. We will recover and defend your city when next they attack, you have our word."

"Smooth," remarked Susan.

"Thank you." He held up something, what looked like a stack of papers and Susan stuck her head around it to look it over. It was a picture of a large gem, and he started handing them out, the reporters grabbing them up eagerly. "Please, if any of you have seen this stone, hide it and email me at goodguys underscore kunzite at aol dot com." The email was printed on the sheets, and there was a web address as well. Kunzite went on. "And for those with web access, check out www dot thetruthaboutthemoonkingdom dot com for a recap of everything I've said here today, and more proof of what I've been saying. I beg you, help the dark kingdom to keep the unlimited power of the Silver Crystal out of their hands."

He vanished.

But the crowd didn't. It got uglier, as people in the back kept chanting to destroy the guardians, and throwing things at them.

"Perhaps a bit of a strategic withdrawal?" suggested Mercury.

"Grab on," Susan said, putting her blade away as the crowd got closer and bolder. She stuck out her hands and everyone took them. With this version of _Teleport_ she could manage as much as she could carry, and it was laughable to even calculate if she could lift a couple of fourteen year olds and one rather skinny high school student.

They vanished.

The scouts found themselves in Susan's _Personal Dimension,_ and collapsed to the grass near the cabin. They all looked a bit shell shocked as they considered what had just happened.

"Why didn't you do something?" demanded Rei, looking at Moon.

"Me? Why me? Why didn't you do something? Or you?" she asked Susan.

"Me?" Susan repeated. "What did you want me to do? Like I told that guy, no one there but you girls could see me. Did you want me to chop his head off in front of everybody? 'Oh, hello there unarmed man who is calling us evil. snicker snack! Now you have no head. But honest, we're the good ones!' Yeah, that would have really gone over well."

"Yeah, Usagi is right, you're the one with 'all the powers' so you say. You just stood there!"

"I don't have _all_ the powers, I get to _choose_ what powers I have each time I transform. I didn't have anything useful at the time. I would have had to become visible and use magic, or transform again with some other powers. And he was right, there were too many innocent people to get into a battle right there, you know how much destructive power our techniques throw around."

"You could have done something!"

"Tell me what I should have done, and I'll go back in time right this minute and do it." She whisked her book out and opened it. "Right this minute. Go on. Something that doesn't endanger anyone, I'm waiting."

"Grab him and teleport him away!"

"There's three more where he came from, and he can teleport himself. He would have just come back!"

"Aarg!"

"That's not a suggestion at all!"

The girls glared at each other but of course Susan didn't back down, so eventually Mars dropped her head. "I don't know."

"It's dealing with the other three that's the real problem," put in Ami after a moment of silence. "Whatever you did to him, like Susan said, another follower of the queen would have just taken his place. And fighting all thee of them there, with all those people around? I'm glad it didn't turn into a battle, we were all worn out from the fight before."

 _Well, some of us were..._

"And he could be innocent you know, never thought of that did you?" asked Susan. "He's from around here, I can tell that. He's not The Darkness, so he could just be a dupe, or under a technique himself. You want me to just kill a potentially innocent man? I wouldn't do it for the principal of my school and I certainly won't do it here."

"There still should have been something you could do."

"Well what's done is done now," she replied, snapping her book closed.

"He was right there with that story too," Ami went on. "You don't think _this_ was their plan all along, do you? Get a fake story out with just the mundane news? Turn people against us? I mean they set up a _website_ already?"

"It seemed pretty well thought out," admitted Luna. "For them to throw away that many troops though..."

"Why not, it's just a bit of energy and a few techniques," Susan assured them. "They got energy until we showed up, caused havoc, and then pinned it on us. I have to admit, it's a master stroke."

"Aren't we missing someone?" Rei asked, looking around. "I could swear we're missing someone."

"Makoto! I put her downstairs, I'll be right back!" Susan _teleported,_ then walked up the stairs and looked through the cabin. "That's odd, I left her down there," she reported to the others. "Just a second while I go look for her." She rose into the air and started calling for her.

Figuring she would head to cover, she headed for the nearby trees. As she flew over them, Susan sincerely missed _Spirit Sense_ as _Power Sense_ didn't do much for her in terms of finding someone around here.

 _Are you still here?_

"There you are," she said, after crisscrossing the landscape looking for her. She landed next to Makoto, who punched her square in the face. "I don't blame you," Susan said like a turret. "You've got a lot of pent up aggression, I get that. Go ahead, hit me a few more times if it'll make you feel better. Then perhaps we can get to the answering your questions part of the magical mystery tour."

"Once was enough," Makoto answered, rubbing her hand. "What's your face made out of, anyway?"

"Giants," she answered simply. "Come on, everyone's waiting to meet you, and you can get your proper transformation item. Unless you _want_ to be kissed by me every time, which is fine."

"You had better explain all this! Where are we, anyway? I don't recognize these trees, and they feel really weird."

"They aren't actually trees, if you want to be technical about it. Come on. Let me at least apologize properly, it was sort of sneaky what I did to you." She stuck out her hand.

"Yes it was," she grumbled, but shook it. Now in contact with her, Susan _Teleported_ back to the others, and spooked Makoto again. As well as the others, to put a rather fine point on it.

"Would you stop doing stuff like that?" Makoto demanded once she had calmed down again. Susan finally stopped laughing too.

"No chance of that," Sparkle informed her. "Believe me. She delights endlessly in causing other people discomfort. I'm Sparkle, by the way, nice to meet you."

"I'm Luna," said Luna.

"I've gone crazy," Makoto said, shaking her head. "I've flipped out. I'm gone. Somebody slipped me some mushrooms and I'm on a trip."

"Come and sit down," sighed Moon, patting the ground near herself. "And we'll explain it all to you, and work out our next move."

So Makoto (or Mako-chan as Usagi started calling her) got her transformation item, and went through the process of becoming Jupiter on her own. Susan tested her, and it seemed she was just naturally strong, like superhumanly strong, and she could boost it even further with energy if she tried. She also got the hang of _Jumping_ and showed off her flower petal attack, then came up with an electrical one, basically just a bolt of lighting she could throw at people.

"Okay, this part I could get used to," she said. "But explain _why_ we have these powers again?"

So they did, and finally it came to what Kunzite had said.

"So we've seen all four, if only four there are," said Ami. "Jadeite, Nephrite, Kunzite, and one we just saw from a distance to lure us into the trap of fighting those constructs. Four... Four... You don't think... There were three voices in that crowd that kept heckling us. You don't think that was them, do you? Out of uniform and turning opinion against us?"

"If it was, they really are masters of their craft," admitted Susan.

"But those aren't all we have to worry about, right?" asked Jupiter.

"No. There's this queen they seem to work for, who knows what powers she has, and if she isn't The Darkness, then it's still around someplace too."

"And there's these other guys, the Tenma, and they have all kinds of powers?"

"Exactly. Plus I get the sense Dolands at least has had plenty of time to refine his methods. He could have been born a thousand years ago for all I know. They could have techniques, _time_ techniques, to make people immortal where he comes from. Who knows how much combat experience he has? Or how many more like him came through? Or could, if he wants backup. At least they seem to identify themselves with that symbol."

"And just so I understand the full impact of what you've been telling me... we're basically screwed, right?"

"Yeah," said Moon. "Basically. You really think they have a website?"

"We can check that later," Ami assured her.

"I'm more worried about our image now," said Luna. "Will they turn on Sailor V as well? Once that story gets out..."

"They all saw us!" shrieked Moon. "There were TV cameras there and everything! We can't even go home now. I mean, you can, Mako-chan. My parents... are they going to turn on me?"

"Don't worry about it," assured Luna. "I know for a fact no one that sees Sailor Moon is going to connect her with Usagi. That goes for all you Guardians. It's part of the whole reason you transform in the first place, to keep your identity a secret so the enemy can't attack your homes."

"That's a relief."

"What's our next move?" Rei asked. "For me, I want to consult the fire, see what my powers tell me."

"Good thinking. Ami, you and I can check out this website. Moon, you have family, you should head back there, let them know you're all right. They're probably worried you got caught in that attack on the way home and are lying dead someplace. Jupiter, the same?"

She shook her head. "I live alone."

" _What?_ You're fourteen!"

"So?"

"Hokay. Sure, why not? In that case, you get to stay here and practice, as you've had the least. But oddly the most experience as you already know karate. Whatever."

"Actually, my head is still spinning from learning all this. Do you mind if I stick with you, Usagi? I still have a lot of questions."

"Not at all!"

"Thanks."

"Then I guess we're agreed. Remember, don't try to defend 'the guardians' or whatever if asked. Say how terrible the whole situation is, how you feel horrible about any loss of life in the attack, whatever. Outside this place you are simply teen girls, far away from the events of the day. Got it?"

"Er, what about me?" asked Mask, looking out of place among all the girls.

"Ah yes, our resident wild card. Perhaps it would be best if we all had a little talk, as you can't run away from us in here."

"You can't punch her either," Jupiter grumbled.

"You can, I just wouldn't recommend it."

"Yes, just who are you?" asked Luna. "You keep popping up. Why? And that energy attack earlier, you're no ordinary man."

"That's not all," he admitted. "Sometimes I can touch an object and know its history, and one time I healed a cut on my arm just by concentrating on it."

 _So_ Healing _or some kind of_ Regeneration?

"So, who are you?"

"That's the thing, I'm not even sure. I lost my parents to a car accident when I was small, and survived with head injuries. Even now I can't remember my life before that, when I was placed in foster care. And now I have these muddled up memories of the moon, and you girls appeared in my life... It's all very confusing for me."

"Oh, that's so sad!" remarked Moon. "That must have been so hard for you."

"It was hard to miss my parents, I had no memory of them."

Sparkle caught Susan's eye and nodded her head at him. Susan shook her head and grabbed her, walking a little ways away.

"You could get his memory back right now!" she insisted.

"I could, but would it be a kindness?" Susan countered. "What if that accident was because whoever was driving was drinking? What if they beat him, or mentally abused him? What if this 'accident' is just an excuse, and he repressed his memories of his parents himself after the _extremely fortunate_ event that got him away from them? Do you want to make him relive that, if that's the case?"

"Well, no, but you could offer."

"I was just going to!"

So Susan offered, and he declined. "I'm happy with the way I am, and that life I would have had is long gone. Now, if you can help me explain these dreams I have about living on the moon, and some kind of attack, that would be great."

"Could you have been caught up in the attack?" she suggested. "Obviously pre moon collapse many people had powers. You could have been a castle guard or something, and there to defend the place. Whatever power allowed them to be reborn here might not have been targeted at them, but just a sort of area effect thing. So you got reborn too. I mean these dark kingdom people came from someplace, right? They haven't been hanging out since the fall of the moon waiting for you to be reborn. So there is precedent."

"I feel it's more than that," he said, shaking his head. "I'm driven to find this crystal he was talking about. And I do feel an allegiance to a queen, just like Kunzite seems to. I wouldn't just hand it over," he hastened to add. "I'm too mixed up for that. But maybe those four are like me, and whoever recruited them felt my powers weren't enough to bother with. They seem to do more, like teleport, I can't do anything like that!"

Susan thought a moment. "Tell me, if I hadn't shown up like I did that first night, would you have helped or hindered Sailor Moon here?"

"I would have helped. I have no love for those that would steal energy, and I seem to know when she's in danger." Both colored and looked away from the other.

"I think that's good enough for me, for now. Until and unless you turn against us, I'll consider you part of the team. How does that sound?" She held out her hand.

"If I can keep doing my part for the Earth, and for you girls, it sounds like a pretty good deal to me." He shook it.

"Welcome to the team. Now, let's get busy before someone notices these girls are missing and starts some kind of search for them and then puts two and two together."

The girls nodded, but Moon pulled Susan off to the side this time. "I believe him," she said. "I could _hear_ his honesty, I think it's part of my sound nature."

"I hope that isn't just you fooling yourself into thinking that," Susan cautioned. "Those dark kingdom guys thought pretty far ahead. One more step, planting a spy in our midst? Yeah, that doesn't seem all that far fetched. Anyone can put on nice clothes and claim to want to help, right?"

The girls stared back at Mask, getting ribbed by the girls about robbing the cradle as he 'liked' Sailor Moon, and hoped he could be trusted.


	150. Chapter 150

150

Interview with a Monster

When: The next day

Where: Luna's base

So the girls went their separate ways, Makoto with Usagi, Rei to read the fire, and Ami went with Susan to check out the website. She teleported them to Ami's school as the computers would be better there ("The network is the computer" – John Gage, Sun Microsystems) and found a very well designed site, especially for the time. It listed email address for the four "generals," the last of which was Zoisite, and the same information Kunzite had been saying earlier. Plus images of what the crystal could look like, drawings of the moon kingdom and lists of the atrocities it supposedly committed, the works. It also listed a curious schedule, a TV appearances of all things, that had been set up for the next day. Susan scowled at it.

"We'll be in school," remarked Ami, matching the times up as it weren't happening in the same time zone. In fact it wasn't even happening in Japan. "Without slipping out there's no way for us to refute anything they say! And how could we even get there?"

"I might be able to help with both those issues," Susan said thoughtfully, an idea forming in her mind. "But to think they would go this far. The Darkness really is learning, actually creating a public image for its flunkies rather than just attacking me. Probably because I've beaten it so many times in a direct confrontation."

"You aren't the only one fighting it, you know," Sparkle reminded her.

"You know what I mean."

But she didn't seem convinced.

She was still hidden from the sight of normal people, so went back to the scene of the attack and cleared rubble and such as she was able. She was able to heal, and Sparkle had _time_ nature which she found could be used to rewind time for an object and put it back together, so between them they at least made the job of the cleanup crews a little easier. Susan went to sleep that night in the base with a few plans bouncing around in her brain.

The next morning she woke to find Luna working the computer, viewing various news broadcasts about what had happened in Japan the day before. Naturally the Japanese government was denying everything, but even as rudimentary as their Internet was, the news of people having powers, and of there being a Moon Kingdom, had gotten out.

"No doubt with a little helping hand by our friends the generals," Susan grumbled, ripping off a hunk of bread made with magic and chowing down on it. "Seems like they've been busy since yesterday."

"Something's been stirring people up," Luna admitted, switching images on the monitor. "Look- they've even trained all of Earth's telescopes onto the coordinates Kunzite mentioned yesterday and found the ruins. There's already missions planned to go up and take a closer look."

Susan peered at the images with interest. "Exactly what I was hoping for, some images. That should be good enough to get me there."

"Get you there?" Luna swiveled on her stool and stared at Susan. "Whatever for?"

"I have a spell to show the past, using a _time_ technique should get me something similar. I hope, anyway. I want to see this so called "attack" for myself, maybe get some idea what happened in the past. If I'm going to impersonate Sailor Moon today, I'll need to know more about the moon kingdom."

"Who said anything about impersonating her?"

"For the TV interview. She'll be in school. What better way to keep Sailor Moon's identity a secret than by having her sit in school while she's on TV."

"Can you transform into her?" asked Sparkle.

"I've been thinking about it. You know how my outfit seems to change based on the powers I take? But if I take the exact same powers I get the same outfit, so it's not just random, it actually is tied to what I've taken. I thought, Susan, why not take Sailor Moon's powers as you understand them? Wouldn't that get you pretty close to her fuku? Any minor differences TV viewers won't pick up on, and if I take _shape-shift_ as well I can look exactly like her. Seems like the perfect plan to me."

"That's only because it hasn't gone wrong yet," she muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Seems sound to me. I am going to be Luna?"

"Actually, I thought we would let Luna be Luna. She might be called upon to answer questions, so best if she actually knows the answers."

"I suppose that's fine."

"Jealous? Don't worry, you can hang out nearby in case I need you. For now, I better see if this will work and get me some answers."

"You're the boss."

So Susan transformed, choosing her powers to allow her to survive on the moon, and willed herself there while looking at the grainy pictures people had been taking since last night.

She found herself on the airless surface and looked around, interested.

Energy Regeneration (2)

Energy Well (4)

Environmental Adaptation (2) (Can survive in any sort of environment)

Flight (2)

Invulnerability (2) (Just in case)

Nature: Time (2)

Nature: Seeing (2)

Speed (5)

Sudden Step (1)

Teleport (3)

Unseen (1)

 _Well, that seems to have worked. Now, let's see this so called ruin, shall we?_

Susan didn't take long to reach the remains of the great palace, with her ability to fly and her speed such as it was. She stood before the decayed building and shook her head, taking in the desolation around her.

 _Of course there's desolation, it's the freaking moon! But by the same token, it's the moon, there no grave robbers or weather to erode anything here. Things should be mostly where they were left... which makes me wonder if I'll be finding this crystal everyone is so hot for somewhere around here? Well, let's make with the powers as that's the primary reason I'm here._ She started to charge energy, as she figured the technique was going to work similarly to her own, in that she could see further back with more energy expended. Also she couldn't speak it aloud, making the technique cost more energy per level. She wasn't worried, she had it to spare.

 _"Sword of omens, give me sight beyond sight!"_ Piercing The Veil!

She spent all her two hundred and forty energy which allowed her to see into the past up to 220,000 years (or so). As the events she wants to witness are somewhat ill defined in "our" reality, in the "Sailor Moon story" (honestly, were they millions of years ago? A thousand? Every place I look quotes a different number!) we're going to say that's enough, and Susan stood still as information poured into her brain about what happened here in the past.

Her eyes snapped open.

 _Wow._

She looked around again, now with a new appreciation for just how destructive the attack on the palace had been. A wave of people had pretty much torn the entire place apart, and with so few palace guards they didn't encounter much opposition. She had caught glimpses of the Sailor Guardians trying their best to hold back the attack, but she now realized why the girl's memories hadn't returned. _It was war. Brutal, bone crushing, head exploding, war. Something drove the people of that era to attack what at the time was a beautiful place, with air, fountains, and the best view in the entire solar system. They swiftly turned it into this. An airless wasteland nobody could use. I wouldn't want to remember that either. They had few guards, probably because they didn't expect an attack of this magnitude, ever. They were at peace. They thought everyone loved them. Well, not so much._

 _This doesn't explain why it happened, for all I know Kunzite could be correct. Maybe the old rulers did withhold the light of the crystal, if it even does what he claims. Not sure why it would, though, hyperlarcovite just stores energy, right? But it did happen, that much is for sure._

Susan then picked through the rubble of the place, basically further tearing the place apart to make sure there were no other clues here, or technology that people could come up here and bring back. _After all, introducing something back into the world that they won't discover for maybe hundreds more years could be devastating._ Susan stood in front of what appeared to be a large stone monument, cracked and worn simply from the passage of time.

 _Did you do this, Darkness? Would this world have been a very different place without your interference? Were you beaten back by the power of the crystal and of the Guardians, even if they didn't know what, exactly, they were fighting? Or did you come later, to finish what was begun here and turn the whole planet into something that looks like this?_

 _Huh, what's that?_

Susan walked over and noticed a sword, jammed into a pedestal, and walked quietly around it. She trailed her hand along it, fingers lingering on the hilt. _Not exactly technology, so I suppose I should just leave it. But what hand could have driven it here, and to what purpose? Look at how deep the crack is, whoever put it here must have been almost as strong as me! Would a body have rotted away, even here? Just how long ago was this fall?_

Susan poked around a bit longer, getting her energy back and trying the technique in various places, but she didn't get much more insight into the events surrounding the fall of the moon. Nor did she find much more than moon dust, and certainly nothing to interest any future travelers who might land here. (Apart from the fact the ruins were here all, that is.)

 _Everything around here died that day. This is perhaps the best evidence that maybe everyone having powers isn't such a great idea._ She looked up at the Earth, hanging above her head, and couldn't help but smile. _But me? I'm standing unprotected on the moon, having gotten here under my own power. Take that, "wizardry." Time to go make sure that planet there stays safe._

That afternoon, _shape-shifted_ into Sailor Moon and wearing a pretty exact copy of her fuku, Susan teleported into the newsroom where Barbara Walters was interviewing Kunzite. She appeared opposite him on the sofa he was sitting on, and immediately remarked "I don't agree with that at all," causing everyone in the room to jump. She had used some _Seer_ techniques, like _View Primary_ to see what powers Sailor Moon had the night before, and had now duplicated them as best she could. Of course, she added some extra ones because she liked to be prepared, which probably accounted for any differences between her fuku and Moon's. _Still, at least that proves my theory to some extent._

Energy Regeneration (2)

Energy Well (3)

Jump (1)

Healing (2)

Resiliency (4)

Primary Nature: Metapower (2) (Susan would not be caught without this!)

Nature: Sound (2)

Nature: Healing (2)

Nature: Mind (2)

Unrecognizable (1)

Shape-Shift (2) (She can only become Usagi, if she could become anything it would be 4)

Teleport (3)

Both had been interested to learn about her Resiliency, and _Mind_ nature, and Susan had briefly described how Makoto had been turned against her with a _mind_ technique, so Usagi said she would think about a mental technique she could practice.

"Where did-" said Barbara.

"Sailor Moon," said Kunzite, a ball of darkness in his hand again, but he quickly closed it into a fist and it vanished.

"So is this your show only or can both sides participate?" asked Susan. Luna hopped down from her shoulders and looked around.

"Goodness, that surprised me," said Barbara as Kunzite eased back into the chair again. "And you are?"

"You can call me Sailor Moon, like he said," Susan answered, pointing a thumb at Kunzite. "But are you really Barbara Walters?"

"I am."

"Huh. How about that? Well, why would't you be?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. Now, you were saying?"

"What? Oh, yes, when I arrived. That was just in general, not anything specific. Whatever he was saying, I probably don't agree with it."

"Why, I was just saying how I wanted all people to work together and to strive for peace upon the Earth! You really don't agree with that sentiment? I can't say I'm shocked."

"Is that really what you were saying?"

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"I don't know anything about you, so you could be one, how would I know?"

"How indeed?"

"Barbara, may I call you Barbara? Is that what he was saying? I was watching but this show may be broadcast with a delay for all I know."

"What were we discussing? No, that... yes that must have been what he was saying. What was I asking him about..."

Susan glared at him, doing a _Power Sense_ and getting a sixteen. There were active powers in the room, coming from Kunzite. "Really?"

"Really what? You'll have to be a bit more specific than that I'm afraid."

"Fine. I'll be quite specific then. _Meta: Mind Negation."_ As she created the technique with an area rather than aiming it against him specifically, his _mind_ technique dropped without giving him the opportunity to hold onto it, and everyone there winced.

"What just happened?" moaned Barbara, holding her head and looking around.

"He was doing something to you, probably to make you more accepting of whatever he was talking about," she explained.

"Says you," shot back Kunzite. "More likely she just activated some kind of mental technique herself, you can't trust her. Wait a minute, how did you do that, anyway?"

"Do what? I have _mind_ nature you know, same as you."

"Do you?" He glanced over at Barbara who was looking around in confusion, and leaned over to her. "But that wasn't what you did."

"How do you know what I can and can't do? I have Susan on my side you know, she's been training us."

"Who? Oh, the girl with the sword? Where is she, anyway? Figured she would be here too... hey are you skipping school? So naughty! But a minor offense compared to what your family has done in the past. You see, this is exactly what I'm talking about," he finished looking at the camera.

"Never you mind what I'm doing. Anyway, Susan has a bit of a temper, and I thought we should keep this civil."

"Are you all right?" Luna asked Barbara, padding over to her.

"Something hit me harder than I thought," she replied, "I think a cat is talking to me."

"I heard it too!" someone in the audience yelled.

"Oh, you can accept an ancient moon kingdom, and people having powers, but a talking cat, no, that's just too much. If you're all right, can we get back to it?"

"I'm fine, thank you... uh..."

"Luna. My name is Luna."

"Of course it is. And I see you have a little crescent moon on your head. What was I saying before all this started? I guess I can think about it, we'll be back in a moment!"

 _Must have gone to a commercial. Glad to know more things than Barbara Walters are consistent across realities._

"How did you even get here? Sailor Moon can't teleport!"

"You know that for a fact, do you? You can, I suppose that's reserved for your precious _dark kingdom_."

"I know I can, and I know Sailor Moon can't."

"How do you know this?"

"Could you two please be quiet a second?" said Barbara, standing up. "Young lady, you barge in here, disrupt this interview, and now you're squabbling with my guest. Either behave yourself or leave. You think this is Jerry Springer? I'm trying to run a serious program here!"

Both "guests" stared up at her. Susan and Kunzite looked over at each other.

"She really has no idea, does she?" Kunzite asked her.

"No, I don't think she does," Susan answered. "That either one of us could lay waste to the landscape for miles around here and then just teleport away scot-free. But I suppose she has a point. She should be civil to each other while we're on TV. To do otherwise makes us both look bad."

Kunzite tapped his chin with a finger. "Of course, I want you to look bad... oh very well. You are right, madam, and I apologize most strenuously. Seeing 'Sailor Moon' pop in here unannounced rattled me, I admit. It will not happen again."

"Did you just pronounce my name with quotes around it?"

"And you?" he asked, turning back to Susan.

"Yes, yes, I apologize," Susan said, waving him off. "Seeing this 'smug jerk' using his powers to take advantage of you and spread his lies rattled me. It won't happen again."

Barbara sat down heavily. "I'm getting too old for this."

Susan held back a snicker. _Lady, you're going to be doing this sort of thing a while longer, if what went on in my reality is any indication. Gee, I wonder, if I looked would I find some version of Harry's parents around? What does it mean to find someone I recognize in this reality? Not much, I guess._

"Welcome back," Barbara said into the camera. "With me today are General Kunzite of the dark kingdom, and Sailor Moon of the moon kingdom. Both have claimed to be protecting us from the other, perhaps we can get the full story now. So to recap, you are both looking for this Illusionary Silver Crystal, are you not?"

"That's right, Barbara," answered Susan, "but it's been lost a long time, so we don't hold out too much hope to actually finding it!"

"And can it really make people immortal?"

"That's right," agreed Kunzite.

"I'm not sure," answered Susan. "As far as I know, it's just a source of power, like a nuclear power plant. Smaller, perhaps, but roughly the same idea."

"But that power can be used in a variety of ways," Kunzite added. "Making people immortal, well, that's just the best use of it. The use _we_ want to put it to. That and unsealing people's powers so everyone has the chance to fly or teleport or walk through walls or whatever else they get. They're very flexible, powers."

"And you?" Barbara asked her.

"Sure, that plan sounds fine to me, as long as humanity accepts certain rules. Like you can't have kids anymore if you become immortal. I mean think about a world where only accidents kill people- we have trouble feeding our population now! Though I realize that's more political than anything else..." _At least where I come from._ "You want kids, fine, you put your names into a lottery system and if a person falls off a chair and cracks their head open, that spot opens up and a new person can be born. The couple is chosen at random, and that's the end of it. Any flouting of this rule and... well, use your imagination."

"And powers?"

Susan shook her head. "You don't understand, because you've never seen what a person with powers can do. But I have. I stood at the gates of the moon palace and watched as the moon was turned from a place of light and hope into a graveyard of regrets... in about an hour. Would you trust half the people you know with any sort of destructive powers? Would you trust yourself with them? So yeah, when humanity is ready let's explore that 'lost art' so to speak. But can you, even you out there at home, look me in the eye and tell me the world at large is ready for powers to return? Don't you have enough power now, with guns, and bombs, and all your machines? Why do you need more? Why do you want to live in a comic book? Live here, in the world you already have!"

"I suppose it could be dangerous," she admitted.

"So is having a child," countered Kunzite. "Are you ever really ready, or prepared, for the coming of a new life? Of course not. It's the same with powers. Humanity will never _be_ ready until they grasp their destiny with their own two hands. It's only in the crucible of experience will humanity rise above what it thought it might be and become something greater. You can't know how great a pianist you are until you sit down at a piano and take your first lesson!"

"He's got a point."

"Sure, if we were talking about some experimental cure for cancer or something. We're talking about incredibly dangerous forces here. If he's wrong and you pull the lever on the slot machine and the wheels come up empty, there's no take-backs. You don't get a second chance. Technically this _is_ your second chance. You don't get a third one. You had powers. This led to a sophisticated society where a person could step from the moon to Earth in a heartbeat, or fly, or whatever else. Look what happened. For whatever reason you, Earth, turned against the moon kingdom and destroyed it. Don't be in such a rush to reclaim what you struck from your own records _in disgrace."_

"Because your kingdom withheld what it wanted."

"And that made people go berserk and destroy everything? And in the end did that accomplish their goal? No. The crystal was lost, civilization and knowledge of technology were destroyed, and still no one was made immortal. Can you seriously say that was better?" Susan turned to the camera again. "All you have is his word that my kingdom, in the past, did these things. And maybe we did. But shouldn't you be concerned with what we're going to do _now?_ Who cares what happened thousands of years ago. It's done. Over. Let's move forward together."

"I'll tell you," Kunzite said slyly. "Because if you come into power again, there's no stopping you. If you can somehow rebuild the moon kingdom, you pick up right where you left off. And this time no one has powers, so they can't exactly go up to the moon and stop you like they did last time. Your rule will be absolute and eternal. You ask why people should believe us over you- We have history as our guide, both moon history and Earth history after that. Kingdoms of both types usually act the same way, don't you agree?"

"You don't think we're just going to enslave the people of Earth, do you? That's nuts."

"Clearly, both sides feel strongly about these issues," said Barbara. "We'll be right back."


	151. Chapter 151

151

No Real Plans

Where: Set of the live TV broadcast

When: After these messages

"Let's talk about the people on both sides of this issue," Barbara suggested, changing the subject. "Kunzite, you say there are four of you?"

"That's right Barbara. The four generals out in the field and the queen we serve, Queen Beryl, who remains at our base of operations."

"So you have a monarchy in mind as well, if your side finds the crystal?"

"It's just a title," he assured her. "We're not taking over or anything. Queens was just how things were done back then, so the term stuck. She's just our leader. She has Seer powers and is searching for the crystal from where she is."

"I see. So take me through the process of your side finding the crystal. What happens next?"

"Next the Sailor Guardians attack us and try to get it back. Should we survive that assault, we would start studying the crystal to find out how to undo what was done to humanity. Once we were confident we could keep our promises to the world, we would release our plans and allow for six months to a year for debate on what the best course of action is. Sailor Moon here does have a point, just releasing everyone's power overnight could cause chaos as suddenly normal, everyday people could now fire energy blasts or control the minds of others. We would need to be very careful and plan things out accordingly. All wars on Earth, it goes without saying, would have to be ended before even a single person's power was unlocked."

"That all sounds reasonable. Now the other side, Sailor Moon, would you like to elaborate about your forces? Kunzite has said there are five Guardians? Strange to find the two sides so balanced."

"That's... something I hadn't thought of." _And a good point. How did it work out so evenly?_ "However, we've only found Sailor Mercury, Mars, myself, and Jupiter. They're all young girls like myself, and each has power relating to their planet. For example, Mars uses fire attacks, while Mercury uses water and ice." _Which is actually odd, given my Mercury spells deal with air and movement not water. That's Neptune._

"No Venus?"

Luna spoke up. "Sailor V hasn't made contact with us yet, probably because she lives in another part of the world entirely. I'm sure she will soon, now that our existence isn't exactly a secret anymore."

"I should say not. She's been seen in the company of a white cat, any relation to you, Luna?"

"That's Artemis. He's just a friend."

"I see. And what about this man?" She gestured to the screen and a blurry picture of Tuxedo Mask was shown.

"That's some random guy we found that remembers the moon kingdom for some reason. He has a couple of powers, but really nothing like the Guardians. Either his power remains partially sealed or he never had much to begin with. We're as much in the dark about him as he is, as he can't really explain what he can do either. For the moment we're keeping an eye on him, making sure he doesn't use his power for wrongdoing. If he helps us, fine, but obviously he's not a Sailor Guardian, though I'm sure he would look great in a skirt." She got up and did a quick twirl, and the audience applauded.

Miles away, Mamoru was scowling at a TV screen, possibly for an unrelated thing.

"Sensible. And your plans?"

"Honestly? We only found out we had powers like a week ago. To say 'plans' is to ascribe meaning to basically us reacting to stuff like learning this crystal exists and needing to keep it out of the wrong hands. Plans? A month ago my plan was to get though my classes this year at school. Now I have to worry about ancient moon kingdoms and my previous life coming back to haunt me? Does that seem fair to you? As long as you accept that, I can give you my _thoughts_ on the matter. I haven't really spoken to the others about any long term plans."

"Please feel free."

"The way I see it, humanity has a long way to go before we should consider any course of action involving this crystal. The main question we have is- why now? Why have we all been reborn into this time, instead of twenty years ago, or twenty years from now? Was it just luck? I don't think so, because so many of us have awakened to our powers all at once. That's not coincidence. Something is coming, something that will need our abilities to drive back. Maybe something evil that was imprisoned by the moon kingdom long ago that's waking up now? We have no idea."

 _Well, I certainly do have an idea. Obviously The Darkness is around, but there must have been a reason these girls woke up in whatever story didn't involve me. So there's still that to deal with, too. Probably this queen he mentioned, and his 'dark kingdom' group. Which begs the question where the heck_ did _they come from? Why allow bad guys to be reborn? So that doesn't make sense. I know from experience The Darkness doesn't have to work with the local big bad, like Balor being totally unrelated. So my point is valid, and plants the seed that The Darkness is out there so it's not a total shock later. There's something to deal with, The Darkness or something local, or both, but it's the same thing from their perspective. A being we need to defeat. Maybe this queen will help, maybe she's been taken over. At least I have a name now._

She went on. "But there must be some reason, right? So let's figure out _why_ we've been reborn and take care of that, _find_ this crystal, _then_ work out what to do with it. For all I know it was destroyed in the attack all those years ago and all this is moot. Or it can even do what the 'dark kingdom' claims and he's not just stirring up trouble with us. We're just kids. We're not going to start making sweeping changes to the world because we aren't that smart, honestly."

"It's more about inexperience than brains though," Luna put in. "Even elected officials get things wrong a fair amount, according to history. This is a major shift we're talking about here, and deserves just as major a consideration. One person or even just one group isn't going to be wise enough to decide on their own."

"A good point, Luna. I'm not saying we would turn it over to one government or another either, that would surely cause tensions the world over. I mean maybe the UN or something?" _I hope you guys have one of those and I'm not just blurting out nonsense._ "But keep it hidden and safe, and allow the people of Earth to make up their own minds about what to do? That sounds like a good place to start. You have to either all stay the same or all rise together- anything else just causes strife and ill will. We know that much from the original moon kingdom being destroyed." She glared at Kunzite. "However and why ever that happened."

"I suppose that's true. Can you tell us anything you remember about the moon from before?"

"Not much. It originally had an atmosphere and even fountains would work on the surface. It was a beautiful place, and the buildings were all formed of some type of glittering crystal that caught the sun. Those craters that are the only thing left there now? They weren't there originally- that's the work of the attack on the moon from long ago." _I saw them being made, thanks to my_ Seer _technique. They really went overboard, and tore the place up so badly even the atmosphere was blown away. Or whatever power kept it there was taken out, at least. But they tore across the moon's surface, destroying until there was nothing left but exploded ground._ "So keep that in mind when you think about how great it would be for everyone to have powers again. Working together, people with powers in the past literally tore the moon apart. Think what they could do with powers today, especially getting them suddenly."

"Those craters weren't caused by meteor impacts?" Barbara asked Kunzite.

"No, she's right there. From our records, thousands of people assaulted the moon kingdom. Naturally they would have been the ones with the best offensive abilities. Besides, how would it be? That one face of the moon perpetually faces the Earth, right? They wouldn't have looped around it and hit that face, they would have hit the other side or streamed past it and hit the Earth. I suppose some could have missed Earth coming from the other direction but come on, missing something as big as our planet but then impacting something as small as the Moon? Once or twice maybe, but not hundreds of times. The side that faces the planet should be smooth. And it was, before the attack."

"I see. That's somewhat frightening, now that I think about it. Any final thoughts, as we're running out of time?"

"I say let the Guardian's actions speak for them," said Kunzite slyly. "Time will show what their motives are. As it will for us."

"Yes," replied Susan uncertainly, wondering what he was planning. "We're here to help, just as Sailor V has helped out in the past. They've had plenty of time to plan out how best to sway public opinion to their side. We just jumped into this game. Give us a chance."

"I'm sure this interview will go a long way towards that," Barbara assured her. "Good luck to both of you, and to the world. It seems we have a lot to think about, both about our history and where we came from, and where we should go from here, now knowing what we do. We'll be back tomorrow with interviews with various experts ranging from lunar history to how this changes the field of archeology. Join us then."

"I've got to get back," announced Kunzite, hopping up from his couch. "Busy, busy, you know. Thanks for the interview, sorry a certain someone showed up unannounced and sidetracked us." He held out his hand, which Barbara shook.

"Not at all, made the show more interesting."

"You've got my email address if you have any follow up questions."

"I do. Good luck in your search."

"Thanks. See you later, 'moon.'" He vanished.

She glared at Susan and Luna, then turned and walked away without so much as a "bye." Susan's eyes bulged out. _I don't believe this! Wait, could he have used a_ Mind _technique before I got there that wasn't maintained? That was permanent, and turned her against me? I don't think she'd appreciate me poking around with techniques to look, either._

"That went okay," Luna said, coming back over to her. "Given they've had far more time to prepare than we did."

"Did it? I hope so. I'm worried, he's acting like he's got something planned."

"Naturally they have something planned. Come on, let's get back." She was looking over at the audience, who were being held back by security from rushing them, and Susan agreed. Luna jumped up to her shoulders again and the two vanished, going back to the base.

Luna spent the rest of the morning crawling the Internet, reading forums talking about the interview. Reactions were mostly negative against Sailor Moon, positive about the dark kingdom.

"That mental technique he was using, it's possible the other three were doing something too," admitted Susan as she read things over. "Making whatever he said sound more reasonable while making me sound less so. Or they rigged the broadcast equipment somehow. Like you said, they've had time to plan this and who knows what powers they have. I've got a good idea of what's possible, but they certainly have more practical experience."

"You didn't burn the place down," Sparkle admitted. "I'd count that a win."

"Hey, he made no threatening moves towards me, I won't make any towards him."

 _The way you've been acting lately, I'm not so sure that's the case,_ Sparkle thought.

That afternoon the group got together in the park to talk things over, and all the others had watched the interview instead of having normal classes. Naturally not much learning had been accomplished afterwards, everyone was too hyped up on the possibility of actually getting powers and finding a long lost civilization that had colonized the moon at some point in history. It was all people wanted to talk about, in other words.

"I think you _would_ look good in a dress," cracked Rei, teasing Mamoru. "Want to try one on? Makoto looks to be about your size, maybe she has one that would complement your figure."

"Can we talk about something else?" he pleaded. "Anything else?"

"What about what you think their next move will be?" Ami suggested. "He was all but openly admitting they had something planned."

Susan shrugged. "If you can come up with some yes/no questions or something that can be answered in a few words, I'll be happy to use my magic to ask. But I'm going to assume they've blocked off _Seer_ techniques, which will block it out as well."

"I think we should contact Sailor V," Usagi said emphatically. "We might need the help, and she's been 'out' longer than we have. Maybe she remembers more, too."

"She'll come to us when the time is right," Luna assured her. "Don't worry, it won't be long."

The girls sat and thought for a moment. "So there's really nothing we can do, then?" asked Ami.

"Apart from training, probably not," Susan replied. "Makoto, Usagi brought you up to speed on everything yesterday?"

She nodded. "It's all so fantastical, but I can't deny I have the power. I'm ready to stand with you girls when you need me to. Just say the word."

There were smiles all around as they all murmured their thanks, and she smiled back at them. Talk turned to other things, and Mamoru excused himself, having homework to do.

"We have homework to do as well," Ami agreed, making Usagi's face fall. "Let's just keep our eyes open and if anyone thinks of anything, or there's another attack, we'll respond. Susan, why don't you come with me and we'll come up with those questions?"

"Suits me!"

But as she predicted, Susan's magic reported a lot of _"Unknown"_ when asked about the future, so she was as in the dark as the others as to what their next move should be. Even _Questions_ about the crystal couldn't be answered, which Susan was concerned about.

 _If it no longer existed, you would think I would just get 'no' answers concerning it. But if the generals had it, they would be gloating about it and using it against us, right? So it couldn't be warded off, right? This magic doesn't have a range, like if it was on the moon it could still answer questions relating to it. But it's like it doesn't even exist, but I know it does because the_ Seer _techniques of the Tenma said it would appear here, that's why they're running around Japan instead of elsewhere. Did one of them find it and seal it off? Or are we just asking the wrong questions?_

With everyone buzzing about and looking for the Silver Crystal, the girls reported attendance at school was down as everyone scrambled to find any hint of its whereabouts. There was a renewed interest in history, astrology, and archeology, with many new theories being branded about relating to previously unsolved mysteries that had been unearthed in the past. People were trying to fit them to events suggested by the dark kingdom website, and many were being vocal that the government must have known about it, because of the moon landings. "Why did they really go up there? Could they have missed that huge ruin?" seemed to be the main point, and no government was stepping up to answer.

It seemed by exposing the world to the knowledge that their history wasn't exactly what they had thought, the race to uncover the truth had begun. Of course many people scoffed and said the whole thing was some kind of prank or joke, but as better and better pictures were taken of the ruins on the moon, even those voices quieted. All over the world gems of every description were being photographed and sent to the four generals, in hopes of getting back news that the genuine article had been discovered. All were disappointed.

The next two days passed in somewhat of a frenzy, with Susan half convinced _this_ was their plan all along. Get the world looking by offering the promise of immortality, and of course there wasn't a person alive that wouldn't at least halfheartedly take a look at any jewels they had, "just in case." But no, Susan found out what their plans were on the third day after the interview, as Luna gave a horrified shriek and Susan turned to see what was the matter.

She had been doing the usual for the past few days, making more _Spell Papers,_ and reading over her book, and thinking about how to combine being able to make technological items with magic. _After all, they stick around when I don't have magic, unlike the other way around. And they don't cost XP to make, just time and energy which I seem to have an abundance of at the moment._ But she hadn't really decided on anything, and was almost happy for the distraction as Luna brought up various news programs.

On one side of the machine was a reporter, looking nervous, as behind her what appeared to be Sailor Moon, Mars, and Mercury rampaged about in the background. Cops were shooting at them, but they seemed to ignore that and went on grabbing people and seemingly sucking the energy out of them before tossing them aside. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was another news channel across town that showed what appeared to be Sailor V rampaging about, basically doing the same thing.

"That's not our Sailor V," Luna assured her. "It's a fake."

"Of course it is," Susan agreed, wondering if that was really true. _I mean she's not contacted us in the last two days, and she could just as easily be The Darkness as anybody else I suppose. No help for it but to go see what's up with her._

"The scouts are in school, how are we going to combat this?" Luna wailed. "Should I call them? Have them make some excuse and transform? Why couldn't they have waited a couple of hours?"

 _Why would they?_ Susan watched the screens a moment, noticing the three scouts working together seemed weaker overall than the Sailor V, but had each other to rely on. The Sailor V was smashing up cars as people vainly tried to find some method of stopping her. Tossing them around, too, like they were nothing.

"I suppose one of us could take the one location, and the other the other," Sparkle suggested.

"Split up?" Susan gasped. "Are you sure about that?"

"Even if I can't totally defeat one or the other, I can at least get their attention away from beating up helpless people in the street. We can't just choose one and leave the other one to keep doing what they're doing, no matter how fast we can deal with them separately."

"I guess you're right. Give me a second." Susan transformed, getting her energy back, and then handed a few _Spell Papers_ to Sparkle. "Don't forget the ones in your own _sub-space pocket,"_ she reminded her.

"I know," she replied, stepping on one and becoming armored. She also put _Acceleration_ on both of them, having her _focus_ take over maintenance of that one. "You want the group or Sailor V?"

"You better take V, I'm better suited to groups with _Slash-All._ Of course you have _Elemental Line,_ but whatever. Make sure to do a _Dimension Sense,_ " she reminded.

"Indeed. Open up a _Teleportal_ and get me there, and I'll wait for you once I'm done." _Though now that I think about it, maybe picking up the_ Teleport _spell on my own wouldn't be such a bad idea._

"You got it. Good luck!"

"You too, not that I think you need it."

"Ha. Hardly!"

Both dropped into their respective areas, Susan getting out her sword and becoming an _Avatar of War._ The three fake scouts looked over at her and Susan noticed something about them she hadn't seen on the TV screen. A certain symbol on their foreheads.

"Tenma," she growled.


	152. Chapter 152

152

Susan Takes on the Three

Where: Some random street in Japan

When: Just after stepping out of the Teleportal

The three girls, dressed up to look at least reasonably like the Sailor Guardians, stopped what they were doing and looked over at Susan in her armor with a fair amount of shock. The Mars girl actually dropped her current victim to the pavement, then gave a little jump and whispered "sorry" to him.

"Ow."

"I said sorry!"

Taking a quick glance around it seemed any officers on the scene were down, their bodies sprawled out beside their cars, guns unattended. Other officers were keeping people back down the street, and it seemed as though Susan had interrupted the fake guardians looking into shops to find others nearby to drain. The girls were dressed passably, only someone who had spent as much time as Susan had with the real deal would know these weren't the genuine article, but there were some differences. Mercury was far shorter than her counterpart, and Moon's hair wasn't nearly as long as it needed to be. Each seemed to have a glowing crystal instead of the regular ornament for their bow, and Mars wasn't wearing high heels at all. They also seemed to have decorated their costumes with "flair," like Mercury had tiny bells along the hem of her skirt and Mars' entire costume sparkled, like it was made out of some sort of fabric that had metallic threads woven through it. Moon hadn't bothered to cover the tattoo of a flower on her left leg, and her boots looked more like metal than leather.

 _Pretty cute, overall. And of course mini-mercury has it going on over there... focus Susan. Is that crystal where they're putting the energy they're taking from people?_

"Tenma," announced Susan, pointing her sword. "I will give you one chance to leave this world and never return. Do this, and you will not be harmed."

"Who?" asked the Sailor Moon double, seeming to be half asleep. "I don't know anything about Tenma. I'm, as you can see, Sailor Moon." She said this as though it pained her greatly and she wished she could be somewhere else. _Anywhere_ else. She went on as though forcing the words out, rolling her eyes as she did so. "Champion of love and justice. In the name of the moon, I will punish you."

 _Hey, actually that's not a bad catchphrase. Have to mention that one to Usagi when I see her next._ "Look, I can see your symbols, they're right there..."

The girl next to her, the Sailor Mercury look alike, did a backflip, a cartwheel, and some spinning thing Susan really didn't have a name for, and landed beside Moon.

"Come on!" she pleaded, whacking the girl in the arm. "At least say it with a little more flair! You're always such a downer, Xel- I mean Sailor Moon."

"Perhaps I find the activity of draining helpless inhabitants of their energy to be less than spiritually and intellectually fulfilling."

"Reading emo poetry is neither of those things, as I have tried to explain to you many times. Help me out here, uh, Mars! Show her how it's done!"

"Oh, I mean, do I have to? It's a little embarrassing."

"DO IT!"

"Okay, okay! Um..." she blushed furiously and scuffed her feet, wringing her hands at the same time. "I am Sailor Mars. The heat from my flames of passion will cause you to think twice about your current life situation and ultimately reveal to you the horrible choices you made that led to your downfall at my hands." She raised her eyes, hope shining within them, that this little speech had been well received.

"LAME!"

"What? No it's not!"

"You don't even have flame powers," reminded Moon.

Mars snuck a glance at Susan. "Oh, we're, um, not supposed to say stuff like that."

"It was too long!" Mercury interrupted. "I fell asleep half way through." She did a backflip. "I'll show you how it's done!" She struck a pose. "I am Sailor Mercury. Drown in sorrow as my fists release your tears!" She smacked her fist into her hand. "Oh YEAH!"

Susan looked between them, not even sure how to respond. Mercury seemed to be waiting for her to say something though.

"Uh, it looks like you three are pretty good friends, huh?" she managed at last.

Moon looked at her like she was crazy and shook her head but Mercury was too busy nodding and grinning and grabbing Moon about the shoulders and giving her a sideways hug to notice. "We sure are!" she said.

"That's great, just great. Look, I'm sure you're all really nice people, and under different circumstances I'm sure we'd be great friends as well, but I'm going to have to insist you stop draining energy from the people around here."

Mars dropped the guy again with a squeak. He groaned. "Sorry," she repeated.

 _When did she..._

"What, these people?" asked Mercury.

"Yes, these people. Who did you think I meant?"

"I don't know. Could be anybody. They're all dead anyway once the destroyer gets through here. They won't even miss it."

"Oh, you're that rover general Dolands warned us about, aren't you?" asked Moon wearily. "I see, you want the energy for yourself, right?"

"No I don't. And I'm not a rover! I'm fighting The Darkness and looking for both my friend Luna and my father."

"You poor thing!" sympathized Mercury. "You lost your father? That's so sad. Don't you think that's so sad, Moon?"

"Devastating. Look, are we going to fight or what?"

"If you won't back down, it seems I'm going to have to, isn't it?"

"Oh no!" shrieked Mars, wilding looking around. "I don't want to fight like this!" She took off running and dived behind a parked car that was... well, sitting there parked.

"Now it's two to one, and I'm more than a match for the two of you so leave now and I won't have to get violent."

Moon smirked at her and seemed to perk up. "You think so, huh?"

"You do see my flaming sword, right?"

"Here's a question," asked Moon, rising into the air. "Can you hit what you can't see?"

She vanished.

 _Uh, yeah, I can track you with_ Spirit Sense. _You may be transparent but you haven't lost all your energy._

"It's a fight, it's a fight!" Mercury was chanting as she pumped her fist in the air and jumped about. "Punch her out, like a light. Make that armor fall right down, the girl inside will wear a frown!"

" _Stop butchering verse!"_ called the invisible Moon.

"Make me!"

"Ugh, I hate you so much!"

"No you don't!"

"Yes, I do."

"Do not!"

 _Yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and roll_ Initiative, _if that's okay with you girls. I'll win anyway, so..._

The fight was on.

 _"Hypnotic Field,"_ putting in a bunch of energy to get it instantly. She was quite pleased with her twenty result, and the Mercury double went slack, just as she expected.

 _Let's take care of this one first. The invisible one will be a little more tricky, but not that much more as now she also will just stay in one place and let me whack her._ Susan considered using _Spirit Step_ but figured the girls weren't going anywhere, and casually started walking towards Mercury. _Besides, my speed is a sixteen. This fight is over._

"Oh, for the love of... snap out of it you two!" Susan was shocked to hear the voice of Moon, coming down to her from above. " _Impairment Cessation."_

Mercury grinned at Susan. "Thanks, Moon!" She vanished.

 _Uh, what? She couldn't be out of range, my rating was enormous. Did she really shrug that off? What's her REAson? And of course her power technique beat my magic, again. This is not going to be a good-_ Susan's _Ninjutsu_ went off, as well as her _Spirit Sense,_ as the girl popped up behind her and threw a punch. Of course, she couldn't get the benefit of _Acceleration_ while dodging this, because this was an INSight check added to her skill, rather than a straight dodge. She wouldn't be _able_ to dodge without using _Ninjutsu_ so it was INSight check or getting hit. Susan wasn't (too) worried about getting hit, but who knew what weird abilities this girl had?

She got an eleven, the girl got a twenty four. Her AR wasn't even enough, and somehow the girl got through her armor and slugged her in the back right through it. Susan couldn't see it, but her fist glowed blue as she did this, but she did feel something cold. Of course, now her _Giant's Soul_ kicked in, dividing the damage so it hardly mattered, but Susan was both humiliated and annoyed. _I don't believe this,_ she thought angrily, _how did she even get high enough?_ With a thought the _Hypnotic Field_ went away, _no sense taking that penalty at the moment if they've become immune to it._

She was up again, as the girl had been kind enough to come to her, so she turned and swung, aiming for the girl's body with a called shot. She was horrified to discover the cowering Mars shouting _"Metallic Decrystalization!"_ just as she did, and instead of chopping into the girl the blade bounced off, now seemingly made of rubber.

 _Great, they get to cover for each other and they have a bunch of powers because duh, Tenma. They're probably used to fighting together too, given how close they seem._

"Fine," she growled, tossing her sword down. She noticed her armor had been affected too, meaning it was some kind of area effect thing not just targeting the sword. "We can throw down the old fashioned way."

She directed a punch towards Mercury's body who was doing the same thing to her, with a "woohoo!" shout, but Susan didn't care. _That just means you won't be dodging my strike. I win._

Susan rolled a thirteen on the strike, not bothering to boost her COOrdination with any energy. Too bad, she might have gotten past Mercury's defenses, if so. As Mercury hit her Susan saw an energy field ripple around Mercury and it felt like Susan had just slugged herself in the gut instead of her opponent. With Mercury hitting her at the same time, she had now taken four damage to the body. Sure, she could take thirty before going unconscious, but with her _Low Pain Tolerance,_ she was going to be writhing on the ground in pain long before that happened. In fact she would be at a minus ten to everything by that point, not a pleasant prospect.

Susan staggered back a step. "How did you even do that?" she gasped. "I didn't see you use a technique before we started."

"Why would I need to?" she asked with a slight shake of her head. "You're not one of those power bigots, are you?"

"Power... what? I have no idea what you mean. But I use magic primarily, so I guess no?"

"Is that was that was? I didn't think I felt anything when you made that shiny sparkle field before. A real magic user huh? That's rare even where I come from."

"Less talking more hitting!" came from above them.

"Yes, _mom,"_ Mercury sighed. "Sorry, magic user. Have to pummel you some more now."

It wasn't Susan's turn to act, but she did groan as Moon's voice rang out again from above her, _"Death Embracers!"_ and two ugly little creatures appeared next to her. They were squat little things, with large legs and arms, but simply a ball like body holding one large eye. They also had a sort of stringlike protrusion out the top of their heads, and seemed to look at Susan excitedly.

"Whoops!" took a step back. "Hey, watch were you put those things!"

"It's fine!"

"Says you."

Susan didn't like the looks of them, so she _Spirit Stepped_ a few meters away to see what they would do. They looked around wildly for her and "locked on" again.

It looked like they were about to take off after her, but Mercury scooped them up, one in each hand. "Fly little ones, fly!" she cried, about to chuck them in Susan's direction.

 _Oh no you don't. "Thrust!"_ Susan cast, targeting Mercury. She got a seventeen, but Mercury leaned into it and changed her stance, not going anywhere. _Oh come on!_ She was up again, but didn't want to get close with Mercury holding those things now. _In fact, let's get rid of them, shall we? "Combust."_ There was a small burst of flame but as a creature summoned with powers, rather than being actually a live thing, they weren't really all that flammable so that fizzled.

"Stop trying to hurt my embracers," Moon shouted from above, and the two creatures were whisked out of Mercury's hands and shot towards Susan. She dodged them, and they plopped to the ground next to her, their eye staring menacingly. They sprang at her, and again she dodged them, her _Acceleration_ now serving her well.

"You're awfully fast," Mercury remarked.

"Thanks."

"Dodge this."

"What?"

Mercury sprang out of the way as the car behind her, the one Mars had been hiding behind, suddenly shot forward to try and ram her. Susan dodged it, and she lost sight of the little creatures as they ducked underneath it. The car skidded past her, then swung around almost seeming eager for another try.

 _Fine. I wanted to take them down one at a time, but you know what? I'll take the one third penalty even if I do get hit with it myself from whatever Mercury is doing. I bet my_ Paragon _nature will treat it as something I can overcome, just like she overcame my armor's AR and hit me in the back. Just let me reacquire Mars so my_ Slash-All _knows where to hit and... where did she go?_

Susan glanced over where the car used to be, but there was no sailor suited girl crouching there anymore. She glanced around.

"Confused?" asked Mercury with a giggle. "How about I offer you the deal you offered us? You leave and we won't have you begging for mercy in a few seconds."

"You just said the wrong thing," Susan snarled. "I'm just warming up. In fact, speaking of warming up- _Elemental Bolt: (Fire)._ " This result was phenomenal, as "A creature adds twice its Target Size to all STR-based checks" and Mars spells were certainly a STR-based check. (It's never come up before because this is the first time Susan is actually throwing this spell at someone after making her _Giant's Soul_ item.) Mercury took four damage to the right leg, because no matter how accurately you hit, damage is calculated separately. (I mean everyone knows that, right?)

"Little help here?" asked Mercury, looking around at the air.

"Sorry, she was too fast."

"We know she uses fire now."

"Fine. _Unburnable."_

"Thank you."

 _Oh great, did she just make this girl immune to fire? I wanted to kill them or drive them off, but I suppose I could just knock them out. And it's area effect, too, so it's harder to dodge. If only I knew where the third one was so I could center it right._

Susan succeeded on her _Close Combat_ check against Mercury, and knew she would act simultaneously. She let her get close, figuring her protection wouldn't extend to being slammed into something, and made a grab for her as she struck out again, intending to just pick her up and toss her into something solid nearby. This she did put energy into, succeeding on that check as well.

"Yipes!" she yelled, as she was thrown into the nearest solid object, which happened to be the car. She did a flip, trying to right herself before impact, getting a better result on her REFlexes check than Susan's attack and allowing her to attempt the maneuver. Her _Gymnastics_ check was the same thanks to her powers, and she lightly touched the side of the car and bounced off, wiggling a finger at Susan as she landed. "Good try! But I'll tell you a little secret about my powers. They help me with stuff like that, so while hardly fair, you might want to try something different next time."

With Mercury blabbing at her she had forgotten about the little bombs that were running around, and they struck at the same time as well, and one latched onto each of Susan's legs.

"Come on!"

"Explode, my beauties!" called Moon. They started to glow.

 _Have to get them off of me- yipes!_ Susan was again forced to dodge out of the way as the car made another lunge for her, which she dodged away from. _I thought the car had just been thrown at me, like with Telekinesis._ _But that looked like the car was actually springing at me, like a cat. Did she_ Possess _it or something? Is that where Mars went to? Worry about that later, Susan, get these bombs off first. And being that they didn't_ Combust _I doubt they would respond to being knocked out either. They don't look that strong though..._

She took the simple expediency of just grabbing them and chucking them away from her. They pulled away easily and she tossed them as far as she could, which given her STRength was pretty far. They landed with a squeak and somehow looked disappointed. Of course that took Susan's _Off Hand_ action, making this action triple the delay of any other she could take.

 _"Death Embracers!"_

Susan groaned internally as the previously summoned ones vanished and two more took their place right next to her. Same staring eyeball, same blood red color, the works. They looked up at her.

 _This is getting ridiculous._ She was now forced to dodge as both the car and the fake Mercury came whizzing at her, but with her body penalty and trying to dodge two things, both hit her. She took another point of damage in the body, and as the car clipped her leg and spun her around she took one in the left leg and the right arm. (This also forced me to look up the _Ramming_ rules.)

 _Seems my armor is worthless now I guess. How do I even attack a car? Wait, I know._ Susan touched it, as it was right there having just clipped her. _"Shrink."_ Her result was a terrible nine. Luckily, her opponent's resistance was an even more terrible eight, minus two for still maintaining the technique turning her armor and sword into rubber. The car shrank away to the size of a cockroach. _There's that little problem out of the way. Little problem! HA!_

Then the two summoned creatures jumped at her again. Rather than dodge she went to catch them, figuring that would still be quicker as she was just going to chuck them again next action anyway. She got near max on her _Catching_ check and with the energy she had put in, that was pretty good even with her current penalties. (Ties go to the defender!) Both dropped neatly into her waiting hands, and again she regretted _Off Hand_ taking _so freaking long._

The tiny Mars Car ineffectually bumped up against Susan's shoe, and she resisted the urge to just crush it underfoot. _Not for another few_ Segments _at least._

Mercury pulled back, unwilling to approach with the living bombs Susan had in her hands, and held her action. They were glowing and Susan was getting nervous as she didn't know how long these things took to blow up. She mentally reviewed her cards, a _Bonus, Love Interest,_ and _Second Wind. Useless, totally useless. I'll turn in the second wind for XP at least._

In the eternity she had to decide what to do next she went over her options. _I could spend an XP, I have tons of it, and get an extra action to chuck them now. Or I can wait them out and hope they don't explode until I get rid of them. Or I can be totally mean and take the blast because I figure I can take it way better than she can._

So she spent the XP, but not to toss the creatures away, instead choosing to take her free two meter movement and threw her arms around Mercury with an energy assisted martial arts grab. (She was currently down to about half energy) She spent another XP _so much for that extra,_ and her bonus card to make sure she succeeded, and wrapped her arms around the fake Mercury.

"Boom," she whispered.

"No!" shouted Moon, who had been holding her action. The creatures vanished from Susan's hands.

Mercury tried to wiggle out of Susan's grasp, but both made _Wrestling_ checks and Susan held on with a thirty one without even trying.

"My goodness you're strong," remarked Mercury.

"Thanks," replied Susan, going backwards and slamming the girl into the pavement.

There was a sickening crunch of pavement and bone, and Moon shrieked and became visible again. Mercury went limp in Susan's grasp, and she twisted around to stand up again. The body of Mercury slumping to the ground, seemingly lifeless.

"Medical Retrieval!" Moon shouted, and she, along with the now toy sized car and Mercury's body vanished.

Susan looked around, making sure they were gone and no one else was seriously hurt, only drained of energy. She felt she should feel... something. Some negative emotion for probably killing that girl, but strangely, she didn't. Even looking down at the bloodstain on the pavement she should at least feel a little bad, but she didn't. A further thought occurred to her that she should probably be worried about not feeling anything for the girl, but even that emotion seemed distant. With a shrug she walked over and picked up her sword, which was now back to normal, and she noticed her _Shrink_ spell go away too. She didn't have long to ponder that or her emotional state as a voice from above rang out.

"It seems your true nature is revealed at last, rover. I knew you were nothing more than a roaming killer."

She looked up, and Dolands was hovering there.

"Come for a little revenge?" She brought her blade, now burning brightly again, into a guard position.

"Eventually, yes. Your being a magic user certainly is a shock. Most don't have the raw physical strength you seem to possess, tending to stay out of harm's way and just sling spells."

"Yeah, I've had to adopt a few different strategies since I've been traveling between worlds."

"I shouldn't wonder. Don't worry though, once I feel I've seen you fight enough and know your styles, I'll come after you immune to everything you can throw at me. And then at least I can cost the destroyer another of his agents."

Susan started to retort, but he vanished as well.

 _So, his strategy is to simply observe fights from a distance, learn what his opponents can do, then use either Metapower or Protection natures and counter them even before the fight begins? He could be a danger all right. Better go see how Sparkle is doing. My armor is still around, so this scene might not be over._

A _Teleportal_ opened, and Susan stepped through.

Techniques used in this chapter

 **Impairment Cessation**

Protection

Level 6 (2+2+2) (Effect, Medium, Maintained)

Remove any effect that is impairing the target, such as penalties for temperature, stunning effects of electricity, needing air, or mental techniques the target is experiencing. Does not free the target from any restraints or unlock locks.

 **Metallic Decrystalization**

Transition

Level 8 (4+2+2) (Effect, Medium, Maintained)

Change the molecular structure of metal in an area to have the characteristics of rubber. Edged weapons become TR 0 and bend under their own weight, while armor becomes more a rubber suit than anything protective.

 **Death Embracers**

Summoning

Level 7 (5+0+2) (Summoning Level chosen, Personal, M)

Summon a number of small creatures that immediately attempt to grab onto a target and then explode themselves and the target at close range, using maximum energy for the technique.

STR 6, END 7, CON 2, REF 6, COO 7, MAN 1 LOO 1

(3) Size modifier -3

(4) Force Nature

(7) Force Explosion Technique (7+0+0) (Level, Personal, I)

(2) Flight

(2) Invisibility

(2) Immunity (Mind)

(1) TK

Skills

Hand to Hand

Close Combat

Wrestling

Power Control

Power Sense


	153. Chapter 153

153

Sparkle's Fight

When: Just after stepping through the portal

Where: Random street in Japan

Sparkle came out behind the fake Sailor V, hugging the corner of a building and taking stock of the situation. The cops seemed to have backed off, and their cars looked a bit worse for wear. One looked twisted and bent like a giant hand had crushed it, while another seemed to have been splashed with some kind of acid and eaten away. They were yelling for her though a megaphone to stand down, but she was ignoring them, currently focusing on a person she was more than likely draining energy out of.

 _Seems like an easy solution. "Somnolent Smog."_ Sparkle took the whole 1.2 seconds because she figured this fake Sailor V wasn't going to know what was going on. Fog appeared out to twelve meters, which was probably a bit much but Sparkle wasn't taking any chances. _For all I know this person is really fast or can teleport. Let's see what she does with a bunch of sleep mist in her face._

And the answer was- nothing. She carried on draining the now sleeping person and tossed him aside, looking around for someone else to drain. She seemed confused to find the police no longer shouting at her, and appeared over by them suddenly, a track being cut through the mist that quickly filled itself in.

 _What, does this person not breathe or does she have a really high resistance? Some kind of technique? At least she's away from that guy, maybe I can get a_ Line _out and across and hit her that way?_

She let the _Smog_ go and it cleared up, which didn't seem to interest the figure in the slightest, it just kept reaching for the nearest cop and started draining him.

 _Fine, let's see how this does for you. "Elemental Line: (Wind)"_

The line appeared under Sailor V, and there was a shimmer of energy around her as some kind of barrier splintered off her. Sparkle could see wind energy hitting her, but Sailor V simply dropped the officer and looked around stupidly. She looked down at the ground, noticing the line that she followed with her eyes over to where Sparkle was standing.

 _What?_ As Sparkle looked back at her, she got a good look at the face of the construct, which seemed blank and featureless. It was enough of a face that cops looking at it, wildly shooting at it, might not notice, but Sparkle saw this thing wasn't human. It vanished.

Having some experience with that sort of thing, Sparkle dodged even as the Sailor V construct smashed into the pavement, cracking it. Those blank eyes stared at her, creeping her out. The construct straightened up again.

 _Guess I know why the_ Smog _spell didn't work._ She glanced at the pavement. _And I doubt_ Immobilize _would either. I guess she's right there, and I have been putting points into this. Do constructs feel pain?_ Sparkle leapt for the closest leg, putting energy into her Ryūdō strike. The leg was cold and hard as Sparkle brushed past it, the construct not even bothering to dodge as Sparkle's energy struck out.

The leg looked undamaged.

 _What is this thing made of? And how am I going to beat it?_

Sparkle used her next action to do a _Spirit Step_ herself, getting some distance and time to think. Or so she thought, as the construct _Sudden Stepped_ after her, and threw a foul smelling liquid out of her hands. _What dissolved those police cars!_ Sparkle thought quickly. Acceleration _don't fail me now._ She dodged, and the acid went spilling over the pavement and began to eat it up with a sizzle. Now having "time" to think before her next action, Sparkle quickly pondered her options. _I know my strike connected, and I know the OTR of the attack because I'm a_ Paragon. _So whatever the DTR of this thing is must be higher. I can try the_ Line _again, putting energy in this time to raise my rating and thus, the OTR of that attack. Done._

 _"Elemental Line: Wind,"_ she cast instantly, putting energy in as planned. The line shot away from her and towards the construct, who seemed to realize what it was this time and dodged. (Ties go to the defender.) _Oh great. Well, I guess there's one more spell I can try. It's obviously not human, I just hope it doesn't feel pain. "Destruction!"_ Sparkle targeted the construct's leg again, figuring as it wasn't actually human, it didn't actually have a brain to destroy. So she was prepared to tediously blow off every limb until it was just a body, and then blow that away too. She put fourteen energy in, giving her a bonus of only six as the spell took seven segments to cast. She got a fifteen total on it, and was disappointed to see both legs attached as the circle of light faded.

 _Well, I'm screwed. Now what?_ Sparkle was still faster so she could act again, but didn't, at this point, know what else to try. _I guess the saying goes "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again." But then people also say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I wish people would make up their minds about stuff._

 _"Elemental Line: Wind!"_ This roll was far better, a thirty one, and wind energy slammed into the construct. It seemed a bit surprised, if that blank expression could convey any emotional state at all, and looked down where it had been wounded. It wasn't bleeding or anything, it was solid _something_ all the way though, but the clothes were now hanging in tatters. But it did look beat up, which seemed promising. Sparkle didn't want to let up, so dropped the _Line_ and prepared to cast again. She used the same amount of energy and the same spell, this time getting a twenty six. Sadly this time her opponent spent energy and vanished, reappearing behind the man she had been originally draining when Sparkle had appeared. She scooped him up, holding him up as a shield against further _Lines._

 _Ha ha, too bad you don't realize I can specify it not hit that guy under any circumstance._ She went to cast again, but was allowed a _Perception_ check as she looked over at the pair. With a fifteen she noticed the construct wasn't simply holding the man up, her fingers had become blades, ready to slice the guy's neck in two. The intent was clear- "I see any more lines and this guy gets it." Sparkle of course was casting with no up front delay, but knew the construct could use a reactive action instead of dodging, maybe taking enough damage to be destroyed but also killing the man.

 _Not acceptable. Now what? I don't have Susan's spells of whisking him away or switching him with another object. But what if I "left?"_

Sparkle cast _"Invisibility"_ silently, nervously watching to see if the hand would tighten and wishing Susan had remembered to _Time Anchor_ before they left. _Rather a blind spot with us, never remembering that. I suppose it comes from her_ Overconfidence _that she thinks she doesn't need it. Or maybe we just are dumb._

The construct stood there stupidly, and a tense few seconds passed as it seemed to be waiting for something. Sparkle watched it, somewhat freaked out by how many small mannerisms that real people had that this thing lacked. The figure was totally motionless- not breathing, not moving, it was like a statue just standing there. Finally it turned abruptly and headed back towards the downed police officers, slinging the unconscious man onto its back.

 _Taking no chances I see?_

Still, Sparkle couldn't just allow the thing to continue doing what it was doing, which at the moment was putting its barrier back up, as energy shimmered around it and vanished again. It started reaching for the last cop it had drained, to finish the job.

 _What I need is a spell I can cast over here, but still hits over there. My_ Line _spell lights up the whole area where the line is going to be, which would alert that construct I'm still around. I think it let me go because my circle for_ Invisibility _was centered on me, rather than on the area. But anything other than_ Bolt _is too risky to use, especially in a situation like this where there are innocent people nearby. Of course who would have thought something like this could withstand my martial arts or_ Destruction? _I know what I know for the moment, I guess, and next time Susan suggests splitting up I'm going to smack her._

"Hold it right there!" shouted a voice from above. The construct and Sparkle both turned and there on the roof of a nearby building was another Sailor V. _More than likely the real one. But is she going to make the situation worse or better?_

The construct didn't even pause in grabbing the police officer, but where Sailor V was standing started to distort and she gave a scream of pain, clutching her head.

 _Okay, worse. Is that what ripped up the cop car? Some kind of technique? Is there anything I can do for her? I guess only this. "Thrust."_ Sparkle went visible again and Sailor V was thrown back and up, landing roughly on the roof of the building in a heap. But at least from what Sparkle could see she was out of the area of distorted space. The construct's head swiveled to look at her and it started to swing the hostage out in front of itself again. _Oh crap. Time to use an XP I think._

Sparkle spent the XP for an extra action, her first action of _Spirit Step_ not counting for anything. She was now directly in front of man being held by his neck, and reached out to touch him. Her actual action was to cast _"Phase,"_ which she did with a check of fifteen for touching him and an eleven on her _Pluto_ check. The man tumbled out of the construct's grasp and hit the ground, Sparkle standing on it making sure he didn't _Phase_ into the earth and fall forever. The construct stupidly swished a hand through him, trying to pick him back up.

 _Now just to wait until it gives up._

It continued trying to pick the man up.

"No, you idiot," a voice from nowhere said. "Use the officer as a hostage now, forget using that one. The cat obviously did something."

The construct straightened and swung the cop into position, though he woke up and started trying to free himself. (If screaming bloody murder while whimpering and thrashing about is "trying to free oneself" that is.) But he couldn't budge the construct's arm, and felt the prickle of the knife fingers, going quiet again.

"And what have we here?" asked the new voice, but this time from further away and Sparkle looked over where Sailor V had gone down. She was being held up by what must be one of the four generals, one Sparkle hadn't seen before. She was squirming and trying to get free, but she looked pretty badly hurt so she wasn't getting very far.

 _How did I lose control of this situation? Was that guy there the whole time, giving orders to the construct?_

Suddenly there was a flash of magic around the construct, and Sparkle was standing next to Sailor V again, who crumpled to the ground. Zoisite found himself struggling to hold up a confused construct. The officer also fell to the ground and started to scramble away.

"…?" Susan asked, the _Teleportal_ behind her vanishing.

"Just take that thing out!" Sparkle shouted. _Oh right, she can't hear me._ She pointed instead, and made a slashing motion with her paw.

"..."

She looked up at both of them, then swung her sword lazily in an arc in front of her. Zoisite, despite hanging onto the construct and so taking a penalty, managed to dodge but the construct itself wasn't so fortunate. The barrier absorbed some of the blow, but it was injured from before and got chopped in half, the lower half falling to the street below with a dull thunk.

"I don't know what you just did, girl, but it seems you've won this round. I'll patch this up and be back."

He vanished.

"Thank you," said Sparkle, dropping _Phase._ "That would have been much easier if that thing hadn't been super strong, super tough, and basically mindless. We stick together next time, okay?"

"Sure, whatever. Did you try _Destruction?"_

"Yes. It resisted it."

"With energy in and everything?"

"With energy in and everything. I don't know if it was made of tank armor or just had a CON that was through the roof or what, but it did not want to go down."

The officer, after shaking another awake, grabbed his gun again and crouched behind a nearby lamppost. "Drop that weapon!" he shouted. The officer that was getting up blearily went to wake another. Susan ignored him. "What put everyone to sleep around here?"

"I did," Sparkle admitted. "That was before I realized what the thing was. I thought just putting everything to sleep was the way to go."

"It's probably what I would have done," she remarked, unconvincingly. "Well, before we start getting shot at... Are you okay?" She held out a hand to Sailor V, who skittered back away from her.

"What are you?"

"Hm? Oh, the armor, right. Sorry about that." She let the _Avatar_ spell go, and came back to her normal form. "See? I'm a girl, just like you. So are you okay or what?"

"No, I took some kind of attack and felt like I was getting torn apart, then I went flying, then I got choked by whoever that was. This is not how I was supposed to make my debut!"

Susan looked over at Sparkle. "You were really having a tough time here, weren't you?"

"I'll tell you about it later."

"Good idea."

"I said drop your weapon! Do it now! Hands behind your head and get on your knees!"

Susan rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. I'm dropping it now, see?" She held it out to the side like she was going to drop it, but instead just drew it back into her hand. "Wait, what did you want me to drop again?" she teased. "My pants? Sorry, I don't go for guys."

"Down on the ground! Do it now!" Other officers were now joining the ring around the group, and the reporters were starting to come around too.

"You want to do it right here, on the ground? This is sexual harassment you know, I'll have your badge for this."

"Can we just go?" asked Sparkle, resigned to the idea Susan was feeling a bit frisky after her combats. Or something.

"Sure!"

"Wait," said Venus, trying to stand. "There's another cat, Artemis, who travels with me. We can't leave without him."

"Oh. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!"

"You could just say my name," said Artemis, stepping out from underneath the nearest car.

"You have a talking cat?" Susan asked excitedly. "This is _so unexpected!_ Who would have believed such a thing was possible? Look Sparkle, it's a _talking. CAT!"_

"You'll have to forgive her," said Sparkle. "I think it's the adrenaline talking, or something."

"On the ground! Do it now!"

"Oh for the love of... SHUT UP!" The officers around Susan went flying as she cast _Thrust_ with lots of energy put in, getting a twenty two and blowing them back. They crashed into things behind them, the fortunate ones simply being flung back and hitting the ground some ways away.

"Susan!" Sparkle reprimanded. "On cops? I don't believe you!"

"They were annoying me. They'll be fine," she dismissed further discussion with a wave.

"Annoy- Oh my God, Susan. Listen to yourself."

"What? Anyway," she turned back to Sailor V. "Let's get you out of that uniform, give you a thorough exam and get you patched up, then you can meet the rest of the team. They'll be excited to meet you. Of course they're still in school now. Why aren't you in school now? What time is it, even?"

But she was looking at the officers. "Uh, maybe I'll just be on my way."

"Nonsense. Don't be silly. You're hurt, aren't you? We can patch you up, and honestly you better stay away from being transformed at the moment, the construct that looked just like you was all over the news." She looked over at the video camera and asleep news crews nearby it. "Huh. Wonder if that's still transmitting? The point is, the Sailor Guardians are not going to be very popular at the moment, thanks to all this."

"You know about- who are you?"

"We can explain everything," said Sparkle. "For now just... trust me. It'll be fine." _I hope. But you can bet I'm reporting this to Silverstreak tonight._

"I guess I don't have a choice. You are a talking cat. And the last one of those I met has never steered me wrong."

"Oh, you'll believe the _cat_ but not me? Fine, fine, whatever. Let's go. _Teleportal."_

And so the group returned to the base, where Luna was still scrolling through news channels for other possible attacks, but it seemed only the two were going on and they had both been stopped. Susan cured Minako's wounds easily but was pacing around as she and Luna spoke. Minako kept glancing at her.

"As you just can't keep your eyes off me I guess I'll introduce myself," said Susan. "Susan Felton, at your service. Dimensional traveler, Sailor Guardian (honorary member), saver of worlds, wielder of magic... oh I'm a knight too. Yup, I've done it all."

"Nice to meet- who are you?"

"Guess that doesn't explain much, huh? I'll start at the beginning. In the beginning, there was light. Then later came the sun. But then where did the light come from before that? Wait, that's too far back. I woke up this morning... no, that's too far forward."

"Maybe I should take over?" asked Sparkle. "You seem a little out of sorts at the moment." _Or a little high, did those girls you fought do something to you?_

"Sure, sure. I'll- hey, you know what? Luna, can you show me how to use this moon unit here? If you've got a word processor and a printer someplace here I'll start work on that pamphlet I've always been wanting to make."

"We can do a printout, sure," replied Luna, and Artemis hopped down as Susan grabbed the stool he was sitting on.

"Great! Now for some magic. _Augment Skill: Writing! Literacy."_

 _Uh, has she forgotten no one else will be able to read such a pamphlet? Though I guess the spell isn't P, it's T, touch. So she could cast it on someone else? As I recall the wording on that spell is somewhat confusing. It says "You" directly and that the language you want to read must be touched, but yet it still is listed as a touch based spell. I guess we'll just have to see if it works._

So Sparkle gave Minako the rundown about why they were there as Susan basically typed the same information into a blank document to hand out to people.

"And is she always like... this?" Minako asked quietly.

Sparkle shook her head sadly. "No. In fact she's been getting worse and to tell you the truth I'm getting a little worried."

Both looked over at Susan, unaware of the concern on her _Companion's_ face.

 _And what can I even do about it?_

Techniques used in this chapter

 **Acid Splash**

Acid

Level 3 (3+0+0) (Attack, Personal, I)

Create a burst of acid that issues forth from you in an arc. Does normal acid damage on contact.

 **Dimensional Distortion**

Dimension

Level 7 (3+2+2) (Attack, Medium, M)

Cause space at the target point to warp and change randomly, causing damage to the surroundings by tearing them apart. Damage done is 1d6 to everything in the area every turn the technique is maintained.

Sailor Venus' Powers

Ancient memories 1

Defense Boost 2

Jump 1

Longevity 1

Energy Well 4

Nature: Force 2

Nature: Creation 2

Nature: Light 2

Stat Adjustment: LOOks 2

Telesphere (with the other scouts) 1

Unrecognizable 1

No Primary Nature -1

Transformation: Full -3


	154. Chapter 154

154

Sparkle is Still Concerned

When: Later that afternoon

Where: The park between Crown Arcade and the school

Sparkle's reservations about Susan were not wearing off, as her somewhat abnormal behavior continued through the day. Venus had told her story, about her move to England and why she moved back. (Seeing her boyfriend hanging out with another girl after she was caught in an explosion and assumed to be dead.)

"But you weren't," insisted Susan. "So what was the big deal? Just go punch that other girl out and take your man back!"

"Uh, no. I just wanted him to be happy, and I could see he would be with Katarina. Besides, I needed to move back to Japan soon anyway, in case the other guardians started awakening. And see, they did!"

"Sounds like some kind of rationalization to me, but what do I know? At least you've had some combat experience then, and won't need as much training as the others."

"Artemis said some weird girl, no offense, was training them. I didn't believe it. I guess that was you."

"That's right. They're going to have to be in great shape when The Darkness shows up."

"Which it probably will," put in Sparkle. "Now that all the guardians are together, the narrative imperative is going to make itself felt."

"The what?"

"The fact that things happen at the absolute worst time," she explained. "Like computers going down just before something is due, or your car not starting just as you want to leave for vacation and it was fine the day before. Things that make "the story" more interesting. Not for you, I mean, but if someone was reading it... never mind. We just gave it a fancy name because we tend to do stuff like that."

"I'll take your word for it."

"Good!" exclaimed Susan. "Because we're always one hundred percent right. Always. Without fail. No question."

"I'm sure you are."

"Hey, there's the others!" Susan pointed down the street, and Usagi was waving to them. "Hi girls!" she greeted, sweeping them all into a big hug, which made them looked a bit shocked. "There's someone I'd like you to meet. She's brought to you today by the number two, and the letter V!" She made a V with her fingers. Which could also be seen as a number two, depending on which part of the person's brain who was looking at it happened to be more dominant right at that particular moment. "V." Usagi looked confused, but the others got it. "And she brought a friend, another talking cat. Sparkle here has just been beside herself with embarrassment, he's such a fine specimen of kitty kind."

"I have not!" insisted Sparkle. _I've been beside myself with worry about what's going on with you._

"Oh, did someone find a friend?" asked Usagi, bending down to scratch Sparkle's ears. "That's great."

"No I did not," she said hotly. "Unlike some, I don't throw myself at every cute thing that happens in my path because I understand our stay in various worlds is only temporary and..." Sparkle was looking over at Susan as she said this, but she wasn't even paying attention.

"What's going on over there?" Susan asked, pointing to a bunch of school kids with bats, moving with purpose. "The start of some kind of gang war?"

"Those are high school kids!" said Makoto. "Even I can see that much. Where do you think they're going?" The girls watched as they passed and went down the street, looking excited.

"I'm not sure, but I think we better follow them and see," suggested Rei.

"Now you're talking!" said Susan. "Let's go."

The girls followed some distance behind them and the boys turned and went into the Crown Arcade, making the girls share a concerned look. Susan put an arm out at the door and looked through the windows. "Let's wait a second, I want to see what they do."

They were clustered around the Sailor V video games, and looked as though they were goading each other into some action.

 _Should I be pleased is isn't just rushing in there and beating them up, or worried that's she's going to wait until they do whatever it is they're planning before she stops it?_

Finally one raised the bat and smashed the screen in on the machine, causing everyone in the place to scramble away from them, while the boy that usually watched the place ran over and grabbed the phone. One of the boys went over to stop him, while the others, the inertia overcome, started gleefully smashing the Sailor V arcade cabinets that stood side by side.

"Yeah, like I said," remarked Susan to Minako, who had a horrified look on her face, "Not the best time to be a sailor guardian. Stupid Darkness, what is it going to think of next? No, don't answer that, I'm sure I don't want to know."

"What do we do?" asked Usagi fearfully. "We can't fight them like this, and we can't transform and do it, that would be even worse."

"You can't," remarked Susan with a grin, "but I can. Just stay here."

Sparkle padded after her as she entered the arcade and came up behind the nearest boy. Just as he was bringing the bat up for another swing, Susan grabbed it from behind him, holding it fast as he tried to bring it down again.

"You've had your fun," she growled, looking at the smashed up machines. "Now scram."

The boy looked over at her and sneered. "I don't have to listen to you, _foreigner_. _"_ He turned around, holding the bat in one hand and tried to get it away from her, but of course she easily beat his pathetic STRength check.

 _"Oh really?"_ She yanked the bat away from him and then punched him the head with her other hand. He went down in a heap, and the others turned around with horrified looks on their face.

 _They're just kids, they don't have any combat training. Susan what are you doing? And more importantly... what did you roll on that attack? Usually I have some sense of her results just like she has a sense of mine. We're connected, and both Paragons._ She flashed ice cold. _Tell me you haven't been 'taken by the story.'_

It was something Sparkle had heard about, but was hopeful she would never see. It was advantageous in some ways, because you didn't have to make rolls anymore. As long as your actions fit the context of the story, you could do things even slightly out of your normal capacity. The story needed you to hack that system? Just smash the keyboard for a bit and it would happen. Don't want to worry about counting your bullets? Just keep firing, it'll be fine. Good guy needs to be captured so he can escape dramatically later? You won't really be in any danger, so don't worry about it.

But on the flip side, you weren't really yourself anymore, just an extension of the tale. You went where the story wanted you to go, and your personality was somewhat suppressed so you didn't question the bizarre things that happened in your life.

 _I really hope that's not the case, but that's how it seems. We're Paragons. He should have gotten a dodge attempt. Of course, story wise of course the person with an average training in martial arts punching a high schooler is going to work. It would be insane to think a kid caught by surprise like he was would be able to react in time. But he should have gotten a dodge because that's how we work. There was every chance that with a little energy he could have gotten out of the way. But I have no idea what he got either, and I have to in order to know if I should spend XP or not. That too is just how we work._

But Susan wasn't done. Magic flashed around her, and Sparkle glanced at the circle she was making. She just made her _Magical Theory_ check with a ten, as she still needed to roll stuff even if Susan didn't. _Augment Skill?_

It was. Susan flipped the bat so she was holding the right end, and flung it through the air at the boy struggling with Motoki for the phone. It knocked him over and sent him flying as the bat careened off him and smashed into the wall nearby, where it stuck.

"Anyone else want to make trouble here?" she asked sweetly.

The bats swiftly clattered to the ground, and the boys shook their heads, eyes wide with shock.

"Pity," she remarked. "Hey!" she called to Motoki, who took a step back himself. "Any place we can lock these people up where they won't cause too much trouble until the police arrive?"

"Police?" One of the boys dashed forward, trying to get around Susan but she stuck out an arm and slammed him to the ground. She was between them and the entrance, after all. He struggled to rise but she held him down. "Of course police," she informed him. "You know how much these game cabinets _cost?_ There's destruction of public property, assault with a deadly weapon, fleeing the scene of a crime- you're all in a lot of trouble."

"We can put them in back?" suggested Motoki.

"Great!" Susan grabbed the unconscious boy and the boy still struggling to get away and hefted them both in the air. "You two? Move. And grab your friend there, bring him along."

They edged away from her and did what she wanted, and Motoki locked the door, trapping them in a back room. Susan went back out front and wrenched the bat out of the wall, deciding to keep it. "This has my prints on it," she remarked, looking it over. "The others won't. No one should touch them until they're taken as evidence by the police. Sorry about your games."

"Uh, yeah, I'm not even sure where they came from, honestly," Motoki remarked, looking over the wreckage. "They just sort of appeared one day, so I figured the owner had put them in the day before. He said he didn't though. I just work here though."

"Whatever. You're not hurt, are you?"

"Me? No, I'm fine."

"Better call the cops then. See you around."

"Yeah. See you."

Susan strolled out and met up with the others again.

"Sorry about your games," she said to Luna. "As I take it you were the one that put them there somehow?"

"I... guess I must have. Never really thought about it," she replied. "They just sort of came with the base."

"Strange. Anyway, better find someplace else to be for a while. Don't want anyone pointing me out to the cops and then having to explain how I was able to do all that."

 _I'd really like an explanation myself._

"Did you have to be so violent?" Ami asked.

"What do you mean? I was totally holding back!" she insisted. "I could have completely _wrecked_ all those guys without even trying. But that really wouldn't have been fair, so I just made sure they wouldn't ever even think about doing something like that again. They'll be fine, don't worry."

"But there must have been other ways to deal with them," she pressed on.

Susan looked confused for a second. "I... I guess? No. Wait. Could I have- No, no, what I did was for the best. It was the only way. Yes. Only way." Her voice trailed off and she started muttering to herself, finally wandering off, forcing the others to trail after her.

Now at Mokoto's house (she lived by herself) the girls finally got formally introduced to Minako. [Yes, there's a lot of M names. Try to keep up. It's not my fault.]

Susan said she was feeling odd and went to lay down, which really shocked Sparkle. Not that she wasn't a master of the nap herself, being a cat. _But she must really be feeling out of sorts to do that. Maybe that's a good sign though, I don't know how people get taken by the story or how they get knocked out of it. Maybe she's going to snap out of it herself and I don't have to worry about it._

"I wanted the reveal to be a little more dramatic, but I am in fact the Moon Princess you've been searching for!"

The others gasped.

 _Wait, what? Why would someone associated with the planet Venus be reborn as the_ Moon _princess? Dang, wish Susan were around now, I think she said something about seeing the royal family when she went up to take a look at the moon. Or is the story now working against her, making her be absent now when she could refute this claim by Minako? That's how it goes, I'm afraid._

They started fawning over her over but Sparkle looked pointedly at Artemis, and the three cats slipped into the other room.

"She isn't, of course," Artemis said without preamble. "She's just protecting Sailor Moon until she gets her memories back. It shouldn't be long now, that they're together."

"And this crystal everyone is so hot for?" Sparkle asked. "I don't suppose you two know exactly where that is as well?"

The other two cats shared a look. "It's within Sailor Moon," they admitted. "When the time is right, the seal will be broken and it will emerge. That's why we need to protect her above all."

"Because she literally _is_ the crystal, in a sense."

The others nodded.

"I see. That explains a few things. Still, they should be in better shape than they would have been originally, as long as they keep training with Susan. Of course, with the Temna running around the stakes are higher too." She sighed.

"About Susan," Luna began. "Is she all right?"

"I don't know what's up with her," she admitted. "She's still herself, don't get me wrong. She's not going to go nuts and turn on us or anything. But I do admit she's becoming a little more violent, but that's been going on since we started traveling. She must be feeling a bit impatient, wanting to get back to her original mission of finding her father. Losing her Luna probably didn't help matters. She's learning more combat techniques so she uses them, I suppose that's only natural. I'm keeping an eye on her, and I'll be talking with the person that sent us here tonight to get his take on her. Everything will be fine." _I hope._

"You would know better than us," admitted Luna. "The training she gives them is invaluable, I wouldn't want to lose it."

"You won't."

"Okay."

The girls then did homework and had snacks, and Susan got up about two hours later and joined them. No one mentioned the Moon Princess to her, so she didn't even know about it, but Sparkle came over to her.

"Hey, you mind if I hold on to the book for a few days?" she asked.

"Not at all," she chirped. "Here you go! Something in particular you're looking for?"

 _That was easy. Maybe she did just need a nap somehow? I expected at least the question, then the book, not the other way around._

"The thing I want isn't actually in there. The two things, actually. I want the book to research two new spells for me, so I figured it would be easier than bugging you about it then next two days."

"Sounds good. Stuff you thought of in your battle with that fake Venus?"

"Exactly." She put a paw on the cover. "I want a spell somewhat between _Elemental Bolt_ and _Elemental Burst._ Something that I can place anywhere in range and get a precision strike, rather than an area of effect."

The book glowed, and died down. "Sensible. Wonder why we never thought of something like that before?"

"Good question. When you're done with that, I want a higher grade _Phase._ Something I can cast on others at M range." The book glowed again briefly, and Sparkle put the book into her own _sub-space pocket._ "I'll get it back to you in a few days."

"No rush. We do have a very valuable resource here," she mused, staring off into space. "That book can make new spells for us, and I like the idea for that elemental one. We should take every advantage we can get and think up some situations we've run into in the past and maybe ask for some more magic. It's not like it costs anything, I've already paid the _four_ background points for the book. That's equal to my being a _Natural Magician_ right there. I should get as much use out of one as I do the other."

"You have though, given the amount of magic you have memorized. And just being able to look up the spells you have at a moment's notice is almost worth more points."

"I guess. Hey Luna!"

"Yes?"

"You can't get into your control room now, can you? With the V machines being destroyed, I mean. Want me to work on an item so you can open _Teleportals_ like I can, so you can still go down there?"

"If you want. We'll work it out somehow otherwise."

"I don't mind, and I wanted to try something."

"Fine with me."

So Susan transformed and made another item like her shotgun, then handed it over to Makoto. "Here, I haven't put any power into this, and you seem to have _Electricity_ nature, so I bet you could power it. If this works, I won't have to make a magical one, which is way harder."

She looked at it. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Transform first, and I'll explain the technique."

Having Makoto put energy into it worked, and thus she was able to use it to open a portal.

"Nice!" both said.

"Now, let me tell you about _Power Sense_ , so you can keep track of how much power is inside it. "All of you should listen to this, it'll come in handy sometime I'm sure."

So Susan explained how to sense things out, and reviewed how to use more energy with _Control,_ and it was time for the others to go home.

"You want to stay here tonight?" Makoto asked.

"You don't mind?"

"No, it's fine. I don't have anyone, I'll enjoy the company."

"Okay."

The others said goodbye and Susan and Makoto hung out and talked. Sparkle of course got bored and checked the place out, but kept an ear out for the two. They seemed to be talking and laughing as normal, Susan telling stories of the adventures she'd been having, and Sparkle wondered if she hadn't just imagined her being different.

They went to sleep that night (separately) and Sparkle didn't have long to wait until Susan fell into a _deep sleep._ She got out her communicator.

"Connect me to the hub," she told it, and it complied.

"Hub here, how can we help?" asked the agent on the other side of reality.

"I wanted to provide an update to Susan's file," she replied, and listed off the things Susan had been doing since last she spoke to the agents.

"I see," was the concerned reply. "Thank you for staying on top of this. I will tell you one thing, and please keep it from her as we don't normally advertise we have this capability. If you contact us and say 'red alert' we can forcibly pull her back here. Naturally, only do this if you think she's too far gone to come any other way. We'll put her directly into a cell that cancels everything out, so she won't be able to escape. Then Silverstreak can take a look into her brain and see what's going on. Naturally this is a huge breach of the trust we place in our _Wanderers_ , so we use it only as a last resort. But some people just can't handle it, and crack up. Wouldn't have said she was one, given what I'm seeing here about her mental fortitude."

 _In other words, her 10 RESolve._

"I understand. I fell a bit better knowing something like that is in place. You don't think it's too late now, do you?"

"From what you said, no. She seems herself, just a bit more troubled than usual. I see in her file she went through a particularly bad situation last world, so we'll just keep an eye on her behavior. She may just be working out her exact place in the wider multiverse. It hits different people differently, after all."

"I suppose so. That's all I had for the moment."

"Then I will wish you a good night, and as always, good luck."

"Thanks."

The screen went blank and went back to the time again.

 _A panic button for agents that go rogue, or get overwhelmed. It must have happened before, to have put such a system in place. Or he's just prepared for that eventuality and it's never been used. Naturally traveling in a group would help, they could support each other. Susan only has me, which make her more vulnerable to this sort of thing._

 _I need to be there for her now, before I'm calling for her to be ripped out of this world later..._


	155. Chapter 155

155

Red Kettle Campaign

When: Two Days Later

Where: The base

"I like them," Susan allowed, looking the two new spells over. The first was _Elemental Sniper,_ Grade 4, difficulty 9, casting time .8 seconds (or 4 delay.) The second was _Phase Other,_ grade 6, difficulty 11, casting time 1.2 seconds (or 6 delay.) Sparkle had learned both, along with _Teleport,_ and _Balk_ while dropping _Elemental Touch: Magic_ as she had her martial art to do damage with now. She kept _Phase_ around, figuring having both could serve at different times, as it had in the past. "Having to learn it twice though..." She shook her head. "Oh well. We've got the XP for it, given we didn't spend any before we came here." She took her character sheet out and started looking over the "third" side, with the notes about what spells she knew.

"Twice?" asked Sparkle, wondering what she had in mind.

"Of course. I'll replace my _Elemental Bolt: Fire_ with _Sniper: Wind_ because, duh. And I'll pick it up for _Knockout_ as well. It just seems too useful not to."

"Not that useful," she protested. "And if you're using _Burst_ you might as well just use _Knockout,_ which you already know. You won't seriously hurt anyone that way. Plus why do you say duh?"

"Sparkle, I'm surprised at you! If we can do a precision strike and save someone from being knocked out, shouldn't we do that? I mean it still hurts- remember me hitting 'ol what's his name with it? Draco! He carried on about it, I mean maybe he _Low Pain Tolerance_ or something but I'd still rather have a precision strike. And I say duh because… because… oh. Right. I was thinking of bonuses to the spell because I'm usually under _Acceleration_ but I'm always getting bonus to Mars spells because of my _Giant's Soul._ Thanks for reminding me."

 _Maybe she isn't as far gone as I though. Could having these two days to think about things allowed her to put the last world behind her a bit?_

"Of course, I see this spell as being far more effective in either case."

"What? How so?"

Susan grinned a slightly evil grin. "Let me learn it and show you."

So Susan also spent some XP and pointed off into the void of the secret base. "Now, watch closely!" She pointed and cast, using the extra time, and five magical circles sprang into existence, pointing outward, and energy shot outward towards the point she was targeting. "See what I mean?" she finished, turning.

"Sort of. I see as usual you've taken it to ridiculous levels, doing five simultaneous castings for some reasons. But how is that better?"

"Easy. Let's say there's only one person to cast at, right? I do an _Elemental Burst_ near them, and it hits a certain number of body locations which is random. Not only that, any hits to the same body location are simply ignored. _Ignored!_ Can you believe it? I could conceivably get body six times and only do damage once, basically wasting the spell. Not so here- if it hits five times it does damage five times because they're counted as separate spells. Plus uselessly hitting something like the left arm won't happen because I can completely aim it."

 _Oh no, what have I done?_ "I, uh, see."

"Not only that. I figure I can do the same thing for things like _Hypnotic Field._ Sure, I take a penalty equal to the number of castings, but whoever now looks at it has several to contend with rather than just one. That will either force them to resist it multiple times or at the very least give them the same penalty I took to cast because they're defending against multiple things at once."

"Or you could hit a much wider area," Sparkle replied thoughtfully, seeing that she had a point.

"Exactly. It's a wonder we didn't think of this before."

"Not even we can think of everything. I think visiting other worlds has shown us there are plenty of ways to do things, and you've taught things to people they never thought of, and you would think they would. Like _Magic Sense_ in magical worlds. You would think that would be a basic skill for any magic user."

"True." Susan snapped the book closed. "You done with this?"

"For the moment. I got the two spells I wanted."

"Great." She turned it to the side and touched the cover. "I want a better version of _Magic Immunity_ that works on powers instead of magic. I have powers now, sometimes, and you're basically connected to me through the character sheet so hopefully that's enough." The book slightly glowed, and Susan nodded. "Great."

"What's this now?"

"Think about it. We have a spell to become immune to physical damage, in case someone is trying to punch us."

"Yes. Not that you need it, Miss _Giant's Soul."_

"I'm just illustrating my point. We have a spell to become immune to spells, or immune to magic in general. But now, like you said, we're running into other worlds. I might want to fight someone, like Dolands, but still keep magic around. Wouldn't it be nice to hold onto _Acceleration_ without him turning it off? With a _Power Immunity_ spell going that would happen. We could still cast magic on ourselves, but he couldn't touch us with powers."

"I admit, that's somewhat sensible."

"Thank you. Training with the girls the past two days made me think of it. Given they can train hours longer inside my _Personal Dimension_ than outside it with _time_ techniques, they're getting better."

"Plus their memories of their past lives should be returning, so they should just _remember_ how to fight, rather than just _learn_ how to."

"Except for Sailor Moon for some reason. She isn't improving like the others. It's weird, like she doesn't have that much combat experience. Or maybe she's just lazy. But she does seem to be trying."

"Seems to try harder when that Masked character is around."

Susan barked a laugh. "Got that right. A middle schooler dating a high school student though? Scandalous!"

"They're only three years apart."

"Right, and an eighteen year old wouldn't get in major trouble if caught in bed with a fifteen year old?"

"Depends on the world, I guess?"

"Wouldn't know, never looked into it. Anyway, the girls should be out of school soon, and I'm getting jittery again."

"Jittery?"

"I don't know." Susan stared out into the nothingness past the platform for a moment. "I just feel like The Darkness wants this fight. Like it's feeling as impatient as I am to get something started. No, to finish something? Yeah, that's it. Finish something it started some time ago. It's out there someplace."

"We know that."

"I know, but I can feel it. Pulling at me. It's happy I'm here, and for the trouble it's causing me. Discrediting the scouts? Hiding out? Just minor points. I can feel it waffling, just coming up to me and forcing things, but then calming down and sticking to plan. I'm the one its after here, not energy or this reality. It wants to fight me- here. Like it never has before." She smacked her hands together. "I'll give it one, that's for sure." She continued staring out, eyes narrowed and teeth clenched together.

 _No, not cause for concern at all._

A bit later, Sparkle walked over to Luna and Artemis who were busy working the moonputer to keep up with current events.

"So how is it today?" she asked, not expecting any better an answer than she had received the past few days.

"Worse," replied Luna, and Artemis agreed with a nod of his head. "The existence of powers and knowing about the moon kingdom has touched off a raft of kooks looking to somehow cash in on the whole thing. People claiming to be psychic, have powers, or remember past lives continue to surface. Jewelry stores are having to hire extra security at night, not that it being daytime stops throngs of people from descending on every one they can find and demanding to see every scrap of inventory they have in hopes of finding the crystal."

"Home invasions are also on the rise," put in Artemis, pulling up a chart that had a line going up. "Anyone rumored to have any sort of special stones at all is being targeted, and all of this isn't limited to just Japan. It's happening everywhere."

Sparkle shook her head. "I hope this isn't going to be the new MO of The Darkness. Hide out and let the planet tear itself apart with a few irresistible rumors."

"You can worry about that," Luna sniffed, "I have to worry about our little corner of things. I hoped to one day see the return of the moon kingdom, but who knows if anyone will trust the princess when the times comes?"

"Once The Darkness is gone you'll have an easier time winning people over, there won't be anyone to claim differently."

"But is that better?" asked Artemis. "What if people think the guardians just killed them to silence them? We'd never be taken seriously. Especially if everyone is still clamoring for immortality. You think that'll _ever_ die down? No chance!"

"Yes, that does throw a wrench into things, doesn't it? I must admit, it was shrewd letting that slip. Especially if it's a lie, and you can never give them that in the first place. They'll never believe you no matter what you do." She sighed. "The trouble is The Darkness gets to a world before we do, and has time to study the situation. It knows exactly what to do to get people riled up."

"Or donating," Luna hissed angrily.

"Donating?"

"Take a look." She pressed some buttons and a news report came up.

 _"I'm standing in front of the Mega Mall and behind me you can see a line that stretches down the street. Are they giving something away? No, in fact the opposite. This is the line to donate energy to the cause, run by the Dark Moon Kingdom."_

"What?" snarled Susan, turning and walking over to watch.

 _"They say they need power to help them fight the moon kingdom, and people are joyfully stepping up to provide it. It's painless, effortless, and according to the four running the event, even beneficial to those that come."_ The picture cut to a reporter interviewing Nephrite. _"Now what do you mean when you say it can be beneficial to people?"_

 _"When we draw a bit of energy out of people we can sense them out at the same time. If anyone is showing signs of having their true powers unsealed, we can help that process along. We've already discovered several promising candidates, and we'll be working with them to enable the use of those powers in the days to come. Naturally without the Silver Crystal we can't break the seal on everyone's powers, but this at least shows that seal is beginning to weaken. There's hope for all of us to regain what the Moon Kingdom took from us, so long ago! Isn't that wonderful?"_

Sparkle had to admit, he seemed sincere and excited about the prospect, so it was hard even for her to see him as a bad guy.

 _"And the process is painless?"_

 _"Totally painless. We take only half your available energy so you might feel a bit worn down for an hour or two, but go have some ice cream or something and you'll be back to normal in no time. laughs"_

Luna hit the button again and it turned off. "You see?"

"Those... filthy rats!" spat Susan. "I can't believe how _brazen_ they're being. Making people _line up_ and donate their energy! Making? What I am saying? Those people would probably be _paying_ to do it, on the off chance they might discover they could get powers. Oh, the nerve of The Darkness!" She started to pace in the small area defined by the platform serving to hold the moonputer. "But to go down there and bust it up or not?" She started mumbling to herself.

"I hope he was lying about that part, just to get people in," Sparkle cautioned. "There's just one thing I don't get."

"What? And yeah, maybe he was lying. Having normal people with a little taste of powers fighting on their side would be a nightmare. They might hurt themselves trying to throw energy blasts around or whatever with no real training."

"I agree. What I don't get is why bother?"

"What do you mean? The Darkness wants energy. Heck, _I_ want that energy. Did you see that line? There were hundreds of people there. Even only taking half, which I doubt they're doing in the first place, that's seven people per one hundred energy? They could have thousands in an hour."

"Which is actually somewhat worthless."

Susan pulled up short. "Worthless? Thousands of energy... worthless? Think what we could do with that kind of power! I'm drooling a little bit. See, right here." She pointed to her mouth.

"But remember who we're dealing with. The Darkness. What does it want?"

"The energy from an entire- oh."

"Exactly. The life energy of every tree, every star, every living thing, every rock- every particle of dust in every 'leaf' on every major 'branch' of whatever 'tree' realities spring from. Why bother with getting it one person at a time?"

Susan looked over at the other two cats, but they shook their heads. "Don't look at us," said Luna. "I can see why those Tenma would be gathering power, if what they said was true, but why our original enemies might do so is something we couldn't figure out."

 _Maybe the next time they see us, they just really want to overkill us with energy and make sure? After all, nuking the site from orbit is the only way to be sure._

"Then let's go down and ask them," Susan declared.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked all three cats at once.

"Don't worry, I'm not going down to start anything. I don't know if I could take all four of them at once, especially because they could probably grab any number of hostages right there."

"Just don't let your temper get the better of you," pleaded Sparkle. _Please, please, don't let your temper get the better of you._

"It is to laugh. Moi? Lose my temper? How gauche to even think it. Wait, what do you even hear when I say those words? And how do I even know any French? How do I know it's French I was speaking? Oh well, _c_ _elui qui n'est pas avec moi est contre moi._ You coming, Sparkle? _"_

 _What in the heck was that? She never learned any French, and I didn't hear that in English like I should have. Being "taken by the story" wouldn't cause her to spontaneously get skill in a language. Something else is going on here._ "Yes, I'll come. Why don't you let me handle it? Rather than opening a hole in the air someone can look through and see this place, we can just _Teleport_ over there."

"Suit yourself."

"We'll be back in a while," she said to the two cats, and Susan picked her up. "Here we go. _Teleport."_

The pair found themselves in front of the mall, which was now swarming with; Police. People wanting to donate energy. Protesters against those wanting to donate energy. People wanting to watch the protesters against those wanting to donate energy. People protesting the protesters. Others wanting to see if the two groups would come to blows and what the police might do if they did- it was a mess.

"Don't shove," said one of the people in front of Susan, obviously having been moved out of the way by the magic so they didn't end up inside each other.

"Well, crap," pouted Susan, looking around. "How are we going to get in there? I am most certainly not waiting in line, like some kind of... some kind of... plebeian."

 _I thought you hated words like that?_

"Guess we can't. Let's go back!"

"What? Giving up already? Come on, we can put _Invisibility_ and _Phase_ on if we have to, right?"

Sparkle sighed. "I suppose. Why is it always me carrying the penalty for this sort of thing?"

"Because you're the _Companion,"_ Susan replied matter of factly. "Now make with the magic."

"What, here?"

"No one's going to notice. You'll detect a lack of screaming and scrambling away when we _teleported_ in, right? They're too focused on what's going on to bother us."

"I hope you're right."

Sparkle got a fifteen on her LUCk check and indeed, no one seemed to notice them disappearing. The pair made their way through the throng and towards the front of the line. Inside was a far more orderly arrangement as people were swiftly led in, drained of energy by either one of the four generals or what looked like more constructs created for that task, told they didn't have powers, and ushered out again. At least, that's what Sparkle figured they were saying, she couldn't hear them as they were still _Phased._

"This seems rather organized," Susan remarked. "After that one leaves let's have a chat with our pal Jadeite here." Each drainer had an individual sectioned off area so each drainee had a bit of privacy. Not that they had to take their pants off or anything, but it was a nice gesture on their part.

"As long as you're only chatting."

"Of course! I said I wouldn't didn't I?"

They waited a moment and as the person was escorted out, so Sparkle dropped the spells and climbed up onto Susan's shoulders. He whirled around as he heard the air rush away from where Susan unphased back into reality, and got an "oh it's you" look on his face.

"Give me a second," he called to the person directing the "volunteers" around, who nodded and told the next person to wait.

"So, our wayward daughter returns!"

Sparkle got a ten on _Dimension Sense_ and was slightly perturbed she hadn't put more points into the skill. _That'll teach me to rely on Susan I guess._ Still, she didn't feel anything out of place with him or nearby, for whatever that was worth.

"You aren't my father," she retorted. "Your clothes aren't gaudy enough."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. So, what brings you here? Donating to the cause? I feel you have far more energy than the average amount this rabble brings in so it's kind of you to offer."

 _Actually, it's a good thing none of these guys have our ability to get_ Energy Regeneration _as a power. In fact, let's hope Susan never thinks of that either. She could have me get my energy back, drain me with a technique, and repeat to get thousands of energy._ She shuddered. _No, wait, it doesn't work like that without magic. She can't go above her normal maximum with techniques. Right? So then where are they putting the energy they're taking?_ She glanced around but didn't see any crystals or anything glowing that might serve as a sort of repository. (She got a twelve on her _perception check)_

"I don't think so," Susan scoffed, knocking his hand away. "I want to know what you're doing here."

"Preparing to defend ourselves against the evil Sailor Guardians, of course. Don't you watch the news?"

"I mean the real reason."

"And I'm just going to tell you, is that it?"

"Oh. Uh, yes, why not? Don't you guys love making speeches or something? Telling people your master plan, that's just too diabolical to be stopped?"

"Not especially, no. We aren't complete morons, you see."

"I see. Right then. So..." The two stared at each other.

 _I guess she really didn't think this through, or just thought he would tell her? I don't get it._

"So? Look, you must have been lurking around for some time watching our operation. No one gets hurt. No one is even really inconvenienced, apart from a slight weakness for a few hours. They're coming in here of their own free will, and even you wouldn't impugn someone's free will, right?"

"But you're lying to people, getting them here under false pretenses!"

"When? Our campaign has always been about stopping the Guardians. That's not a lie, we've tangled enough in the past you should know that by now. It's not our fault the public believes something without a lot of evidence to back it up." He laughed. "I mean, that's about all humans can be said to do reliably. Overreact to complete nonsense like, oh I don't know, what color your skin is, while totally ignoring the fact the planet is headed for disaster unless everyone gets serious about things like climate change. In fact, the more ridiculous the issue, the louder everyone seems to debate it. Oh, dinosaurs and man ran around together and carbon dating is a big lie. Sure it is. It's madness."

"Yes, well, we try our best it's true. The point is what you're doing here is wrong."

"From your point of view, maybe. Not from ours. And unless you're going to throw down, here and now, in a crowded mall with thousands of people... no? Didn't think so. Now go away, I have work to do. Not that I have a quota to fill for my queen, or anything."

He called in the next person, who took a seat and looked confused at Susan standing there with a cat on her shoulders.

"Figment of your imagination," explained Jadeite. "Just ignore it."

Sparkle could tell Susan was probably fuming, but like he had said, couldn't do anything about it currently. Doing something like this in public, and in such close quarters, could be problematic if it came to a fight.

 _Still, we know where they are. Susan could gather energy and just_ Telesummon _the whole lot of them to be elsewhere. There's only four, she could easily get them. Or bring them into the temporary fighting space with_ Alternate Dimension. _No, wait, that will get everybody, which is obviously not what we want. Still, there are ways to deal with this situation, so I'll be watching closely to see what she comes up with. Or should I suggest- no, let's see if she's getting back to her old self again._

Susan stared at Jadeite a moment but realized she was being ignored. "I'll be back," she deadpanned, and nodded to Sparkle, who cast _Teleport_ and brought them back to the base.

"Let's head to the park," Susan said after bringing the cats up to speed on what was going on. "I want the others to get in on this, see what they want to do about it."

 _That's a smart enough move. Get the other's opinion? I approve!_

The group stepped through a _Teleportal_ and the base was empty.


	156. Chapter 156

156

Memories, Alone in the Moonlight

When: Just after school

Where: The usual park

Sparkle listened as Susan explained the situation to the girls, calmly and rationally. That is to say, Sparkle listened calmly, while Susan ranted about "those idiots" and "destroy the whole place" and "The Darkness has gone too far this time." The girls, for their part, listened patiently.

"So that's the situation," Susan finally finished. "Best thing to do is probably get there first thing tomorrow so there's less people around and beat the crap out of the whole lot of them. Make them tell us where The Darkness is hiding out, and boom, our troubles are over."

"I'm not sure I can recommend that plan," Minako put forward. "You see, there's something about them you don't know that I do."

"Oh? What's that?"

"They aren't really bad guys."

"You don't have to be a bad guy to be a 'bad guy' you know. Wonder how you say that in q-bert language? Anyway, I'm sure they would all stop and help kittens out of trees if they had the chance. But they're taking energy for my enemy, and they have to be stopped."

"I don't deny that. The thing is, they're most likely under some kind of mental technique that's forcing them to do these sorts of things. See, they're reincarnates, like us. They're actually just generals in the Earth's army, I mean they were, during the time of the Silver Millennium. They served under the prince of Earth, just as the Sailor Guardians served under me, the moon princess."

"You're the what now?"

"Never mind," said Sparkle. "I'll fill you in later."

"Okay. So what does that all mean?"

"That you can't fight them. I mean I would prefer if you didn't, obviously you could very well fight them. We need to break their conditioning and get them back on our side."

"There's another possibility," worried Ami. "That they, like us, have not gotten their memories back at all or at any rate only enough to remember their powers. They were contacted by whatever The Darkness took over, convinced we were the cause of all the trouble, and they're actually doing this willingly."

"That would be the worst," agreed Rei, "as we wouldn't be able to undo a technique that doesn't actually exist."

"But if that is the case," said Sparkle, "we could just use our memory spell and make them remember."

Susan shook her head. "If someone came up to you and did some hocus-pocus magic and suddenly you remembered something you hadn't before, what would your first thought be? You!" She pointed to Makoto.

"What? Me? Oh, I um... probably that whatever that person had done _put_ those memories there?"

"Ding ding ding! Give that lady a prize. I agree it's a possibility but we would probably have to catch them by surprise if we wanted to do something like that. And there's another snag."

"What else?" _Is it just me, or is she becoming more negative now too? Like before she was all 'this spell will solve our problems' but now it's like she doesn't really want to solve this issue quickly._

"The _Remember_ spell isn't all that great." Susan cast about and finding no one really paying attention to them, got her book out and held it up for Sparkle to see.

"The event in question must have occurred within 1 year per Saturn rating," Sparkle read. "Oh. Even taking a lot of energy, we don't know exactly when this all happened. And we'd have to cast it once to make them recall the attack. Once to get the day before that. Once to get the day before that. Not possible. Still, that's only grade four, have the book create a higher grade version that's more specific."

"Like what?"

"Like a spell to unlock the general memories of a reincarnated person's past life. Not skills, just day to day things."

"I guess that's possible. I could load it into some _Spell Symbols_ and slap it on them. See what they make of it."

"I want to try talking to them first," Minako insisted. "If they are being controlled somehow you're the only hope we have of breaking them out of it. Only I'll be able to tell, because only I remember them the way they were."

"Not true!" insisted Susan. "I mean about me being the only one. Usagi here seems to have the _Mind_ nature, I bet she could do it. In fact it might be good practice for her to try!"

"But then I'd have to either show up as Sailor Moon or transform there, in front of everyone. Remember we scouts aren't exactly welcome anymore, thanks to them."

"True. We could work around that though, make you invisible or something."

 _"_ _Shrink,"_ suggested Sparkle.

"There's that too. All right. How do you want to do it? Do you want to go now, or wait until tomorrow when I have the spell ready to go?"

Minako considered. "I hate to allow them more access to energy, but what can we do? We'll have to go tomorrow."

"Always wanted to try out _Hysteria,"_ Susan's eyes shone. "Head up to the roof, put a bunch of energy into it, and just clear the place out by standing there."

The girls traded looks.

"Uh, several problems there," cautioned Sparkle, remembering the description of the spell with her _photographic memory_. "One, they would probably fail by five or more in that case, and just stand there paralyzed, rather than flee."

"Oh."

"And two, with the number of people there, some might get trampled to death as they fled. You don't want that, right?"

"You're no fun."

 _Not really the answer I was hoping for, actually._

"There's another consideration," added Luna. "We know where they'll be if we leave them alone today. If we attack or drive people away they'll just move the operation and we'll have to find them again. Not that we couldn't, I just wonder if they would give it up if we harassed them too much. Or they just go to another country we can't reach, that sort of thing."

"It was just a passing fancy, I'm not gonna do it. Sheesh."

 _Then why did you look so excited to try it?_

"So tomorrow then?" asked Artemis.

"Tomorrow," agreed Susan, a bit petulantly. She got the book out. "We need a spell to... wait a second. I already asked it for a spell, and I don't know what will happen if I interrupt it. It's not a computer, it's part of my father's soul and a sort of magical item connected to me via my character sheet. Can I just pause what it's doing and ask it to do something else?" She looked over at Sparkle.

"Don't look at me, I've never messed around with it. Maybe a technique instead?"

Susan looked thoughtful. "We can pretty much come up with whatever we want, given the constraints of what natures we take. I could take _mind_ and _time,_ maybe hit them with a combined technique to jar their memories loose. I guess I'm just more familiar with magic, so I reached for that first. Techniques are way less effort though, so yeah, let's try that."

"Do you have to use the book to research magic though?" asked Ami, looking it over. "You don't know enough about it to do it yourself?"

"Oh sure, I can. Do you have a week?" She laughed. "Plus a bunch of stuff to 'consume' during the research costing a specific amount, for some reason. No, making new magic is tricky and I put..." she got out her _character sheet_ and quickly added the points up. "Four points of my total eighteen used into this so I wouldn't have to do that. Seventeen, I took _spirit mage_ later."

"I don't quite get it, but if you say so."

"Believe me, it works out. Let's head to the cave so you girls can do your homework and get in some more training."

Usagi groaned.

Susan's powers for the duration

Energy Siphon 2

Energy Regeneration 2

Energy Well 3

Invisibility 2

Nature (Primary): Healing 2

Nature: Mind 2

Nature: Dimension 2

Nature: Metapower 2

Nature: Time 2

Sudden Step: 1

Teleportal: 5

Unseen: 1

The next day, plan in mind, Minako stood in line after school and worked her way through the mall to where the four were still gleefully siphoning energy from people. They seemed to have various constructs now aiding them, probably created using the energy given the day before, and so the line moved quickly. Sparkle was also glad to see it was somewhat shorter than the day before, as some of the novelty had worn off. She, along with Susan, was currently _unseen,_ meaning all the people around her didn't notice her, but she planned to go _invisible_ when they got closer. The plan was to create a small dimension so Minako could transform, try and convince Kunzite (she insisted it had to be him for some reason) and if things went bad, hit him with the healing/memory/time technique and see that did for them. At the front of the line, Minako waited until Kunzite was free and then went into his little cubicle.

"Hello Kunzite. You're looking well," she opened, sounding a little wistful.

"How do you know my name?" he demanded.

"Do you not recognize me? Have I really changed so much?" She fluffed her long golden hair behind her and spread her arms.

"Uh, no. Should I?"

"Perhaps if I looked a little bit more like a guardian?"

"Oh ho! Pretty bold, coming here alone. But unless you're here to surrender the Silver Crystal, I really have nothing to say to you. Which one are you, anyway?"

"Why don't I show you?"

Susan took this as the signal to get things started, so she put her hands together and drew them apart. _"Dimensional Cutoff,"_ she said, becoming visible as she did so. From her hands an energy field expanded outwards, enveloping the contents of the cube. It now seemed to be sitting in an endless gray landscape, surrounded by gray water, and gray trees. With no walls, a clock fell to the ground with a clunk, and Kunzite spun.

"You didn't come alone!" he snarled, raising a ball of energy of his own. "You'll regret this."

"Don't make me turn your powers off," scolded Susan, looking unconcerned. "Just listen to what the little lady has to say."

"Venus Power, Make Up!" she shouted, holding her transformation pen aloft. When the light faded, Sailor Venus stood there.

"Remember me now?" she asked.

"Not really," he retorted, not lowering the ball of energy. "There seem to be so many of you lately it's hard to keep track. Which one were you again?"

"You clearly heard her shout Venus Power, who do you think she is, Sailor Mars?" Susan asked sarcastically.

Venus shot her a look, but focused on Kunzite again. "Look at me Kunzite. And remember! This isn't your true self. Running around taking people's energy? You're supposed to be a protector of Earth, not harming the people that live there. Try to remember your time with me, on the moon and elsewhere, so long ago. Please, remember. I don't want to fight you, and I don't want the rest of the guardians to fight you either."

 _Oh, is that why it had to be him?_ Sparkle thought to herself.

"Remember? I do remember, all too clearly. The arrogance of the moon kingdom, and how you guardians would fawn over that klutz of a princess instead of spending time with... instead of..." Kunzite looked to be struggling to remember something, but shot a dirty look over at Susan. "What are you doing to me? You can't make me turn away from my queen! Stop it right now or I'll just teleport out of here. I'm sure even you can't hold me if I do that."

"I'm not doing anything," Susan insisted, truthfully. "I agreed to give her a chance first." She flicked a finger in Venus' direction. "Whatever you're thinking is all in your mind, dude."

"I don't believe you." He raised the ball up. "Stop it now or so help me-"

"Go ahead," Venus taunted him. "But destroy me first, Kunzite. Look me in the eyes and detonate that energy right here. Don't think about that day by the lake, (you know which one I'm talking about) or that day we first met, or how I could always make you laugh when you were down. Don't think about the glittering crystal palace on the moon, or visits to my castle in orbit around Venus where we spent so much time together. Don't think about those things, or how you loved stroking my hair, or swimming together, or visiting the Earth to see all the different kinds of life there-"

"Stop it! Stop it!" Kunzite had lowered the ball and was clutching his head, eyes closed. "I am a loyal general of the Dark Kingdom. I answer only to my queen. You're trying to poison me against her, and I won't stand for it."

Susan looked over at Sparkle with a "guess he's distracted enough," look on her face, shrugged, and poked him in the back of the head with a finger. _"Reincarnate Restoration,"_ she spoke, and Sparkle felt the technique activate.

"NO!" he shouted, "this cannot be!"

"It is," Venus insisted. "This is the real you. Remember and come back to me, please!"

"Have to get away. Have to be loyal to my queen. Mustn't remember!"

 _Maybe she should have gone more on the_ metapower _side of things and less on the memory side of things? He seems to be caught like Luna was that one time, being forced in two directions at once by two separate powers._

And he was gone.

"Quick, get after him!" insisted Venus.

"The others will think we did this to him," cautioned Susan. "It might turn into a fight. We don't want that, not in a mall!"

"We can't just stay here!"

"I guess." Susan appeared to be mulling it over, making Sparkle wonder if she was just stalling for some reason. "Okay," she admitted finally, waving a hand and dispelling the technique. The contents of the cube went back to the real world, and Venus darted out again. Several people were milling around confused, saying "he just disappeared" and reacted with shouts of fear when they saw it was Venus running around.

"They're gone," she said with disgust when she came back. "Not that it'll shut this place down, the constructs will just keep it going, though at a slower pace. We need to get out of here before the police show up."

"I did hear some shouting, I guess that was because people saw you? Very well, we can head back. I'm pretty sure it worked though. Give him some time and he'll jump into your waiting arms again." She put a hand over her mouth and stage whispered to Sparkle. "Or maybe her bed." She winked.

"This is serious!" she insisted. "If he's gone back to this queen of his he'll probably just be put under the technique again. Couldn't you have stopped him?"

"I might have been able to turn his _teleport_ off, but I was maintaining the dimension. You want me to do everything?"

 _The Susan I know would have tried to do everything. But why let him go though? How does that serve the story, if that's what's happening to her?_

"Just... let's go."

"Very well."

So Susan explained what she considered a success and Venus considered a failure to the others, which included Mamoru.

"Yeah, I invited him," Usagi had said when asked. "He's a part of all this too, you know."

"And now that you've created technique to restore memories, I'd like to ask you to use it on me," he said.

"You'd like to, but you're not going to?" Susan asked, looking confused.

"Er, no, I'm asking you to use the technique on me."

"Oh, because it sounded like you weren't. You didn't want to before."

"I am. I didn't want my memories of the child I was before my parent's accident. I do want the memories of who I was during the moon era. You can do that, right?"

"Sure, totally different thing. Just trying to be clear about the whole thing."

"I get it."

"Are you sure?"

"Just do it already!" shouted Rei, "honestly."

"Gee, someone didn't take her happy pills this morning," muttered Susan. "Okay, fine. If you want your memories back, the technique seems to work. And hopefully as you haven't been brainwashed to believe something untrue, it hopefully won't be as traumatic for you. At least, you haven't been brainwashed lately have you?" She gave him the stink eye.

"Not that I know of."

She continued staring at him, but finally relented. "I believe you, I guess. No promises though. You're sure you want to go through it?"

"Completely."

"Okay. Now, for the technique to work, it's best if we do it while you flap your arms like a bird."

"Do what?"

"Your arms. Like this." Susan demonstrated, flapping her arms up and down.

Momoru looked around but got no help, as everyone else there was as confused as he was. He tentatively started flapping his arms.

"Like this?"

"Harder than that! Come on, put your back into it. I want to see you _hovering!"_

"Is this seriously necessary?" asked Venus, as he started flapping harder. "Did Kunzite react like that because he wasn't doing this?"

Susan snorted. "Nah. I just wanted to see if he'd do it. Look at him go!" He started to stop, red faced. Susan laughed then suddenly shot her hand forward. _"Reincarnate Restoration."_ She touched a finger to his head and again her power went out, unlocking his memories of a time long ago. His reaction was not as violent as Kunzite's, as he had already been getting some memories back and as Susan had predicted he wasn't under any competing techniques. His eyes got wide and he seemed to go even more red in the face as he looked over at Usagi though.

"Oh," he said simply. "That's somewhat awkward isn't it?"

"What? What is it?" she insisted on knowing.

"Nothing. Nothing that relates to you and me in any way. No. I'll just, um, I'll just go now, if that's all right. Yes, that's best. Thanks and all-"

"Wait a minute!" shouted Usagi. "You're not getting off that easily." She shoved him over, standing in front of Susan and starting to flap her arms. "I'm next. Come on, do it!"

Susan stared at her. "It's no fun if you just do it," she said at last. "Oh, stop flapping. I'll get your memories back too. Honestly, you try and bring a little levity into the world and someone has to come along and spoil the whole thing by taking it seriously. Will you stop already. Stop!"

"Not until you do it!"

"Fine. _Reincarnate Restoration."_ She too got touched, and began to remember. She also went red in the face, and glanced over at Mamoru.

"Endymion," she said quietly, a tear forming in her eyes.

"Might as well go all the way," muttered Mamoru. He went down to one knee.

"It's good to see you again, my princess."

"Well that didn't last long," grumped Artemis.

"Wait what?" shouted everyone else.


	157. Chapter 157

157

Some Things are Best Forgotten To Continue a Happy Life

When: Moments later

Where: The base

Of course, with Endymion and Serenity getting their memories back, everyone wanted in on that action, and Susan performed the technique again and again until everyone understood their previous place in the world.

"So wait," complained Susan, pointing at the two love birds, "you two remembered your 'moon names' from before, but you're telling me you girls are just Sailor Whatever? How did that work? You were born and your parents either individually or as a group decided to name you Sailor? And then as you were of the 'noble house of planet' you became Sailor Mercury or Mars or what have you?"

"I guess?" ventured Maktoto.

"That's dumb. They were dumb. You're telling me you have no identity of your own outside your Guardian role? Not even a name? That's cold, man, cold like _ice."_

"We didn't want for more, then," explained Minako. "And I just want to protect the moon princess now. I'm sorry I pretended to be you but Artemis and I thought it would be for the best until you all had your memories back. If I knew it would be that easy, I wouldn't have bothered."

"Um," Ami put a hand up. "I still sort of want to be a doctor, if that's okay?"

"What are you talking about?" Minako whirled around and stared at her.

"I'm talking about my life now. Because I have a life now, and I've put a lot of effort into my studies so I can one day follow my dream of being a doctor like my mother."

"You go girl!" encouraged Susan, throwing her arm around Ami. "Don't let your past life dictate who you are today. You go for your _dreams."_

"But... the princess!" sputtered Minako. "We have to protect Princess Serenity!"

"But not forever, right?" asked Rei, also looking like maybe this Guardian gig wasn't exactly what she had signed up for after all. "I mean there's this situation, and then no one left to attack us, right? We take care of what we couldn't before, and our lives here and now can continue."

"Pretty much forever, actually," admitted Minako. "We're functionally immortal, at least we _were._ I don't know if we will be again, but probably thanks to the crystal we will be. At least I think that's what it was? It wasn't really studied, back in the day. If we can find it, anyway, but it must still be _someplace._ "

"People from the future could show up," suggested Susan. "Start attacking you for... some reason. Maybe try and make their future turn out differently? Maybe one of your kids could come back, I don't know."

"Don't be ridiculous," scoffed Ami, trying to shove her. Naturally it was like trying to shove a building. "There's no way that would happen."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Speaking of the crystal... where is that sucker? I'd love a look at it, and one of you must remember where someone stuck it before."

The girls looked between them but all shrugged.

"No one remembers?" asked Serenity, a bit panicked. "I was really hoping one of you would, because I sure don't."

Everyone looked over at the cats.

"Don't look at us either. We've spent the last who knows how long asleep. I mean really, was it a thousand years? A million? I've no idea."

"That's just great," complained Susan, throwing up her other hand. "Now what do we do? Don't suppose _you_ remember, and are just waiting for your chance to speak up?" She looked over at Endymion. "Because now is the time. The floor is open. Go ahead. Speak up. Hello?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I'm as in the dark as all of you. I now fully remember the attack of course, which either means those horrible dreams will either stop or get worse, can't wait to find out thanks, but not where the crystal could be."

"Super. So that accomplished basically nothing apart from deepening the relationship between the slightly underage guy, and the really underage girl. So glad I put the effort in."

"Actually, I remember being courted by Zoisite," admitted Ami with a slight blush. "So that wasn't the only relationship..."

The others all nodded.

"What are you saying?"

"I guess... that we don't want to fight against them?" ventured Rei.

"Wouldn't worry about that," muttered Susan. "Unless we can get them away from that mall, we aren't anyway."

 _Did she really forget about_ Telesummon? _I shouldn't think so, there's both a power and a spell that does that same thing. Odd._

Susan went on. "And would you two cut that out?" Everyone looked over at Endymion and Serenity who were still making doe eyes at each other.

"I must agree," agreed Luna, who did not have to agree to disagree. "There will be plenty of time for that later on. Like, when you're thirty."

"But we're both technically hundreds of years old now!" protested Serenity. "And remembering what we do, it's like being reunited with a lover after not seeing them."

"For hundreds of years," added Susan.

"Yes?"

"Just because you're named for an animal that is traditionally associated with large litters, doesn't mean you should go at it like your namesake the second you recall your old memories. In this time you're still kids. I don't know if remembering a past life really counts towards your age. Your parents probably wouldn't think so, even if they believed you."

"What does that have to do with anything?" demanded Endymion.

"Wait a second, what's this?" asked Sparkle. "Where are you getting rabbits from all of a sudden?"

Susan sighed and rolled her eyes. "Her name, of course? Duh?"

Sparkle looked around the room.

"Usagi means rabbit," Ami clarified.

"Wait, so did you just say Rabbit means rabbit?"

"No, I said usagi means rabbit."

"But you just said usagi means rabbit!"

"It does."

Sparkle stared at her, really not getting it any more now than she had. _So wait a second. Our power of understanding language_ didn't _translate what it 'knew' to be a proper name, even though the name actually means a small furry animal that hops about. And it's still being weird about it, meaning Inari probably planned this somehow because this seems like some sort of gag she would do. Huh, we should go check in with her sometime, or have Silverstreak send a message... back to the thought at paw. Somehow Susan picked up on that while I didn't. Does that mean something?_

"As utterly _hilarious_ as this is," Serenity or Serena or Rabbit or Usagi or whatever her name actually is, said, "none of you is my mother and so really it's none of your business who I fall in love with. And I suppose it's not really any of her business either, come to think of it. So I'll thank you all to stay out of it, and I will do what I want."

She planted a kiss on him after grabbing him and pulling him closer, and then spun and ran up the stairs.

And then sheepishly came back down a second later.

"Uh, I can't actually get out because the games were destroyed," she reminded everyone. "So the perception field is gone and someone would see me emerge. Susan, if you could, uh, do that thing?"

Susan sighed and waved a hand, opening a _teleportal_ back to her room. (I'll just call her) Usagi glanced back through it. "Thank you. Where was I? Oh yes, I'll do what I want, so there!" She jumped through and it shrank away to nothing.

"Seriously," cautioned Luna, "stay away from her. You're not this Endymion fellow anymore, that's who you were. You're Mamoru Chiba now, and just like you should have stayed away from her in the moon kingdom, you should stay away now."

"Were we not reborn in this time to have the chance of happiness we were denied before?" he asked wistfully.

"Don't be getting all psychology grad student on me or anything. I didn't trust your intentions then and I certainly don't now. Besides, your feelings will only get you into trouble on the battlefield, and that's what we're in right now. From various sides, thanks to Susan here."

"Hey, I didn't exactly _bring_ The Darkness to your world you know. Or the Tenma." She stomped a foot and looked cross. "Both were already here. Don't go shooting the messenger."

"I mean we know about them thanks to you."

"Fine, that's better." She seemed mollified.

"I understand what you're saying," (I'll just call him) Mamoru went on. "And I agree, picking up where we left off would be... weird. But I do want to protect her, and haven't I been training with you all to do just that? I have powers, just like you, that Susan is helping me to uncover. Let me do this much for her, at least."

"I suppose I have no choice in the matter. If I deny you, more than likely you'll just run around behind my back."

"Which would actually be weird," remarked Susan, "because your back faces the ceiling, if you think about it."

Luna shot her a dirty look. "But if I just say it's okay, I'll only worry your concern for each other will get you hurt during a fight."

"I would give my life to protect her!"

"I know. Again. And then what would she do right afterwards? Again?"

"If this was Romeo and Juliet probably stab herself with some kind of sword?" ventured Susan. "Why, what did she do before?"

"Never mind, and you're not helping."

"I thought it was."

"No, no one would do that in real life," Mamoru said thoughtfully. "But she might get careless and get captured or something. I get it, really. Let's just see where this goes, okay? We all got a lot of new memories all at once, at least most of us," he looked over at Minako. "It'll take time to sort through all."

"Agreed. You would have remembered one way or another, I suspect. And soon. At least now everything's out in the open."

He nodded.

"I don't think we're getting any training in today," said Rei after a moment of silence. "I guess I'll just head back. Seems we all have a lot to think about, in terms of what we now want out of the future and how that fits with who we've become today. If you don't mind, Susan?"

"No, no, not at all. Susan, serving all your transportation needs. It's all I'm good for around here anyway it seems. Well, form a line, you'll all want to go different places I expect."

So Susan put everyone through to where they wanted to go, leaving just Sparkle and Luna down in the base.

She sat in silent contemplation a moment. "They were in love with each other, that much was clear," she said at last. "Is it wrong to try and keep them apart now? What would her mother have wanted for her, I wonder?"

"You don't have to wonder," Susan retorted, sitting down next to her. "Her mother is here, now. As is her father and brother. It's like you said about Mamoru- she's Usagi now. She could turn her back on the whole 'moon princess' thing and there wouldn't be a single thing you could do about it. Except pester her, in which case she beans you over the head with a rock and leaves you in the woods somewhere. Like Ami said, they have dreams in the here and now, and that may not extend to your vision of things. Why should they be concerned with a past the entire world forgot about? They can't bring that time back, or the technology they had before. It's gone. The world moved on and developed a non-powers based society. I mean just what do you expect them to do?"

"I wish I knew," Luna replied softly. "I really wish I knew. If they were only reborn just to experience that same tragedy again, I'm not sure I could stand it."

And so the rest of the day passed. Susan didn't seem to give another thought about the people being drained by the dark kingdom, instead just making more _Spell Papers_ and watching stuff on the moonputer. Sparkle excused herself and _Teleported_ back to the mall to keep an eye on things there, and was relieved to see things hadn't gotten out of hand at all. People were still walking out under their own power, and on the surface it truly seemed these were the 'good guys,' just trying to survive in the world they found themselves in. Of course the lines were still moving slowly without the four generals there, but wherever the women still working there had come from (she couldn't decide if they were some kind of technique, a summon, a construct like she had fought, or just some people they had recruited to help) they did keep things moving smoothly. The lines were smaller, so no one waited all that long and Sparkle stubbornly kept her mind from adding up an average of twelve energy for each person that stumbled out of the place. As far as the workers was concerned, they seemed cheerful and friendly, unlike the Venus construct she had tangled with that seemed bent on just destroying all it could.

 _Perhaps as these weren't tuned for combat, they get to be smarter? There's still a lot about powers I don't understand. I've been able to sort of feel things out when Susan transforms, and she claimed to have gotten a lot of knowledge though I still have no idea how, but I didn't. I mean I know how many 'points' of powers I can take and their value, and mostly what powers are available, but is that it? She said she got 'all powers' but does that mean all powers as they relate to this world or any world? Will we still run into things she can't duplicate? And how do powers between people working together combine? Could the four generals, working together, create something Susan couldn't match even with her ability to change her powers at a whim because she's alone? There's still a lot I think she isn't telling me. Because she thinks I already know, or because she doesn't want me finding out about something?_

She shook her head. _This is not the kind of thing I should even have to think about. I should be able to trust her, but ever since we came here..._

The next day, right after Susan had gotten up (late) and eaten, she was again surfing around the broadcast channels when she suddenly sat up straight and went back a channel.

"You have got to be kidding me," she moaned, and Sparkle looked up at the screen.

"What's up?"

"Come and look for yourself. It's a clear case of copyright infringement."

"Of what?" Sparkle stretched and jumped up to the other stool, looking over at the screen. She saw a reporter talking to person outside a mall, who was explaining that this second 'clinic' had opened up that morning and everyone in that area should come out and show their support. It seemed it was about two hundred kilometers away, so more easily reached by people in that area who wanted to donate but not travel by train all day to do it.

"So they're expanding. That's not exactly copyright infringement, is it?"

"No, no. Hopefully they'll show the inside again. Come on, shut up, will you? Show the inside again. There!" She pointed, and as the camera panned over, Sparkle could clearly see the Tenma symbol on the foreheads of the people leading the 'volunteers' inside to be drained. "You see! You see? I mean it's bad enough the dark kingdom had to go ahead with their, admittedly brilliant, nefarious plan to siphon energy from people but then the Tenma have to come in and copycat them? While _pretending_ to be part of the dark kingdom so people would just assume they were the same? That energy could be coming to me, those complete jerks. If only I had more manpower!"

"You?" Alarm bells started softly ringing in Sparkle's mind.

"What?"

"You said you."

"Did I? I meant The Darkness."

"You _want_ the energy to go to The Darkness?"

"What? No, of course not. I mean, if it'll let it come out into the open so we can get on with it, that's all- don't change the subject. This really pisses me off." She hopped down off the stool. "I'm going over there and taking care of the situation. Put _Acceleration_ on me." She started pulling _Spell Papers_ out of her _sub-space pocket_ to activate. "Good thing that _nullify powers_ spell came in last night and I could make some of these this morning. You want one?"

"What do you mean, take care of? There's just as many people there as we saw at the other place. And you didn't want to start anything there."

"Oh yeah? Well, they better get out of my way because this time I'm not backing down. Tenma. It's time they learned they can't just swoop into a world they think is doomed and start doing whatever they want. I want them _running_ from this world, and any other they think I might even consider going to. Their world is doomed? Boo hoo, too bad. My father's was too, and he went to ask for help. Not that it did him any good." She chuckled. "Oh no, not that it- are you going to get the spell up or what?"

"Susan- please. You can't just rush down there yourself. At least wait until the Guardians are out of school and can assist you. Or at least cover people's retreat."

Susan's eyes narrowed. "Are you suggesting I'm not good enough to take down this so called Tenma group by myself?"

 _No, I'm suggesting that if you do, you won't come back Susan. At least not the Susan I know. Should I contact Silverstreak now? But I am still just a_ companion, _is it really my place? But if not me, who? I just don't know, but I have to tell her something._

"I just don't want you getting hurt!"

"Hurt? Are you kidding? The only time I've ever been hurt is by the stupid mainframe thing that was swinging around his exotic matter stabby stick. You think they have anything like that?"

"It's possible, they're dimensional travelers too, and The Darkness found a source of that stuff somewhere. You don't know what they can do if they really got serious about it."

"So your advice is just sit here and let them do it."

"No! My advice is to think about how best to deal with the situation rather than just rushing off."

"These people have to be taught a lesson, that much is clear. Going around to other worlds, stealing their energy? It stops. Today. Now are you with me or not?"

"I... I can't follow you when I think you're wrong. I'm sorry."

There was a pause.

"Fine. Some companion you turned out to be. I thought we were friends, that you would stick by me. Guess it was inevitable you leaving me too. You can come with me when I leave this world but then you're going home. I won't travel with someone that's betrayed me." She pulled another _Spell Paper_ out of her _sub-space pocket. "Acceleration."_ Shoving all the spent papers in the front pocket of her jeans she turned away from Sparkle and opened a _Teleportal._ "Good bye."

And she was gone.

 _Now what do I do? I should have called him, but I let her just go. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Will innocent people pay for my mistake?_

 _No, not if I act fast. They won't like it, well, maybe Usagi will, but there's only one group of people that can help me now. I better go get them._

 _"Teleport."_

And Sparkle too was gone.


	158. Chapter 158

158

To Battle

When: Moments later

Where: Usagi's School

Sparkle, having put _Phase_ on herself so she could slip through doors, ran from classroom to classroom searching for the Sailor Guardians. Through random chance she found Usagi because she got a one on a d4 and Usagi's name is first on the list. She tried to get her attention, but of course couldn't call out to her because she was _Phased._ Finally her LUCk check kicked in (a twenty) and she glanced over at her. She had been nearly dozing, listening to the teacher drone on, but suddenly sat up.

"Sparkle!" she blurted.

"What?" the teacher looked over at her, confused.

"Oh, sorry!" She threw her hands over her mouth. "It's just... that cat. I know that cat."

"Cat?" Everyone looked over.

 _Oh great job, just call attention to me why don't you? All you had to do was excuse yourself and come see what I wanted. Not make a big fuss over the whole thing. I mean really!_

"How in the world did a cat get in here?" asked the teacher, no doubt noting the door was firmly closed.

"Oh, ha ha, Sparkle does all sorts of weird things!" Usagi tried to brush it off while jumping up from her seat. "Come here Sparkle, that's a good kitty."

 _Nothing for it now I guess._ Sparkle padded quickly over to her while dropping _phase,_ and allowed herself to be picked up.

"See, she came right to me! I'll just... uh, I'll go put her outside real quick, okay? Be back in a flash!" Without even waiting for the teacher to say it was fine she booked it out the door. "Stupid class, was falling asleep anyway," she muttered. She glanced down the hall and darted into a bathroom, which she checked was empty. "What's up?"

"You have to get the other girls and come with me. The Tenma have set up shop in another mall some distance from here, and Susan went off do 'deal' with them. I couldn't stop her, and I'm worried-" She stopped herself. _No sense telling them what I'm worried about, that The Darkness has succeeded in taking her over. But next chance I get I'm dragging her back to the Hub. This can't be allowed to continue._ "Anyway, I'm worried about her."

"Skip school?"

"You have a problem with that?"

"Me? Heck no! But Ami might, and Rei doesn't even go to this school. Leaving obviously isn't the problem, but convincing the others to leave class..."

"But it's Guardian business."

"I know. And exciting as it is to rush off and assume my secret identity to fight evil or whatever, you heard the others yesterday. Really only Minako seemed like she even wanted to be a Guardian. Makoto didn't say one way or the other, and both Ami and Rei seemed pretty negative on the whole thing."

"Rather than imagining what they might say, let's just ask them and actually know! Time is wasting here!" _How many combat turns has it been? We need to move!_

"Okay, okay. Better let me do it though, you weren't exactly subtle about the whole thing."

"Subtle!" Sparkle sputtered and hissed as Usagi ran off, wondering how things had come to this.

Minutes passed, and finally Usagi was back with the other girls and the crowded into the bathroom. _I've heard of girls all going together, but this is ridiculous._

"Usagi filled us in," Ami panted. "Let's go."

"What about Rei?" asked Sparkle.

"Is there any way we can reach there?" asked Mokoto.

"You're the one with the _teleportal_ item, aren't you?" asked Sparkle.

"I've never seen her school."

"I have," spoke up Minako. "When I was checking into you all. Mamoru's too. I can activate the item right?"

"I guess. I just have to put power into it, from what Susan was saying."

"Then let's go."

"Wait, you can't just transform in here!" protested Sparkle. "What if someone walks in?"

"That's easy," claimed Ami, walking over to the door and clicking the lock. She giggled. "Let them figure that one out."

 _Why would bathrooms in a school even lock that way... oh because the story needed it to. Right. Stupid... illogical..._

The girls transformed and Makoto handed the item over to Minako.

"Here we go," she said, using it to open a _teleportal_ to the school roof.

"I'll go get her," said Sparkle, moving towards the door. "You four don't exactly blend in like that."

She had to _phase_ through it, then as she was walking down the stairs she was muttering to herself about subtlety. "You want subtle? I'll show you subtle. _Illusion."_

In Sparkle's place was a rather elderly gentleman in a suit, and once again she/he walked the school peeking into doors to find Rei. Once she found the right room she made an illusionary knocking sound inside the classroom and the teacher opened the door.

"Sorry to disturb your class," she made the _Illusion_ say, "but I must speak to Rei Hino. Her grandfather was just taken to the hospital so the family thought she should probably come right away."

"Oh, of course," said the man, and called Rei over.

"What's this? My grandfather?" Rei asked.

"Step out into the hall," invited the teacher. "And I'll inform the office if you want to leave school."

"Uh, thank you?"

"I hope it turns out to be nothing." He closed the door.

Rei looked the illusion over. "Who are you? I've never seen you before in my life." She slipped her hand into her uniform and brought out her transformation pen.

"Good instincts," Sparkle commented. "And keep that handy. The others are on the roof waiting, we need to get going."

"What-" Sparkle dropped the _Illusion_ for a second, not ending the spell but just not concentrating on the man. "Oh. Let's go then, I guess." She sounded resigned.

 _And that, boys and girls, is how you do subtle._

With the illusionary man again in place, Sparkle escorted Rei to the roof where the others were waiting.

They repeated the procedure for Mamoru and finally everyone was together on the top of his school. "Okay, we're going straight to the mall," said Sparkle. "Everyone grab hold of me. I'm taking us right to the scene I saw on the news of the inside, which I'm assuming is a battleground of some kind at the moment. Be prepared."

The Guardians and Mamoru all nodded, and put a layered shield around themselves after getting in close enough to all touch Sparkle. She nodded and cast, and the group found itself inside the mall.

The scene was chaotic. There stood Susan, blurring and armored as usual, as fires and other debris damage were strewn around her. Dolands was there, flying above, along with Emzie and Alishia, plus some others Sparkle didn't recognize, all with the Tenma symbol on their bodies. Most surprising of all was the four generals, standing beside Susan and facing the Tenma as panicked people shouted and carried on around them. The arrival of the Guardians did little to quell this rising panic, given their less than sterling reputation in these parts.

"Glad you could join us!" shouted Kunzite, giving a wave to Sailor Venus. She wiggled her fingers back at him nervously. "Not to worry, I broke them out of the mental technique. It had been falling apart recently anyway, as we had been remembering the past on our own. Susan here just gave me the final push I needed. We're on your side, and after we take down these... weirdos we'll take you to where the queen is and you can take care of her, too."

"Weirdos! You're one to talk!" shot back Dolands.

Sparkle quickly looked around, and didn't spot any bodies so it seemed Susan had actually followed through with her threat to kill anyone. _But because they were tougher than she thought, or because she isn't completely taken over yet?_ Another thought struck her. _And how suspicious is it going to be when four girls disappear from class and the Sailor Guardians appear just moments later? At least we're somewhat far away, it won't be that easy to put together, I hope. Still, more important things to worry about at the moment. Like whatever that is._

Sparkle and the others looked up, where a swirling gateway of darkness was forming above everyone. From it floated a beautiful woman in a long purple dress and flowing red hair, wearing a black tiara that sort of looked like a boomerang.

"Now children, please don't fight," said the figure sweetly. "You don't need to come to me, as I am happy to come you. Now that it seems you're all in one place at last, and I have enough energy to destroy you all in one shot. Thank you, my loyal soldiers, for all your hard work." Darkness began to gather around her, and she raised a hand, compressing it into a ball.

"Too slow, chicken marengo!" shouted Susan, flying up to her and swinging her blade violently against the woman. "Die Darkness!"

Sparkle quickly made a _Dimensional Sense_ check, getting a thirteen, which given the number of other worldly people nearby wasn't enough to pinpoint Beryl one way or the other. But she would have sworn the strongest 'pulse' if you will was coming from further behind her, through the open portal. (Which was still getting bigger, by the way.)

Beryl laughed as the sword crashed against her barrier harmlessly. "You can't hurt me, not with such a pathetic attack such as that. I have a message for you, Susan. Step up your game."

"Step up? I'll kill you!" She made several more slashing motions, trying to pierce the shield, but nothing worked.

"Is that the destroyer here?" asked one of the Tenma agents. "This isn't good."

"No it's not," agreed Dolands. "We should probably retreat for now."

"Don't you dare!" shouted Sparkle, stepping up. "You must have dimensional senses, right? Is that really the right person? Susan... can't be trusted right now. Figure it out on your own." _But wait, if she really was taken over, why attack herself? No, something else is going on here. But what? I don't know!_

Dolands looked up at the figure and the ever expanding darkness behind it. "No," he said at last, as Susan slashed again and again at the barrier around Beryl. "It's the thing behind her."

"Behind her!" shouted Sparkle, hoping Susan would hear. "Quick, Guardians, Tenma, attack it before its fully formed or whatever!"

The Tenma looked to their general, who nodded, and the Guardians all threw their attacks at the dark mass behind Susan, which struck and seemed to be absorbed.

A great laugh rolled out from the form, that now developed a sort of face, and it looked down upon them. "Yes," it called, "more energy! More power! I'll destroy you and then this entire world!"

"I think that's the destroyer," remarked one of the Tenma.

"No, you think?" asked Dolands. "Now what?"

"What were you saying about retreat?"

"No, no, please stay. In fact I insist. _Dimensional Lock."_ Energy swirled around the area, and Sparkle was pretty sure all forms of teleportation had just been cut off. "Now then, just a moment, will you? Beryl, are you just going to hold that energy all day or are you going to attack them with it? I'm not feeding you energy for your shield forever, you know."

Susan stopped swinging against it and looked between the two. She seemed confused.

"Yes. I'll destroy them right away, as you command." She raised the ball up a little higher, ready to throw. But she didn't. It looked like she was struggling with herself and Susan turned to look at where she was looking. Staring, really. She looked back and forth.

"Are you looking at Mamoru?" she asked, puzzled.

"Please don't make me destroy him," Beryl whimpered, a tear running down her cheek.

"Bah. I knew it would be a mistake to take you over. Good thing I didn't. Hey Susan, how've you been since you cut Luna down like an aged dog? Pretty good I expect?"

"You!" Susan flew at the figure and slashed at it, but it simply passed through. The Darkness roared with laugher again.

"And after all that knowledge I gave you about powers, have you thrown it all out the window? You can't touch me with that sort of attack. Now, let's see what this body can really do."

Dark energy lanced out, striking just about everyone in range apart from Beryl, Sailor Moon, Susan, Sparkle, and (I'm now calling him) Endymion. They got shields up, and started coordinating to stack a double shield in front of someone who would then serve as an attacker. But this seemed to just inflame the sense of humor of the cloud, who was also shrugging off Susan's _Elemental Sniper_ by just shutting it down between blasts.

 _There must be some other way,_ thought Sparkle hastily. _It has the power of thousands of people by now, how can we hope to even scratch it?_

Beryl, meanwhile, had put down her hand, and the ball of energy had winked out. She floated over to Endimion with hope in her eyes even as the elemental energies wielded by powerful beings rent the air around her.

"Endimion?" she asked tentatively. "Is... is that really you?"

"Beryl?" He seemed shocked as well.

"You _remember_ me? Oh my goodness!" Sparkle saw she was now acting more like a girl senpi had just noticed, blushing and wringing her hands. "I really didn't think you would."

"You- no." He took a step back. "You're the cause of the original attack! You stirred up the people didn't you? Why? How could you do that?"

The Darkness stopped the attack, simply drinking in the power the others were throwing at it. "Hey Susan," it taunted. "Want to know who so called 'queen' Beryl really is?"

"I don't much care right now."

"Oh, but you should. Here, I'll release my hold on her completely, how about that? Then she can tell you herself. Oh stop that," it said to the others. "Let her talk." They stopped attacking, and a hush fell over the area. Even the cries of babies seemed to fade, as Beryl seemed to take center stage in all this.

Susan turned, still keeping an eye out for possible attack, and Beryl staggered and fell to her knees in front of Endimion. "I'm just a peasant girl," she said mournfully. "A girl that lived on Earth and saw Endimion one day. And fell hopelessly in love with him."

Sailor Moon gasped, stepping up next to them. "What?"

"Yes. Does that shock you so, Serenity? For me to have heard what a kind and gentle man he was? To be close to him but unable to tell him my feelings? Because you know the woman he loves is _the moon princess herself!?_ The woman he's _forbidden_ from loving, but does so anyway? I knew my place, I knew my station. I knew I could never be with him, and I accepted that. But you! You got to break the rules because you were a _princess. You_ snuck down to Earth and got only a scolding. Endemion probably got a pat on the back by his father because he was a _man,_ and that sort of _conquest_ was almost to be expected of a man. But the moon was forever out of _my_ reach. Out of any of our reach on the Earth at that time. Don't you see, I had to do it. I _had_ to! And he remembered my name. I didn't think he even knew I was alive." Beryl's tears were spilling to the ground now, and her anger was spent. "And then the voice came to me. Told me how to unseal the creature, and what it promised me. That I could have a chance with him. That I could become queen, and change the rules so that everyone could love whoever they wanted. But it was all a lie."

"Before my time," admitted The Darkness, "but a gripping tale nevertheless, and honestly something I probably would have done anyway, given the chance. Probably why this form was so compatible with me, and how I could take it over so easily. Ah well."

"I forgive you."

The words Sailor Moon spoke rang in the sudden silence.

"What?" Beryl looked up as Sailor Moon dropped to her knees beside the would be queen. "You're right. It was selfish of me, and everyone told me that time and time again. Everyone on Earth loved Prince Endimion, but I tried to claim him as my own. That was wrong. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"I toppled your empire!" she protested. "You... You can't-"

Moon- no Serenity shook her head. "Whatever that creature is toppled my empire. You were just another pawn. And for that I do not blame you." She took Beryl's shoulders. "But you're here now, reborn, just as I was. Let go of any sins you may have done in the past, for they are gone, and I won't be selfish this time. Let's allow him the choice, okay? We'll become friends, and go on dates with him, and whoever he chooses now both of us accept because the choice _is_ his."

"You would... for me... Oh Princess!" The two embraced.

"How touching," rumbled The Darkness overhead. "But aren't you forgetting something? That new spell of yours, Susan, quite interesting. Wonder if I could do something similar?"

And with that, beams of dark energy shot out of nowhere and cut down the previous forces of The Darkness where they stood. The Darkness laughed and laughed as they fell, hardly believing it could be over so quickly.

 _So it was toying with them after all. But why?_

As she fell, Beryl seemed to gather all her remaining strength to whisper one word. "Forehead."

Then she fell, lifeless, into the arms of Sailor Moon.

Both she and Susan gave a wail of despair, and auras of power flicked to life around both. Somehow, Sparkle saw that Susan had been transformed, and a light, too bright to look at, shone about Sailor Moon.

"You'll pay for that," both promised, looking at The Darkness as it continued to laugh and laugh.


	159. Chapter 159

159

Not The End You Might Have Been Expecting

When: Just then

Where: The mall

Sparkle had hastily grabbed whatever powers she could as she felt Susan transforming, taking

Energy Well 4

Energy Siphon 2

Nature Primary: Metapower 2

Nature: Time 2

Nature: Force 2

 _I really need to find a way to get more points. Maybe I'll put some XP into powers or something... Not the time, Sparkle!_

The light faded around Sailor Moon, and the real Princess Serenity was standing there, gown and everything, and holding the Illusionary Silver Crystal in her hand.

"So that's where it was," remarked The Darkness. "Fine. I'll kill you and take it, a completed hyperlarcovite. Fantastic."

Susan, however, was blazing higher and higher, literally, as she was floating up in the air and surrounded by distortions of both _time_ and _force._ Sparkle's _power sense_ was like a thing alive, writhing within her like a hundred spiders beneath her skin.

 _What is she doing up there?_

"Strike at the point of light on the forehead," Sailor Moon called up to her. "I think that's the only point the creature is vulnerable." Sparkle looked, and yes, there did seem to be a crystal or something on the forehead of The Darkness. _What is this, a video game? The final boss only has one weak spot? That can't be right._ To the others she asked, "Anyone know how to use this crystal?"

"It's power," Sparkle called, running to her side. "Just will that energy into your body. Guardians, get ready to shield us with everything you have. Susan's doing something, I don't know what but it's not going to be pretty. Make the shields overlap and as big as you can make them."

They nodded and started gathering power.

"What are you going to do?" The Darkness taunted, now turned to watch Susan high above it. "Even throwing all your energy at me, do you really think it will matter?"

"I'm going to make you pay," Susan promised it. "Now and eternally. For all the things you've done, for all the things I've had to do because of you. For worlds that can no longer strike back, and for those yet to be tainted by your black touch. You will know eternal agony at my hands!"

 _Uh, that doesn't sound good._ She started gathering energy.

"Go ahead then, give me your best shot! But make it count, come on, show me what you can really do with all that power of yours!"

And suddenly, Sparkle was allowed to make an INSight check, which she got a pathetic seven on. She spent three XP to succeed, and suddenly realized what exactly might be going on.

 _How does The Darkness work? It seems to work through death, or rebirth, or some major event that changes a person's life. It doesn't just take over Sally Random from the street, it gets_ born _into a world by taking over a person of importance at a time of importance for that being. Nor can it just jump to another person if its about to be defeated, otherwise it would and we would never catch it. No, it can only really enter someone through a specific circumstance, linked mostly to emergence into the world like the ancient dragon or that weird space creature. I don't think its fully taken Susan over yet, but it's close. That's what this is- this whole world. It's basically throwing it away, manipulating events to get to this exact moment, and that's why it's so happy. That's why the_ taunting _checks._

 _Whatever Susan does on her action, I have to somehow counter it! If I don't... I might not ever get another chance._

"Regret your actions eternally in your own personal Hell!" Susan shouted. _"Recursive Repentance!"_ She threw a speck of light, warped time and all, at The Darkness. Sparkle spent an XP for an action, allowing her a second to think in _Paragon Time_ and come up with a strategy.

"Shield now!" she screamed for good measure, as that was a free action. _How do I counter this? What does_ recursive _even mean? I need a time technique to cancel out her time technique._ And suddenly Sparkle knew what to do. _"Recursive Revocation!"_ she shouted, throwing all the energy she had accumulated into this one technique. It covered the area, even as the shields flickered to life and tried to deflect the horrendous amount of energy now engulfing the entire area.

The Guardian's shield failed, one after another, but the one made by Princess Serenity, powered by the Crystal and her own will to protect those she loved, endured to the end.

Finally the terrible energies were spent, and Susan floated down in front of Sparkle. Her eyes were hard. "You worked against me," she said quietly. "Not coming here, that was fine. Thinking I was wrong? That was fine. But actively working against me? That I cannot allow. What do you have to say for- is that hyperlarcovite?" Her expression changed to one of pure greed. "Hand it over."

"No!"

"The things I could do with that energy. Give it to me! Now! I demand it!"

 _Okay, this has been taken far enough._ Sparkle glanced up at the ceiling, which now had a huge hole in it, and around at what was left of the mall. Where the girl's shields had been was mostly intact, but where they were not was demolished completely. _How many died?_ she wondered sadly. _And can their deaths be laid at my paws?_ But on the bright side, there was not trace of The Darkness, her attack had at least done that much. With her attention focused on Serenity, Sparkle slipped the communicator out of her _sub-space pocket_ and said two words to it.

"Red Alert."

"What did you-" Susan started to say, when a beam of energy lanced out of nowhere and simply whisked her away. The other stared at her.

"Look, I'm sorry about... everything," Sparkle said sadly, feeling years older at that moment. "I think something happened to her when she got powers. Something that's been growing inside her. Or changing her, at least, or it let something out. I don't know. But what The Darkness wanted didn't happen, so I think there's still a chance. Her attack, at least the time part, fizzled, so it was just a regular explosion."

"What was that attack supposed to do?" asked Sailor Jupiter. "It wasn't like anything I've ever seen."

"I heard her say recursive," said Sailor Mercury. "That's a programming term relating to an algorithm that functions by calling itself over and over, with an exit condition allowing the loop to end so it doesn't run infinitely."

The others stared at her. "Can I get that in Japanese?" asked Rei.

"I'll explain it later."

"Yeah, it seems we have some cleanup to do, and maybe some rescues to effect," said Venus, looking around at the devastation.

"We'll help," said Dolands.

"And then what?" asked Sparkle.

He sighed. "We'll leave. I understand now. She wasn't our enemy, and the destroyer _can_ be beaten. If you're willing to go far enough." He too looked over the rubble. "Perhaps it's time to stop using the excuse we're looking for energy and maybe look for _allies_ instead. You've given me a lot to think about."

"That sounds about right. Look, I better get going. I've had Susan imprisoned by the people that sent us here, and I doubt she's going to be happy about it. I better go see what's up with her."

"Thanks for looking out for us," said Serenity, holding the crystal tightly. "I hope your friend turns out to be okay."

"Hey, she has me. What better friend can someone have than a cat?"

"A cat? Luna!? Where's Luna!?"

Sparkle laughed. "She stepped out about a half hour before this all happened. She's fine, she'll be annoyed she missed it. But at least you've got a-" _A neat story to tell her._ Sparkle looked over at the bodies of the 'dark kingdom' members. "Well, anyway. Good luck, okay?"

"Thanks."

"See you. Hub, I'm ready for transport."

A window of light opened near Sparkle, and putting the communicator back she nodded to the girls one last time, and stepped through.

Looking about, she found herself in a familiar setting, the cells they had been brought to the very first time they had come to the Hub, what felt like years ago. She looked up to see Silverstreak standing there, his blank face still somehow radiating concern as he stood, arms folded and looking at something. She turned and there was Susan, obviously ranting away and trying to get though the barrier with her sword. She saw Sparkle and pointed, then shouted something unheard.

"She's calling you a traitor and such," Silverstreak said dryly. "I can restore the audio if you prefer. I felt she didn't have anything worthwhile to say at the moment, and when she snaps out of it, less apologizing to do as we didn't hear her ranting."

"That's fine. How is she?"

"Tough to say," he admitted. "I see your concerns were valid, in any case. We've been getting things ready on this end, and she's here, so let's get this started."

"Get what started?"

"In a word? Her trial."

He stepped forward and put a hand on the barrier, making it drop. Susan eyed him like a caged beast.

"I can't believe you would go that far," she angrily said to Sparkle. "Yanking me back here like that? Inconceivable! And you had that set up beforehand, that much is clear. Have you been talking to him behind my back?"

"And what about you?" Sparkle shot back, ignoring the question. "What was that last technique? Something to do with time, anyway. I'm glad I thought of something to counter it, though I really can't say what it was."

"You'll find that to be the case," Silverstreak mentioned. "You need a technique, and the technique will be there. You don't have to understand the intricacies of time, space, reality, dimension, etc. to use techniques relating to them. Just think about what you want it to do, and let the power do what it needs to. You're just a conduit. The name will follow."

"Nice to know."

"Don't you ignore me!"

"My apologies, Susan. That was not my intent. Or should I call you Darkvoid at the moment?"

"Just what do you think is going on here?"

"That's what I'm here to find out. Luna, you can come in now, she seems to have calmed down a little."

And from the end of the hallway stepped Luna. Not cat Luna. Not human Luna. Pony Luna. Shimmery mane, strong spiral horn, feathers and coat as inky as the midnight hour of a new moon. Hooves that shone like pearls as she stepped forward towards Susan, who dropped the sword and took a step back. "No," she whispered. "I killed you."

"Indeed," said Luna, taking another step. "I heard you had to kill another version of me that Darkvoid had taken over. That couldn't have been easy."

"Easy? I still have nightmares about it. What... what are you going to do?" She took another step back as Luna took another forward. "You want revenge? Is that what this is all about? Have you all been plotting behind my back?"

"Nightmares? How fitting, as I am the night mare. But no, I am not here for revenge against my other self. I am here for you, to ease your mind. Closure, I think it is called. Come, touch me. Don't be afraid. I'm real, and I'm alive. One of me may be dead but you still know, in your heart, that there are countless mare- sorry more of me. I am your proof of that."

"I'm not afraid of anything." Susan bumped up against the back of the cell, and Luna was right in front of her now.

"You seem a little nervous." Luna grinned. "Come on, I'm a very busy mare. Or would you prefer if I just ran you through with my horn? Your powers don't work here, that includes your magic. You're just plain old Susan now, no _Giant's Soul_ to protect you."

"If... if that is what you want."

"Really?"

Susan nodded and clenched her eyes shut. "You... you have the right."

"Oh Susan, you really think I would do that? Come here."

And Susan wept, holding Luna tight, repeating how she didn't want to kill any more, and how she regretted killing her, and just babbling.

"Shhh, shhh, there, there," said Luna, stroking her hair with her hands. _Wait, what?_ "Sleep now, little one. When you awake, everything will be all right. I promise."

Susan closed her eyes, and went peacefully to sleep.

With that Luna carefully bent and placed her on the bed that appeared in the cell, and turned to Silverstreak.

"Was that okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "She passed. Good. Now the hard part begins."

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Sparkle. "Why are you human now?"

"I'm always human," teased Luna with a grin. "I am going to miss those wings though," she remarked wistfully, looking at her back.

"She's an agent of mine," explained Silverstreak. "She comes from a world near the one you went to, but of course very few worlds evolved the particular creatures that one did. This is a human version of Luna, but I thought she would be enough to see how far gone Susan was. Of course, we needed pony version so I took a few liberties. I may not have Inari's grasp of magic but I get by."

"And this showed hope isn't lost?"

"Exactly. She reacted more like Susan than like Darkvoid when she got a big shock like this, so she's still in there someplace. All we have to do is get her out."

"How?"

"Her dreams are troubled, that much I could tell," offered Luna. "But just calming those will not be enough. Her problem lies deeper."

"Quite. So it falls to you, Sparkle."

"Me?"

"Of course. Who better?"

"But how?"

He laughed. "Have you forgotten?" Suddenly the book of magic was out, open to the soul spells Susan had twice used to enter someone's inner landscape and poke around.

"How did you get that book?"

"You do recall what I am, right? A higher dimensional being. Those objects in your various dimensions may be rotated out of your perception but I can see them just fine."

 _Oh right, like how The Darkness got the Black Materia out. Duh._

"Sorry, it's all happening a little too fast, I can't keep up. So you want me to go inside her soul and see what's going on."

"Got it in one. I won't go, for obvious reasons, the least of which is the piece of The Darkness may just kill her out of spite if I tried to go in there. No one else around here knows her well enough, not only to navigate her inner landscape but to convince her once they find her they're not just another part of her psyche."

"What should I expect?"

He shrugged. "I certainly don't know. The soulscape is ever changing, based on mood, interests, feelings, everything. You would know better than I."

 _Expect the unexpected, in other words._ "Very well. Prop it up so I can read the spell over and let's do this thing."

"You could have a rest if you wanted, you don't have to go immediately."

She shook her head sadly. "My Susan is in there. Every moment I delay may be another moment she slips a little further away. Especially now that the- that Darkvoid knows I'm coming in after it."

"But I can just put you in another part of the Hub where time doesn't pass relative to where she is. You could spend weeks and come back here just a few seconds from now."

"Oh. Still, I couldn't sleep knowing she was in trouble."

"Okay. Good. You have a strong desire to help, you'll probably need it."

"I won't be attacked, will I?"

"Like I said, I have no idea. The part of her that is Darkvoid could very well attack you the moment you went in. To be safe I would expect an attack, though you can't exactly carry any maintained spells in with you."

"I do have one other concern. The first time we did this, it was with Tom. He had to sacrifice himself to drive off Darkvoid."

"Different situation. She's more than likely just being held someplace, like in some kind of metaphysical cell. Free her, and she can do the rest herself."

"I get it. Thanks," she said to Luna.

"Of course. We'll be right here. Good luck." She bent down to scratch Sparkle's ears, who read the spell over and cast it, going into Susan in hopes of freeing her.

"Come on sleepy head!" Sparkle found herself being shaken awake, and opened her eyes to see Susan staring down at her.

 _Wow, that was easier than I thought. Am I just that good?_

"Finally up, huh? And I thought I was hard to wake up. Come on, we don't want to miss the train!"

 _Train?_

Sparkle blinked as Susan started tearing her pajamas off, and noticed a few peculiar things.

First, she was back in Susan's room from when she was a little kid.

Second, Susan was a little kid for some reason.

Third, she had the orb she had gotten from Luna stuck in her chest, swirling colors and dark streak just as she remembered it.

"Which do you think?" Susan asked her, holding an outfit in each hand. "This one?" She put them both across herself. "Or this one?"

"Susan? What exactly are you doing?"

She rolled her eyes. " _Trying_ to dress for the train ride, if a certain magical talking kitty would help me. Come on, this is serious stuff!"

"Uh, the second one?"

"I thought so too! I'm so excited!" She started getting dressed, and Sparkle looked around.

 _Looks just like her room all right. But she's out here running around, not chained anywhere. So how does this all relate to The Darkness taking her over? Silverstreak said to expect strangeness, but this... I figured it would be more like walking through Harry, and having to piece her together or something. I guess here I have to snap her out of this or something?_

"How do I look?" Susan spun around and Sparkle glanced over at her.

"Fine."

"No, come on Sparkle. Spot me! How do I look? Is everything okay?"

 _Just use a... Just..._ There was something Sparkle was missing, something the room was missing, but she couldn't exactly put a paw on it. She looked Susan up and down. "You look fine. You need to brush your hair though."

"Oh my gosh, see this is why I have you around. Where's my brush, it must be here someplace. Don't tell me I already packed- no here it is. Whew. Okay, how am I doing?"

 _No seriously, there must be a better way to do this. Why can't I think of it? What is missing from this room?_

With that done, Susan skipped out of her room and downstairs, presumably to eat breakfast.

 _This is not going to be straightforward... is it? And don't forget I'm totally on my own. I can't exactly ask Susan for help saving herself. I need to figure out what all this means and then somehow act on it to break her out of it._

 _Bloody fantastic._

Techniques used in this chapter:

Recursive Explosion

Force/Time

Level 16 (8+4+2+2) Attack + Effect, Medium, M

A standard force explosion attack, with the added effect that whatever it hits is caught in the explosion again and again, doing normal damage while the technique is maintained.

Recursive Revocation

Metapower/Time

Level 8 (4+2+2) Effect, Medium, M

Cancel the effect of any other temporal technique in the area. The technique goes off once, but only once no matter what.


	160. Chapter 160

160

A Very Magical Girl

When: About an hour later

Where: Train station

It got better. Which is to say, worse. Which is really the opposite of better, don't know why the word "better" got written there.

Sparkle had no magic.

Nor did she have a character sheet, a _Paragon_ sense of time allowing her to think about things while people sort of stood 'frozen' in the moment, nothing. What she did have was a vague sense of being watched, and the nagging feeling she was missing something important. Susan and her mother both said "spot me" after breakfast, and looked each other over to make sure they didn't have jam or something on their chins, and Stacy (yes, that's her mother's name. Don't feel bad I had to look it up myself it's been so long) drove them to the train station.

Sparkle had tried one other test, in desperation, and _it_ at least worked. She could summon things from Susan's memories just as they had summoned things (like the Hogwarts Express) from Harry's memory. As Susan had spent literal days (if you added all the hours up) making _Spell Papers,_ she could basically get any spell Susan had made in the past. That made her feel a little better, but not much. She couldn't do _Magic Sense,_ the _Spirit Mage_ stuff like _Spirit Step,_ nothing. She was a talking cat and not much more.

Of course, she could summon up Susan's _imbued_ items as well, but short of holding them in her mouth, carrying a _materia_ like _imbuing_ around was going to be a hassle. And she could only get one thing at a time, probably because she could really only focus on one thing at a time.

 _Oh, if only I could get_ Multitasker _while I was in here. Oh well._

So Susan and Harry chatted on the way to the station, and Sparkle noticed another change. It seemed Susan didn't have magic either! At least she didn't throw the stuff around like she used to, at the very least at this point in her timeline she would have thrown the luggage into some kind of _Pocket Dimension,_ as she had access to that at least. But no book of magic, no talk of her father, no magic of any kind done.

 _So weird. Is this some kind of bizzaro version of her? Is this how The Darkness is keeping her trapped? Some kind of fantasy world where she didn't have magic? Too early to tell I guess, but still, she's on the train, so she must have magic. Does she have_ wand _magic now? Ugh._

Stacy seemed to be having trouble driving, always having to twist around to look behind her when making various lane changes, but it seemed everyone else was in the same boat, and did the same thing. Other than that, the scene was as Sparkle remembered it. The drive, talking to Harry about school, and there was the station, right on schedule.

They then stood around until again, right on schedule, the Weasley family showed up and showed them through the barrier. Neville immediately complained about his lost toad, Sparkle knew just where to go, toad and Neville reunited, train.

Boom.

"So you two are neighbors?" asked Ron, looking between Harry and Susan. "Have you known each other long?"

Harry barked a laugh. "Since I was seven or eight, I think it was. I saw her climbing into her bedroom window one night and-" He froze and clapped his hands over his mouth. "I mean to say, she had a ladder and everything, she wasn't flying! Hahahahha. Oh no I've screwed it all up haven't I?" He looked fearfully at Susan.

 _What's this?_

She sighed. "You know, if Superman had friends like you, he wouldn't have been Clark Kent a day before the whole world knew it."

"Who?" asked Ron.

Sparkle fought down a chuckle. _Didn't realize how much I actually missed that._

"Never mind. I suppose the whole school will find out sooner or later. The truth is, I don't have magic as such, apparently. I have something... different."

Sparkle's ears perked up, and she opened an eye. _This is new- and potentially very valuable information._

"What do you mean?"

Susan shrugged and pulled down the top of her shirt. "Take a look."

Ron's eyes immediately closed. "My mom said I shouldn't ever look at that part of a girl or I might turn to stone!"

"I don't think that's what she meant, and your mother has a very dirty mind. Come on, just look."

He opened his eyes a crack and then stared at the orb. "What is that?"

"The source of my powers," Susan answered simply. "Basically, thanks to Sparkle here, I can transform into a magical girl! Sparkle, introduce yourself, it doesn't seem like any secrets are going to last long around here."

"Hello." She raised a paw.

"Huh. A talking cat. Or is that all she says?"

"Oh, I can talk," Sparkle answered with a yawn. "But we cats do have a reputation for aloofness to uphold, you know." _And I'm trying to get the whole story here, so go back to it and stop focusing on me!_

"I suppose. So what does your cat have to do with it?"

"Well," she started, leaning in and lowering her voice. "One day Sparkle came to me and told me I was the chosen champion of love and justice. I didn't believe her of course, but then she made me this orb. When I picked it up it bonded to me, and I've been using my powers to help people out on the sly every since."

"So what can you do?" asked Ron, eyes wide.

"Oh, a little bit of everything. I basically get to choose a bunch of powers each time I transform. It's pretty fun, actually."

Ron leaned back in the seat, looking Susan over. "So why come to Hogwarts?" he asked at last.

"Honestly? Because they aren't sure what to do with me. See, Harry's guardians treated him quite badly for a number of years, and I was tired of it, you see? So I... and I'm not proud of this or anything... basically beat the ever living crap out of all three of them. I lose my temper sometimes, it's not pretty. Well, obviously Albus, that's the headmaster of the school, got wind that his 'charge' Harry Potter was about to be moved into some sort of temporary care while the Dursley family recovered in the hospital. I sort of felt bad, so I went to the place that night and healed them, figuring that would be the end of it. Nope. Albus showed up the next day and wanted to know what in the world was going on, so I told him."

"I still remember the looks on their faces," Harry said with a shake of his head. "Especially when she showed them that piece of the moon she went to get."

"You've been to the moon?" Ron squeaked.

"Yeah. Took ages to fly there, but getting back was a cinch. They wanted to know just exactly how powerful I was, so I showed them."

"That really rattled them," Harry admitted.

"What did you do?"

Susan looked down at her hands. "I sort of blew up a mountain."

"Sort of? How do you 'sort of' blow up a mountain?"

"Okay, I blew it all the way up, okay? They took me to a mountain range no one would miss, and I blew it up for them. Strangely they were very, very nice to me after that. But they said I should come to their school so they could study my powers, but really they want to keep an eye on me. At least that's what Sparkle said. Personally I think I should just be out there, being a super hero and helping people that need it. But he says my powers are like magic and that's bad for the magical community, for questions like that to be raised. But at the moment I don't know what magic can do, so it seemed foolish to press the issue. Sparkle said watch and learn, don't get into a fight with hundreds or thousands of wizards until you know how you can win it. So here I sit, not using my considerable powers for anything. What a waste."

"Perhaps, but I'm sure I was right," Sparkle said, knowing this version of her had said no such thing. "Don't give them any more reason to fear you and in a couple of years they'll believe you can be trusted and not worry so much about you. Then you can discuss how to best use your powers in a way that won't make them come after you."

"You blew up-"

"Yes, yes, can we get past that?"

"How could you have so much power? Where does it come from?"

"I don't know. Sparkle won't tell me."

"Sorry, magical talking cat companion trade secret." _The devil._

"Anyway, I could ask you where magic comes from! I mean you what, wave a wand around and say some stuff, and something happens? It's so implausible, no wonder no one believes in it. Is that really any more amazing than what you heard me do? It's just a matter of scale, after all."

"I suppose."

Sparkle didn't hear any other useful information, and the train pulled into Hogwarts after Hermione and Draco stopped by and such.

Hagrid met them as usual, and Sparkle started to get nervous as the boats drew near the castle. _If this is following the 'script' of what happened the first time we came here, she's going to get attacked. Last time I saved her with_ Deflection, _but I don't have that now and it's never been put in a_ spell paper. _What am I going to do this time?_

Hagrid asked about repairing her wand, which Susan said she could do, no problem, and the group moved towards the castle. _Probably using_ Transition _or something. Wait a second, how far can I take this whole pulling stuff out of her memories?_

"Just a second, I'll be right back," she said, and took off into the bushes.

"Must have to do a kitty bury something thing," remarked Susan.

 _More like a saving your life sort of thing. Come on, work!_ Sparkle willed it, and to her delight a portal appeared in the air, leading into the castle. _Yes! She's seen enough of these to recall it, now let's see..._ She jumped through, into the hallway that overlooked the entranceway and let it go. _Because I'm going to need something else here. What would be most effective? We never figured out who it was, so it'll probably just come from here or something? How detailed is this? Is there an invisible person standing by the window at this very moment? Guess we'll see._ So Sparkle dropped gallons of paint on the spot, and was interested to see a form thrashing about and speeding away, trailing paint as it went. _Seems to have worked._ She stopped maintaining the paint, made sure Susan was past the window, and went back outside.

Then back inside again. With no attack on her life, the feast went smoothly, everyone was sorted, and Sparkle was brooding about what this all meant. She hadn't really seen any sign of The Darkness, or anything out of the ordinary. Apart from the fact this was all happening inside Susan, of course.

 _Wait a second! What if this tiny Susan is some kind of ruse? Like I'm supposed to be distracted by this one running around while the real one is in the dungeon somewhere? I'll check the castle out tonight, top to bottom. I doubt I need sleep here, inside Susan's soul. If I find nothing I'll just confront her about it and see what she says._

Susan followed the pattern of going to the headmaster's office to talk about her schedule. She wasn't going to take any magic classes, of course, leaving her with little to do when it came right down to it, but Albus believed things like Arthimancy could make up for it. "There's always more to learn, after all," he chuckled.

And so Susan went to bed. Sparkle, true to her intent to explore the castle, did so. She found a curious phenomenon, that any area of the castle Susan hadn't actually gone to was either just straight out missing, warped, or a copy of another part of the castle and just sort of fit however it could be fit. There were very few areas like that of course, as Susan had basically poked her nose in everywhere, but things like boys bathrooms and the Quidditch field she hated were not filled in. There was no sign of any chained up Susan anywhere, and as dawn arrived, Sparkle went to go talk to Susan.

"Can we talk?" she asked.

"Of course! What's up?"

"I'm not sure how to say this- you realize none of this is real, right?"

Susan laughed. "I get what you mean. It doesn't seem real to me either. I mean a school for magic? Me with powers? What's it all mean?"

"No, I mean us. This place. It's all in your memory. Susan, you have to snap out of it, give me a sign or something. The Darkness is eating you up and I have to save you. Tell me how I can do that. Please! Even a hint, something. I don't know what to do!"

"The Darkness? What are you talking about?"

"You must remember. Look!" Sparkle concentrated, and Tom appeared. "Don't you remember? Tom? Got taken over by The Darkness? Tried to take over the world? You shot him, it didn't work out. You went into his soul-"

Susan had been looking horrified at this by degrees, and as Sparkle said "soul" she screamed and the castle seemed to shatter away, leaving darkness and silence around Sparkle.

 _That didn't exactly go as-_

"Come on sleepy head!" Sparkle found herself being shaken awake, and opened her eyes to see Susan staring down at her.

 _Wow, that was easier than I thought. Am I just that good?_

"Finally up, huh? And I thought I was hard to wake up. Come on, we don't want to miss the train!"

 _Train?_

Sparkle blinked as Susan started tearing her pajamas off, and noticed a few peculiar things.

First, she was back in Susan's room from when she was a little kid.

Second, Susan was a little kid for some reason.

Third- _Wait a second. I've done all this before. Did I just... crash Susan? And that brought us back here? Is_ that _the prison The Darkness has devised? Just revert her and make her live events over and over while it controls her actions externally?_

"Which do you think?" Susan asked her, holding an outfit in each hand. "This one?" She put them both across herself. "Or this one?"

"Eh, go with the first one. For the variety." _And I see the orb now, that I'm looking for it. Weird._

"Really? Okay, you're the boss!"

 _Thank goodness I only have to relive a day..._

Which Sparkle did. Exactly the same things happened, in exactly the same way. Finally she "caught back up" with herself the next morning, and decided _not_ to repeat that experiment again. She found she wasn't compelled to do anything such thing, meaning if she did 'crash' Susan again by accident she could try something else, and wasn't locked into a loop. She didn't bother checking the castle over again, but went outside instead.

 _I have to do something to knock her out of this, but not knock her back to the start. That thing I'm missing, that everyone is missing around here, must be the key. If only I could remember! Come on, Susan, I know you're still in here someplace, fighting. Is this some kind of clue? Help me out here._

She tried to travel back to Susan's house, maybe look for clues there, but found she couldn't. In fact any distance away from the castle simply trailed off into darkness, getting less and less distinct as she went.

 _Because there's less and less information to draw from relating to these places, I bet. So the answer is here, somewhere. Unless again, it's out there in the dark someplace, in which case I'll never find it. I have to believe it's around here. The key or clue or whatever I need to do to reach the real Susan._ She stared out at the complete blackness beyond the range of the castle. _Is that The Darkness out there, encroaching? Is this castle your doing, Susan? The place you feel you know well and can defend? The last bit of light inside your soul?_

"Keep fighting, Susan. I'm right here beside you, and I won't let The Darkness claim you, not now, and not ever."

Sparkle turned, and missed a little more of the castle grounds being lit as she walked away.

The next stop on Sparkle's tour of memory was the hut, where Susan had promised the night before to fix Rubeus' wand for him.

"So I guess I have to transform for you guys," Susan said, color in her cheeks. "It's sort of embarrassing, but a promise is a promise."

"We can make the boys wait outside," suggested Hermione.

Susan waved her off. "It's okay. They'll see it sooner or later I guess. Here goes." She touched the orb and threw her right hand high in the air. (It was still attached to her arm, don't worry, she's not a robot or something, it's just a figure of speech.) "Throw chaos to the world! _Make Up!"_ Color and power swirled around her, and she was standing there awkwardly in her fuku.

 _And I get... nothing. Amazing. I suppose it's to be expected, given she isn't actually transforming. If we treat this more like a dream state, she could use her powers without 'transforming' if she was aware of this being her own soulscape. Plus object summoning like I can do, and probably more given she's basically the deity of her own inner reality. But reminding her seems to throw us back to the start, so let's not do that. We'll play it out and figure this puzzle out one step at a time._

"Well, stop gawking and let's see this wand of yours!" Susan demanded. Rubeus brought out the pieces, and Susan looked them over.

"It's been a while, when I snapped that other guy's wand I put it right back with a _time_ technique, rewinding time for it a few seconds. But don't worry, I have a few ideas, so I took all kinds of natures and no actual powers this time, so one way or another it should work. Let's try this to start: _Ultimate Repair!"_

Naturally, for a technique named _ultimate repair_ to fail would be quite astonishing, so it worked. Rubeus picked it up and tried it, and again things seemed fine with it.

"Great. Let's have it again, I want to do something else to it. In fact, everyone get out your wands and I'll treat them too."

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked suspiciously, gripping his tightly.

"Make them unbreakable, it'll just take a second."

So Susan used a _Protection_ technique named _"Fire Immunity"_ to make them never catch fire, and then a _Transition_ technique called " _Indestructibility"_ to give the object unlimited _DC._ (Damage Capacity, not the comic company)

"There, now they can't be burned or snapped, the two things that usually happen to wands, I would imagine."

"What else can you do?" Rubeus asked, impressed.

"I did notice you had a garden outside, and I did take _Nature_ nature, so let's see."

They went outside and she used a _Nature_ technique to make everything ripen and grow quickly, then put _Fire Immunity_ on the hut itself.

She showed them various other things, but Sparkle had lost interest. She had gotten what she needed from the event. She knew she wouldn't get powers and would have to rely on just summoning things from Susan's memory to do any "magic" and that she had a slightly different trigger phrase for the orb.

 _Do these things even matter? Perhaps not, but I'm working blind here. Putting this puzzle together without seeing the box, and I can't tell which are the edge pieces._

That night, as Sparkle thought about it, she tried to recall their first year in school so she could anticipate any problems. Susan wasn't going to potions class, making technological items for her, like the shotgun or Makoto's teleportal object was a matter of just wanting to. She could transform and have them created and powered in moments. Plus there was no way to disguise the procedure like she tried originally for her imbuing of that first potion.

 _Ugh, curing Neville, what about- I'm an idiot, he doesn't actually exist here who cares if he's cured or not?_

Then there was broomstick flying, again something she's not going to take because she's not trying to fit in, though we all know how long that lasted before.

 _Then there was curing his parents, again pointless inside her, and after that they started battle training with the guy who turned out to have the ring with a soul shard inside it. She is taking that class, if only to learn about the various dangers of the wizard's world. I can see that going just about the same way._

 _In other words, he's going to reveal her secret and that's going to be a problem._


	161. Chapter 161

161

Quirinus Still Explains Things

When: "Days" later

Where: Practice field

Events continued normally for the most part, with one exception. It took a few days, but Susan's "peers" finally realized she wasn't taking any magic classes, and started whispering about why she was even there in the first place. No one got in her face about it, and she had her friends from before so she wasn't too worried, but Sparkle was certainly curious about what was going to happen after Harry demanded better training and Quirinus agreed.

Sparkle had been watching him closely, as he did still have the ring on. She wondered if this was Susan's 'jailer' for the duration, as it was the closest thing her memory would have at this time of a piece of The Darkness. But as with the rooms and outside the castle, the fuzzier Susan's understanding of his behavior was, the fuzzier he got. Sometimes he would just freeze in place in his office, sometimes he would loop again and again doing some weird thing. Then suddenly be walking down the hallway to class.

It freaked Sparkle out to see it, but it seemed everyone was the same way, so she finally got used to it. At this point, he was animated as his classes were now gathered out in the field about to participate in their first battle magic class.

"What about her?" asked Draco, pointing to Susan after the pairs were selected. "Why is she even here if she can't do magic?"

"Can't do magic?" Quirinus asked, shocked. "You are being extremely rude, Draco, apologize immediately."

"Why should I? It's true. She's not in any magic class, not even potion making. She's a squib or something."

"Squib? Are you nuts? I'm sorry about him, Susan, please just try and remain calm while I sort this out, okay?"

"It's fine."

"No, it's not. Draco, are you telling me you really don't know?"

"Know what?"

"That every day, even standing here now she's risking her very life to keep you safe!"

"What?" Everyone in the class reacted predictably to that statement.

"They didn't tell you. Typical. Probably didn't want you to worry. But if rumors like 'Susan doesn't have magic' are going to circulate, maybe telling you is for the best. Susan, would you be okay with it?"

"I guess if you think it's okay."

"Very well. Gather round, have a seat, and I'll tell you the story. It's kind of a long one, and it starts long, long ago." When everyone was settled, he took on a storyteller's tone and walked the edge of the circle, looking at each person as he passed.

"Long, long ago in history, when giants and dragons and all manner of brutish beasts roamed the lands, something else made itself known as well. In those days, humans were few and magic was all but unknown, and those humans that did exist labored under the terrible gaze of _the demons_. These were beings of power and avarice, enslaving and taking what they wanted with little regard for lesser beings such as ourselves. Among them was Darkbolt, demon of Darkness, spreading fear and hatred wherever he went. War, that caused all upon the Earth to strive for battle, and Death, which followed them both and reaped the souls of man for its own amusement.

"But there was one demon, mightier even than these, more terrifying than any other. The demon of Chaos. Even other demons dared not cross paths with this one, who roamed the lands at random, sewing disorder wherever it stepped. While the other demons had their domain, and could be counted on to act a certain way in relation to their purview, this demon was different. For example Death did not care about buildings or structures upon the Earth, but War would smash them as a matter of course, as that is what war does. Chaos may help you, hurt you, turn you into a duck, or ignore you completely. This is what made it so dangerous.

"Now some say magic was brought to us by the Angels, others say man developed it himself in defense, no one can truly say. Perhaps the demons themselves gave it to us for their own amusement or to use us as soldiers to try and take Chaos down. For even they grew tired of it poking around and being random all the time. It is enough to know that magic did develop and we turned it upon the demons in a terrible war. But no matter what we tried, the demons would. Not. Fall.

"Eventually, all hope lost, a witch or wizard decided if the demons could not be killed, perhaps instead they could simply be trapped, locked away from the world to bother us no more. And so a plan was hatched. One by one the demons were sealed, then hidden away where no man might again release them for his own gain. But one demon, Chaos, of course, was too powerful even for this. He railed against the walls of his prison. He rattled the chains that bound him to their breaking point. He threatened to escape his confinements, and swore revenge on the wizards that thought to control such a primal force of the universe.

"And so was born the Chaos Keeper. The purpose of the Chaos Keeper is two fold. First, to use their own will to shore up the walls of the Chaos demon's prison, keeping it in check. And the second, to bleed off that power so it can never gather enough to even consider escaping again. To become a Chaos Keeper is to take a great risk, that your will may not be enough, and the demon may smash through you at any moment, returning to wreck vengeance upon the world. At that time you don't just die, you die knowing you have failed in the most important task any person can be called upon to do. Thus, all the magic this person might do is redirected inward, keeping the doors to the prison closed and safe. Rather than being directed outward as we all do with our wand waving. No magic indeed!" He pointed to Susan with pride. "This is the person you whisper about and mock with your petty minded thinking. This is the person who was chosen, above all others, to bear this terrible burden. Susan Felton- the Chaos Keeper."

There was silence as the entire student body looked over at Susan, who gave a little wave.

"What- what if it gets out?" asked someone.

"It did once," replied Quirinus. "A tiny, tiny piece of it. But Susan has been given special training in restraining it again, as breaking the seal around the prison is not easy, even for a demon. If it escapes, we can only hope Susan's will is great enough to prevail in the end."

"What happened?"

"Would you like to tell them?"

"I suppose they should know. It's part of the reason I'm here. It was just after I met Harry Potter. He was telling me about the horrible treatment given to him by his relatives, and something in me snapped. I let the demon out and it helped me nearly slaughter his entire family in minutes."

Everyone gasped and scrambled away from her.

"It's under control again, don't worry!" she assured them. "It won't happen again, I promise."

"Prove it," sneered Draco. "It's a weird story, and I've never heard it before. Do you have any proof that what you say is true?"

Susan, never really being one for modesty or good sense, shrugged her robe off and pulled off her shirt. "Is this enough proof for you, Draco?" she asked. Everyone leaned closer, trying to get a good look at the orb. "Or perhaps I should call upon the demon's power right now, demonstrate for you what I can do?"

"It won't, uh, get away from you?"

"Scared? Don't be. Like I said, I control it, and I carefully rebuilt the walls of my will that keep it trapped. Think of this more like a window, that it can use to look out onto the world while I make it dance on a puppet's strings." She did her transformation routine and shouted her phrase; "Throw Chaos to the world, _Make Up!"_

And her fuku appeared, clothing her again.

"That's your demon form?" Draco exclaimed, surprised.

"I want to seem non-threatening right now. Perhaps you would be more at ease if I covered myself in razor blades or something?"

"No, no, this is fine."

"Satisfied, everyone?" Quirinus asked. Everyone nodded. "Good. Now Susan, how would you feel about taking on the entire third year class..."

This Susan was as cocky as ever, and accepted, so Sparkle watched as she created a shield with a _Creation_ technique, put on _Velocity,_ and then created a _knockout_ sword. She flew about the field, knocking spells aside and smacking them with the blade. It looked like she was having fun, and Sparkle shook her head.

 _Of course, on some level is this a dream for her, so naturally she's going to want to live out certain fantasies. That shield doesn't seem like a bad idea, at least against spell casters. Stuff like the killing curse would just bounce off, it has to hit the person to actually work. I bet it would work against stunners and such too. Wonder why we never thought of that before? Oh well. Interesting tale this "Quirinus" came up with this time. She's combined what she heard from the Tenma general, and possibly her own theories about her powers, and come up with something the 'others' would believe. Doesn't get me closer to figuring out where she really is, but at least this event is over._

 _And what's the next one? Getting attacked in the halls? Think so, and I'm not sure they'll survive it this time. But I suppose they would have to, they did before. I wonder, if I made a major chance around here would it just get incorporated or 'crash' Susan again and reset us. This is already taking too much time, though probably only seconds have passed outside considering where I am. Best not to chance it. Plus, how long exactly has it been? This place is dreamlike in more than one way, unimportant events are seemingly glossed over and take no time. Though it was like a week or two in the original timeline to get to this point, it feels like only moments have passed. Very weird._

The next major event was getting attacked in the halls, but it never came. Sparkle realized that now her secret had been revealed and she was walking around transformed most of the time, no one wanted to risk the 'demon' getting out and so they didn't risk attacking her. Of course this meant she didn't see the three headed dog, but that was no big deal. Susan didn't get asked to provide additional protections for the stone, though she probably could have, and finally it was time for the troll attack.

"Susan, perhaps you would like to go down and deal with the troll?" asked Albus when the news was given.

"I would be delighted!" she answered, and sped down the corridor.

"Wait, they're extremely dangerous... and she's gone."

Sparkle followed. Once she reached where it was, she peaked around the corner and seemed to be studying the beast, then nodded and shifted her powers.

This was something she seemed to have learned while walking around transformed most of the time. Sparkle had noticed her using the ability before, where she simply stood still a moment and her clothes changed, meaning her abilities did too. Sparkle would have said she would need to untransform first, then transform again, but apparently not.

 _Is she just getting better at it, or is that something she can just do here, or is something else going on? If she was being taken over, and she obviously was, it makes sense she wouldn't have been able to use the full abilities of her new powers. I guess once we get out of here she can try it and see. No sense worrying about it now._

 _What I would like to worry about now is maybe she got_ wrong _information about her powers and didn't realize it, because The Darkness didn't allow her to while it was taking her over. So perhaps part of this is also experimentation, seeing for herself what she can do._

She was surprised to see her gripping an enormous sword and wondered how she was holding it up, given she shouldn't have her _Materia_ at the moment.

That done, she whispered _"Oracle's Eyes,"_ and stepped out from behind the corner. The troll, which looked larger, nastier, and uglier than the original one the team had fought sighted her. Sparkle wondered if this one would also back down after spouting a bunch of gibberish. It was an ugly green color and carried a stone club, and that's really the amount of detail Sparkle wished to gain from looking at the thing.

At the moment it brought up the club and Susan smirked at it. _"Unmovable,"_ she intoned, raising a hand across her body.

 _Wham!_ The club came down, smashing into her upraised hand, and Sparkle winced. _Why didn't you at least block that with the... you're fine?_

The troll looked stupidly down at Susan who lowered her arm again. "Want to try that again?"

The troll raised its arms and roared in response.

"I guess not. Poke attack!" She jabbed her sword into the troll, wounding it at least. "Wow, you're pretty tough!"

Still roaring, the troll swept the club low to the ground, probably trying to knock Susan off her feet. Rather than doing the sane thing, leaping over it or dodging back, Susan chopped into it with her sword, driving it to the ground and shattering it.

Now the troll seemed quite surprised, probably never having encountered something so small that could still give it so much trouble. It seemed to have an idea, and tossed the stump of the club at Susan while jumping back out of range of her sword, which it had no way of blocking now.

Susan brought the sword around in an arc, which she just had space to do in this hallway, and brought it over her head. _"Shattering Force!"_ she called, and brought the blade down. A wave of energy shot from the blade, knocking the club piece aside and slamming into the troll. Susan had obviously restricted the technique to the size of the hallway, but even so it tore up the stone with remarkable efficiency as it blasted into the troll, hitting his upper body and tearing it to shreds.

The gooey mess dropped to the ground and stopped moving.

Sparkle waited a second to make sure it wouldn't explode or something, and stepped out of hiding. "Overkill much?" she asked, looking at the walls.

"Yeah, guess I could have narrowed it a bit more, but you saw how tough that thing was! My sword strike should have cut him in two!"

"Why? You really aren't that strong."

"I am at the moment." She swung the sword up on her shoulder. "I took an ability to naturally increase my strength, and I could boost it far past human levels for an instant if I wanted to. Tired me out a little though, but of course I increased my energy too."

"Naturally. What was that thing you activated before stepping out?"

"What? _Oracle's Eyes?_ Basically a _Time_ technique allowing me to see a little into the future. Enough to know what he was going to do before he did it."

"Sensible. Usually you go with _Velocity."_

"Yeah, I know. I wanted to try something different this time, see how it worked out."

"Pretty well I guess."

"True. I suppose it's a situational thing, really. If I was fighting more than one thing, _Velocity_ would serve me better."

"Why not just use both?"

"What? Try to concentrate on two techniques _and_ a fight? I can handle one, I mean I overcharged the thing to the max to get the most benefit, but two? I don't know..."

 _In other words, the minus four penalty probably wouldn't be worth it. Interesting she doesn't seem to retain being a_ Paragon _here, but she still realizes she's trying to split her attention. Is that a clue too?_ "Anyway, now what? Banish the body to another dimension and head back upstairs?"

"Probably. What the-" Susan spun around, and Sparkle was astonished to see the troll getting back up, and it seemed hardly wounded at all! "What is this?" she asked, bringing her sword into a guard position. "Some kind of zombie troll or something? Is it immortal somehow?"

"It's healing though, a zombie wouldn't do that. Better hit it again!"

"I realize that. Get back." Sparkle didn't need to be told twice, she darted back around the corner as Susan raised her blade above her head again. "Jump attack!"

 _Okay, what's with calling out her attacks like that? I mean I realize the powers based ones need to be called out, but this is ridiculous._

Susan brought her blade down in an arc, aiming to split the troll's head like a watermelon on a Japanese beach. It split just as nicely with a perfect strike, and the troll again slumped to the ground.

Peaking around the corner, Sparkle saw Susan watching it warily, and within just a few seconds she called back over her shoulder. "It's still regenerating! You think it's some kind of weretroll? Like I need to use silver to kill it or something?"

"You're the one with the fancy powers, perhaps you should be asking them instead of me?"

"Good point! _Reveal Weakness!"_ She stared for a second. "Fire. Typical, I didn't take fire nature, I'll have to change." She looked around the hallway, and there was one surviving torch still anchored to the wall. "Or will I?" She dashed over to it and yanked it out, then turned back to the troll. " _Combustable Creation!"_ Black sticky _something_ fell atop the troll, and Susan bent to set the torch to it.

She paused, then straightened up. She looked the troll over, then bent again to light it. Again the pause, and she almost seemed to be struggling to get the torch close enough to light the stuff. "Sparkle," she said questioningly, "is what I'm doing right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean do I want to kill this troll? I don't know why it's here. It may have wandered in by accident or maybe someone set it loose to cause havoc. Either way should I take its life?"

 _Don't worry, you won't, it's just as much of a bit of dream imagery as the rest of this. But you don't know that, and I can't tell you._

"I guess it's up to you. It's still regenerating though, can you turn that off?"

"That also might kill it. And I think I would need _metapower_ for that, again, which I didn't take this time. No." She seemed to decide and put the torch back. "I'll do it another way. If the headmaster wants it dead, he can come down here and kill it himself."

"So what are you going to do?"

" _Confinement Creation,"_ she said as answer, and a cage sprung into existence around the troll. "And now for the clever bit." Susan concentrated, and Sparkle counted a rough four seconds, and her costume changed slightly. _"Minor Indestructibility,"_ she called out, touching the cage. "There, that's done."

 _I bet it takes a full turn to change powers if you're not doing it with the transformation. I wonder if she can get better at it. If it survives to the outside world, that is._ "What's done?"

"It's the same thing I used on the wands. This one I'm maintaining though, just to make sure we can get rid of it when we need to. I don't think the headmaster wants this troll to be a permanent fixture."

"That I do not," said a voice, and Albus glided around the corner. "Well done, Susan, capturing such a beast. I commend you."

"Sucks, all in a day's work. I'll send you my bill later."

Albus dryly looked to one side and the other with a "hummmm," taking in the destruction of the hallway. "As shall I. Do you know how ancient these walls are? Built by the four founders themselves, to stand the test of time. And now look at them."

"Perhaps we could just call it even?"

"I'll consider it."

Sparkle, meanwhile, was considering things herself.

 _Why make the troll so much more dangerous? Well, "dangerous" to anyone not Susan, anyway. To have a bigger victory? Or in hopes of her getting killed to it? That's a troubling thought, if she "dies" here does The Darkness get her body? Or was it meant to scare her? No chance of that, given her RESolve and basic power level. So interesting that she almost killed it, but held back. Is this more dreamlike than I thought, her psyche trying to work out the balance of when she needs to kill things vs when she doesn't? There's just so much about this whole thing I don't understand, so can't act on._

 _Frightening her, and maybe giving her something she can't easily fight, that might do it. It's something I haven't tried, and I should try a variety of things. Maybe scaring her will remind her about The Darkness and snap her out of this state! I recall her really only being scared one time in all her years here, and I bet I can find one hanging around._

 _It's worth a shot. Bogey, here I come._

Techniques used in this chapter:

Oracle's Eyes

Time(PPT), Seeing*

Level 6 (4+0+2) (Effect, Personal, M)

This technique allows the character to see several seconds into the future and react accordingly. Each segment is carried out twice after that (once as the character performing the technique sees it, then once as it actually happens). No other characters realize what is happening, but the character performing the technique can react accordingly, gaining a +1 to defensive maneuvers for every 5 rolled on the technique.

Unmovable

Protection

Level 6 (4+0+2) (Effect, Personal, M)

Remain rooted to the spot, utterly unmovable, while this technique is active. You take no damage from physical attacks and cannot be knocked back or interacted with in any way.

Shattering Force

Force

Level 8 (8+0+0) (Attack, Personal, I)

A wave of force travels away from you, doing normal attack damage to whatever it hits.

Reveal Weakness

Seeing

Level 6 (4+2+0) (Effect, Medium, I)

Instantly know what any creature you are looking at within range is weak to or can be most easily harmed by.

Combustable Creation

Creation

Level 4 (2+2+0) (Attack, Medium, I)

The target is coated in a thick, tar like substance that burn easily. Every five rolled on the technique allows for a +1 size modifier creature to be coated.


	162. Chapter 162

162

Thwarting The Darkness

When: Late Halloween night

Where: Susan's room at the castle

Sparkle looked around the castle for evidence of a Bogey she could use to frighten Susan, but finally realized she was being stupid. The only one Susan would remember is the one from the lesson with Remus. She was going to have to recreate that one. Easy enough, she could just think it into existence like she could anything else from Susan's memory.

 _But will it just do the same thing, or can it patch into her psyche as it were and still work to show her greatest fear? Or maybe her greatest fear is the same thing, I don't know. In any case, we'll pop it up, see what happens, and if it goes badly we'll just stop maintaining it. Simple._

So she woke Susan up (no easy feat even here) and whispered to her. "There's something in the dresser."

"What kind of something?"

"I don't know. It looked like a big dog or something so I just ran away. Then it went back there in. Go deal with it for me, will you?"

"It can't wait until morning?"

"No! Please? It's freaking me out."

"Okay, okay. Probably just some scared little puppy that wandered in here. You and your fear of dogs."

 _Actually, I'm quite thankful that doesn't come up more often. It's only a one point weakness but still._

 _Watch, the next world we go to will be full of dog people or something. Crap._

Susan sauntered over to the dresser, which began to shake violently as dressers tend to do while bogies are inside them. Susan shrugged, transformed, and pulled it open. From inside flowed an image of Susan stabbing Luna through the heart with her enormous sword, and Susan screamed.

"She's just holding you back," said psudo-Susan, kicking the lifeless corpse of Luna off the blade. "You don't need her. You don't need anybody. That's all you'll ever need." It pointed to the orb on Susan's chest.

Susan fell to her knees, screaming "Nooooo!" and people leapt out of bed to see what was going on.

 _Is this it? Did that shock her into fully rejecting The Darkness? It's getting dark, are we going back? Did I win?_

"Come on sleepy head!" Sparkle found herself being shaken awake, and opened her eyes to see Susan staring down at her.

 _Wow, that was easier than I thought. Am I just that good?_

"Finally up, huh? And I thought I was hard to wake up. Come on, we don't want to miss the train!"

 _Train?_

Sparkle blinked as Susan started tearing her pajamas off, and noticed a few peculiar things.

First, she was back in Susan's room from when she was a little kid.

Second, she was back in Susan's room from going into her soul with magic, meaning...

She closed her eyes again. _Please, not again._

"Which do you think?" Susan asked her, holding an outfit in each hand. "This one?" She put them both across herself. "Or this one?"

"The one on the left," Sparkle replied, hating herself. "Because let me tell you, it makes _absolutely._ No. Difference."

 _Now I think I know a little bit about Loopers go through. How do they stand it?_

So Sparkle went through all the motions again and finally it was once again Halloween. She watched as Susan imprisoned the troll, and then sat watching her sleep and trying to think of what else she could try.

In the original timeline, the next big event was the fight with Quirinus, but even this version of him wasn't stupid enough to engage her in one on one combat. (The news of her defeating the troll had made her reputation soar) Then the dragon's egg showed up, and while getting rid of it was similar, it wasn't the same. Susan simply followed Ron's brother back to where it was going to live, opened a _Teleportal_ back to the school, and walked the dragon through.

Sparkle was getting somewhat desperate at this point. On the one paw the year was ending, meaning the "fight" with Tom was coming up. _Are events going to continue here, just her looping across these memories again and again? Or just this year, or what? Actually now that I think about this, it's rather strange these large events happened pretty much as the school year was over... every single time. I guess it's the_ Narrative Imperative _at work?_ On the other paw, she was becoming paranoid about actually trying anything for fear of getting knocked back almost the entire school year to have to live all thing again. _Not that it seems that long, of course._

Still, the day fatefully came, and Susan led the others through the shattered remains of the traps and to the magical fire, which she defeated this time by just making everyone fireproof for the duration. Sparkle entered the room with everyone and felt like smacking herself in the forehead with a paw, claws extended.

 _Of course, that's what this world is missing! Freaking mirrors!_

"Quick!" she commanded Susan, who was about to ask who the young looking boy was. "Look in this mirror!"

"This what?"

"This! Come here. Here. Come here! HERE! Look! Listen!"

"What's a mirror?" asked Harry, "and who are you?"

"He's not important, just come look at this thing!"

Susan stepped in front of it and gasped. "Is that what I look like?"

"Yes, finally! I think this is the- holy crap!" She looked into the mirror beside Susan and was shocked to see a very different image than she was expecting. Almost all of her body was covered by darkness, even her eyes were simply pits. One hand was free, and half her face was, but the rest looked as though someone had used photo editing software to simply erase where her body was in the mirror and fill it in with black. _Please don't crash on me, I was so sure this was it!_

"Of course. I've got you now, though." Susan seemed to grab the darkness by the head with her good hand and yanked it off herself. As she did, the others disappeared, and as Sparkle looked, her Susan stood there, defiantly staring down The Darkness, who had now fully formed beside her.

"Drat!" it said, looking at the mirror. "That was the one I couldn't edit out. Because it played such a central role in all this."

"It nearly had me, didn't it?" Susan asked.

"Yes. I was really worried. Are you really okay now?"

The Darkness laughed. "She was always okay. I wouldn't have harmed her, little kitty. I want her power and her body, as she can easily destroy worlds for me in these cramped lower dimensions of yours. That's not an easy ability to come by, you know? I'll take it for myself sooner or later, if not this time then next time. After all, she can't really get rid of me, now can she?"

"I don't have to get rid of you, just lock you up," Susan promised.

"Good luck with that."

"Seems I'm coming out of it," she remarked, looking around. Sparkle did as well, and the castle walls were fading away. "If I don't remember this, sorry for putting you through all that, Sparkle. Thanks, for looking out for me."

"Of course. What are companions for?"

Susan opened her eyes, feeling a heavy wight on her chest. "Sparkle?" She looked around, and it seemed she was back in one of Silverstreak's cells, and both Silverstreak and a dark skinned woman (who was totally hot, meow!) stood looking concerned over her. The woman looked concerned, Silverstreak of course had no face.

"Why am I lying here in a cell?" she asked of no one in particular.

"Sparkle?" asked Silverstreak.

"I'm up. If it's young Susan again-" She opened her eyes. "Oh it's not. Thank you," she said to the ceiling. She then realized perhaps the nearest 'god' was right there in the room with her, but he probably knew what she meant.

"No, really, why am I lying here?"

"What do you remember about the last few days?" Silverstreak asked.

Susan struggled to sit up, putting Sparkle on her lap. "I'm not sure, it's a bit fuzzy. I recall meeting Sailor Moon of course, and her talking cat. She gave me the orb... and it gets pretty hazy at that point. I do seem to recall running around cracking heads and taking names? Sorta?"

"Your memories should grow clearer with time. After all, you are the same person."

"Wait a second!" Sparkle demanded. "Is that why she seemed to speak French, and why she seems to know things she really shouldn't?"

"I don't know about French, but yes. It's a little of The Darkness' knowledge leaking into her. It can't help it, but I doubt she'll get anything really useful out of it. Just bits of trivia from other worlds."

"What are you both talking about?"

"Sparkle?"

Susan looked down at her. "Basically you got taken over by The Darkness, or nearly so," she explained. "I told you that dark streak was a bad sign."

"Dark what?"

"Look at your orb."

"Call it a power source, at least." Susan lifted her collar and looked at the orb. "There's a dark line, but it's very faint."

Sparkle stretched up to look too. "It is thinner than it was."

"It will never be gone, I'm afraid," Silverstreak informed them. "But you do seem to be genuinely confused right now. Tell me, when was the last time you made a … check?"

Susan cocked her head. "A what? Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I said a … check. The one that lets you …"

Susan banged her ear. "I think my hearing's been affected." She got out her character sheet with one hand. "I don't seem to have any greater _Poor Sense_ weakness. One more time?"

"…"

"Nope."

"I was afraid of that. If you'll allow me?"

"If it'll help me recall what's going on around here, do whatever you've got to do."

"Thank you." He put a hand on her head for a moment and she winced. "That should do it. Now, as I was saying, when did you last make a _Resisting_ check?"

"I could hear that this time! _Resisting?_ I have no idea. Maybe I... never have?"

"I was afraid of that."

"What did The Darkness do to her?"

"Two things. First, some kind of mental block around the _Resisting_ skill, so she wouldn't recall it even existed, and thus couldn't use it. Then when she was getting her powers it could take advantage of that and took greater hold of her. You saw what happened after that."

"I... wasn't too horrible, was I?" Susan asked, looking concerned.

"Not overly. I guess. From a certain point of view."

"Oh no, I was, wasn't I? You can tell me, honest!"

"Don't worry, I'll be filing the experience away for future blackmail material."

"I suppose that's only fair. So am I okay now? Is there still a chance it could take me over like that again?"

"Unless you somehow decide to let it, it's not likely. That was basically the last and best chance it had to take you over completely, because of your 'rebirth' into a powered person. I mean it can try to influence you like it's always done, but now that we know about it wiping _Resisting,_ I think I can count on Sparkle to remind you of it every so often and make sure it's still working. It's your best defense about being taken over again."

 _Huh. So it does have some kind of 'rules' it uses to take people over?_ Sparkle thought. _Good to know._

Susan sat and thought for a moment. "I don't think that's good enough. I remember being rather violent. Right?"

Sparkle agreed with a nod.

"Aren't there any other safeguards we can take? You did something to my brain just then, right? Can't you help?"

"I could break the block, it had the energy signature of Darkvoid all over it. But to seal off your ability to do violence, I mean that's who you are. Susan, you're going to have to kill if you want to keep traveling. Okay, you could just leave worlds to their fate, I guess. If you just wanted to look for Luna and then your father. But could you live with yourself, dooming realities to destruction because you couldn't kill one being?" He indicated Luna.

"I'm Luna, by the way," said Luna. "In case you don't recall."

"Nice to meet- wait a second..."

She smiled. "Yes, that Luna. I'm glad you're feeling better, and I hope your dreams are not so troubled anymore. I should get back to work though, if you'll excuse me?"

"See you later," Silverstreak said to her.

She nodded and walked out.

"To answer your question, probably not. But am I going to have this fear always hanging over me, that my will is not my own? There must be something we can do!"

He considered. "Perhaps there is, if you feel that strongly about it. Let me think..." He raised a hand and an image of a young woman appeared in it. She was wearing just a white leotard, and currently seemed to be in some sort of combat exercise. She was, at the moment, roasting several figures who disappeared and "Combo x3" appeared in their place.

"Nynaeve," Silverstreak called softly.

The figure ignored it, doing a leap into the air, flipping twice, calling lightning down to electrocute a few more of the shadowy figures she was fighting before landing again.

"Nynaeve?"

"She's beautiful!" remarked Susan.

"Vaguely cute and female," tisked Sparkle.

The woman spun, a staff appearing in her hands as she knocked a fist away that was flying at her, and swiftly yanked the figure's legs out from under it with the staff. She slammed the end into it, making it vanish, and six more figures came into view. She released the staff and spread her arms wide, knocking the figures aside like they weighed nothing with some invisible force.

"Nynaeve!"

"Huh? What? Pause simulation." The woman looked around and seemed to see an image of Silverstreak standing there, as she addressed him. "Good morning," she said cheerfully. "What can I do for you, boss?"

"There's someone I'd like you to meet. Do you mind?"

"Not at all. Be right there." She went over to a wall to get a towel to wipe her face, and a moment later she was walking out of a wall near the cell.

"Haven't seen this place in a bit," she remarked, walking over. "Hello."

"Hi. Those were some great moves back there!"

"Saw that huh? Well, thanks!"

"Susan, this is Nynaeve. Nynaeve, Susan Felton. A relatively new agent, but I think she could give you a run for your money."

"Oh really?" Nynaeve sounded interested.

"Oh really?" Susan said at the same time, sounding skeptical. "Were we watching the same performance? I have no idea how she was doing all that stuff. She wasn't calling anything out, or using magic as I know it or anything. Plus I think she's probably better at hand to hand combat than I am."

"Ah, humble! I like it. Maybe we should go a round or two and see?"

"Ahem. Anyway, the reason I brought you up here, and let Susan see your workout, is two fold. Susan, this is basically your counterpart on her world. While she's doesn't have your problem, she turned out to be the most powerful _channeler_ on her world. Of course, she's gotten better since I found her, but you get the point. Which is this- a lot of people on her world are fairly close to her in ability."

"Okay? But I still don't get how that helps me."

"I'm coming to that. There's really a lot of history I would need to go into to explain it properly, but... well, you tell her Nynaeve. About the three oaths in particular."

"Oh that? Sure. Basically, men screwed up the world and then paid for it. You know what I mean, right?"

"Right behind you!"

"Well, the price of their failure was every man that could _channel_ eventually ended up going insane. Loudly and violently insane. And of course with their limits off, they could pull mountains down around themselves and when it first happened, they basically shattered the world. It was the worst."

"I guess that would be. I take it channeling is what you were doing back there? It's some kind of magic?"

"We wouldn't have said so, before I came here, but yeah, basically. So, women picked up the pieces and set about putting the world back together, and that included killing any man that could _channel._ Of course no one trusted them, fearing they would one day go crazy too. So they decided the _Aes Sedia_ needed to be held to an impossible standard and made to obey it absolutely _._ To that end, they found a rod that could bind them with three oaths. _To speak no word that is not true. To make no weapon with which one man may kill another. Never to use the_ One Power _as a weapon except against_ Darkfriends _or_ Shadowspawn, _or in the last defense of life._ With this done, the world relaxed a little, as any girl (or so they thought) was brought into the _White Tower_ to become an _Aes Sedia._ It's been that way ever since."

"I see what you're getting at. Basically some kind of _imbued_ object that put a kind of _contract_ spell on people, so they had to follow those rules?" Silverstreak nodded. "Yes, that does have possibilities. My magic could do it, do. I would want slightly different rules than those, but yeah, that would be ideal."

 _Just what are you thinking of girl?_

 _I'm thinking that even if you do get hold of my consciousness and lock me out of it, my body will be bound by the magic and so there won't be a single thing you can actually do with me. Forget destroying worlds if I can't harm something not actively attacking me, for instance._

 _You wouldn't dare!_

 _Hey, you made your bed. Now get comfy, because you'll be in it a long, long time._

 _We'll see about that._

"Does that help?" Nynaeve asked.

"Greatly. Thank you. And I'm sorry for sort of peeping on you before. But seriously those were great moves, and it shows I still have a long way to go."

"I'm happy to spar with you or give you some lessons, if you want."

"Are you sure? I don't want to be a bother. I mean the boss here just sort of plucked you out of what you were doing, and strictly speaking I'm not even sure I am an agent."

Nynaeve waved that off. "We all help each other around here. You must really be new though, I've not seen you around before. If you're here, you're an agent, at least as far as I'm concerned."

"Well, with time being convoluted here it's hard to say _how_ new I am. I've been to like seven worlds now? I think that's the total?"

"You've been taking a break between them though, right?"

"Just enough to spend my XP. I have work to do!"

"Oh, a _driven._ Well, if I can help in any way I can, please let me know. And look me up when you get a chance. I'd love to learn about your style of magic, and combat."

"I will. Thanks." Susan smiled at her.

"See you."

"A _driven?"_ she asked when Nynaeve was gone.

"Just someone that has a very personal reason for going between worlds. Nynaeve I actually found when she was messing about with dimensional physics using her brand of magic. She helps liberate worlds, but not like you do. You finish a world, spend the absolute minimum time here to bring your XP close to zero, and you're off again. That doesn't sound like a driven person to you?"

"I guess. Can we get out of this cell now? It's depressing me."

"Sure thing! You want to write up a _contract_ somewhere?"

Susan nodded. "I think I better."

So in the end, Susan wrote up a _contract_ with three pieces, though different than the three _oaths_ that Nynaeve have spoken of. Hers went like this:

 _I, Susan Felton, do hereby swear that I shall perform no violence to any living thing without_

 _1) The consent of my companion, Sparkle_

 _2) My life or the life of another being in immediate danger, or a reality being in danger from a being I have strong reason to believe is The Darkness_

 _3) Sparkle's death, at which point this contract is immediately nullified._

"Oh great," complained Sparkle. "So The Darkness offs me in my sleep one day after taking you over and goes on its way."

"Oh, very well."

 _3) Sparkle's death, at the hands of another, at which point this contract is immediately nullified._

"There. Now it would have to convince someone else to kill you. It's just a safety measure, in case you get killed and I can never get your consent again."

"I suppose it'll have to do. I'll sign, let me get some hands."

And so the _Contract_ took hold, and Susan spent some time spending her XP and working with Silverstreak to learn more about her powers. She used a _dimension_ technique to link both _sub-space pockets_ so she and Sparkle could share items. She made all her clothes unable to be damaged, along with her swords and most of her other gear.

"After all, it's just a technique," she reasoned. "It doesn't cost me anything."

In fact she had so much XP Silverstreak suggested training in her power senses, which would work itself into a background for two points. She agreed, and soon enough when she was using powers she could simply use a single _Power Sense_ check (difficulty 10) to immediately know the powers and natures someone had. She felt it an excellent trade off. She spent some time sparing and getting some tips from Nynaeve, combining her martial arts with both _gymnastics_ and her own (rather ridiculous) "holding two giant swords style" as she called it. Nynaeve suggested a shield, but Susan shot that right down like the awful idea it was.

"After all, I can either learn the _shield_ skill up to a five for fifteen XP which would lower my delay with it by two. Or I could learn the _off-hand_ skill to a five for the same XP and the same delay. My parry rating is the same with the shield or the sword, and this way I can just put more into _sword_ and be better at both blocking and attacking."

"Just remember," cautioned Sparkle, "you get a slight bonus to the check if your shield is big enough, and you don't take the penalty for it being your off hand."

"Eh, details, details."

Sparkle, as she had wanted, asked about getting more points for powers when Susan transformed, as they were based upon how many magic points they had. Naturally she could just spend some for getting more points directly, but as Susan wasn't transformed most of the time, it seemed like a waste.

"You need to get more magical backgrounds then?"

"If I even can."

"Maybe Inari could help you there. Though I do have some magical crystals I could implant into your body. Basically they would give you innate magical abilities while you weren't transformed. The other thing I could suggest is a _Permanent Spell._ That would be siphoned off when you transformed, and be somewhat useful the rest of the time."

 _Ah yes, Susan's book talked about that. Basically binding magical energies into your body with a special ritual, so it's always active. I could get up to a grade six spell currently, given I've been putting XP into my martial arts skill group. But I could save up, I don't need it right away necessarily. But I could look it over._

"Book," she commanded Susan. "Oh wait, I'll get it myself."

"Yeah, I have to do everything for you?" Susan asked with grin.

She didn't even get though the A section before she found it. _Yeah,_ Accelerate Magic _, duh. Every spell cast around me taking half the time? Yes please._

So they worked that out, and Sparkle could now take six more points of powers when Susan transformed, plus as long as she was nearby, her spells would take half the time to cast. Of course she "forgot" that spell and picked up _Maintenance Augmentation_ in its place, which halved maintenance penalties for her.

"You're the best!" Susan gushed, scratching her ears.

And finally it was time to move on again. The notes for the next world simply said: "Strange weather there happened recently. Look into it."

Susan said goodbye to the agent manning the portal and stepped through.


	163. Chapter 163

163

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Where: Just through the portal in the next world

When: Unknown

Susan had finally learned her lesson and had Silverstreak make her up some native clothes and currency so she could blend in a little better when arriving to this new world. Thus she was dressed in plain peasant garb, though made of special fabric that held heat in better. Susan could see why he had prepared it in that way, the local weather seemed to be brutally cold and people were rushing, heads down, from place to place around the town. It seemed to be late afternoon not that you could tell by the sun, which was currently blotted out by thick clouds.

She looked around, marveling at the castle in the distance. It was surrounded almost entirely by water, (well, ice currently) with only a few bridges connecting it to the nearby land.

 _I suppose that would make it harder to attack, you'd have to do it by boat. And boats burn pretty well, at least if you drop burning pitch on them from the castle wall, where troops would no doubt be climbing up from. If not they're soaking wet and unarmored, not a great thing to be when assaulting a castle._

It seemed to have a large outer wall, then a courtyard area, then the main building set back a bit from that. As she looked at it, the more she thought it looked like someone smushed together a castle and a large manor house, making one structure. It was certainly impressive, but indicated there probably wasn't a lot of technology around here. The nearby houses, made of stone with tile roofs, seemed to bear that out.

She saw a horse or two struggling through the snow, and some abandoned carts now stuck to the ground, unable to be moved. Out over the water, or what must have been water until just recently, boats were held fast by the now frozen lake.

"Look at this," Sparkle remarked, pointing. Susan looked over and there under the tree, which oddly had all its leaves, were flowers. Dying flowers, but flowers nonetheless.

"He did write sudden," she reminded her, seeing signs of a very "snap" winter everywhere. "But I think he has a different sense of extremes than we do. Something happened here."

"Think it's related to us?"

"Maybe. But messing with the weather? Doesn't seem all that deadly in the short term. Think we'll meet someone helpful right away? We usually do."

"I don't know, everyone here seems to be a bit 'frosty' if you take my meaning. And is it just me, or do they keep shooting dirty looks at the castle?"

Susan watched a moment more and found she was right. People did not look happy, even the few children she saw plodding through the snow, and tempers seemed to be running high. People snapped at each other to get out of the way, and there wasn't a pair of bright eyes to be seen. _These are a people that have had something terrible happen, some awful shock that's still processing._

"The kids aren't playing," she remarked. "No snowball fights. No snowmen. No skating on the frozen lake. You think there would be some."

"And here we are without a single point in _Information Gathering."_

"Eh, skills like that are overrated. Like _Tracking._ If we're meant to find something out, the _narrative imperative_ will make sure we do. The story wouldn't move forward otherwise!"

"I guess. So what's the plan, oh powerful one? Stand here in the snow until something comes along?"

Susan considered. "Would you like to build a snowman?"

"Too cold."

"Ah, true. Snow wouldn't stick together. Seems to be a tavern of some sort there, and you know the stereotype of adventurers and taverns. Let's get something to eat and listen to the gripes of the townspeople. One of them should have a quest for us, right?"

"I suppose finding that little girl led us to the wizard's guild back on the warlock world. Couldn't hurt. And my paws are freezing."

"Sorry about that. I could make you some little booties."

"I could jump on your shoulders and put them on your neck."

"Let's just go inside."

Once there, Susan sat down at a table and Sparkle slunk off to see what she could hear in the place, and a "tavern wench" took her order.

"You want how much for just that?" Susan gasped, when told the total. She didn't know anything about the local economy of course, but forget paying a gold piece for a couple of bottles of butterbeer, what she was asking for was outrageous.

"I'm sorry miss, but that's prices now," said the young girl, who had clearly heard it before. "The owner isn't sure when we'll be restocked, with the harbor frozen over like it is. So we're trying to make do."

She grimaced. "I suppose I can see that. Very well. But it better be good, and I'll expect the latest town gossip as well!"

The girl had a "are you kidding me" look on her face. "You mean apart from the queen going nuts and freezing the whole town?"

 _Bingo._

"Precisely. There must be something else to talk about around here. All I hear is the queen this and winter that. There must be something else a traveling adventurer can hear about."

"You'll not find any other gossip in this town," said the girl, walking away.

 _Still, that's enough isn't it? My next stop is the castle if the queen is involved somehow._

The serving girl had scarcely walked away when an elderly woman, sitting at the table next to her, beckoned her over.

"Did I hear you call yourself an adventurer? A traveling adventurer?" the woman asked.

"You did indeed. Why? Do you have work for someone like that? I do it all."

The woman looked her over. "You don't seem mad, or simple."

Susan's eyes narrowed. "I assure you I am not."

The woman's hands came up. "No offense meant of course, no offense. I was just surprised that's all. Rare enough for a man to go about spouting such non- uh, I mean such a bold claim but for a young woman such as yourself... well. You wanted town gossip?"

"Now you have my interest," Susan proclaimed with a grin and sat down. "What can you tell me?"

"There are those," she began, going back to shoving food into her month, "that believe this curse of winter wasn't the beginning of the town's troubles. That those poor souls found days ago were just the start of it, and more will follow afterwords. Like our very land has been cursed."

"What poor souls?"

"Four people that I heard, though it may be more now. In all corners of the village they were, found collapsed the day before the coronation. They live but they do not wake. So tell me, traveler, have you encountered the like in your travels?"

Susan considered, rubbing her chin. "Overwork? A coronation must have involved the whole town to some capacity, no?"

"Even a child? No, I've seen a lot of things in my long years, and I know the difference between a sleep of exhaustion and a person near death. This has gone on too long, it's something else."

"Any other symptoms? Odd coloring? Cough? Complaining of weakness beforehand?"

"You'll have to go talk to the ones taking care of them if you want to know that," she insisted. "You said you wanted town gossip, not a medical chart."

"You're right of course. Where can I find them?" _Wait, she knows what a medical chart is?_

"There's a plaguehouse to the east, set some distance away from the town. They've apparently been moved there."

"I'll check it out, see if there's anything I can do."

"You know some healing arts then?"

"I've picked up a few in my travels."

"Then my talk was not wasted then. Your food is ready."

"Hm?" Susan looked, and the girl was setting a dish down at her table. "Ah, so it is. Thank you for the conversation."

"Don't mention it. Just make sure you save those poor _souls_ , Susan."

"I will."

Susan dug into the meal, simple enough fare but as she was used to just eating things created by _Create Foodstuff,_ this was pretty good.

 _I should have the book research a higher grade spell, like_ Create Meal _or_ Create Feast. _That would work out better than- wait a second. Did that woman call me by name?_

She turned around to demand how the woman knew her name, she hadn't said it that she recalled. But the woman was gone.

"She said you would pay for her meal." Susan jumped and whipped around, looking at the serving girl again. "The old woman. She said you would pay." The girl's hand was out.

 _Probably already did, the girl just sees you as a good mark,_ said The Darkness. _But then, maybe it was the woman who saw you as a mark because you were from out of town. She did disappear pretty fast for someone that old._

 _Good point, wouldn't hurt to check, right?_ "How do I know she hasn't already paid?"

The girl seemed shocked. "Miss, we run a good, clean establishment here!"

Susan glanced at the ceiling, where overhead spiderwebs and dust sat upon the beams. _Clean, sure. But I suppose it is, for the time._

"Very well."

Her purse considerably lighter, she met back up with Sparkle who had nothing else of major importance to report. They went east out of town, and came across a large building with an odd sign over the door. Susan scratched her head. "I suppose it means something to the people around here."

"Is this really necessary?"

"The timing is coincidental. And the castle isn't going anywhere, I'll bust into it after I've satisfied my _curiosity_. Why?"

"These are a primitive people, and we don't know how magic is regarded. Obviously they know about it, they aren't really freaking out over their queen turning out to be some kind of ice controller. I mean in the sense of 'oh no, what will happen to our kingdom now that our queen has been shown to have magical powers' rather than 'oh no, we're all doomed because apparently magic exists and our queen has some!'"

"I agree, but I'm still not following you."

"You tend to want to help people. Not a bad impulse, usually, I admit. If you go in there you'll probably get the knife out and go to town. Given the current situation, that might not be in our best interests. Despite you using magic for good, they may view all magic with more than a little suspicion right now. We may still need the help of the townspeople, let's not alienate them by whipping out a bunch of magic."

"I hear you. I'll see what the situation is before doing anything."

"Fair enough."

Susan knocked on the door and a woman dressed all in white opened it a crack. "Yes?"

"Good day!" Susan chirped brightly. "I am a traveling healer and heard you had some odd cases lately. I wondered if perhaps I could be of some assistance?"

"Oh! How wonderful, please come in." She held the door open, and Susan entered.

The house was mostly open, with a central column that held a fireplace surrounded by many beds, most of which thankfully which were empty. There was a fire going in the fireplace, and several people looked up from where they were sitting beside people lying in bed.

"We just have the mysterious plague victims at present," the woman explained. "I've been living in fear that more will be discovered, but none have been reported. My heart jumped when I heard that knock, let me tell you."

"Sorry to have startled you. Now, these five were all found on the same day?"

"Yes, within hours of each other."

The nearest patient was a scruffy looking, dirt covered young boy with no one beside his bed. Susan went over to him, figuring she wouldn't disturb the others just yet.

The healer shook her head. "No family for this one. I wonder if someone is missing him or no one is?"

 _No one is._

 _Shush._ "And he just lies here?" She nodded. Susan got a thirteen on _First Aid,_ so she didn't seem too incompetent looking him over. She checked his forehead, listened to his breathing, took his pulse, that sort of thing. Her real purpose, of course, was checking him out with her various senses. "And the others are all the same?" The woman nodded again.

"Well, crap."

"What is it?"

"How to explain..." _This boy hardly exists to my senses. He's obviously not magical, but even without making a_ Spirit Sense _check, I have a ten rating in it. I can feel the spirit energy coming from every person in this room... apart from the people in the beds. I could close my eyes and point to the nurse, but spin me around and I would be unable to find this boy._ "This isn't a medical issue," she explained. "This boy's soul, and the souls of all the victims here have somehow been removed." _After all, if his energy had just been drained, it would come back. He's not under a spell that's further draining his power that I can tell. Or a dimensional effect. I suppose it could be a power, but transforming in front of this woman is probably a bad idea. I'll come back and check that later._

"By the gods, tell me you're joking!"

 _Gods, plural?_ "I assure you I'm not. Their souls are missing. At least his is, and I'm sure the others are exactly the same, if they have the same symptom."

"But then wouldn't they just be dead? And who but Hades himself could do such a thing?"

 _Bet you we could, with a spell or a power._

"I can't say. But you're right, if I don't get them back soon they'll die. Their bodies won't be able to last much longer."

"Get them back? Why would they have been taken in the- who are you?" She stepped back. "To casually speak of souls, and getting them back? To even know such a thing, and speak with such conviction. You can traverse the underworld and make demands of Hades? Are you-" her voice lowered. "Are you a god yourself, having taken human form?"

Susan laughed. "I'm no god. And their souls are probably still around someplace, that's why they haven't died." She put a hand on the kid's forehead, getting a fifteen on _spirit sense_. "There's a thin line, like gossamer, still attached to this boy." _In other words he has one energy left. That's the conduit, and there must be a reason for it. Like she said, who but a god could do it? My question is why? They weren't killed, it's worse than that. They've been left to slowly wither away._ "It's faint, but it's there. I can't track it, but there still might be a way to find where it's gone."

 _Good luck with that._

 _You know something about this?_

 _Maybe. Maybe not. I just have to wonder, the part of me that's here, what's it thinking right now? I mean it knows sooner or later one of you_ Wanderers _is going to show up. Maybe it's sending a message?_

 _But why both? Why freeze the area_ and _do this? Are the souls powering it somehow?_

 _Who can say?_

 _You could._

"Anything you can do, please, I beg of you." The woman fell to her knees. "I can't pay you, the house is owned by the crown and I just volunteer here-"

Susan hoisted her up, and the woman was obviously shocked at how strong she was. "Get up. Don't worry about it, this is what I do. You just keep trying to feed them broth and such so they don't die while I'm gone. If I can I'll bring them all back, you'll see the results right away I should think." _They should just zip back in, right?_

"Thank you," she said with relief.

"Can I get their names? Obviously you don't know the name of this boy but the others..."

"Yes, yes, of course. Anything you need."

 _What I need now is a quiet spot to do some magic, and that means a room. At least that shouldn't have such a high in the sky price._

"You want _how much_ for a _shared_ room?" Susan nearly screeched, having found an inn near the entrance of town.

"Sorry, space is at a premium at the moment," said the man behind the counter. "You're welcome to sleep outdoors, hyuck, hyuck!"

 _I'm also free to punch you in the face._

 _Ha, ha, you can't now without asking your_ cat! _Told you that was a bad idea._

 _Sure I could, long as I didn't permanently hurt him. He would heal._

 _Do it then!_

She said instead, "Let me guess, the coronation?"

"Exactly."

"But wasn't that days ago?"

"Yeah, but have you seen the harbor?"

"Oh. Right. No ships can go anywhere until the freeze is lifted."

"That's right. So you want a room or not?"

 _I suppose it's coming out of my_ Resources: Money _anyway, and I can have Silverstreak make me some more. It's the principle of the thing. I'm here to save this entire reality from destruction, you think they would at least offer me a discount on a room. If they even believed me._

"Fine, I'll take the room."

"Very good. We do not accept responsibility for lost or stolen items. There is no insurance if the place burns down. We do not offer guards to prevent you being robbed..." He went on.

 _What is this, a hotel with an EULA?_

Susan snorted. _Okay, that one was pretty good._

Once in the room, Susan had to wait for her new "roommate" to go down to dinner as she rolled only a twelve on her LUCk check for the room to be empty. _One from minimum. I tell you, who's rolling these numbers anyway? With my LUCk of nine, shouldn't I be lucky enough to get high LUCk checks most of the... that way lies madness, doesn't it? At least she could tell me a bit more about the coronation and what happened. Second hand knowledge, true, but still useful._

With her gone, Susan could finally get out her book and work some magic.

"Where is the soul of the boy who no longer had it within him that I saw earlier tonight?"

 _Queen's castle_

"Odd answer," remarked Sparkle. "Eleanora said that Queen Elsa fled the castle at the dance after she had been crowned. I suppose that doesn't make it any less her castle, but why mention the 'queen's' castle specifically? Why not just 'the castle?' Is there another one around here we should be looking for?"

"I don't know, but while we have some daylight left, let's get over there and check it out."

"Not sure that's such a good idea. Look."

Susan peeked out the window and saw a snowstorm starting to settle in, obscuring everything for miles as the clouds thickened and snow formed a second barrier to sight.

"Oh that's just great. I mean I can become immune to darkness and see perfectly at night, or immune to water and breathe underwater just fine. But I can't become immune to falling snow obscuring my vision!"

"Plus there's your _No Sense of Direction_ to worry about. You go out in that and it's over for us. We'll never find the castle!"

"I think you're right. But if this is some kind of delaying tactic... I'll ask another _Question."_

"Will any of the people I saw without souls die in the next two days?"

 _No._

"That settles that. I'll track them down in the morning."

"You sure you want to wait?"

"Why not? This can't be The Darkness. I mean even if it took the queen over at some point, why run off? And when has it ever been that easy to find? I think this is just something like Illina, to get us pointed in the right direction. We save the kingdom, we're heroes, she tells us something important, that kind of thing. No way do we find The Darkness in the first twenty four hours of coming someplace."

"Yea, I suppose you're right. And that storm looks nasty. I just hope we don't wind up regretting it."

So the next morning Susan found a quiet place to transform, after discussing it with Sparkle.

"We know powers override magic," she argued. "Like when Dolands stopped you using _Acceleration._ We know the queen has _Ice_ powers or magic or something. Now if it's magic we can drop _Magic Domination_ on the area and poof, no more ice magic for her. But if it's powers, that's not going to do a thing. Plus if it _is_ The Darkness, it would just down my magic and then we'd really be in trouble because we'd be basically fighting both at once. An ice user and a being that can shut down our magic. Using _Metapower_ we know will get both types, and it can't be shut down."

"I'm just worried about that transformation of yours, I guess. I don't trust it yet."

"Silverstreak said it was perfectly fine. I still remember the whasname skill, that one, you know." She started snapping her fingers.

"Resisting?"

"Yeah, that's the one! And I haven't been violent all day!"

"We just got up."

"Details! We'll zip up there, shut her ice powers down, see if we can help her in some way, and boom, get on with things here. What could go wrong?"

 _Oh, thank you so much for saying that._

 _What?_

So Susan took _Flight_ and such, but she hadn't blinked more than twice when both swung around and stared off into the distance. She didn't even realize her costume had changed into a sort of winter version of the fuku, with fuzzy boots instead of leather, and warm leggings.

"That can't be good."

"No, I don't think it can."

"Come on."

The pair rose into the air, straight up, to get a better view of things. As far as she could see both land and water were being plunged into winter, and even from this distance she could feel the power radiating from a nearby mountain.

"How can we fight _that?"_ Sparkle's eyes were wide. "That's the most powerful thing I've ever felt! You couldn't match that draining the whole town of energy! I don't even need to make _Power Sense_ checks to tell where it's coming from. It's basically all I can feel around here."

"I'm going to have to agree. But don't you see, that can't be The Darkness. It wouldn't be so wasteful with energy, would it? You think maybe her power taking her over or something? I don't know how powers work here. It could happen."

"We better get over there right away."

 _And hope even my_ Metapower _is enough to hold it back. Just what is going on over there?_

So the two flew onward, and both made _perception_ checks as they neared the place they felt the power coming from. Sparkle got two higher, a nineteen, and shouted to Susan. "There's someone, no two someone's down there!"

"I think you're right. Come on."

They swooped down on the pair, who were looking back down the mountain, probably where they had come from. It was a woman and a man, the man in a green sweater and hat, with a gray jacket thrown over it. The sleeves were ragged, and his hair was sticking out in all directions from under the hat. The woman on the other hand was dressed almost for a ball. Her hair was braided into two neat braids that hung in front of her shoulders. Her cape was a dark magenta, and it, along with her dress, was embroidered very delicately.

 _Those two can't look more different. How in the world are they traveling together?_

"It's completely frozen," said the man.

"But it'll be fine, Elsa will thaw it," replied the woman.

"Actually," said Susan, causing the pair to whirl about to look where she was hovering. "With the amount of power I feel coming from that mountain, your town is the least of your worries. Pretty soon the whole world is going to look like this."

She spread her arms to the side, indicating the snow covered trees.

The pair started screaming.

 _Might have made a slight miscalculation with my entrance there._

 _Look at their faces! You did good, kid!_ The Darkness protested.

The screaming went on. Loudest from the nearby _living snowman._


	164. Chapter 164

164

Can't Fight a Mirror

When: After the screaming stopped

Where: Halfway to the North Mountain

The two figures, backed up against trees, had finally stopped screaming when Susan didn't attack them or anything and were now looking only "slightly" frantic. The snowman, if that's what he was, simply stood grinning at her.

 _Can a snowman change his facial expressions?_

"You're flying!" shakily blurted the woman.

"Is that all you're worried about?" Susan asked. She had been hovering over the snow but set down gently. "There, now I'm not. Better?"

"Are you a witch?" asked the man.

"More importantly, do you like hugs?" asked the snowman.

"Did that snowman just talk?" asked the woman.

"Doesn't everybody?" he replied, turning around. "Hi! I'm Olaf, and I love warm hugs!"

"What is going on?" moaned the man. "Is this with you?"

"I thought he was with you," Susan answered. "What are you, anyway? Some kind of _Ice_ construct, that's for sure."

"That's sort of rude," remarked Olaf. "I wouldn't call you a flesh construct, now would I?"

"I don't know, you haven't had the opportunity."

"That's a good point." He paused. "There, now I did, and I didn't, so there."

"Who are you?" asked the woman again in desperation.

"I'm Olaf! Boy," he said to Susan, "she's pretty forgetful isn't she?"

"I think she was talking to me. I'm Susan, nice to meet you. Look, can I drop you two, you three, sorry, off somewhere?" She looked over to see the reindeer stepping close to the man, so Susan figured they must be together.

"Can you take us to the North Mountain?" pleaded the girl. "I have to speak to my sister!"

"No, I can't," Susan answered bluntly. "I'm headed there myself to take care of things. Your sister, and by that I take it to mean the queen everyone is cursing out in the village down there, is radiating _ice_ power far beyond the local geography. If I don't turn her off soon, the whole world is going to be a frozen block of ice."

"She's that powerful? Impossible."

"I'm afraid it's very possible. I suggest you head back to the castle so you don't get in the way. I don't want to fight her, but if she's been taken over as I'm coming to suspect... well, she's not your sister anymore. I hope your last words to her were pleasant ones."

"Be nice," admonished Sparkle from behind her.

"Did that cat just talk?" asked Olaf. "I've never seen the like!"

"Says the talking snowman."

"I'm Olaf! What's your name?"

"Sparkle."

"Now we're getting somewhere!"

"Don't change the subject," snapped the woman.

"Yes, the subject is you going back to the castle. Are you going willingly or am I just proceeding without you?"

"Don't you dare hurt my sister!"

"As long as she still _is_ your sister, she has nothing to fear from me. In fact I may be the only one on this planet that can shut her down for the moment and later teach her how to control her power. Given what I'm feeling though..." she glanced up the mountain. "She may be too far gone, and we'll have to look into a more permanent solution."

"Wait," said the man. "You _know_ she did this. Turned this whole area into an icebox in a matter of seconds. You say you can feel her power from here. And you're still going up there? Alone? Are you crazy?"

"I'm not alone, I have Sparkle."

"Sorry, I didn't count your _cat_ as a person."

"Do you see me as a person?" asked Olaf.

"Look, I don't mean to be rude but can we deal with you later? Talking cats, snowmen, flying girls, it's all a lot to take in at once."

"Fine," grumped Olaf. "But I better get a hug out of all this."

"Say I didn't go alone. How are you going to help me against what you just said?" The man struggled to think of something he could actually contribute. "I thought so. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be off. Unless you want to head back to the village?"

The man looked over at the princess. "We haven't slept in like two days, we should go see how Prince Hans is doing at the castle."

"No! My sister comes first."

"Suit yourself," Susan allowed, rising into the air again. "By the time you get there it'll be over, one way or the other. I can take you back then just as easily."

"Wait!" called the woman, but Susan ignored her and shot towards the mountain, Sparkle in tow.

"Should we have really left them there like that?"

"They wouldn't have gone willingly, that much is clear. And I doubt you would give me permission to knock them in the head."

"You could have used the sleep spell, chucked them in the _dimension_ to get some rest. They looked exhausted."

"I doubt this will take all that long. Look, there's the... oh."

As Susan neared the place, she understood what the _Question_ magic had meant when it said the 'Queen's' Castle. This immense structure probably hadn't been there before, and Susan wondered what held it up. Out from the side of the mountain stuck an ice palace, with balconies, turrets, doors, windows, the whole works.

"How in the world?" asked Sparkle.

Susan shook her head. "I don't know. Even to imagine such a thing seems unreal, but then to stand there and assemble it out of nothing but your own power? Does this person have a degree in civil engineering or something? Ice is _heavy._ By all rights it should just collapse in on itself unless the bearing walls are very precisely placed. And thank you Darkness for the knowledge of bearing walls. Because I'm pretty sure I had no idea what that was until just now."

 _My so called pleasure. Hey I just had a thought. My knowledge is sort of leaking into you, right? What if I_ let _some knowledge though, like how it feels to be burned alive? There you go, did that work?_

Susan shuddered. _Thank you so much. Yes, it did._

 _Any time! I'll let you think about that one for a bit, then let you experience having your legs crushed by a boulder._

 _Wait, how do you know what all that feels like?_

 _Let's just say all Wanderers are not as squeamish as you are in driving pieces of me off various realities._

 _Ah._

Susan swooped down to the icy stairs that led into the place, followed by Sparkle, and figuring she would at least approach this situation with a minimum of decorum, knocked.

The door slid open.

"Smooth as ice," remarked Susan, winking at Sparkle.

"Just stay frosty, we don't know what to expect in there."

 _Ice puns. I really am rubbing off on both of you, aren't I?_

Susan stepped inside, coming into a large hallway area with a decorative ice fountain planted in the middle of it. There was a set of stairs, seemingly held up by nothing at all going around the room and up to the second floor, and several doors were at each end of the room.

"We'll have to check each room systematically."

"I doubt the door opened by itself. She knows we're here."

"Indeed, Sparkle!" A voice rang out from the stairs, and a beautiful woman wearing a sparkling dress and an ice crown descended the stairs, catlike.

 _Meow. Focus, Susan._ "So you are The Darkness," she accused her. "That figures, I doubt a purely human brain could have conceived of this castle and made it spring out of nothing. Awfully bold of you, isn't it?"

She swayed her way over the fountain and sat down, legs folded to one side. Her leg stuck out of the slit in her dress and she slowly and deliberately put a hand on it. "Whatever do you mean? And Susan, I'm ashamed of you. Can't we at least greet each other in a civil manner? We've known each other for so long now, we're practically family."

"Oh, very well. What was it Nita was always saying?" She gave a curtesy. "Fairest and Fallen, greetings and defiance."

The Darkness laughed a tinkling laugh. "That's it exactly. Tell me honestly now, am I the fairest in the land?" She stuck her leg out straight and caressed both hands along it. "Is this form not magnificent?" She stuck her chest out and sat a little straighter.

Susan felt a little heat rising to her cheeks. "Oh, uh, not bad, I guess. I'll give you a seven at least."

"A seven? I'm a nine and you know it. What a pity you've come here to murder me in cold blood. Think of what I'll look like when you're done with me. Run through with that ridiculously large sword of yours, do doubt. Just like poor Luna. Blood everywhere too I expect."

"Stop it!"

The Darkness looked sharply at her. "It's what you're planning, isn't it? Be honest."

"Is that why you didn't hide here? Why you chose that body and then just came up here after freezing the town? Because you figured I wouldn't be able to raise a hand against you?"

She gestured to Susan. "I don't see that sword in your hand yet, and we've been talking awhile now. I think you would have already attacked me, if that's what you meant to do. As far as not hiding- has it helped me before? You would have found me no matter what, and it didn't suit me here. That's all. It's just a nice plus the body that had these magnificent ice powers also happened to be so... hot."

"I wanted proof first, and you've given it to me. You'll have to die."

"What a pity. Just when this body finally gave itself over to me, too. How sad her sister will be, though I suppose she'll inherit the throne, so there's that." She stood and stretched, again emphasizing her form. "Well, get on with it." She opened her arms.

"What?"

"The stabbing. _Thrusting_ into me, that big, _hot_ blade of yours. You know you want to. I won't resist."

"It's some kind of trick," cautioned Sparkle. "But I do authorize violence against her."

"I'll turn her powers off before I get anywhere near her."

"I'm not a liar, I'll just stand here. Oh, but I do have one request? This body has never really known love. Do you think, just for a moment, you could kiss it? Her first and last kiss, before you kill it."

"No!" Susan backed a step away.

"I'm totally defenseless," continued The Darkness, taking a step towards her, arms still outstretched. "All my power is going to freezing the world. I don't have any left to use in here so you're perfectly safe. Just for a moment, this body wants to feel what it might be like to be in love. Can't you even give it that?"

"Stay away from me!"

"Why dear, you're trembling! Do you want me so badly? Rush into my arms, take me as you will. I won't resist, honest."

"Stay away from me! _Meta: Ice ne-"_

" _Meta: Metapower negation!"_ A second voice echoed through the large chamber and Susan felt her _metapower_ strike against The Darkness drain away like bacon grease out of frying pan and into a wastebasket.

"What?" Susan looked over to find a rather young looking redhead man in odd clothes standing in the doorway at the other end of the room.

"You're a piece of work aren't you?" he said, coming into the room and addressing The Darkness. She laughed.

"I knew you were covering me. I wasn't worried."

"That's not what I mean. I mean the whole... forget it. So, you're Susan? Interesting mix of powers you have."

"You have me at a disadvantage then," she replied, doing a _power sense_ on him. She couldn't fail, and was surprised to find he had some of her powers, plus the ice powers from The Darkness and some Sparkle had taken, plus a couple she couldn't quite make out. But she felt the same thing from The Darkness, so it must have related.

"Sensing me out, huh? It's fine, I would have done the same in your... boots. So how do you want to do this? Two on two? One on two? Two on one? It's all the same to me."

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"Oh, more talking? I heard you were like some kind of murder machine. Beheading innocent ponies and whatnot."

"Will people stop bringing that up!"

"Not until it stops twisting your insides like a knife," The Darkness gaily informed her. She held out a hand and a glittering ice dagger appeared in it, which she mimed twisting into Susan.

"Liar. You have plenty of power left, even creating this storm."

"Naturally!"

"Fine," said the man. "You want my life story? My name is Sangray, I got chosen by my boss here and it said it would spare my planet if I agreed to travel worlds and take care of people like you. I don't really enjoy it, but my people stay safe. There, done. Can we get on with it?"

"I don't suppose we could all take a little _nap_ first?" She looked over at Sparkle, who nodded.

"Nap? What are you-"

As a free action, Susan went back into "magic mode" and did an instant casting of _Somnolent Smog,_ along with Sparkle. The Darkness could only counter one of them, so she figured one would get through, put them both to sleep, and she could at least figure out what to do with The Darkness. With her time cut in half thanks to the return of _Accelerate Magic_ she got... her minimum, a thirteen. It didn't matter though, as both circles on the ground where the _Smog_ should have been splintered and broke apart.

"You did that!" she accused Sangray.

"Guilty as charged. Now let's see what we have here..."

"I don't like this," Sparkle said, trying to move on the floor. With her immunity to _ice_ gone she was going to start sliding all over the place. She dug her claws in and got a little traction. "If they can both do it-"

"Tell me about it. Can I beat the crap out of them?"

"Don't kill Sangray, he seems to be coerced."

"I know." She drew both her swords from the _sub-space pocket_ and waited for the guy to make his next move. She didn't want to go sliding around any more than Sparkle did, after all.

"Oh great, can't you do something about this floor?" asked Sangray, grabbing the fountain now to steady himself.

"What? I'm not having any trouble."

 _Wait, why wasn't he having trouble before but now he is?_

"Fine. Let's see what else we have here... ah."

 _What's he doing? "Slash-all,"_ she activated, figuring she could hit them both with that. _I'll go for the legs, once Sangray is down I'll consider him not to be an enemy anymore and just concentrate on The Darkness. He shouldn't bleed to death by the time I take her out. I hope?_

 _"_ _Elemental Sniper: Fire,"_ cast Sangray, surprising Susan. She now found out what it was like to be on the other side of that spell, and have penalties for dodging on ice. She managed it, but had to make a second COOrdination check which she failed miserably and fell over.

The Darkness laughed and shot a beam of cold at Susan, which was deflected with a _"Deflection,"_ by Sparkle.

"Why didn't you shut that down?" snapped The Darkness.

"Hey, I can't do everything here you know. I wanted to get as much of her magic as I could, I figured that would be more useful."

"Idiot! Don't give her any clues, she's very intelligent!"

 _Wait a second, is he trying to tell me something? First he had my powers, now he seems to have my magic..._

"Hold everything!" she shouted, getting up on her elbows. "Are you telling me that the powers around you become your powers?" _Now where have I seen that before?_

"Hey, she is, you're right."

"Fool!"

"Don't feel too bad, the only reason I got it so quickly is because I could do it once. It was pretty fun actually."

"Really? I'd love to hear about it sometime."

"We _are in the middle of a combat!"_ screamed The Darkness. "Kill her already!"

"All right, all right. Keep your skirt on. Or not, whatever."

Susan smiled. "You've both made a miscalculation," she informed them, sitting up.

"Oh?"

"Yup. Sparkle, get clear, this isn't going to work in your favor, just mine."

"I hope you know what you're doing." She backed off.

"What are you up to now?" The Darkness asked suspiciously.

"She told you about me, right?" she asked Sangray. "I can go between powers mode and magic mode? And I get to choose the powers every time?"

"So?"

"Something to ponder. What happens if I transform... but I don't take any powers? _Light of the Multiverse, Make Up!"_

Just as she said, Susan once again transformed, but this time not even her clothes changed. Magic fell away from her, and she took no powers apart from _Immunity: Ice_ so she could at least stand up again without falling down.

"Then I lose the bulk of my abilities to fight you," said Sangray, understanding the situation correctly. "Apart from what I get from her, anyway."

"Don't care about that," Susan informed him. "I'm immune to ice, which is all you'll get apart from negating my magic, which I don't have anymore. But I'm guessing you can't draw off my _imbued_ items, just powers or magic I have as _backgrounds._ So now it's one on two, yes, but I'm confident in my sword skills against two people who have only one power I'm immune to between them." She did a flip and was upright again. "Shall we begin round two?"

"Certainly," agreed Sangray. "But you've made a miscalculation."

"Oh?"

Suddenly Sangray was holding a glowing energy bow, and the arrow was pointing right at her. "You think I don't have any weapons, and that would be incorrect." He fired, and Susan made her dodge by one to get out of the way. _Oh great. Well, one way to deal with a bow user._

She rushed him, her speed covering the distance in a blink, and swung her sword, intending to just knock him aside the head with the side of the thing and hopefully knock him out.

Again she was surprised when an energy shield appeared and blocked the strike, knocking her back. She back-stepped and saw he now had a floating shield, a weird looking four legged animal on one shoulder, a headband, and a snake rearing up beside him. His bow seemed to be ready again, too, another arrow ready to fire. All were made of that same glowing energy, and all, Susan realized with horror, had a _spirit energy signature._

"The souls of the coma victims in town!"

"Oh come on, you can't have gotten _that_ so quickly!" he protested.

"I ran into someone, a ghost actually, that could do that. Gave me a bit of trouble."

"A ghost you say? How odd."

Susan now backed away cautiously, trying to keep an eye on the snake, The Darkness, and the bow held by Sangray all at the same time. _If I smash these things, do those people down there die? It makes sense if he's somehow turned their souls into weapons. Aarg, this sucks!_

To make matters worse, at that moment the woman from earlier busted into the place, sliding past the door into the room.

"Don't you dare kill my sister!" she called desperately.

"Oh good," remarked Sangray. "I have super strength now for some reason. How about that?"

"Indeed," replied The Darkness. "I love having hostages around, don't you?" She raised a hand to attack her sister. "Susan? How about you be a dear and throw those swords down?"

 _Crap, now what? And how did she get up here so fast?_

"Three."


	165. Chapter 165

165

Unexpected Help

When: "Three"

Where: Elsa's ice palace

 _"Dazzle!"_

Susan cast the spell with all her might, which is to say the maximum amount of energy she could muster, after dropping her one and only power for magic mode. Of course she could now slip on ice again, and given a chance this Sangray fellow would again have access to her spells. She wasn't in a state of mind to give either of them a chance to do anything. Naturally, if it had been just her to cast, The Darkness would have shut it down and that would have been the end of it. But the power of Friendship was strong with Susan, and Sparkle, being on the ball, a cat, and also holding her action to do what needed to be done, cast _"Thrust"_ at the same time.

The Darkness now had a choice to make. Go flying across the room in a very ungraceful manner, possibly take damage, and wind up in heap on the floor tangled up in her cloak _or_ simply accept the delay modifier and remain where it was. It chose to remain where it was and negated Sparkle's spell. That meant it and Sangray made a RESolve check against Susan's spell, which she got a thirty one on. The Darkness got close, a twenty nine, and Sangray only got half what he needed.

Both gained a _delay_ of twenty five, or roughly five seconds. In combat terms, Susan could basically _saunter_ out of there and they couldn't do a dang thing about it. She considered it, just for the coolness factor, but instead on her next action she _spirit stepped_ over to the pair and grabbed them both.

"Get us out of here!" she called to Sparkle, to also appeared next to them and hopped up on Susan.

 _Good thing_ spirit step _leaves you with zero momentum when you come out of it. Otherwise moving at that actual speed would have slammed me into the wall over there because of the ice!_

"Wait!" shouted the man, but that was just foolish in Sparkle's opinion. She cast _Teleport_ and they found themselves back in town.

Susan breathed a sigh of relief. These two jokers were safe.

"Olaf and Sven are still-" he protested, but then it caught up to him where they were. "Outside? What's going on?"

"I just saved you, is what's going on," Susan explained. "Honestly, I told you she was dangerous!"

"You did no such thing," complained Anna. "You just... just... flew off. I demand to know what's going on!"

"Demand huh?"

"Calm down," Sparkle cautioned Susan. "Remember, we move a lot faster than they do, we know what things are about. They don't. And all this happened rather suddenly."

"There's no time. That _Dazzle_ is no doubt wearing off and-"

"And what? You can't be thinking of going back there? He's _you._ Only by being here, away from him, is he somewhat powerless."

Susan's mouth opened and closed a few times, then she looked thoughtful, then brightened. "Oh, I see what you're saying. I need to fly to a remote part of the land, _telesummon_ him with a _teleportal_ open at my back, then just step through and close it before he can react. Easy."

"No, that's not- actually that's a decent plan. Huh. But that still leaves you going up there and killing her. You didn't seem really prepared for that just now, so are you any more prepared now?"

"No, but it has to be done, doesn't it?"

"Are you standing there calmly talking about _murdering my sister?"_ shrieked the woman.

"My friend is still up there! And Olaf, shouldn't we see what he's about?" cried the equally upset guy.

"Oh goodness, like she's going to hurt a freaking reindeer. Wait, did you just refer to a reindeer as 'my friend?' But fine, fine." She raised her hands in surrender and opened a _Teleportal_ back to the base of the stairs outside the castle. "I'm loving this _Accelerate Magic,"_ she remarked. "Good choice."

"Thank you."

The guy went through and found the two, bringing them back to the town and Susan closed the hole again.

"Happy?"

"Marginally. Thank you."

"Is this a town?" asked Olaf. "I've always wanted to see one. Oh, what's that over there!?"

"Don't go wondering off," commanded Susan. "I don't know what the heck you are, but I'm keeping my eye on you."

"In that case, can I have my hug now?"

"No!" everyone shouted.

"Gee, bite a guy's head off, I was just asking."

"Now about my sister?" asked the woman.

"Oh very well!" allowed Susan. "Let's get out of the snow, I'll tell you the whole sordid tale of why she _isn't_ your sister anymore, hopefully get you to understand that if she doesn't die the world does, and maybe I can get on with saving your entire freaking reality. Would that be okay with you?"

"You'll have to forgive her," put in Sparkle. "She really doesn't want to kill anyone, of course. But it's sort of like giving a cat a bath. Best to just plunk them into the water and get it over with as quickly as possible. It's not fair to you, and she shouldn't be taking it out on you, but she's really her own worst _enemy."_

"You know," remarked the man, "I'm still not sure which I'm more freaked out by. The talking cat or the talking snowman. I need a drink."

"I think I do too," remarked the woman. "Let's go to the castle, hopefully it's still standing or whatever."

"I've always wanted to see a castle!" exclaimed Olaf.

Susan did not get a chance to tell her story as there was a lot of commotion at the castle when the group approached. It turned out this girl, that Susan finally learned was named Anna, was in fact a princess and a search party had been dispatched about an hour ago to go look for her.

"When your horse returned without you we feared the worst!" said one of the guards now clustered around the group.

"Should we send someone after them?" asked another.

Susan sighed. "I'll go. Give me a chance to clear my head. Sparkle, you want to explain things to them?"

"I suppose I better," she answered.

The guards all jumped back, raising their weapons. "Did that cat-"

"Yes, yes," Anna waved it off. "We're going to have to get used to the biza- I mean the unexpected in the days to come. Let's head inside and get warm. I'm practically _frozen."_

"Yes your highness," answered all the guards, and bustled them inside. Meanwhile, Susan considered, cast _Flight_ on herself figuring no one was really watching her, and zoomed off towards the mountain again.

Away from the town she was able to use her ability with _spirit sense_ to track down the small group of men riding horses towards the North Mountain, and called down to them.

"Hello riders! No, up here!"

They looked around nervously and finally one looked up, giving a shout as he saw Susan hovering there.

"More sorcery!" claimed the one in the lead, drawing his sword. He was dressed in a very military looking outfit, with a weird pair of black "wings" coming off the front of his jacket. His pants were purple, which reminded her of her father, or at least her mother's stories about what her father wore, so she didn't take an immediate dislike of him despite his prejudice.

"What, you have something against magic users?" she asked, finding a low hanging branch and "flying" upwards against it, so she seemed to be sticking to it.

"Perhaps this kingdom really is cursed," muttered one of the men, but Susan didn't hear it because I need to portray her _poor sense: hearing_ weakness at least a little bit, right? She did however see the two men in red coats raising crossbows.

"Oh, please, go right ahead," she called down to them. "Get it out of your systems. Just be very sure you get me with your first shots, crossbows are notorious for being very slow to reload. Unlike swords." She pulled her sword out.

 _After all, I can_ threaten _all the violence I want, I just can't actually do any. There's a huge difference._

"Please, let's remain calm!" ordered the guy in the lead. "I am prince Hans of the Southern Isles. We mean you no harm. Put those down!" In a quieter voice. "You fools, she's flying and holding that gigantic sword like it was nothing. Do you really want to anger her? I couldn't lift that blade! Just her dropping it from that height would chop you in half. Plus, where did she pull it from? Did you see? I didn't. What else might she pull out if we actually attack her?"

The crossbows dipped a little.

"That's better," Susan told them, putting her sword back. "Now, if you're through trying to prove your manhood or whatever, I've been sent to find you and tell you I've brought Princess Anna back to the castle. I can take you all back if you wish. Or you can ride back yourselves, it makes little difference to me."

"It's some kind of trick, sire!" exclaimed one of the men in red. "Perhaps she works for the queen and is trying to delay us."

"For what purpose? Very well, if you can return us safely to the castle we accept."

"We do?"

"Of course we do. If the princess really has returned what need is there for us to be out here?"

"But the queen..."

"What about the queen? Our concern right now is Anna! Let her deal with her sister like she wanted."

The two men looked at each other, and Susan wondered what they were saying.

"Very well!" he called up to her. "Please take us back then."

"Sure."

Susan came down and opened a _Teleportal_ back to the castle, which the horses reluctantly stepped through, all the while the men in red watched her like a hawk. Once through the closed it and there was more commotion at the gate as these new arrivals were greeted.

"I can take you to the princess?" said what was probably the highest (or lowest, now that I think about it) ranked guard that was available. He gave a hesitant bow, as if not exactly sure how Susan should be treated. The man had just seen a bunch of people step out of thin air, and he had Susan fly away so he knew she was powerful.

"Very well, my good man," she allowed. "Lead on."

It was somewhat warmer in the castle, with merry fires cheerfully releasing a tiny fraction of the energy stored in the bodies of trees in a most horrifically inefficient manner if you really think about it, in fireplaces in most of the rooms. Susan was ushered into a meeting room of sorts, where Sparkle was finishing up her tale.

"All up to date then?" Susan asked. "Great. Perhaps we can get on with this unpleasant business then."

"Give her a minute to process all this," chided Sparkle, looking over at the shocked Anna. "It's a lot to take in, even for a people that have some knowledge that magic exists."

"Very well." Susan plunked down in a chair and rested her chin on her hands. "But your world grows colder with every passing moment."

"A word, please?" Sparkle ask, padding past her.

"Sure thing, oh my conscience."

At the other end of the room, Sparkle looked up at her. "Susan, I'm not sure how to ask this. Are you on some kind of revenge quest against The Darkness right now or something? I mean you're in an awful hurry to go up and murder this poor woman."

"I just think since it was kind enough not to hide this time, we should go take care of the problem. You felt that power, saw that cloud cover. This world isn't going to last long under that kind of strain."

"But it won't freeze in the next day either. Even for someone being augmented by The Darkness, if she even is and this isn't just all her, changing the weather of the entire planet isn't going to be quick. You went up there thinking this would all be easy, and got an unpleasant surprise. Who knows what other tricks it has waiting for you up there?"

"I guess. And it's true, old Darkdark has never augmented people before. But where else could that power be coming from?"

"Consider this- you get a certain amount of points when you transform, right? You can channel them into different abilities and natures, and get certain techniques. Maybe it doesn't work that way here. Maybe she's channeled all the 'points' she would get into one nature. _Ice_."

" _Ice_ and _Spirit_ , if that snowman is any indication."

"Still, my point is valid."

"I agree. It's a possible explanation for it. And maybe The Darkness is showing her how to tap _lay lines_ like it did for the warlock controller. I couldn't exactly check for them. Not that I would expect to find many on a mountain."

"They could work differently here, too. Or perhaps that Sangray fellow brought her some hyperlarcovite to use, to speed the job along."

She sighed. "True. I can't really assume anything can I? And you're right, I guess I do have a sort of vendetta against the thing. I'll try to rein it in, okay?"

"That's all I ask."

"Sparkle?"

"Hum?"

"Thanks. This is the kind of thing I... need to hear, I guess."

"No problem."

"Okay, so, look. I'm sorry about being a bit... brusque with you earlier. Sparkle has quite rightly called me out on it. I hope you can forgive me, your majesty, it was no way for a knight to behave."

"You're a knight and a witch?"

"Who's a witch? I'm a magic user yes, but- never mind. Call me what you want. The point is, incredible as it all sounds, what Sparkle has told you has probably been the truth." Sparkle glared at her. "Well I don't know what exactly you told her or how much, do I? Your sister is taken over, and it falls to me to deal with the situation. I'm not happy about it, but I know what's required of me. Is there anything I can do to make this easier for you?"

"Yes. Don't kill my sister!"

She looked over at Sparkle. "You did get to the part where-"

"Yes, I told her the whole thing."

"Then she told you that we've been told there's no other way. Yes, if I got her current guardian, this Sangray chap away from her I could probably seal her power for a time. But I can't stay here and keep her sealed. I am sorry. Believe me. But this is the only way."

"But with all your power, unless I've seen everything you can do which I doubt, your only option is to go up there and end her life?"

"Yes." _Looks like she finally is getting it through her thick head._

"Well you can't."

 _Or perhaps not._

"I order you to think of another way. There. That's how it's done, right?"

"You think I haven't? You think as I stood over the last... well, the second to last person I had to kill, the last one I was a bit out of- never mind. You think I didn't cast about for some way to resolve the situation?"

Sparkle beckoned to lean over, and Susan did. "There is always the stone. You could charge it and give it to her."

"And face that energy in another world? Or have a world fall because Darkness could use it to take one out before an agent could get there? I don't want that on my conscience either!"

 _You're thinking like a human. Your concepts for what I want that energy for are similarly limited. Believe me, that's not why I want it._

"Is there a way?" Anna looked between them.

"Not one I am prepared to accept," Susan informed her, straightening up. "We both saw what just the rumor of a stone like this one did to the last world. I'll not have a repeat performance."

"So maybe if we offered my sister something, what has taken her over would leave?"

"It wants the energy of your entire reality. It won't settle for much less."

Anna's arguing continued. In the end, she would not be swayed and ordered Susan to at least think about the issue for another day or two. Susan assured her she had weeks of thinking about it under her belt, plus the being who sent her here said it was impossible and so she was inclined to believe him. Nonetheless Anna went to get some sleep and Susan went to go see what help she could offer the people taking refuge in the castle.

That afternoon, while helping to _conjure foodstuffs_ for those that were there, she saw her friend the old lady sitting at a table and sat down beside her. (As each casting of the spell at full energy used would create about three meals worth of food per rating, 3 * 24 = 72 people could be fed with one casting. Susan figured they could use that food up first as they couldn't exactly gather more at the moment.)

"We meet again," Susan greeted her.

"Indeed we do. Sorry about last time. You can't blame an old woman now can you?"

"I could." The woman eyed her. "But I won't. It's academic really."

"It's what? Something about a school? Maybe I am going a little deaf."

"No, it's-" _Must have gotten lost in the translation._ "It's not important. Money is easy to come by."

"Oh! Then perhaps I've killed a golden goose with my crass behavior. If I knew money was easy to come by for you I would have paid for the meal and sought friendship with you, which would no doubt pay more dividends. Story of my life, really. Why I remember when the farmer did that, you know. Broke my heart, but what could I do? It was his choice."

"You remember that, huh? How long ago was it? Anyway, thought it was just a story." _A story our worlds seem to share, at that. Strange._

"Everything's a story, my dear."

 _What did she-_ Susan looked at her curiously. "Who are you?" She did a quick _dimension sense_ but no, the woman belonged here all right. She didn't feel off to _spirit sense_ and her _magic sense_ said she was a bit magical, but then, everything around here had a tiny bit of magic in it she found. She looked around in wonder, intrigued.

"Just an old woman with a head full of tales. Hard to know what's real anymore. I mean look outside! That's a story waiting to be written isn't it? _The Day Winter Came On a Warm Summer's Eve."_

"Too long."

"Oh, you like them short and snappy, huh?" She thought a moment. "How about _The Snow Queen?"_

"Catchy. I like it."

The woman looked her over with a "Hummm. You seemed troubled my dear. Come, tell an old woman your story and maybe there's some wisdom tucked away in this head of mine I can share to ease your burden."

There was something quite earnest (goes to camp) about this woman, so after only a second of hesitation, Susan did. She even found herself bringing out the stone and showing it to the woman.

"So you say if you put energy enough to explode an entire planet into this tiny stone and hand it over to this being of darkness, it'll leave one world on its own?"

"That's what it said. I don't think it can outright lie to me, as on some level we are the same being. And while people lie to themselves all the time, I haven't caught it lying to me yet. Laughing at me, yes. Showing me gruesome imagery lately, yes."

 _I'm just getting warmed up._

"But an out and out falsehood? I don't think so."

"Then your answer is simple," she insisted, handing the stone back.

"I'm not handing this over lightly, no matter how easily I could actually put energy into it."

"I'm not suggesting you should. But this proves it _can_ leave, if it wants to. You just have to make it want to." She stood.

"But how? I can't give it want it wants."

"Naturally. Just like a parent that grounds their child, you must withhold something that this entity wants in order to make sure it does what it must. And it must leave this world, that much is clear."

"Wait, parents ground their kids here?"

"Thank for you explaining things to me, Susan. We felt The Darkness come, but we also knew even our power was no match for it. We are of this world, while it come from outside it. It will take someone like yourself to deal with it, that much is clear. Having spoken to you, felt your strength of will, I think we can entrust the task to you. It would be a shame for Elsa's light to leave the world, but you must do what is best, even if that is what is hardest. I wish you luck in your choice."

She stepped around Susan, crossing behind her and Susan twisted around to the other side to try and grab her before she got away. "Seriously, who are-"

But the woman was gone.

"What are you doing?" asked asked Sparkle, coming over. "You've just been sitting there muttering to yourself. Are you okay?"

"You didn't see the old woman? And I forgot to ask her how she knew my name. Darn it."

"What woman?" Sparkle looked around. "From the tavern earlier?"

"I don't think she's- never mind. Maybe I'm just hallucinating now, but at least it gave me an idea. Come on, we have to see Anna." Susan got up with a faint grin on her face.

"Maybe we can save her sister!"


	166. Chapter 166

166

It's Who You Know

When: A few hours later

Where: Meeting room

Anna finally woke up again, near sunset that day which Susan figured would screw up her sleep schedule for weeks if not the rest of her life. Or maybe a day or two. I've heard it both ways. The point is, she excitedly burst into the queen's chambers the moment the guard said she was up, and waited while she brushed her hair out.

"What's gotten you so excited?"

"I spoke with... well I don't even know _what_ she was, but she gave me a good idea. I could do it, maybe with _curse_ magic but every _curse_ has to have a cure. Given the resources The Darkness can draw upon, anything I come up with would probably be trivial for it to take care of. But I thought to myself, maybe there's a way locally to do what I want to do. I mean her power must come from somewhere, right?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about taking your sister's ability to manipulate ice away from her! Permanently. With no more power to freeze the world, The Darkness should lose interest in her and leave this world alone. It doesn't seem to be able to move across bodies once it gets to a place, and I've beaten it enough times you think it would have by now."

 _True. I would have loved to have made you slaughter your way through all your pony friends instead of just the one I managed to get into. Such a pity. Oh my goodness, I totally forgot to show you what it was like for her to get her head chopped off! Nah, I'll save it for when you're really annoying me. Or should I- no. Patience._

 _Would you be quiet?_

Anna got it. "And if it moves on you don't have to kill her!"

"Exactly!"

"That's a great idea. There's only one problem."

"Don't tell me..."

"I have no clue where her powers came from or how to remove them. Until I told her about the whole proposal thing, I didn't know she even had powers." Her face darkened. "But of course my parents must have. They were probably the ones to tell her she shouldn't play with me any more when we were kids." She went over to the window, deep in thought. "I can almost remember the day. One day we were the best of friends. The next it was like my sister had died, though she was still right before my eyes." She bent her head, and Susan was surprised to hear her start to sing!

 _Oh sister, my sister, where have you gone?_

 _I'd always thought that I had done wrong._

 _Your self imposed exile was painful to see._

 _That day the two sisters, stopped being "we."_

 _Our mother and father, they drove us apart._

 _And it felt just like I had been stabbed in the heart._

 _Could I have done more as you turned away?_

 _No matter the distance your sister I'll stay._

 _Heartsong!_ Susan felt, her _magic sense_ buzzing. _They have heartsongs here! So ponyville isn't the only place- Amazing._ She pointed excitedly to Anna behind her back to Sparkle, who rolled her eyes and nodded her head. "I'll do everything in my power to save your world without killing her," Susan promised, taking her hands. "And my power is considerable."

"If you don't know," added Sparkle, "we can ask our magic itself. But if there's any chance someone around here would know, that would be much easier."

Anna shook herself out of her daydream of sweet, sweet revenge against the mother and father who had obviously driven a wedge deep between such close sisters, and looked into Susan eyes. "Our tutors always spent the most time coaching Elsa in kingdom running duties. Mostly I was the 'spare princess' and treated like I would just be married off to some noble someplace. That's why I wanted to find my own man, which I guess started all this, before they got any ideas about marrying me off to someone. But there's one thing I do remember from her lessons. The people outside the castle walls know just about everything, collectively. A farmer might not know anything about weaving, but you can bet someone he knows does. Let's go ask."

They made their way to the great hall, where dinner was now being served. Servants (and flunkies) bowed as the princess went by, and Susan couldn't help but think she could get used to such things.

 _Give yourself over to me and I'll get you all the bowing and scraping peasantry you could ever want._

 _Or I could continue to oppose you, and know in my heart that even though billions of sentient beings across countless realities don't even know my name, they live and love and enjoy life all because of my efforts. And_ that _is enough._

 _Is it? Really?_

"Good people, please pause a moment and listen!" Anna shouted at the front of the room. Everyone went silent, wondering what the princess might have to say. "Thank you. If there is one among you that knows, or knows someone who knows, anything about magic, please, step forward. We have a plan to break Elsa's winter and leave her unharmed, but it will take the efforts of those with more knowledge of magic than I possess. Please, any scrap, even an old folk tale or a charm you learned from your grandmother might be the key we need to put our plan into action." She leaned over to Susan. "Also we can check our own libraries. My parents must have researched her condition to try and help her control it."

(Of course we know they did no such thing, basically locking her into a room which only made things worse, but I digress.)

"I know some people," a voice cried.

Susan burst out laughing at Christoph stepped up.

"What? I do. You think just because I'm in ice dealer I don't know people? I know lots of people. Everybody needs ice."

"No, no, it's not that. It's difficult to explain." _Narrative Imperative, you strike again. Of course the guy she was running around the mountains with knows someone who knows something about magic. Like I said before, who needs_ Information Gathering? _Or the_ Contact _card, for that matter. Shoot, when did I last get cards anyway? Have I transcended the limits of even a Paragon and no longer need them? Or have I just not looked lately?_

"Then lead on!" commanded Anna.

So he did. He led them though the nearby forest and into a clearing, where a bunch of rocks were sitting there looking all the world like rocks. Which they seemed to be. If you didn't have the variety of senses Susan did. She also noticed something odd- the snow didn't seem to touch this area. With a quick _magic sense_ she could tell some sort of _sun_ spell was going, but that the _ice_ technique pressing in on the place would probably weaken it sooner or later.

"Come on everyone, don't do this to me!" Christoph pleaded to them. "They're such jokers. They're pretending to be rocks, it's their favorite trick."

Anna looked over to Susan who rolled her eyes. "I can feel that you're alive," she called to them. "So you may as well show yourselves. It's not even funny anymore, look how serious my face is right now." She made a frowny face.

The rocks giggled.

Susan scowled _harder._

They all burst out laughing and unrolled, and 40-50 small rocklike figures started jabbering that Christoph was home.

"And he's brought _two_ girls with him!" one announced.

"Christoph you _dog!"_ said another. "Not satisfied with one?"

"But can he satisfy two?" asked a third.

"Maybe he's here for some of our special moss?" asked a forth, winking.

"Special moss! Special moss!" they started crying.

But the cries were cut short when a crystal wearing troll rolled though the place. "There is strange magic here!" he announced, looking around.

"Ah, that would be me," Susan volunteered.

"And it has a blackness inside it," he continued, igniting a flame in each hand.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Susan shouted, waving her hands at him. "I've taken an oath to harm no creature without the leave of my cat. I'm trying to help you!"

"Cat?" He cocked his head quizzically and looked over at Sparkle as she stepped out. The flames went out.

"That would be me," she said. "And I commend your sense of magic to have picked up on it so quickly. But really, she may have a Darkness inside her, but that does not define her."

"I see." He looked over at Christoph. "There are strange forces moving through the world now, my boy. Will you vouch for this one?"

He looked over at her seriously.

"What, you have to consider it?"

"No, I do," he sighed. "She's with me. As is Anna. Grandfather, we need your help."

"The world needs your help," Susan corrected. "I am but a lowly servant to you all."

The troll snorted. "Unlikely, given what I feel from you. But if Christoph says you are with him, then you are one of us. What can we do for you, traveler?"

"Can you save my sister?" Anna pleaded.

"Elsa? So, she is behind our recent change in weather?" He pointed out of the circle that defined the troll's magic barrier. "I was afraid of this. I was a fool! I should have explained things more carefully to your parents."

"My- perhaps you should start at the beginning."

"The tale is not long to tell. Many years ago you were struck by her magic while playing, and your parents rushed you here. I was able to remove the magic, most of it, anyway." He pointed to her head, and she touched the lock of hair that was white.

"I always wondered..."

"Wonder no more. It was your sister that did that to you, quite by accident I hasten to add. And now, despite my advice, it has come to this. But her power is strange, otherworldly. Just like yours." Now he looked at Susan.

"My tale is a bit longer to tell. Suffice to say if there is any way you know of to strip Elsa of her powers without harming her, I think she, and this world, can be saved. Otherwise, I must put her to the sword." She twirled her sword out, then put it back.

The troll paced, hands behind his back. "Troubling. Very troubling indeed. To offer this power to one such as yourself... to even allow the world to know... it sets a bad precedent indeed. If only I had more time to consider, but even this place will not last long under the queen's onslaught."

"So there is a way," breathed Anna.

He spun. "Away with you! If I must tell anyone it will be her. Even now I have said too much. Away! Away!" He made shooing motions and the other two backed off. "You must swear to me that you will never- You as well!" Susan looked behind her, and a hundred eyes blinked at her. The other trolls were all leaning in as if to hear better. "All of you." There was a bit of grumbling, but they moved off. "That's better. Oh come down here will you, why must you humans be so tall?"

"Sorry about that." Susan sat on the ground.

"As I was saying. There is a way to remove a person's gift. It is not easy, and should be done in only the most dire of circumstances. For various reasons. But this seem to be a good time."

"What do I have to do?"

"That's the problem- I don't know completely." Susan started to slump with a sigh. "But I can get you started. It's been set up that way on purpose."

"Wait, is this some kind of fetch quest?" asked Sparkle.

"I'm not sure I take your meaning. You will have to travel to other parts of the world to gather the ingredients, yes. Each major power of the land has only one piece of the spell. Luckily we, the Earth Trolls, have a piece. Also I know the next place you must go, to get the next ingredient. From there you must convince that being of your need and they will give you the next piece, and the next place you must go."

"Seems reasonable," Susan allowed. "I wouldn't want knowledge this dangerous to fall into the wrong hands either."

"I'm glad we understand each other. I will retrieve the first ingredient momentarily. For now, I will tell you the kingdom of the sea is where you must continue your search. I know of nothing more than that piece of lore. I hope it is enough."

"You can't narrow it down more than that _?"_ she hissed. "Do you know how huge the oceans are? The planet is mostly water!"

"Perhaps the object itself will lead you? I know not. I'm sorry, that's all I can tell you."

"Very well. Just knowing it's possible is helpful. Go and get what you need, I'll be right here."

"Very well."

He disappeared, rolling away into the crowd, which stayed a respectful distance from Susan. Who began to get worried as moments passed and he didn't return.

"You think he was just messing with us and just ran away?" she asked.

"That would be a little far to take a prank."

"True."

Moments later the crowd parted again and he was seen lugging a very tiny stone towards her. "Not as young as I used to be," he panted. "Sorry for the wait."

 _So is that tiny thing really heavy or is he just really weak? Guess I'll find out._

"It's quite heavy," he cautioned her, proffering it.

"Not to worry, I'm pretty str- oh gods!" She nearly was driven to the ground as he handed it over, but she recovered and strained to bring it up to chest level. "What the heck is this made of?" She peered at it.

"I know only the crafting, passed down through generations," the troll admitted. "But I know not how the stone is to be used. Only the one that will mix the brew knows that."

"Glad I don't actually have to carry this freaking thing around with me," she remarked, slipping it into her _sub-space pocket._

"I'm not sure what you just did, but somehow it seems like cheating to me."

"Just putting into my inventory. Nothing to be concerned about. So you didn't happen to recall some other tidbit on the way back? No? Then I shall be on my way. Thank you. For your trust, and for the stone."

"Save our world. And the queen. I would like to see her again, now that she is all grown up. Anna turned out fairly well, so I must assume Elsa did as well."

Susan blushed, remembering. "Oh, ah, not bad. I probably won't be back, but you'll know when I succeed."

"Good luck to you."

She and the others waved goodbye to the trolls and headed back to the castle.

"That was a good suggestion," she said to Christoph. "Your knowing them may have just saved your world. Well, your queen anyway, I would have saved your world one way or other."

"So he had what you needed?" asked Anna. "You can save my sister?"

Susan shook her head. "One piece of a larger puzzle. And we don't know what the picture on the puzzle is supposed to be. Have you two ever heard of a kingdom of the ocean?"

Christoph shook his head. "I just deal in ice. That only requires the top few inches."

Anna looked thoughtful. "I know sailors are always praying to Triton for calm seas. But then people ask the gods a lot of things, and hardly ever get them."

"It's a start. Come on, we can refine where we need to go back at the castle."

 _South_

"I guess that answers that _Question,"_ Susan grumped. "Then presumably underwater? I mean what's south of here?"

"I'll have somewhat fetch a map," said Anna.

 _Ah, servants. They can come in handy._

Once looking at the map, Susan realized the probably didn't have far to go. "There's a bit of water, then land again. As a kingdom of the _sea_ is probably not on the _land_ I would say head to the midpoint and see what shows up."

Anna sighed. "This is the path my parents took several years ago." She wistfully traced the path south. "Triton, if he exists, was not kind that day."

"If I see him I'll punch him in the face just for you." Sparkle glared at her. "Gently. Very gently. Won't even leave a mark."

She chuckled. "You have my permission. But will you be all right? Under the sea?"

"Leave it to me."

"The hospitality of the castle is yours, you'll probably want to start in the morning?"

Susan shook her head. "This is too important. Besides, the way I'll work it I won't need sleep so it's best to leave now and get a good start on this. I don't know how many things I have to gather, or what I'll need to do to convince whoever has the next piece to part with it. Even hours could make the difference."

"Oh. If there's anything you need..."

"Thanks for the offer, but we'll manage. Sparkle, you want to sit this one out?"

"You mean it?"

"Ha hahahahah. No. You're the only one that can release my combat potential. You're coming with me."

"I was afraid of that."

Anna saw her to the edge of town, sun now sitting low in the sky. "Good luck, okay? And be safe. I don't want you getting killed because I don't want you to kill my sister. I have a feeling you could have ended the threat to our world fairly easily but are taking the long way around to spare me some anguish."

"That's part of it. Mainly I want to prove you don't have to kill the host to get rid of The Darkness, and I would hate to kill someone as gorgeous as your sister. I mean someone who has already been through so much. I'm going now."

 _Smooth, Susan. Very smooth._

Out away from the town, Susan turned to Sparkle. "Time to switch to powers mode. You don't have so many points so let's talk about what you should take..."

That done, Susan transformed and flew high in the sky, then slammed down to break the ice and get through to the water. She had to hammer her way through, which she didn't mind, and finally enough had been cleared to let her jump in. She hadn't paid much attention to her outfit, but Sparkle saw it was more like a swimsuit now than a fuku. It still had what looked like a collar and skirt, but that was just the design printed on the suit itself.

 _How odd,_ she thought. _I guess all the 'going underwater' powers she took this time changed it that much._

"Ready for a swim?"

"Never. But I suppose you did put your combat power in my hands, which couldn't have been easy. I'll have to stick with you. Let's just get this over with."

The pair plunked into the dark water and began their descent into the kingdom of the sea.

Susan's current powers:

Energy Regeneration 2

Energy Well 3

Environmental Adaption 2

Flight 2 (She has a lot of "ground" to cover and this is faster than swimming)

Invulnerability 2

Nature: Force 2

Nature: Metapower 2

Nature: Seeing 2

Immune: Darkness 2

Renewal 1

Speed 3 (This increases her base, and thus her flight speed tremendously)

Teleport 3


	167. Chapter 167

167

The Next Fin of the Journey

When: Several hours later

Where: Under the sea (where she's devoting full time to floating)

Susan descended at top speed into the darkness under the water, relying on her _immunity_ to darkness to see. Not that there was much to see, presently. Helped along by her _Seer_ nature and a few hastily thought of _Seer_ techniques, she figured she was on the right track to finding someone who could point her in the right direction. Sparkle was hanging on for dear life, but neither felt the least discomfort thanks to their _environmental adaptation._ Normally even someone with air at this depth would feel strange, given the pressures to be found down there, but she didn't even think about it.

What she did think about, however, was the merman flanked by two swordfish she nearly smashed into in the dark.

"Watch where you're going!" he called, disgusted. "Unless you're bringing back news of the king's missing dau- uh- uh- uh."

"Missing... what?" prompted Susan.

"Human!" the merman shouted, eyes wide in terror. His tail went into overdrive as he backtracked, turned around, and shot away from her.

"Why would the king have a missing human?" she asked, easily keeping pace beside him. "Also, this wouldn't be king _Triton,_ would it? I need to speak to that guy if you can tell me where to find him."

"Human! There's a human! AAAAAAAAAA." The man was covering his eyes. "Attack her, attack her!"

The two swordfish looked at him. "Are you crazy?" asked the one.

"Yeah, shouldn't she be drowning or something?" asked the other.

"Something funny going on here," continued the first.

"There's something you don't see every day," commented Sparkle. "Talking fish."

"And what are you supposed to be?" the one on the left asked her.

"I'm a cat."

"Cat- fish?"

"No, just a cat."

"Weird. What's that stuff all over its body?" the one asked the other.

"You got me? Some kind of hair?"

"It's fur."

"Don't talk to them!" shouted the merman. "You know the rules!"

"Doesn't strike you as odd, Ariel going missing and now this human shows up? Asking to see the king? A human, I might remind you that is not dying horribly. And seems to be keeping up with you despite not having a tail."

The merman seemed to consider this and slowed, panting.

"And it's not attacking us or anything," said the other. "Maybe we should see what it wants?"

"You just stay back!" cautioned the merman.

"Or what?" scoffed Susan. "You'll swordfish me? Personally I think you would have to talk them into it, and they don't seem too keen on the idea. Don't worry, it's not like I'm a shark."

"SHARK?!" the three yelled, whirling around. "Where?"

"No, I was just... look, can we start over? There's no... what I said. There isn't one. You can stop looking."

"Don't _do_ that!" said the merman. "My heart. You trying to kill me?"

"Are you sure?" asked the one swordfish, currently huddled up next to the other one.

"Completely. So calm down please. I mean you no harm."

Susan waited while the merman caught his 'breath' and finally seemed to accept he wasn't in danger from Susan.

"So, uh, human, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"My name is Susan. What's yours?"

"Nerio."

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it? And this is Sparkle."

"Hello."

"Now. I am on a mission of vital importance relating to the ice I'm sure you've gotten reports of near the surface. You have heard of that, right?"

"We have more important things to worry about."

"I heard," said the right swordfish. "Something about out of season ice. Don't pay much attention to the surface world."

"You might want to change that policy. If the weather doesn't get fixed it'll be ice all the way down, so you're in just as much danger as the humans are."

"You mentioned the king?" asked the left swordfish.

"That's right. I'm told he might have something I need to fix the weather, so I came down to fetch it."

"This is highly irregular. Escorting a human into the heart of the kingdom? Especially with emotions running as high as they are because of Ariel..." He looked over at the two.

"Everyone knows about her unnatural fascination with the surface world."

"One might say obsession," said the other.

"What if she was hanging out on a rock or beached herself? She could be a captive on land! Now this girl shows up and wants something of the king. Well, maybe the king will want something of her."

The merman nodded, rubbing his chin. "I get it. You mean someone that can check out the land and report back. Maybe free her, if necessary. Yes, that could work. Very well. Come with me, I'll escort you to the king."

 _Finally._

So the group swam back the way the merman had come, and as Susan got closer to the kingdom she saw it was lit with naturally luminescent plant life and sea creatures were rushing everywhere. So much so that only a few even noticed she was human, doing a double take and swimming away at high speed. The "castle" itself was huge, rounded and organic like it had been grown out of the sea rather than built. Where Elsa's ice palace was all angles and sharp edges, this structure was worn and soft, like it had been here for ages.

"So this girl Ariel-"

"Princess Ariel," Nerio corrected.

"Apologies. So the princess has gone missing?"

He nodded sadly. "Apparently they had some kind of fight, and she hasn't been seen for two days. He's worried sick."

"I can imagine."

"Here, this will take us to the throne room." He darted through a hole in the side of the building, and Susan followed.

 _No guards. I suppose there might not need to be any. What would attack this place? If fish around here are smart enough to talk, and the entire underwater domain is one kingdom, it wouldn't really have any enemies. Just predator creatures like sharks. Who would also be smart enough not to be found near the heart of the kingdom._

Susan came into the throne room, where a very large merman sat worried on a shell like throne. To either side of him, bubbles lazily spewed from a sort of decorative pots on long tubes. Coral and seaweed decorated the pillars to either side, but apart from the throne the chamber was mostly empty. The king noticed Susan and his eyes hardened.

"Why is there a human in my throne room?" he roared, his trident leaping into his hands and starting to glow.

"Please, your majesty, allow me to explain!" pleaded Nerio. "I can explain everything!"

"Everything?" asked Susan. "Even the use of chaos theory to explain weather patterns? Where the majority of the mass of the universe went after the big bang? How they get jelly into jelly donuts?"

"What?" both merman asked.

"I guess not." _But at least now he's more baffled than angry._ "Your majesty, I know I'm probably the last sort of person you wanted to see, especially during the current crisis-"

"And what do you know about that, incidentally?" he asked, raising the trident again.

"Only what I've been told by Nerio here," she answered, unconcerned. "Seems you had a fight with your daughter and she's run off. Believe me, your kingdom has bigger problems."

"Bigger than my youngest daughter being missing?" He swam over to her and pushed the trident into her face. "You better explain yourself."

Susan's anger rose. _How dare he point that at me!_ Then she made a _resisting_ check, getting a twenty one. Her anger drained away.

 _Crap. Knew that would happen. This sucks._

She looked down at the trident, up at the king, and then over to Sparkle. "Is this what I usually look like?"

"Pretty much. Though with swords."

"Huh. Really glad I'm starting to get a handle on it, just a little." She turned back to him. "Look, this isn't helping. Not only could I probably take you if I had half a mind to, that wouldn't do either of us any good. I don't care what your _prejudice_ against humans is, right now I need your help. And if I can help you in return, I'm happy to do it."

"You? Could take me?" He seemed genuinely amused. "I'm the god of the sea!"

"And I'm part of the hope of the multiverse, sent by a multi-dimensional being that sees your entire reality as nothing more than a leaf on a branch on a tree among countless others. So what? Tell me, do you bleed?"

"Do you?"

"Yes, once a month, for a few days at a time."

The king colored, not exactly sure how to respond to that revelation, but fortunately for him he got a reprieve.

At that moment, there was a commotion down at the other end of the chamber, and two mer-girls were struggling with each other. One seemed to be trying to drag the other into the chamber, while she struggled to get out.

"Now what?" Triton moaned. "I'll deal with you in a second, human. Arista! Aquata! What is the meaning of this? I'm trying to deal with something here!"

"I'm sorry daddy!" said the one with darker hair. "It's just that- AAHHH!"

Both started screaming and trying to fit through the door as they looked past their father and saw Susan floating there.

She shook her head in disgust. _Such a welcoming people, the mermaids. And what the heck are they wearing?_

Though it was hard to tell because they were thrashing around, both girls seemed to be wearing actual seashells on their chests.

 _Most uncomfortable thing to wear-_ _ **ever.**_ _Why do they- how can- I don't get it._ She looked down at herself. _Actually, come to think of it, what am I wearing? Huh, my power mode clothes changed to be more a swimsuit. Weird._

Meanwhile, Triton was trying to calm his daughters down in the time honored tradition of shouting at them and making things worse. She figured this might take a little while, so she flew over to make herself comfortable on the throne.

 _As comfortable as I can be on something that seems to be made of rock. How can he sit on this thing?_

The girls gasped and pointed.

"You dare?" Triton exclaimed, trident glowing again.

"It shut everybody up," Susan explained. Then she _teleported_ to behind the girls, grabbing them around the shoulders. "Now, if we could all just stop shouting at each other-" Predictably, the girls shouted and tried to get away. "I can help you find Ariel," she said quietly.

"What did you say? Girls, be silent!"

The two girls quieted, but Susan was pretty sure they were still terrified.

"I said I can help you find Ariel," she said a bit louder. "But in exchange, I need something from you."

"Typical!" Triton grumped.

"How do you know?"

This question seemed to catch him off guard. "What?"

"How do you know? You two, Aquatica was it?"

"Aquata."

"Fine. I'm Susan, by the way. How many humans have you actually _met?"_

"Well, none, I guess."

"And you?"

"None."

"Ah. But yet you're acting like I'm a sh- that s word with all the teeth."

"The what?"

"Ah, that might not have translated. Water breathing, sharp teeth, senses blood in the water?"

"A shark?"

"I didn't want to say it. I saw what happened the first time I- speaking of that, where did Nerio go?"

They looked about the chamber.

"Is it safe to come out?" a timid voice called from behind a pillar.

"Oh, come out." Triton drooped and slowly swam back to the throne. "Just state your business and go, human."

 _And I thought Severus calling me 'girl' was bad. At least this is some 'god of the sea' rather than just a sorry excuse for a teacher._

She let the girls go and spun, facing them as she moved a little ways into the chamber. "What did you girls have to say?"

"Daddy, Aquata told me she said she saw where Ariel went after your fight!" said Arista, swimming past her.

He perked up. "Is this true, Aquana?"

"I... well... the thing is..."

"Aquana!"

"I don't want to get her in trouble!"

"She's already in trouble," insisted Arista. "Come on, Aquata, you have to tell him. Or I will."

"All right. I saw her swimming towards the-"

"Yes?"

"The lair of the sea witch," she finished in a rush.

Triton's face hardened, and his trident started glowing again. "Ursula."

"But you don't really think... do you?" Aquata asked softly.

"Given how headstrong she is, I wouldn't put it past her. And given she hasn't been seen since. I'll leave immediately."

"Then I'm coming with you," Susan informed him. "I can explain what I want on the way."

"Wait, why are you here?" he asked, glaring at her. "It has nothing to do with my daughter at all, does it?"

"No. It has to do with the weather. You have heard of the ice encroaching on your sea, haven't you?"

He snorted. "I've felt it. I thought it was odd, but I had other things on my mind."

"I'm here to stop that."

"Really? A human, coming down under the water to-" He broke off and actually seemed to look at her, really look at her, for the first time since she got there. "Is that a cat?"

"You know what a cat is?"

"Cat- fish?" asked Nerio.

"No, just a cat. How is it you can survive here anyway? And what's with the weird magic I feel around you?"

 _Finally, he starts asking the right questions._

Susan briefly explained that in a nearby kingdom, a being from another world that she was chasing took over the new queen of that land and was determined to freeze the world solid. "Then I talked to the rock trolls and they gave me-"

"Wait!" he shouted. "Everyone out of this chamber. Out! Nerio, was it? Thank you for bringing her here, I will reward you properly later. In fact, please stay by the entrance to the castle as I may have another task for you."

"Yes, my king."

"Daddy, what-"

"Not now, sweetie. I need to talk to the human alone. It will just take a moment."

The two girls shrugged at each other and swam off, followed closely by Nerio and his two swordfish buddies.

When they were gone, Triton turned back to her. "You're after her power, aren't you?"

"Taking it away and saving the world, yes. I don't want it for myself."

"If only I could believe you."

"The trolls did. I could show you the-"

"I don't want to hear it! I don't care what they gave you, you understand? I only need to know about my piece."

"I see. At least now we're on the same page."

"I suppose. Perhaps your coming at this time was no accident? Yes, I wonder." He floated around the room, thinking. "And you really don't want her power for yourself?"

"Don't need it."

"HA! Like I can believe that!"

"I'll prove it."

"Really?"

Instead of answering, she _teleported_ again, coming beside him and grabbing the trident.

"Hey!"

She gave him a shove with her legs, and made a STRength check to wrest it from his grasp, getting a thirty four. Triton might be buff, but even he would have a hard time hitting those sorts of numbers (he got a thirty one to resist, ironically enough) and Susan yanked it away from him and _teleported_ back to the entrance to the chamber.

"Give that back immediately!"

"Of course." She reversed it and offered it to him, waiting for him to swim over to it. He touched it with a finger and then grabbed it back quickly, probably expecting her to yank it back before he could grab it. She didn't. "See?"

"What? Oh."

"Believe me now?"

"No. You're still a human. But I'll make you deal."

"Go on."

"Bring my daughter back. I'll trade her for the next ingredient and the next location you have to go. If you can even make it there, but that's not my concern."

"No, it's mine. Very well, nothing is ever easy. I'll go investigate this sea witch and see what she has to say. But I'll need a guide. Well, I don't need one, need one, but it would make things easier."

"Tell Neiro I commanded him to show you where it was."

"He'll love that. Very well. When next I return, your majesty, I shall have your daughter in tow. Whether she wants to come or not."

"Good! Get going!" He turned back to swim up to the throne again.

 _Yeah, thanks for wishing me good luck and all that._

"He wants me to what?" Nerio wailed.

"Show me where the sea witch lives."

"I don't have to go inside, do I?"

"No, it's fine. Just show me the place."

"We're gonna die," said the one swordfish.

"Yup. Nice knowing you."

"Nice knowing you."

"Knock it off and come on. I don't have all day."

As the group approached the place, Susan could see why any self respecting fish person would probably stay away from this site. Undersea vents spewed a sickly purple gas towards the surface, and the bones of some giant sea creature rested on a rocky shelf, mouth open and lit with more sickly light.

"There you go!" Nerio said, backing off. "Have fun or whatever."

"What? There? She lives there?"

"Inside, yes. That's what I've been told. Mostly we just stay away from this place."

"I can't imagine why. I don't suppose you know what sort of powers she has? I'd like to have some idea what she can do."

"I just know she's powerful. Sorry."

"Okay. Thanks for bringing me this far, I appreciate it."

"Sure, sure. You, uh, want me to... wait?" His face said he probably wasn't going to.

Susan shook her head. "Thanks for offering. But hopefully she can tell me what happened and I'll get after Ariel."

"Good luck." He swam away.

"What do you think?" she asked Sparkle, looking the place over.

"I think we need a plan. How do you want to approach the place?"

"With as much firepower as possible, but the trouble is we need information from this being, not to beat her up."

"Could you use a _time_ technique to see what happened? I mean do you trust a being that inspires this much fear to be truthful to you?"

"Not especially. All right, I'm throwing away _speed, seeing nature,_ and _immunity: Dark._ It seems light enough in there. Give me a turn to change and we'll head in. From there, I guess just play it by ear, see how helpful she wants to be. If I have to beat it out of her..."

"I authorize force against her."

"Excellent. Let's get this party started."

Susan's current powers:

Defense Boost 2

Energy Regeneration 2

Energy Well 3

Environmental Adaption 2

Flight 2 (She has a lot of "ground" to cover and this is faster than swimming)

Invulnerability 2

Nature: Electricity 2

Nature: Force 2

Nature: Metapower 2

Nature: Technology 2

Nature (Limited): Transition 1 (She can only turn water into other stuff)

Renewal 1

Teleport 3


	168. Chapter 168

168

Hot on the Tail... I mean Trail

When: Twenty minutes later

Where: Sea Witch Lair

Susan put a bit of effort into her plan to intimidate the sea witch into giving up the information she required, and swam inside. As she passed the entrance she stuck something to the upper tooth of the skeleton and grinned. The entryway was home to various weird looking plants that reached up and tried to grab her as she passed. She easily pulled away, but was shocked to see they seemed to have eyes and mouths as well as their ability to stretch to great lengths. She stared down at them.

"Admiring my collection?" a sultry voice asked from further in. "Please, come in, you needn't fear."

Susan laughed. "Fear what? You? I think not." She floated through the door to where a large half woman half, octopus sat expectantly.

"This is a surprise," she exclaimed, looking Susan over. "You're no creature of the sea, are you?"

"No, I'm not. But I've come in search of one, so perhaps you would be so good as to simply tell me the information I require and I can be on my way."

"Now, now," she tisked, waggling a finger. "I think we both know that even on the surface it doesn't work like that. I have something you want, you need to give me something I want."

"And is there something a simple human such as myself can offer the great witch Ursula?" Susan asked sweetly.

"Oh, very good. These baubles seem quite magical, how about one of them?" She swam over and ran a finger over Susan's _Materia._

"How about this blade through the chest instead?" Susan offered, pulling a sword out of _sub-space_ and holding it up to her.

"You would threaten me? In my own house? Do you know nothing of negotiation? I'll never help you with that kind of attitude."

"I was told the rumors surrounding this place on the way over here. And a person that does good works doesn't live in a place like this. They live someplace-"

"Rumors!?" she gasped, seeming offended. "Why, I've helped more merfolk than that so called king. Let me tell you about it!"

 _Let me tell you of the man that they call Triton._

 _How he rules all of the sea with iron fist!_

 _"Negation,"_ intoned Susan, activating her _Magic Domination Materia_ with ten energy. Ursula stopped singing, gasping and confused as she staggered, yanked out of her song. She blinked, confused. "Yeah, don't need a _heartsong_ from you of all people. Thanks anyway. Back to the subject at hand. I will leave here with the information I want, one way or the other. It's in your best interest anyway."

"How did you do that?"

Susan swung her sword up to rest on her shoulder. "Now, now, even here under the sea you know that's not how it works. You want to know something I know, you know something I want to know. Perhaps a trade?"

That stopped her in her tracks. "Done." She made a motion in the water with her left hand. "I'll want every scrap of information including but not limited to formula, ingredients, gestures-" She made the motion again. "That's strange..."

"Trying to do magic? Yeah, not going to happen, sorry. I've blocked all magic around me but mine." _Not that I can do any magic at the moment._ "And I am in _no way_ giving you access to that spell. You want it, research it yourself. No, what I'm offering is this." She put her sword back and pulled out two cylindrical devices with a button on top. "More specifically, I'm offering to _not_ press this button right here in exchange for where Ariel went after she left here. That's the deal. Take it or leave it."

"Just that button? What's the other one?"

"That's the demonstration." She pressed it, and there was the sound of a distant explosion and the house shook a little. She tossed the detonator. "That was your front door." Ursula swam past her, concerned, and Susan followed. The mouth was all cracked up and the tooth had been blown away. "Basically, I've put a bunch of those, ten times more powerful, under your house," she explained calmly. "You seem to have built it on some rather thin pillars, truth be told. What do you think would happen if those pillars suddenly shattered? Answer: your house would tumble deeper into the sea."

"I see. You really came prepared, didn't you? I approve. Now, these devices... would there be four of them? About this big?" She made a shape with her hands. "Sort of gray metal."

"How do you-"

She pointed, and Susan looked past the door. Floating there were two eel looking guys each wrapped around two of the explosives Susan had made. "Did you think you were unobserved? That you could just swim up to my front door and do as you pleased? No chance, darling."

"Of course, I could blow up your servants," she threatened, holding the detonator up.

 _What a dirty, filthy liar you are! There's no force on Earth that could make you press that button. Your_ cat _hasn't given you the okay._

 _But she doesn't know that._

 _And if she calls your bluff? By the way, how did you do that anyway? Set up those explosives, I mean._

 _Uh, you didn't watch me?_

 _I mean your magic let you. Does it go away in powers mode?_

 _No. I swore to not do violence to any living thing. Blowing up stone? That's fine because stone isn't alive._

 _Maybe, maybe not. I've heard it both ways. Problem is, what about all those poor bacteria you would have blow up_ with _the stone? What if there was a small fish nearby? Could you have still pushed the button? Those things are alive, right?_

 _You've got to be kidding me..._

 _Nope. You can't hurt a living thing, that's what you wrote down. Still feel like that_ Contract _was a good idea?_

 _But I was able to do it. The magic would have kept me-_

 _You were able to do it then, I agree. But not now. See, you didn't consider the rock to be alive before, so the magic didn't stop you. But_ _ **now,**_ _you see, you do, because now you've considered all the tiny life you didn't before. So now you wouldn't be able to. Just like you can't press that button and destroy those two. It's your own fault, you know. You had to go making up contracts like that, so I had to start thinking about how to use it to my advantage. Haven't quite figured that part out yet. The least I can do is make you regret it as much as I can._

 _You're a real jerk, you know that?_

 _We are one in the same. Is she trying to get our attention or something?_

Susan snapped out of it, and Ursula was waving her hand in front of her face. "Hello? Did you die just floating there?"

"Keep back!" she threatened, raising the detonator again.

"Uh, they left like thirty seconds ago." She pointed to the distance, where the explosives were sinking like a stone. The two eels were nowhere in sight.

"Aaaarg!" Susan tried to smash the button in anger, but found she couldn't.

 _Bacteria in the water too._ Somehow she could tell The Darkness was smirking.

Giving a roar of frustration she tried to throw it, but it remained stuck to her hand.

 _Could fall on the button and detonate a curious fish._

 _I hate you._

 _I know! But isn't that just hating yourself?_

Susan stuck the detonator back in the _pocket._ "Fine."

"Having trouble?" asked Ursula.

"No. Everything is just fine. Why? Now, where were we? Ah yes, the information on Ariel. Where did she go after she left here?"

Ursula laughed. "You're still going on about that? You have nothing to threaten me with, currently. So what makes you think I'll tell you anything? Unless you're planning to pull that sword out again? Murder me in cold blood? I don't think so, you don't seem the type."

 _She's right. You're far too squeamish for this kind of work. Best to just leave and come back when you've thought of a new plan._

Ursula started swimming away. "Come back when you have an effective threat," she called over her shoulder, and went laughing back into her house. "Or you want to give me that wonderful spell of yours!"

"That could have gone differently," remarked Sparkle. "I am compelled to point out-"

"Not one word!"

"Let me finish. Your restraint is admirable. She was basically helpless, and you didn't just start chopping her to bits. Despite having permission."

"What kind of person do you think I am?"

 _Hopelessly violent?_

"You tend to take, uh, a direct path to your goals. That usually involves violence."

"Yes, speaking of that. We're going to have to modify the _Contract_ once we get on land again and get a second."

"Oh?"

"I'll tell you later. For now, what are we going to do about her?"

"You're the one with _every power._ You tell me."

"I don't know. Anything that's an 'effective threat' as she put it sort of makes me uncomfortable. I mean I could _telesummon_ her up above the ice and just leave her to freeze to death until she tells me. But is that really the kind of person I want to become?"

"Then you're going to have to think of something else you are willing to do."

Susan pondered. "It would be far easier if I was in magic mode. I would just threaten her with _Dead Magic."_

"You could quickly do a _breathe water_ right?"

Susan shook her head. "A _breathe water,_ a _light,_ but what about the pressure down here? Would by eardrums just explode? Plus my regular clothes would come back, and I'm dressed in boots. My _swimming_ skill is only a three, probably not enough."

"I guess you are compensating for a lot of things with your powers."

"Yup. Something indirect, that's what we need. Like with Elsa. Attack the problem from another angle."

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking my powers are about to get a workout."

Susan flew away from the weird skeleton house and stopped above an outcropping of rock that stuck out of the sea floor in this area.

"We're going to lose most powers in favor of _natures,"_ she told Sparkle. "Naturally you should keep the ones keeping you alive."

"Naturally."

She concentrated, then her costume changed to be far more colorful, radiating out from the sphere set in her chest, which was poking out. "Interesting," she remarked. "Well, let's get started."

She began with a bunch of permanent _"Orb of light!"_ which hung a great sphere of brightness in the water above. That lit the place up nicely, and Susan recovered her energy while she considered her next move. Already the place seemed _far_ less foreboding, lit up almost as though by the sun. Her next move was to smash down and cart away a few protrusions sticking up from the ground, then use a _creation_ technique to create a tall column slightly higher than Ursula's house. This was a solid piece of ceramic material, thick and strong, surrounded by many lesser columns which she simply drove into the rock by hitting the tops of them. With that in place she created a huge disk, set atop the central column and secured by having the column poke through it. The others were resting directly beneath it, and she began the process of fusing them together to make it one giant piece. Her next move would have been to create a half dome and some seating to make a sort of amphitheater, but Ursula finally rushed out to see what the heck was going on.

"Urban renewal project," Susan answered smoothly. "I was thinking to myself on the way in here, what does this area need? Culture! I answered myself. So I'm building you a new concert hall. I may not be Elsa, able to raise an ice castle with my brain, but I get by. Just putting the lights in improved this area immensely, don't you think? Plus once this is done I'm putting tiny ones freaking _everywhere_ around here. Blinking ones, spinning ones, different colors- oh man I can see it now. Merpeople will come from leagues away just to see it, it'll be that epic. It shouldn't be too long before the main construction on the platform is done. I can't wait to see what sort of concerts they put on..." She paused, seemingly concerned. "Wait, it's not going to be a problem, is it? All that noise? Creatures of the deep swimming by here day and night, remarking to themselves, hey, there's where that weird Ursula lives. Back in the day she was some kinda major witch or something but now she's just an old hag."

"Okay, enough! I'll tell you what you want to know! Get those lights out of here! This can't be a witche's lair with all this going on! And you know how long it took me to find a place with just the right atmosphere?"

Susan held out her hand. "Information first."

"All right! She came to me to become human, so I made her human! She went up there to be with her prince. Satisfied?"

"Somewhat. You have any proof?"

"Can I do magic again?"

"Very well. But any sort of attack magic and you'll be dead before you get three syllables in, I promise you that."

Ursula reached into nowhere and pulled out a contract. "See, turned into a human, and here's her signature. It's all legal." She pointed to the relevant parts, not that Susan could read them, but she did notice they used the same alphabet and there was Ariel's name at the bottom.

"Legal!? Ha! I'm sure." _But there's no doubt about it, that there is the_ Contract _spell. Wild! Is that the first absolute parallel with my magic I've seen? Oh wait, no that would be the gold I saw at the Cup that one time. It's really too bad this person is all evil and stuff, and everyone's afraid of her. I would have loved the chance to discuss her magic with her. What a waste._ "To my surprise, I'm familiar with that sort of magic, so I'll accept it. I'll kill the lights for now, but I'm leaving the platform. If you turn out to be lying to me, I'm starting them back up again."

"I swear! She's directly above us and flouncing around whatever kingdom is right there. You can't miss it!"

"You have _no idea_ how bad my sense of direction is. I could miss it, believe me."

Susan killed the lights with _metapower_ and Ursula looked relieved. "Now get out of here!"

"Gladly."

"Now that was a creative solution," Sparkle admitted on the way up. "I'm impressed."

"Thank you. I figured the thing she wanted was mystique and atmosphere, that's why the whole dragon bone castle or whatever that thing used to be. By giving her the opposite, she had no choice but to do what I wanted. Ah, ice. _Ice Breaker!"_

Using techniques Susan smashed her way through the ice again, then looked about.

"Seems to be a castle there," Sparkle remarked. "Best not fly over there in the darkness. Someone might raise an alarm about witches attacking the place or something."

"She's probably asleep anyway. Sunrise should be in a few hours, we'll hang out in the _Dimension_ until then."

Early the next morning Susan presented herself at the castle. She was back in magic mode, and dressed in her "peasant" clothing.

 _Though castle is a bit too strong a word, this is just a stone structure that happens to be slightly larger than the surrounding houses,_ put in The Darkness. _I mean, where Elsa and Anna lived was far bigger._

 _I suppose I can't fault your reasoning there. Probably a smaller kingdom._

"Can I help you?" asked the man that met her at the door.

"Indeed!" she replied lightly. "I'm here for Ariel."

"Ah!" His face lit up. "That poor girl, I wondered if someone would show up to take her home. Not that she hasn't been a delight, but now that the prince has found his true love..."

 _Er, what?_ "Yes?"

"Well, she's more of a hanger on now, we weren't quite sure what we were going to do with her. Are you related to her?"

"No, not really. Her father has employed me to fetch her back, you see. He was quite worried when she disappeared."

"I should say so. Well, come in, come in. I'll have her brought down."

"Thank you."

She was led into to foyer, which was quite elegant, really. All marble columns and plush carpets on the stairs and crests everywhere. Looking over she saw a dark haired woman with a seashell around her neck hanging onto the arm of a man dressed in blue, but they passed out of sight.

The man that answered the door and a despondent looking girl appeared at the top of the stairs, and he led her down.

"Are you okay?" Susan asked the girl, who of course was gorgeous. Slim waist, flowing red hair, huge eyes... that seemed to have been crying.

"I'm not sure what's wrong," admitted the man. "I found her like this."

"And you didn't think to ask her?"

The man looked at Susan like she was simple. "She hasn't spoken a single word since she got here. Her father didn't tell you she was mute?"

Her eyes widened and she shook her head.

"No." Susan's eyes narrowed. "He did not. Look, I saw your signature on that contract, so I know you can write. Get me some paper and you can tell me what's going on."

"Oh," said the man. "We never thought of that."

Susan face-palmed. _Wait, so how did they know her name?_

Ariel tried to get her to understand something, and she was clearly upset, but Susan couldn't figure out what she was conveying.

"Just wait until he gets back, you can just write it down."

She looked frustrated.

Finally the man returned with a stack of paper, a book to write on, and a quill with ink bottle.

"Here you are my dear," he said, offering the quill. "Please, don't be shy!"

She made hand motions to Susan who just shrugged. "What? Get on with it already."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the quill, jotting something down quickly on the paper. Both leaned over to see what it was.

Susan looked at what Ariel had written. She looked back up at Ariel. Then back down at the paper.

 _You know, according to your stats you're supposed to be pretty smart,_ remarked The Darkness. _But there are times you can be really, really stupid. You know that?_

 _Not. Another. Word._

It just laughed.

Technique used in this chapter

Orb of light

Light

Level 13 (8+1+4) (Effect, Touch, P)

Create a shining orb, in the desired color, placed at the end of the hand as the technique is used. Being permanent, this orb will last until dispelled by a _darkness_ or _metapower_ technique. It illuminates clearly to the normal radius for the technique, 30m.


	169. Chapter 169

169

Learning About The Past

When: Just then

Where: Right by the front door

"I can't read that at all," admitted the man. "Are you getting anything out of it?"

Naturally, Susan was not. This put her in a bit of a quandary, as really someone sent to fetch someone and then insist they write something would probably be able to read what that person had written, right?

 _Seems logical to me. But then you were never really about logic, were you?_

 _What do you mean? I'm very logical._

 _Right. Regular Vulcan you are. Still, you didn't even consider that the undersea kingdom would have their own language, did you? You've seen that there's no contact between the two civilizations, mainly because the merpeople are absolutely terrified of humans. So why would they share a language? I mean Ursula even showed you the contract, and you still didn't get it._

 _I know. Look, I could read her name, who would have thought our alphabets were the same but the language wasn't?_

 _Uh, lots of languages use the same alphabet._

 _You know what I mean!_

"Now that's an interesting- Hey!"

Sparkle, thinking quickly, shot past everyone and into the house.

"Sparkle? Get back here! Where are you going? I'm sorry about this," apologized Susan. "She's my cat. Follows me everywhere. Can't imagine what she's thinking now. She never runs off like this. Sparkle!"

"I'll retrieve her," said the man, taking off after her.

As the man went to chase her down, Susan did a quick casting of _Literacy_ and found she could now read the mer-language clearly. Ariel looked surprised at the magic, but Susan flashed a grin and put her finger over her lips. "Actually no, while he's gone, what's going on here? You can really talk, right? Don't worry, I can understand you. You just didn't want to speak mer-tongue to them and..." Ariel was shaking her head and pointing to the paper. "Okay, you can't talk. What in the world?"

 _My father really sent you?_

"Yes. He's basically got everyone in the kingdom out searching for you. He's quite distraught, really. One of your sisters saw you swimming towards Ursula's place, so he had me follow after you. I 'convinced' her to tell me what had happened and followed you here. I guess I should have asked for all the details, she didn't mention she had taken your voice."

 _That was the payment she demanded of me. Either she just wanted to be a better singer, or she knew somehow that Prince Eric's feeling for me were tied into it because I sang to him after I rescued him._

"Ah. How would she though?" _Sure, you didn't use some kind of_ siren _magic to make him fall in love with you at all. Though maybe you just don't know you can do it, or maybe he really did fall for you with one look. I'm not judging you._ "Look, I'm going to have to get the whole story, and I don't think I'm going to be able to do that here. Will you at least come with me? We need to find a quiet place and work out some way of letting you communicate better. This writing stuff is going to take too long."

 _There's nothing here for me now. I'll come with you and face my fate._

As Ariel wrote this, she seemed incredibly sad, but the man, carrying Sparkle, came back before she could ask for more details.

"Here we are," he said, handing her over.

"Thank you so much. What has gotten into you, Sparkle? Bad, bad kitty. She didn't knock into anything, did she?"

"No. Oddly, after running into the other room she just stared at that girl the prince is insisting he marry later today. So strange. I don't think she liked her much... and confidentially neither do I. Something off about that girl. Still, Eric is... why am I telling you all this?"

"I don't know. Anyway, we've sorted this out, so I'll be on my way with Ariel."

"Oh?" he looked over at her scribbles. "Ah, so you have. Very good! I'm glad it all worked out in the end. What language is that- no matter. Oh, and you can keep the dress, consider it a memento of your time here. No, no, I insist!"

"Thank you. Let's go."

Ariel sadly handed the writing stuff back and followed Susan out of the castle, door closing firmly behind her.

"Now," said Susan, "let's find a quiet place and see what I can come up with. Nice work there, by the way, Sparkle. Knew I kept you around for some reason."

"Naturally. Like the guy said, I got a good look at that dark haired girl. She's got the guy under some kind of Venus spell. Charm magic for sure, from the feel of things."

Ariel stared at Sparkle.

"What are you doing?" came an accented male voice from Ariel's pocket. "You can't just speak to humans like that."

Susan looked down at what had poked out of the pocket. "Ariel, I don't mean to be crude, but I think you have crabs."

"I can take care of it," offered Sparkle, showing her claws.

Ariel shook her head and took Sebastian out of her pocket, holding him close.

"So, you can talk too, huh? Say, you don't happen to have a character sheet, do you?" she asked Ariel.

She indicated she didn't know what Susan was talking about.

Susan sighed. "Am I ever going to find someone like myself? Anyway, perhaps you can give me the run down, Mr. Crab?"

"My name is Sebastian," he said huffily. "Composer extraordinaire!"

"Nice to meet you. Can all animals talk on this world? Because that would really, really, suck. Humans would have unknowingly been eating sentient creatures for thousands of years."

"Never mind that," he insisted. "Who are you? I don't recognize you, and I know a lot of people in Triton's kingdom. How did you even get here? Did you have Ursula give you human legs as well?"

"Whoa, one question at a time. But for now, let's find someplace secluded we can talk. Or would you rather have this conversation right here in the street?" Sebastian looked around, realizing where he was. He crossed his pincers. "I thought so."

Once down at the beach, leaning on a rock, Susan got the whole story. Ariel, having just seen her 'cove of treasures' destroyed by her father, got an offer from the two eels she had seen to be led to Ursula. Who then made her _persuasion_ check to get Ariel to sign the _contract_ and hand over her voice, turning her human. She had until sunset _today_ to get the prince to fall in love with her, and kiss her 'true love's kiss.'

 _Some kind of binding magic on the whole planet? Like heartsongs, you can kiss someone and just know you'll be with them forever? Kind of sucks for all those poor saps who fall in love but the 'magic' doesn't happen when they smooch. Do they just go their separate ways and keep looking, or stay together knowing there's someone else out there who is better suited for them?_

"And if you don't, you turn back into a mermaid and then more than likely into one of those weird plant things I saw at the entrance to her little lair?"

Ariel nodded her head.

"Great. I don't suppose you specified in the contract that she couldn't interfere in any way?"

Shake.

"Naturally. You thinking what I'm thinking, Sparkle?"

"About crab? I mean about Ursula? Yeah, what other magic users do we know that might want to interfere in Ariel's plan to win the prince? Problem is what do we do about it?"

"Get her to reveal herself? There is a spell to undo shape-shifts. Even under magical infatuation he might think twice about marrying a half octopus."

"We both know that's not true."

"True, if it's magic. Crap. And I don't want to just bust in there and lop her head off. I mean I do, but I don't. You know what I mean?"

"Humans," remarked Sebastian. "You see what I've been trying to telling you? Violent to the first and the last."

"Hey, who stormed into a secret stash of human artifacts and rampaged through the place? Oh that's right, the king himself. So don't tell me there's no violence down in the kingdom of the sea. Plus... sharks. Need I say more?"

"That's a totally different thing," he maintained. "Everybody's got to eat."

"Oh, so if I chop her up and throw her on the fire with the intention of eating her, it's fine?"

"Well, umm..."

"That's what I thought. Besides, doing that is what I _don't_ want to do. It's just the easiest solution, and the one I don't want to get used to using. No, just like before there must be some other way."

The group sat and thought a moment. "What's the deal with those captives anyway?" Sparkle asked. "Why do what she does? What does she get out of it?"

"She did call it a collection," Susan reminded her. "Maybe she just gets a kick out of stealing triton's subjects away from him?"

"Which is another problem- why hasn't he gone to rescue them?"

They looked to Ariel, who shrugged.

"He is supposedly the king of sea," Sparkle went on. "Why would he allow such a thing to continue? I can't imagine he's ignorant of the situation."

"I don't know," hedged Susan. "People can turn a blind eye to a heck of a lot. Even kings- heck especially kings, right? As long as she's not causing trouble, perhaps he just believes they get what they deserve for going there."

"Different situation now though. His daughter is about to become one of them."

"Good point." Susan stood up. "Let's go ask him."

Ariel scrambled backwards, waving her hands.

"Look, you're going to have to fess up to what you did sooner or later. Would you rather he see you like this, or after trying to mount a rescue attempt with you as a captive?" Ariel hesitantly indicated herself. "I thought so. We only have a couple of hours, and we know exactly where she is. Up here, playing with her new boy-toy."

 _Hope she doesn't break it._

 _Quiet you._

"We don't know that for sure though, do we?" asked Sparkle.

"We can find out. _Telesummon!"_ Susan cast the spell, taking the full time to get the bonus, as Sparkle cut the time in half. Ursula didn't appear. "It looks like she's not in the lair. Lair or here, where else would she be?"

"As much as I agree with the plan to go tell her father, Ariel can't go down like this!" protested Sebastian.

"Of course she can. At least, I think so. One good thing about The Darkness leaking into me, I know certain things about my powers. Get out of those clothes while I transform."

 _Oh, you've been waiting to say those words, haven't you?_

 _You know me too well._

Susan selected most of the powers she had before, plus a few others she had never used, and stuck the dress into her _pocket,_ trying not to visually devour Ariel as she did so. "Now, let's hope this works. I've never done it before. _Gift Power._ "

Using a _metapower_ technique she basically allowed Ariel to access to her own powers, in effect giving her an _Allegiance_ weakness. There was a similar spell, of course, but Susan knew how to do this mostly through The Darkness, which made it grumble a bit. Ariel's eyes were wide.

 _Can you hear me?_

Susan smiled. "Looks like it worked. You can speak for yourself at the moment, just like that. Plus you can survive underwater again, and of course you have my energy regeneration and _Force_ natures, so you should know how to access them, as well."

 _I think I do. I can just make things explode now?_

"Yup! Pretty neat, huh? So, do you want a moment to think about what you're going to say to your father?"

 _A moment or a year, there's nothing I can say that will change his mind._

"Come on, Ariel. You made a mistake, okay? That's what being a kid is all about. Trying things out, finding your place in the world. Okay, you got caught up in magic and Ursula and everything but he's going to be thrilled just to see you're safe." _Safe, sort of. It's like having a bomb strapped to her- we just have to disarm it before it goes off. Easy, right?_

 _But I'm not. Tonight I get turned into one of those creatures-_

"Not if I can help it. And I'm sure your dad will have a few things to say about the whole situation as well. We'll figure this out, Ariel. I promise."

 _Why are you helping me like this? Who are you?_

"Because I can. I don't have time to get into the whole story, just know this is what I do. And unlike certain eight legged creatures I don't charge for my services either." _Apart from maybe a leer or two, which totally doesn't count anyway._ She took Ariel's hand. "Now come on. I'll be right at your side, and we'll explain things to the king calmly and rationally, and everything will work out."

 _I... guess I'm ready._

Susan _teleported._

"My daughter did WHAT?" roared Triton, after hearing the story. Ariel was pressed into Susan's back, hiding behind her. _If only I could enjoy it a little more._

"Made a mistake," Susan shot back. "Did something in a moment of anger she regrets. I suppose you've never done something you regretted? I don't know, smashing up a collection of human artifacts that started this whole thing, perhaps?"

"You're not saying this is my fault, are you?"

"Just providing you a recent example, that's all. I'm sure there's enough blame to go around in either case. The thing you should be focused on now is, what are we going to do about this?"

"How long do you have?" he asked, slumping back in the throne.

 _Until sunset tonight._

"Not long. And even I can't break her contract magic. I really don't know."

"Perhaps we could check out her lair?" Sparkle suggested. "I don't think there will be any real clues there, but at least it's a place we know she isn't. And it's her base of power, we might find something."

"Sounds good to me. Come along, your majesty," Susan offered, holding out a hand. "Let's see what poking around the place gets us."

With Triton's hand in hers she grabbed Ariel around the waist and _teleported_ back to Ursula's lair, where the weird plant people shrank away from Triton.

"So this is what she does with them," he remarked, stroking his beard. "I always wondered."

 _You knew about this?_

"Of course I did! You think anything happens in the sea that I am not aware of? I knew they disappeared, just not how exactly."

 _How could you let this go on?_

"You have to understand, my daughter, what Ursula represents. She's... an undersea vent."

 _A what?_

"Look outside. What do you see?"

 _Steam._

"Exactly. Without these vents that pressure would continue to build until it erupted. The vent prevents that from happening."

"In other words," theorized Susan, "she has a part in this society by removing undesirable elements you can't. Either by making them happier if they can pay the price, or turning them into those plant things."

"And thus the kingdom loses any subjects that might later go on to make trouble for me. She doesn't exactly have my approval, but she operates, however unknowingly, in my best interests."

 _Devious._

"If you had to run the kingdom, you would soon see the necessity."

"Guess that kills my idea to just _Dead Magic_ the whole place then," Susan said wistfully. "If I could even find a way to survive down here while I cast it."

"What's this?"

"Cut it off from magic forever. She couldn't do any more spells here, she would have to move."

"She wouldn't even be able to enter, in that case."

"What?"

He looked over at his daughter and sighed. "I may as well tell you. Mermaids are a magical race, and their ancestry is..." He looked like he was eating something sour. "Regular old human."

 _Oh, that's why their alphabet is the same, but their language isn't. Either they're just from another part of the world and wound up here, or their language was changed to more easily be spoken underwater so it no longer resembles the original. One mystery solved I guess._

He continued. "Long ago I took some that wanted to live a different life and gave them a bit of magic, then brought them to live in the sea, where I did. That was the start of my kingdom, and it's only grown since then."

 _What are you saying, father?_

He sighed. "I'm saying she didn't _turn_ you human, she simply took the part of your magic that give you your tail, and your ability to survive here. Throwing in your voice was an extra little bonus for her, if what Sebastian tells me is true. There's magic in your song, too, my daughter."

"And if she took more?" asked Sparkle, excitedly. She sounded like she already knew and was just asking for confirmation.

He pointed to the plant creatures. "This. It's been too many generations, the mermaids can't exist, even as humans, without some _spark of magic._ Without it they just become like this."

"I knew there must be a reason," she exclaimed. "Susan, don't you see? She's pulling a mini Darkness. She's got their magic!"

"And that makes her extremely dangerous," agreed Susan. "It's a good thing I didn't try fighting her before, I may have been in for a shock when she could actually fight back."

"Do you realize the implications?" Sparkle went on. "Imagine how strong Tom was when he took over Harry, who was still a kid. How many mermaids worth of magic has she stolen?"

"Ah, but these aren't spellcasters," countered Susan. "So their magic wouldn't be that developed. I'm more concerned about what method she's using. Imagine researching a spell to rip someone's magic out permanently, and add it to your own. _Dead Magic_ is bad enough, that just wipes it out of someone. To actively _steal_ it, well, that's worse than Sangray up there. At least he only gets my magic when I'm around. Imagine someone stealing my magical power permanently!"

"Their magic is strong, however," Triton cautioned. "You think it's easy turning humans into something that can live comfortably down here? And if they actively studied it, they could handle most spells. I admit a lot of their power is tied up in their forms, but not all of it."

Ariel looked thoughtful. _Is this why you hate them so? Or why you pretended to, anyway? Because you didn't want us to find out about what you had done? Where we had actually come from? And keeping the ability to use magic from us! I think that might be the worst thing of all._

"I don't know. Maybe? It was so long ago now, and our kingdom flourishes. Most of my subjects are happy... aren't they?"

 _I guess, I never took a poll or anything. The only person I can speak for is myself, and I wasn't. I was just the outlier, one who would end up becoming like that, in the end._ She gestured down. _It's just too bad I happened to be your daughter. If I even am your daughter. Am... I... your daughter?_

"Yes, of course you are! What a thing to say!"

 _But our kingdom is so old... or was that another lie?_

"Oh Ariel." He moved to hug her. "Our kingdom is very old. And I have had many sons and many daughters. I have loved each and every one of them, watched them grow, then die. It doesn't get any easier."

"So you aren't just some merman who inherited the name Triton and the kingship from your father?" Susan asked.

He shook his head. "No. I am the true son of Poseidon. A god."

 _A god? You're immortal?_ She pushed her father away. _I'm the daughter of a god?_

"Some god. People just don't worship us as they used to. Much of my power has been lost over the years. I hardly deserve the title after so long, but it's what I was. Why?"

 _I don't know. It's just a lot to take in._

"I would have told you, or you would have figured it out eventually, when I never got any older while you did."

"Which is all interesting and such, but still doesn't really help us with the problem at hand," reminded Susan.

"We've only really realized just how bad we have it," Sparkled agreed. "We need to somehow cut her off from this source of magic before we engage her in combat. I mean I doubt she's just going to cancel the _contract_ herself. Not after we've seen the length she'll go to for one more source of magic. We'll have to force the issue."

Ariel shook her head. _You won't. I will. This is my problem, and I have to solve it myself. Susan, show me how to use the powers to fight and I'll challenge her. Winner gets to keep the prince._

"What?" everyone there gasped, even the plant things.


	170. Chapter 170

170

Not Much of a Training Montage

When: Just afterwords

Where: Ursula's lair

Susan was the first to break the silence. "I maybe didn't make this clear. Beating things up, it's kind of what I do? I'm sort of trained in just about every form of combat that there is, including magic, hand to hand, swords, two different types of guns- have I shown you my swords?" She pulled both out of her _sub-space pocket_ and Triton lost a little of his glazed eye look to focus on them. "I call this one _Wreck it_ and this one _Ralph._ Why do I call this one Ralph?" _Is that your doing?_

 _whistling sound_

"Impressive. How do you even lift them?"

"Judge my arms by their size, do you? Magic is my ally, and a powerful ally it is."

 _Can we get back to me for a second here?_ asked Ariel, as Susan put the swords away again. _And yes, I'm certain you probably could white knight to my rescue. I have to ask myself- what would that mean?_

"Come again?"

 _Let's say you take her on and win, right? The prince is saved by some girl that showed up out of nowhere while I stand around and watch from the sidelines? And then you disappear again? What sort of message does that send?_

"Ariel, I'm not sure I'm comfortable having you put yourself in harms way like this," argued Triton. He leaned over to whisper. "She seems more than willing, let her take care of it."

 _Daddy, this is my problem. I went to Ursula. I made the deal with her. It's my responsibly to fix it. Even if you are an immortal god or whatever, I can't rely on you to solve all my problems for me._

"I... look... help me out here!" he pleaded.

Susan considered. "It seems she's made up her mind. And I must say I admire her courage and dedication to this man she's fallen in love with. She fights just as much for him, to get him away from Ursula's control, as she does for herself and her future with him." She looked over at him seriously. "I think she's also sending you a message. That this is how far she's willing to go for this chance to shape her own destiny."

"Then it seems I have no choice but to allow this to continue. Ariel, do you really think you can win? You don't know what she can do!"

Susan's eyes twinkled. "Keep in mind, Ursula won't know what she's capable of either. Nor does she have any more combat training than Ariel does, I'd imagine. I mean she didn't look that buff."

 _Judge her by her size, do you? Magic is her ally, and a powerful-_

 _I get the point, thank you!_

"Will you leave immediately?"

Susan "jumped" back a step. "Are you kidding? I have to figure out exactly what powers would be best for her to have and give her a crash course in them. Luckily we've got a few days which I hope will be enough."

"Days? We barely have eight hours!"

Susan laughed. "Then we have a week. After all, we have to leave an hour for calling her out and starting the fight. Maybe six days? Don't want to cut it too close."

"What are you babbling about?"

"Look, just trust me on this, okay? The fight will take place out on the frozen lake. Good amount of space to maneuver, and no one will get hurt with you fighting out there. Meet us out there in six hours. Ariel?" She held her hand out.

 _I'll see you daddy. I love you._ She quickly kissed his cheek and took Susan's hand.

"Wait!" commanded Triton. He thought a moment, then concentrated, making a parchment (or what seemed to be parchment, it was underwater after all) appear in his hand. "Give this to Ursula when you see her. I think you will find her more amenable to this mad scheme of yours if you do."

"Sure thing," Susan said, taking it. "See you in six days slash hours!" She _teleported._

Ariel looked around with interest. _Where are we now?_

"My home away from home," Susan answered. "Let me show you around the cabin. You hungry? I have food here if you are. Food from _other worlds!"_ She made jazz hands. "Wooooooo."

 _Shouldn't we get started right away? And are you going to keep me naked the whole time, because I've caught you staring at me three times now!_

"I'm not staring!" Susan insisted, tearing her eyes away. "And don't worry, we'll get you some _armor_ soon. As far as time goes, don't sweat it. This entire place," Susan spread her arms to encompass the cabin and nearby lake, "is under a permanent _time_ technique. Every day you spend in here equates to only one hour passing on the outside. Took a bit of doing, but I managed it rather handily."

"It was a level eighteen technique," Sparkle put in. "I know you don't know what that means at the moment, but just keep it in mind okay?"

 _Sure, level eighteen, whatever._

And so Ariel's training began. Susan thought for a bit before deciding on what powers to take, and thus what she would give Ariel. Naturally she took _Renewal_ so they would have the maximum time to train, plus _sending_ so she could communicate. She would swap them out once it was time to go. With that, Susan decided on

Armor 2

Energy Regeneration 2

Energy Well 5

Flight 2

Invulnerability 2

Immunity (Water) 2

Nature Primary: Force 2

Nature: Metapower 2

Nature: Time 2

Regeneration: Passive 4

Sudden Step 1

"I have to take _metapower_ to give you these powers, so you might as well take it. If she throws some kind of curveball at us you can shut it down with that. I have no idea how many techniques you'll be able to use, mine are just taken from my now empty magic pool- and you have no idea what I'm saying, do you?"

 _What's a curveball?_

 _It's Ron all over again._

So Susan explained what the powers were and had her create some must have techniques. _Velocity_ of course was a given. A _force_ shield was nice to have all around, but for offense, something a bit different.

"I don't recommend straight up beam attacks," she cautioned. "You have to practice hitting with them, and we don't have time for you to become good enough for that. Focus instead on an area effect explosion and one close range attack. The explosion won't hit as hard and she could dodge it, but it's still a better chance to hit than just a beam."

 _And for the close attack?_

"Maybe something like this? _Force Blade!"_ Susan got a long blade of light protruding out of her hand which she swept in an arc in front of her before it disappeared. "Technically an instant attack, but with some range and surprise factor because unlike a sword you would have in your hand, she won't see it coming."

 _You would know better than I would._

"Exactly. Believe in your sensei. Now, you try it. And remember what I said- you can't call them out so the energy cost is going to be higher for you."

 _Whatever that means._

And for six days Susan drilled the youngest princess of the sea in _Ariel_ combat.

 _Because she can fly now. Get it? Ariel combat? Aerial?_

 _Yes, you've only made that joke about a million times. Knock it off._

 _What? I'm bored! And I'm pretty sure that's one of those things that gets funnier each time you say it._

 _The only thing I can think of like that would be you saying "Ow, Susan stop hitting me."_

 _You're no fun._

Finally the hour/day came. Susan and a far more confident Ariel, clad in her stylized armor, appeared outside the castle. She had basically been wearing it the entire time so Susan hoped she had at least gotten a point or two into _Armor Wearing._ It was basically just a forcefield anyway, as with a primary _nature_ of _force,_ and the _armor_ power creating a suit of armor of the primary type, it shimmered and glowed with power.

 _With luck, she's got a new skill group or however they do it, for her combat skills._

"Ready?" Susan asked her before putting her final set of powers on.

 _Ready!_ she answered with a grin. _And if I don't get a chance to say this later, thank you. For making this possible and for letting me take the spotlight. I got the sense, working with you these past few days, that you don't really like to share it._

"Susan not share the spotlight?" Sparkle asked as if shocked. "I can't imagine how you got that idea."

Susan stuck her tongue out and gave Ariel her powers, spending quite a bit of energy to do it. Not like she had any shortage, mind you. That done she turned and pounded on the door, not quite tearing it off the frame but those inside heard it.

"Yes?" asked the man who had answered the door earlier. "Oh my!" He looked the figures in armor over. "Why, I hardly recognize you in that getup. It is Ariel, isn't it?"

"It's Ariel," Susan assured her. "We need to speak to-"

The man held up a hand. "Would you believe me if I told you I've been expecting you? That charming girl Ursula, she said you might be back." He looked them both up and down again. "We don't want any trouble here..."

"We'll take it outside, believe me. Now, if you would be so kind as to fetch her?"

"I have been instructed to do so. Please, come in. Ariel, I believe you know the way to the waiting room?"

She nodded and led Susan off.

A few minutes later their heads turned as Ursula sauntered into the room. She started laughing when she saw them. "I expected you to be on your newly created knees, begging for mercy," she gasped. "Not this bizarre getup. What do you think you're doing?"

"She thinks she's challenging you to a duel to get that contract nullified and to kick you out of Dodge. Is this kingdom named Dodge? Whatever it's called."

"A _duel?_ How delightful! And what on Zeus' green Earth would compel me to agree to something as banal as a duel?"

"Two things," she replied. "First, if you don't, I'll just cut you down where you stand and that'll be the end of it. The second is this message from King Triton." She handed the rolled up message over.

"And what does old fish rear have to say for... oh!" She read the note over seriously. "Oh I see. Yes that is a pickle, isn't it?"

"What is it?"

"You didn't read this?" she waved it at them. Susan shook her head. "Then it delights me to inform you that your father wishes to make a wager with me! He wagers his trident _and_ crown against my releasing his subjects that you'll win."

Ariel looked like she couldn't believe her ears, and tore the note out of Ursula's hands. She looked it over. "I was telling the truth, you know. And you could have asked- oh I've got your voice, don't I? Still want to go through with this? Knowing daddy's kingdom is on the line and not just your life?"

Ariel thrust the note back at her.

"I guess so. But do I want to go through with it? This is a dilemma, isn't it? I'm pretty sure I'll win, but there is the off chance she could get lucky somehow. But a whole kingdom, something I've wanted for years..."

"Yeah, life's full of tough choices, isn't it?" _Of course, you won't live long enough to collect your prize even if you do win. I'll make sure of that._

"Quite. Very well, I accept. Shall we say... an hour after sundown?"

Ariel backhanded her across the face, then pointed out of the room.

Ursula's face twisted in anger, and Susan could see a visible magic aura forming around her. "You'll regret that, girl. I'll enjoy tearing you to pieces in front of your oh so special prince."

She pointed again.

"The battlefield is out on the lake," Susan informed her. "The king will meet us there."

"Ah, so I can more easily collect my prize when I win. Sensible. Lead the way, darling."

Ariel spun and marched out of the room, Ursula started to bring her hand up, but Susan grabbed it after _Sudden Stepping_ over to her. "Watch it," she growled. "Out on the field you can use whatever magic you can bring to bear. Until then keep it to yourself."

"I was just going to swat a fly I saw, that's all," she grumbled, trying to pull her hand away. "Let go of me."

"I'm watching you." She let it go.

Ursula commanded Eric to follow her and he did without question. "Put on a jacket first you stupid man!" she said as he was about to just walk into the snow. "Honestly, I think I put a little too much into that control spell. Ah well."

Out on the ice, he blinked as it seemed Ursula released him. "What is that? And what have I been doing? Ariel? What are you wearing? And who are you? What time is it? What's going on?"

"Quiet!" Ursula shouted. " _That_ is king Triton," she explained, and he was there, sitting on a throne made of ice.

 _Glad he found something more comfortable to sit on._

"You've been following me around like a puppy because I put a spell on you using Ariel's voice as a trigger. Yes, that's the fish girl herself. She's wearing armor, which is somewhat laughable because she's no knight. That's... I don't know who that is, if I got her name I've forgotten it again. Thinks she's a big shot, probably not all that. I'm Ursula, and once this little duel is over I'll be taking you for a little spin after the wedding. It's about a hour until sunset, and we're having the aforementioned duel. Was that everything? Good. Go stand over there. I hate to release you but I want to crush this girl with a minimum of fuss so I'll need all my magical power for the moment."

"Come along, I'll try to fill you in," said Susan, taking his arm. "I'm Susan, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"So, how are we going to do this?" asked Ursula.

"Backs together!" shouted Triton, his voice carrying over the frozen water. "When my trident strikes the ice, take five paces forward, turn, and the duel will begin."

"Sure you don't want to just hand your stuff over now, save your daughter the beating of her life?"

"Maybe I should just off you right here," he threatened, bringing his weapon up again.

Ariel held up a hand.

"Very well. Good luck, my daughter."

She grinned up at him.

"Ugh!"

Susan watched as the two woman "stepped" away from each other. As she looked closely, she could see Ariel's feet weren't touching the ground and she nodded. _Good, she'll have the speed advantage. Don't wait until- she's done it, good._ She had activated _Velocity_ and started to blur a little, which Susan had coached her on.

 _"A fair fight is all well and good,"_ she had said, " _but you might need all the help you can get. Plus she's not going to play by the rules, so you might as well take that slight advantage if you get the chance."_

"Can you tell me what's going on?" pleaded Eric.

"Shh. Not now. Watch the fight. That's Ariel, you're rooting for her. She's fighting for you, that's all you need to know."

"Begin!" Triton needlessly commanded, and both woman spun.

Ariel held off attacking immediately, she wanted to see what Ursula would do. She seemed to take no time but crouched and sprang up again, ripping an enormous chuck of ice out of the water before her and leaving a hole. She mimed throwing it and the chunk shot towards Ariel.

Who calmly stood there and chopped it in half with _Force Blade,_ slicing upwards and causing the two halves to shoot past her.

 _Hey, no fair! How did she do that much damage to it? I mean it's probably not quite frozen solid yet, but come on!_

 _That's the difference between her and you,_ explained The Darkness.

 _What do you mean? I'm so much stronger than her, and my technique would have been stronger because I could put more energy into it._

 _No, you don't get it._ It sighed. _I'll try to explain it. See, you're a_ Paragon, _right? You see the world in terms of absolutes. You have an exact quantity of energy. You have a set number of XP. You do a random amount of damage based off no real world criteria whatsoever when you hit something, with a sword or with magic. But most people are more 'sloppy' than that. They don't have all that crap in their heads, and they don't get to re-roll if they don't like their results. In exchange, the universe lets them get away with things. Especially dramatic moments like this, where everything is on the line. It goes along with the nature of narrative. Would it make a better story? Then sure, she chops the ice in half, why not?_

 _Take Elsa for example. You whine about how 'powerful' she is and wonder how she got that way. You even think I'm feeding her energy or information. But really, think how cool it would look to see that ice palace rising out of the night, despite her not having the architectural know how to make sure the rooms connect, and the hallways don't collapse, or whatever. She wants an ice palace, the universe gives her an ice palace. You can't do it because your reality insists on 'techniques' or a certain 'spell' like how you were making that undersea music hall. Magic, Susan, is so much more, if you could let the universe and the story guide you instead of the cold reality of numbers. But you are what you are, so it's a bit late to start wishing you had things differently._

 _Wait, are you saying because I... inconvenience the universe in some way by needing to attach a number to everything it punishes me by making me attach a number to everything? Like I would have needed to calculate damage to that ice chunk even if I was doing the same thing? But she gets a pass because it looks cool?_

 _Basically. "He who lives by the numbers dies by the numbers" as they say. You don't recall this, but you weren't 'rolling the dice' when I had taken you over. Because I don't need that 'crutch' to get by. I could just do things. It's only you that is mired in that kind of reality._

Susan blinked. _Is that why I don't meet many others like me? Is it somehow more advantageous to be 'sloppy' about things so most realities tend towards that?_

 _That is a philosophical discussion we could have, at length, another time. Right now aren't you concerned about your friend?_

 _Oh yeah._

Susan's attention went back to the match, which of course hadn't moved because her thoughts were being written, not any more action.

Ursula's eyes were wide. "Wait, time out, how in the world did you do _that?"_ Ariel smiled at her and pointed at her throat. "Oh crap, no voice. Yipes!"

It seemed the battle was on in earnest.


	171. Chapter 171

171

Ariel Vs. Ursula

When: Just then

Where: Out on the ice

Ariel vanished, appearing high in the sky and with her palm downwards. An explosion rocked the ice, cracking it beneath where Ursula had been. She looked up.

 _Er, what? I could follow that through_ Power Sense _but how did she know to dodge? Or does she just have good_ INSight? _And she didn't look around, she knew right where to look. I don't get it._

 _She does have a piece of Ariel's magic, perhaps that gives her some sort of sense of where she is?_

 _I suppose._

Ariel tried again, making another point explosion near Ursula who this time seemed to grab it up instead of dodging. Still on the offensive Ariel dived, bringing her _Force Blade_ out which crashed against some kind of shield Ursula threw up.

"Where are you getting this kind of power?" she sneered, as the blade vanished and Ariel flew backwards again. "And your speed! You!" She spun and looked at Susan. "You've given her these abilities, haven't you?"

"You didn't think I would just allow her to come out here defenseless, did you?"

"I'll deal with you later!" She turned back to Ariel, who had grabbed one of the ice chunks and was flying away with it, sliding it along the ice. She did a slow turn, working her way towards the battle area again and when the ice had enough momentum she let it fly, spinning and headed right for Ursula.

The area around her shimmered and the ice chunk seemed to hit a sort of barrier but rather than bouncing off, it now seemed to be moving in slow motion and Ursula simply stepped to one side, where it slowly kept spinning past her. Ariel stomped her foot on air, because she could do that now, and considered her next move.

Ursula knew her next move, and that was to concentrate on the ice that was now only a little ways past her, which rose into the air. It shattered into thin strips, and with a wave of her hand she flung them towards Ariel, who put her own barrier up. Susan wasn't _Accelerated_ so she couldn't exactly see exactly how it worked out, but some of the icicles smashed against the barrier, making it drop. Some hit her armor and deflected away, and one cut a jagged line against her scalp, making it bleed. Ariel put her hand up over it, fingers coming away red.

 _Wait, she's_ invulnerable _! Did Ursula make them magical somehow? No matter, she has_ Regeneration.

Ursula exalted. "There's plenty more where that come from!"

Ariel's face hardened, and energy enveloped her, she was taking an action to charge.

"What are you up to, girl?" She waved her hand and a thin stream of water arced towards her from the hole she had made earlier. Ariel easily dodged it.

She pointed, and the _force_ burst went off again, this time not targeting Ursula exactly, but rather the ice under her feet. It shattered, throwing her off balance and dumping her into the cold water.

Ariel crossed her arms and waited.

There was a glow from underwater, and Ursula burst from the water, now flying herself. Or rather, she was standing on an ice chunk.

 _Probably never developed a_ Flight _spell, being underwater most of the time._

It seemed Ariel had come to the same conclusion. She pointed, and Susan felt her using _Metapower_ to turn off Ursula's ability to control water. She plummeted with a cry and splashed back into the water.

What now burst from the ice was her true form, growing larger and larger as the ice cracked to make room for her bulk. Tentacles shot up, trying to grab her but she easily dodged them, then whipped a _Force Blade_ across one, making Ursula cry out.

By then she was out of range, hovering over Ursula and no doubt wondering what to do. Ursula turned. "I thought you wanted to fight? No? Maybe your daddy then?" She brought a tentacle up to smash the king, who looked completely caught of guard.

Luckily Susan was not, as she had been technically holding her action this entire time for just such an act of betrayal. She _Sudden Stepped_ in front of him while getting her sword out, and as the tentacle smashed into the ground she swiped at it, trying to knock it away. The opposed STRength checks were thirty five to twenty in her favor, and she did a little bit of damage to Ursula while knocking it away.

"Go after him again and I'll do more than just defend," she shouted up to her. "Then you'll be fighting both of us. _Velocity!_ "

"It was worth a try," Ursula said with a shrug. She turned back to Ariel, who was powering up something again. Ursula tried to hurl bits of ice up at her, throwing them with her tentacles as she obviously couldn't do it magically now, but now her aura of power might as well be a shield, and she stopped dodging.

Susan could feel her power, it seemed she was putting most, if not all, of her remaining energy into a technique, which blazed out of her. It was an enormous _Force Blade,_ which she drove into Ursula's chest and out the other side. "No!" she wailed, beginning to shrink again. Susan flew over and grabbed her so she didn't slip under the water, and tossed her to the ground in front of Triton. Ariel, panting, flew over as well.

"You... think you... won?" asked Ursula.

Susan pointed to her eyes. "I can see you're exactly into _gone._ You have no fight left in you."

"That's were you're wrong." Ursula gestured, and Ariel's _force_ explosion, the one she had swept up earlier, went off point blank above her. It wasn't strong, Ariel couldn't put a lot of energy in at once, that's why she kept charging up, and ironically Susan took the brunt of it. She would have taken eight damage, but of course her _Giant's Soul_ cut that down dramatically and her _Regeneration_ easily took care of the minor scrape she sustained. The king and Ariel only took a point on the tail (or leg, as appropriate).

Ursula herself faired a bit worse, being hit in the body for a couple more points of damage and passed out.

The two contracts appeared above her and vanished, meaning far below a bunch of merpeople were about to swim out of Ursula's lair. This also meant that Ariel now turned back into a mermaid.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she shouted, then realized she had her voice back.

"Apparently you got your magic back," Susan explained, looking her over. She was still flying, of course, so she didn't just collapse to the ground, but she still looked annoyed. "And your voice."

"Ariel?" asked Eric, carefully walking over to her. "You can talk?"

"Oh boy," groaned Triton. "This is going to take some explaining. Could you maybe just forget you ever saw me? Or this fight? Or... yeah just the past few days in general?" He shook his head. "Yeah, kind of thought so. I'll leave that explanation to my daughter. Consider it the final part of your penance."

"Daddy!"

"Nope, not going to hear it. Look, I need to get this young lady the thing she actually came here for, I'll be back in a little while."

"What about her?" Susan asked, nudging Ursula.

"Isn't she dead?"

"No, but she's bleeding out fast. I could heal her if you wanted."

Triton considered. "Do it. We can't exactly hold her, but with my subjects freed, I'm sure her business will drop off rather sharply. Let it not be said I am a heartless god."

"As you command." Susan got out the healing knife and held it up to her until the wounds closed, and he hauled her into the water with him.

"Now can someone tell me what's going on?"

So Ariel explained how she saved his life from the storm and dragging him to shore. From there how her father found out-

"Your father, the god of the sea?"

"King Triton, yes. Shush."

He had found out and smashed her collection of surface trinkets, that she know knew the purpose of.

"And when I see that seagull again, he's going to get a talking to, let me tell you."

"Seagull?"

"Yeah, animals can talk around here," Sparkle explained. "At least some of them. I didn't get a good answer as to which ones, specifically."

"I'll have to ask my dog," he remarked, evidently accepting Sparkle talking as a more minor miracle of the day.

This led her to the witch, losing her voice, coming up here, and now he had seen the rest of it.

"But what about the snow? This doesn't have anything to do with that?"

"That's my department," explained Susan. "In a kingdom quite far from here, or not actually, there's a queen that's been possessed. She has ice powers and is trying to freeze the whole world. Long story. I'm working that one out."

"Oh."

"Being with you these past few days has been a dream for me," Ariel went on. "But I'll understand if you don't want to be with me, now that you know what I am." She swished her tail at him.

"With all the stuff you can do? Flying and fighting off huge monsters like you did? Nobody will dare mess with you."

"Ah, about that," Susan interrupted with a raised finger. "Those powers come from me. I'm afraid she can't keep them."

"But you could go back to being human," said a voice from the water. Triton was back, holding what appeared to be a crystalline decanter of water. "I thought about it on the way, and what Ursula did gave me an idea. I can put magic on you to suppress part of your own magic, which will make you human. When you want to come visit us, you can lift that and become a mermaid again. Then go back and forth as much as you want."

"Would would do that for me?" Ariel exclaimed, flying over to her father and hugging him.

"Way I see it, you'd just get Susan to do something before she left, if I didn't. I would rather have you happy, absent, and not angry at me rather than happy, absent, and seething. At least in the latter case you'll be willing to come see your old man every so often."

 _Sea-thing? They're all sea things if you ask me._

 _Ugh._

"I probably would have," she admitted.

"And I would have," Susan admitted.

"And I'll come visit all the time!"

"You better."

Eric looked a bit shell shocked. "My father in law really is the god of the sea?"

"Don't get any ideas, boy!" he gruffed. "And don't think I won't take legs myself and come looking for you on land if you hurt my youngest!"

"No sir!" he answered quickly.

"Glad that's settled. Now, let's see..." He concentrated, his trident glowing and a spark of power detached itself from inside Ariel and formed a pendent around her neck. Her legs returned.

"Oh father, thank you!" she gushed.

"Not at all. You'll have to make a study of magic, I'm afraid, to put it back inside yourself."

"I was kind of hoping to start studying magic anyway," she admitted. "It might really be used to help people."

 _Oh no, another one. You've made another one!_ growled The Darkness.

 _Ha ha!_

"And here you are, Susan. If you two would like to head back to the castle now, I need to speak to Susan about where she needs to go next. And this is for her ears alone."

"Say, is that wedding still on?" Ariel asked, leading Eric away.

"I'll come to the castle to say goodbye and take your powers," Susan shouted after her. "I'd take them now, but we'll let Eric see all of you after the wedding."

She laughed as they both nearly stumbled.

She bent to take the water, and looked it over.

"The next place you'll need to go is the underworld, ruled by Hades," he explained. "He's mellowed a little in the past few thousand years but he won't be that easy to deal with. Plus I have no means of actually getting you there, so I hope you can do it on your own."

"That's not a problem," Susan assured him, putting the water away. "Thanks."

"Thank you, for getting my daughter back. Who knows how that would have turned out, otherwise. And now she's into magic, and probably combat magic at that! Who would have thought?" He chuckled and shook his head.

"Yeah, I'm already hearing complaints about it." He looked confused. "Never mind. Hades, huh? Wish me luck. You'll know I've succeeded when the ice melts. If there's anything you can do, bringing up warmer water or whatever? It might help."

"I'll do what I can. Not really supposed to influence the surface world all that much, Zeus might get a bit miffed about it. But then, the way he's leaving things to run down..." He looked around. "Old argument. Susan, farewell."

"Bye!"

And so Susan, once Ariel was alone again, went back into magic mode and her powers dropped away.

"Thanks," she said. "You'll at least stay for the wedding, won't you?"

"Hummm..." She held her hands out like a scale. "Next stop on saving the world, or cake. Cake..."

Susan stayed for the ceremony and hoped these two people who really only knew each other like two days stayed together.

 _Joke's on Elsa. You can marry someone you just met. The problem is staying married to them. Will her kids have enough magic to be merfolk? That might cause a bit of a panic. Oh well, not my problem._

She got a good night's sleep and in the morning, said her goodbyes to... no one. Ariel and Eric were already gone on their honeymoon, which now that Susan thought about it... _Isn't she only sixteen? Oh well, she learned about more than magic this week, I guess. Wait, how old was he? Ah well, I'm sure it'll be fine._

She did remember to change the _contract,_ specifying she couldn't hurt _sentient_ or _animal life,_ while leaving the possibility open to destroy bacteria and the like by attacking inanimate objects. Also she specified _permanent harm,_ leaving open the possibility of doing all the non-lethal damage she wanted. After all, putting someone to sleep might make them bump their head when they fell, so she figured she should cover something like that too.

With that, Susan opened a _Dimension Gate_ to the underworld from writings and stepped through. Sparkle followed nervously after her, and both looked around.

"This doesn't seem right," she supplied, having the most experience with this sort of thing using _Dimension Step._ "We don't seem to be where we were, which is usually what happens."

"We've never really _come_ this far, it's usually just one sub-dimension over. Being here is probably a lot different than just seeing it."

"I guess. Does this place look a bit... boney to you?"

"Just a bit."

As they looked around they saw nothing but bones everywhere near them. The path seemed to be made of bones, with bone archways leading to a wall in the distance. Towards this wall shuffled what Susan figured were ghosts, transparent people of all ages that neither rushed nor dallied on their way to the gate. Oddly they didn't float, as ghosts in her world tended to do, but walked as if still alive. As she watched, every few minutes one would appear, look around halfheartedly as if getting their bearings, and then shuffle down the path. She tried to stop one and talk to it, but it just passed through her without stopping, making her cold and tingly. She could feel an echo of _spirit energy_ within them, though at the same time they were nothing _but_ spirit energy, so it was an odd sensation to do a _spirit sense_ on them.

"Hades must be in that direction someplace," figured Susan.

"And we're just going to march up to the gates, aren't we?"

"Of course. _Overconfidence_ aside, I think I can take any number of dead people. If they do somehow start attacking me I'll just mode change and hit them with some _spirit_ attacks. And we're not going to find him standing around here!"

"I guess. We are in the home for the dead, do try and show a little respect."

"As long as it's just a little."

Susan approached the gate where along both sides of the path various bone "houses" seemed to have been constructed. Outside each was a bored to death looking creature halfheartedly watching the endless throng of souls flowing by. Each looked different, but they shared various characteristics. Small bat wings, a solid color, naked, pointy teeth, forked tail, you know, the usual. One in particular seemed a smidgen more awake than the others as his eyes met Susan's as she passed.

It blinked.

It propped itself up on one elbow and registered shock.

It scanned the crowd, and came back to Susan.

It looked her up and down.

It hopped up and gave a shout. "We got a live one here!" The other creatures lazily looked over at it, and then realized what it was shouting. "A live one! We've got an actual living, breathing, person down here. And it's a _girl!"_

 _"A girl?"_ several shouted, jumping to their feet.

 _Oh great, now what?_

"It is, it is! Look! If that girl's dead I'm a cupid!"

Susan suddenly found herself mobbed by these odd creatures while souls continued pass them. They would go around the little ones but they just walked through her, which made it somewhat hard to concentrate as they were basically all blabbering at her at once.

"Quiet!" she yelled at them. "One at a time!"

"You are alive?" asked the yellow one.

"Yes."

"How did you get here?" asked the blue one.

"Magic. Then I walked."

"You're really alive?" asked the green one.

"Yes, will you stop asking? I take it you don't see many like me around here?"

"Are you kidding?" asked the red one. "I don't even remember the last one. Was it Odysseus?"

"It must have been Thesus."

"No, it was Heracles."

"Theseus!"

"Dionysus!"

"Odysseus!"

"Never mind!" shouted Susan.

"Hades isn't going to be happy about this," remarked an orange colored one, just getting there. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Tell me something I don't know. That's the guy I need to find though. You know where he is?"

They took a step back. "You came down here and you're heading straight to the boss? What, do you want to bring someone back?" asked the yellow. "He doesn't like that one bit."

"Not one bit," chorused the group.

"No. I'm just here to talk to him about something. It's about that cold snap in the... mortal world."

"Cold snap?" asked the blue one.

"You didn't notice?" asked the red. "A bunch of people suddenly started showing up in winter clothes." He pointed and yes, it did seem like a bunch of people were shambling by in winter gear.

 _Great, people are dying because of this. I have to hurry._

"Ah, who knows what's going on in the human world?"

"I thought that was weird," said a pink one. "I didn't remember Persephone coming through here lately. That's usually when people dressed like that start to show up."

"So can you tell me where to find him?"

"You're not going to make him angry, are you?" asked the green one.

"When he gets angry he makes us all suffer," agreed the blue.

"Not if I can help it. I need his help."

"Promise?" asked all of them.

"I promise."

They went into a huddle, which Susan had to chuckle at.

"What are they?" asked Sparkle.

"Some kind of demon, I guess? This place seems pretty ancient Greek, what with those names they mentioned, but weren't most of the things around there... humanoid in legend?"

"Maybe they were, at first. Remember though, this is just this reality's afterlife. It could be very different from ancient myths from our reality."

The color squad turned back to her. "We'll tell you, but you have to promise that if anyone asks, not a one of us saw you," said the red.

"That's right," said the blue. "You didn't stop here, you didn't talk to us, this never happened. You snuck in some other way."

"Fine, that's fine."

"Okay then. Just keep going. You can't miss it, it's the tallest thing made of bones you'll see around here."

"What is?"

"Hades' castle, of course!" The purple one looked at her like she was stupid. "What did you think?"

"Well I don't know. Maybe that would be just the entrance and I had to go down instead of up. How would I know?"

"You can ask the guards, if you get that far," informed the green.

"Guards?"

"Sure. You think he wants a trillion souls massing outside his castle? Or trying to escape or whatever? Of course, mostly they just hang around..." The yellow one pointed at the souls going past. "This is the liveliest they'll be, honestly. At least unless they get into Elysium or something like that. You'll see."

"I guess so. Thanks for the help."

"What do you mean?" they all said. "You were never here."

"Right."

"I hope you're a good fighter," remarked the green one. "Past here it's going to be pretty non-stop combat to get anywhere. Hades really doesn't like surprises, and he's gone to a lot of trouble to keep things working in a certain way around here. You're going to be an obstacle to that. Hope you make it."

They watched her go, then went back to being bored to tears.

Susan didn't have long to go before she saw souls of every shape and size gathered before a river, and she "pushed" her way forward. Eventually she stopped saying "excuse me" and the like, because they just stood there, passive. The place was wall to wall souls, and Susan wondered why they were all just standing around.

She got her answer when the filthy guy, with glowing eyes and a simple pole came into view. He was standing on what seemed to be a simple wooden platform floating in the water and wearing a long, tattered, dirty cloak.

"What have we here?" he asked lustily, eyeing her.

 _A beatdown._

Susan wasn't sure if that thought was hers or The Darkness, and decided in this case it probably made no difference. She stepped up.

"You got a... heehee... 'coin' for me, darling?" He stuck the pole between her legs and started to raise it.

 _Yup, a beatdown._


	172. Chapter 172

172

Walking Around Undertown

When: First combat turn

Where: The banks of the river Acheron

Susan hopped off one foot and came down on the push pole gripped by Charon, snapping it off as she drove it into the ground.

"Hey! What's the big idea?"

"That's my line," shot back Susan. "You want to explain yourself?"

"Explain this!" He whipped the now broken pole at her head, which she deftly caught by four after spending four energy. She then used her newly acquired skill of _Repost_ to make a second reactive action, flinging the pole over her shoulder. What she didn't expect was for him to hold onto it, or for him to actually bowl over the spirits he slammed into, making them all go down in a jumble.

"Perhaps a bit of _Flight?"_ asked Sparkle, jumping atop her shoulders.

"A jolly good idea, old bean," Susan agreed, casting the spell. "Let's not incite the natives, rot what?"

Swiftly flying to the other bank she came to a sort of guardhouse with a large open doorway into a fairly simple open room with a door at the other end and three men asleep at their desks. She looked about, but there was no decoration at all on the walls, just the three desks, arranged to funnel people through the door, past the desks, and out the far door.

"Not much action going on here," remarked Sparkle, poking at one of the men's cheeks with a paw. "They are alive, or whatever passes for it around here."

"Yeah, most everything around here is _spirit energy_ , just like most things at the castle back home were magic." She looked back across the water. "I wonder..." None of the men looked more senior than another so she just went to the one closest the door and bent down to his ear. "Ding!" she said, miming ringing a bell on his desk.

"Huh? Keep it down. What's thee... zzzzzz"

She sighed. "DING!" she mimed again.

"What?" The man's eyes opened a little and she squinted at her. "Wha?"

"I'm doing a sort of joke thing? Because I was too lazy to transform and use _creation_ nature to make a bell? I suppose I could have used magic. Ding!"

The others started to stir.

They got a good look at her.

"You can't be here!" exclaimed the man, nearly tipping his chair over trying to lean away from her. "I can't judge a living person!"

"Did anyone see you?" asked the one other one.

"How did you get across the river?" asked the other. "Is Charon running again?"

"Lots of souls saw me, but none seemed to care," she answered. "And if by Charon you mean the fellow with the pole back on the opposite bank, no, I flew here. He was more interested in innuendo than conversation."

They looked at each other in confusion, and the one man brought out what seemed to be binoculars from his desk and went outside, peering across the river.

"He appears to be having some kind of fit over there. What did you say to him?"

"Not much. But I made my feeling clear nonetheless. Now, can one of you fellows direct me to Hades? I'm told his castle should be around here somewhere."

"You, uh, you aren't going to report us sleeping, are you?" the third one asked somewhat nervously.

"Yes, why is a live person wandering around down here?" asked the first. "You don't look like a strapping hero, trying to prove yourself. How did you even find an entrance, I thought they had all been sealed up thousands of years ago."

"Let's just say I have my reasons, and I got here the same way I got here." She pointed to the shack. "Magic."

"You don't look like a witch either," remarked the third one.

"I'm a good witch."

They stared and then burst out laughing. "A good witch. Nice one."

"Seriously, you won't tell him?"

"It's not exactly like there seems to be loads to do around here," Susan remarked, looking around. "I won't fault you for falling asleep."

"It's that Charon," explained the third. "He refuses to ferry anyone not buried with a coin. And how many people nowadays are buried with a coin?"

The three chuckled.

"Something better be done. That far bank is filling up. I'm surprised Hades has let it go on this long."

"Oh, he doesn't care about the day to day workings, you understand," said the first. "It's just that, well, us sleeping would give him an excuse to come down here and do you want your boss breathing down your neck?"

"I suppose not. Should I tell him about the backup though?"

The three shared a look. "He would probably come and ask why we didn't go tell him," pondered the first.

"And then we would have to tell him," pondered the second.

"And then we would really be in for it!" reasoned the third.

"Please don't!" they chorused.

"Hokay. I take it they're supposed to come over here?"

"You got it. We three judge them, send them on their way to the proper- How long were we asleep anyway?" asked the one looking through the binoculars again. "You really weren't kidding! Was there a war or something? Why are there so many souls over there?"

"You do realize populations rise, right? That one boat may have been fine when maybe a hundred people died a week or whatever, but I think it's a bit inadequate now."

"That's putting it mildly," he groused, panning over the crowd. "I think we're going to need some more help here." He passed them over to the other two who also looked through. "We were pretty bored."

"Sure, but that's not a cure for boredom, it's insanity."

"Doesn't mean anything if they can't get over here."

"But we're not doing our jobs and sooner or later someone's going to show up and ask why."

"Maybe I can help," suggested Susan.

"That's right!" the second one eyed her up and down. "We've got a witch here, we could build a bridge out of her!"

"A bridge that weighs the same as a duck," countered the third.

"I'm a lazy man, seems the lighter the material, the easier construction would be."

"I suppose souls don't weigh all that much, bridge wouldn't need to be all that sturdy." A chin was stroked as this was said.

"Not much wind round here either," put in one.

"Wait just a second! What if she's made of stone? That would be the opposite of a light material and easy construction!"

"You've got a point!"

 _Are they just going go on like this?_ Sparkle wondered to herself.

"Follows, please. I'm trying to look something up." Susan had her book out, and was paging through. "I'm sure there was a bridge building spell here someplace."

"Look at the very end, under the 'w'" suggested Sparkle, glad of the respite.

She flipped to the back and found what she was looking for. "No good. It's not permanent, it's concentration. Shoot."

"Why would something useful like that be permanent?" Sparkle scoffed. "You know how our magic works."

"Yeah, I know. So few are, not sure why I thought that would be. Okay, powers it is, as that I can make permanent as part of the technique."

"What are you-"

Susan put her book away and threw a hand into the air. "Light of the Multiverse, Make Up!"

With that she easily made a permanent _Teleportal_ in front of the judges' station, and the souls started plodding through to stand before the desks.

"You've done it," said the first man, having picked his jaw back of off the ground. "And you say this will stay here forever?"

"Yup."

"Thanks."

"Sure thing."

"Hey now, what's this?" Charon shouldered his way past the souls and found himself on the other bank.

"Why don't you explain?" Susan asked, rising into the air with Sparkle beside her. "After the line goes down a little!" She laughed and shot into the air, looking forward to where she next needed to go.

She spotted another high wall and what seemed to be a gate, so the two flew in that direction. Space here seemed odd. From above there seemed to be an infinite amount of space where souls just stood around, not doing much of anything. They were perking up now that other, newer souls were pouring in, but the majority were just standing there. Off in the distance, though it was impossible to say how far away, seemed a foreboding place Sparkle said she swore she heard voices screaming in torment, while over in another direction was an island where it seemed the only real "sunlight" in the place fell on. Oh, she could see all right, but it was a sort of uniform "dream" light that didn't really have a source. But over on the island she got a sense of light and warmth that was absent from the rest of the place.

She was about to fly over the wall when it suddenly shot up and met her, and no matter how high she flew she couldn't get over it. Swooping down she decided she would have to pass the gate she had seen off in the distance, and she headed in that direction. When she did, space stopped being "infinite" and she reached it within moments.

 _Of course. Infinite room for souls but if you need to get someplace, you can. It's an interesting system._

 _Impressed?_

 _That such primitives could construct such a thing? Sure, I guess._

As she got closer she couldn't help but see what was guarding it.

"Dog!" screeched Sparkle, flying off to the right and crouching behind a rock that was sitting there. "Did it see me? I hope it didn't see me. Please say it isn't looking this way with one of its three heads."

"Sparkle? What's gotten into you?"

"I have _Phobia: Dogs_ remember?"

"Really?"

She got out her character sheet. "Right here."

"Ah, so you do. Wow. This many worlds and it finally becomes an issue. Can't you make a RESolve check against it or something?"

"Oh sure. But I figured I would play it up, given I really haven't been able to until now."

Susan considered. "Fair enough. You want to stay here while I deal with it?"

"That's right."

"I'll send a _Teleportal_ back for you."

"Fine."

"Oh, I'll probably just _shrink_ him, so we're losing powers when I get over there."

"Just go and get us past that thing. What if it comes over here?"

"I'm going, I'm going."

Susan flew over to the three headed dog and looked up (and up) at the heads that were growling down at her. _Must be a size +4 if ever I've seen one. Was that dog guarding the stone just a puppy, then?_ "Don't suppose you'll just let me pass?"

The barking and snarling indicated this was a negative.

Susan uncovered her ears. "Yeah, yeah, you don't have to be so loud about it. I was just asking."

More snapping and snarling.

"Get it out of your system, sure. I've heard it all before anyway. _Shrink."_

What now stood before her was a puppy sized dog instead of a house sized one, and it seemed to realize this fact... and not be bothered by it. He yelped and snarled just as much.

"Really?" She picked him up, the three heads snapping at her but of course totally unable to damage her in the slightest. "I think I know what you need." She spent a minute casting _Create Foodstuff,_ and a pile of bones, meat, and crunchy biscuits appeared on the ground near her.

"Hey, do you want this?" She picked up a bone and let him sniff it. His attention turned to the food, and he started struggling to get it. "Do you? Do you want this? Go get it boy!" She tossed it and the dog wiggle out of her grasp and jump after it. He bounded after the bone and started tearing into it with all three heads.

Another casting, _Teleportal,_ and Susan stuck her head through. "Hey Sparkle."

"What?"

"Check out this puppy."

Sparkle looked through and gave a cry, lunging to the other side of the rock as Susan howled with laughter.

"It's not funny!"

"I know." _Though it sort of is._ "I'm just helping you get the full experience from your weakness, that's all. I don't want you to miss out."

"Can't you put that a bit farther away?"

"Fine. Just a second."

Susan continued down the path, where she opened another _Teleportal_ and brought Sparkle through.

"Remind me to poop in your shoes sometime."

"I'd just make you clean it up with _Hygene."_

"You know what they say, it's the thought that counts."

It was a straight path then to the castle of bones that Susan figured housed Hades, so she made her way up the path to the gate. Again, the place didn't take long to get to, with space seemingly compressed to allow her to reach it quickly. The gate, also made of bones, was guarded by two skeletons, one with a sword and shield, the other with a huge ax.

"Halt!" cried the sword one.

"Whoa, check out that... flesh," said the other.

"I'm more interested in her insides," answered the first. "You must feel it."

"All that flesh. And hair, look at that hair."

"Pull yourself together, man!"

"How do you know I'm a man?"

"You're not a man?"

"Please!" Susan cried, heading off what would have been a hilarious skit they had been practicing the last three hundred years. Guaranteed to tickle the 'funny bone' of anyone that happened through the place. Not that anyone did, of course. "I need to see the boss. Step aside."

"Oh, well, with an attitude like that I'll just _stand here in your way forever_ how about that? Huh? How about that? It's not like I'm going anywhere anyway, are you going anywhere?"

"I'm not going anywhere," the other answered.

"He's not going anywhere."

"She's not going anywhere."

"I thought you were the boy, not me?"

"I was correcting you."

"Ah, there you are then. We, that is the two of us, skeletons both, are not going anywhere."

"Unless you have an appointment?"

"How would I have made an appointment? It's the underworld!"

"You never know. You could have. Couldn't she?"

"Are you sure that's a she? I've forgotten what they look like."

"Extra rib."

"What extra rib? That's a myth! Besides, it has all that flesh covering the ribs, how would you count them?"

"You don't have x-ray vision? I thought we all had x-ray vision."

"Look, I'm just going inside-" Susan started to say, taking another step forward. The weapons came down.

"Now, now, let's not be hasty," said the sword one. "We've got about a thousand comedy routines and you are going to stand there and listen to each and every one of them. Then, if you've laughed in all the right places, we'll maybe consider sending a message inside to tell Hades you want to see him."

"We might," agreed the other. "Or my name isn't red skeleton," added the ax one.

"I wanted to be red skeleton!"

"You were last time."

"How can you remember that far back?"

"Is this another one of the thousand?" Both nodded. "Bloody fantastic."

"I remember when I could be bloody."

"Yeah, wasn't that great?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Oh, well, I guess if you think about it that way..."

Susan pulled the swords out of her _pocket._ "Move!"

"And what if we don't?"

"Sparkle, if you would allow me?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Thank you, I- What?"

"No. They're just bored, and doing their jobs, and there is no reason to engage them in combat."

Susan considered. "To be completely honest Sparkle, I don't think I actually need your permission in this case."

"What do you mean?"

"My _Contract_ specifically says 'living' things. Pretty sure that everything around here, these two jokers included, are not alive. I put it in so I could smash up property or golems at will, because that's not killing anybody. I consider them to be dead people animated by magic. Thus, not alive and thus easy pickings."

"Oh, rub it in why don't you?" asked the first one.

"Oh, you're the best two skeleton guards I know, says Hades. So you get to guard my castle gate says Hades. You think we do this because we want to?"

"You think we don't want to visit the fields sometimes, maybe see the flesh people doing their flesh things? But nooooo. We have to stand around here for all eternity."

"You know how _long_ eternity is?"

"It's really long!"

"We aren't even half way through it."

"Half? I'd settle for a quarter. Eternity doesn't end!"

"We're bored!"

"That's right. We have feelings you know. Magically animated bones indeed!"

"A feeling, anyway."

"Right. We have a feeling you know. And now it's feeling bad! Right... right in this area." It indicated the entire body.

"Now look what you did," chided Sparkle. "You made them sad. If they could, they would be shedding bitter, bitter tears of sadness right now."

"We would!"

"Oh, sure, bring up another thing we can't do!"

"Yeah, how could you be so insensitive Sparkle?"

"Me? You started it. Next you'll be eating in front of them or something."

"Eating? You wouldn't dare!" shouted both of them.

"You know something, I'm just going to get rid of them and move on." She raised her swords again. "This could go on forever, and I don't have time for that."

"Wait, can't we talk about this?" asked the ax one.

"Come on Susan, you're better than this. You don't need those."

"So what do you suggest? Try and sneak in through the back door?"

"No. Take ten seconds and think about it. With your brain, not wreck it and ralph."

"Don't you start." Susan thought about it. "Phase?"

"Well done. _Phase."_

She walked through the guards, the wall, and into the castle while they called for her to stop. She made her way to the center, looking at the bone architecture as the entire place seemed to be made of nothing but bones and eerie green light.

"You see? Not everything has to come down to a fight."

"I guess."

Eventually the two caught up with her and tried to keep her going in a certain direction, which of course she immediately went in. After a few turns she made her way to the throne room and found a powerful looking man with an aura of fire about him sitting on a throne.

"We're sorry!" the skeletons groveled. "We tried! Look!" The one swished his or her ax through Susan, who was still _Phased._ "It doesn't work. She's alive, but it doesn't work!"

"Yes, she's been causing trouble the moment she arrived here," Hades said dryly. "You may go."

They bowed their way out and Hades rose, walking down the bone steps that led up to his bone throne to circle Susan, looking her over.

"Surprising," he remarked. "To have seen such good deeds done by one who could rival me in evil. Not that I am, of course. But some have said that about me."

"Evil? Don't kid yourself, I'm a hero!" she countered.

"Really? I wonder. Still, nicely done with the whole Charon situation."

"You know about that? So then why didn't you do something about it?"

He yawed. "Oh, I would have eventually, I suppose. My myriad failures at taking over Olympus have allowed me to see the wisdom of not rushing into things. Not that the old place is what it once was." He went back up a few steps and sat down. "So! We missed an entrance between the mortal world and this one it seems. And you've made your way here. Let me guess- some cute boy caught your attention, died, and now you want him back again?"

"Not even close. I need your help taking someone's powers away. Specifically the object you can provide and the destination of the next person."

"Well well." He leaned forward, seeming interested at last. "That old spell is finally getting used, is it? Wasn't sure what Zeus was thinking when he coded that bad boy into the reality matrix, but I guess he's had the last laugh. So some kind of personal vendetta, I take it?"

"Sort of. More like saving the world."

He snorted. "Preposterous. You have some ulterior motive. Is it a boy?"

"No!"

"No? A girl then?"

Now it was Sparkle's turn to hold back a laugh.

"Not a word," Susan demanded of her.

"So I was right."

"I would just rather take her powers away than kill her, that's all. It's more about messing up the force that's taken her over and proving someone else wrong than the girl herself."

"And you say you aren't evil! I suppose I can help you. It's more work for me, otherwise, if all the people up there get killed all at once. Think of the paperwork!"

"I would think you'd be happy," postulated Susan. "You would have all the souls, the other gods would have none. Don't you get your power from them or something?"

"Hummm, yes, the idea does appeal, don't get me wrong. But it's somewhat more enjoyable to watch them just wither away like they're doing. Take Charon. Who buries people with a _coin_ anymore? So he just got to stand there, thinking about all the wealth he might have collected if that practice was still followed. His pride wouldn't let him take them for free, of course, and so everybody lost. All because of his greed."

"What would he do with coins anyway? It's not like he could spend it here!"

That brought him up short. "You know, I've never asked him. Huh, what would he- never mind. The point is, as time goes on people forget the gods and as they lose followers, they lose power. So now I play a long game, quite unlike the way I used to go about things."

"Sure, good for you. Getting back to the point, it wouldn't work anyway."

"Why ever not?"

"Because this entire reality would be wiped out, this place included. The Darkness would take it all, every iota of energy."

"I'm not sure what that unit of measurement means, but if you say so. Now, what task to give you to prove your worthiness for my item... that's the question."

"Oh come on! You can't just hand it over? Why do I have to jump through hoops for you?"

"Lots of reasons, the least of which is it amuses me. Now be quiet, I'm thinking."

Susan let him think for a moment, pacing about the chamber.

"Yes, I have just the ticket!" he announced. He gestured, and a large book dropped into his hand which he started paging through. "Yes, here it is. And it's still crossed out, as I thought."

Susan peeked over the edge, and it was just columns of names and dates, plus some other scribbling she couldn't read. But one row was crossed out.

"In pencil, as I knew he would be back sooner or later." He winked.

"Who would?"

Hades smiled. "Your task. My only real loss, apart from Persephone. And I get her back here a lot of the time so she doesn't count. What I want you to do is- retrieve a soul that once got away from me!"

He grinned a wide grin, and Susan felt a chill.


	173. Chapter 173

173

Another day, another person for Susan to bully

Time: An hour or so later

Place: On approach to the kingdom of Llyr

"You're really going to do this?" Sparkle asked again, as the snow covered countryside passed beneath them.

"I don't see what choice I have. The guy might not be as powerful as he was thousands of years ago because of the whole worshiper thing, but he's still a god. A god of _death_ I might add. I may be powerful and _Overconfident_ but I'm not stupid. You think I could force him to give me what I want? And my rating in _Persuasion_ is terrible."

"True enough. Still, it didn't stop you the last time you went up against a god. I figured you would try the same thing here."

"What? You mean that Lone One and the blacksmith back on Nita's world? One of those was a recording if you'll recall, and the other wasn't really a god anymore. She expended her energies to help create the universe and then gave up the rest of her power to live on Earth. I mean making a stupid _spear_ killed her. Or maybe The Darkness did so it could take over the body. In any case, I'm supposed to be working on less violent ways of problem solving, remember?"

"I just wanted to be sure you did. So, if you're not going to use violence, have you thought of what to tell them?"

"What else can I tell them? Lies, lies, and more lies."

"Uh-"

"Only joking. I'll just have to- what the?" Susan pulled up short and stopped flying. The area around the castle wasn't covered with snow, and as she was back in magic mode, she could make _Magic Sense_ checks which she did. "There's a powerful magic up ahead. And look, no cloud cover over this part of the world."

"Praise the sun."

"Yeah. Not _sun_ magic exactly though, but it is protection. It's not _mars,_ that's more about flame than heat, but whatever it is, that must be what's keeping this area from freezing. Actually it reminds me of that spell the rock people had going on their area. Huh."

"To think anyone had the power to stave off the winter around here, even in this small an area. I mean the rock people, fine, but that was days ago. Winter should be gaining in strength now."

"I know. Their kingdom was closer though, but who knows how that changes things. Come on."

"I'm on your shoulder, I'm sort of going where you go regardless."

"You know what I mean."

Susan landed in front of yet another castle, and a pair of guards standing in front of a gate snapped their spears up.

"You know, just once I would love to drop out of the sky, have someone proclaim 'It's the one spoken of in prophesy! The one who will save us!' And then they let us in and I can get on with it. But nooooo. It's always this." She waved a hand at the guards.

"The castle is closed!" one squeaked, looking to the other to be backed up in this statement.

"Until the current crisis is over," added the other. "You can come back then."

"Fellows, unless I speak to your queen this crisis will never be over, and all of you will either starve or freeze to death."

"You bring news of the sudden snows?" asked the first.

"The queen said no one," the second said, somewhat doubtfully.

"This is obviously a wit- a sorceress like she is. She would want to see her, right?"

"Wait here, I'll go ask the king."

"Good idea! Absolves us of blame if _he_ lets her in."

"Wait here," he repeated, this time to Susan, and edged into the doorway behind him, spear still out.

"Please." Susan rolled her eyes.

They waited.

"So!" said the guard. "Weird weather huh? I mean, uh..." He looked embarrassed and whacked himself in the head with his spear. "You live around here?"

"No, my home is pretty far from here," she answered sadly.

"Been traveling long?"

She barked a laugh. "Longer than you can imagine. It feels that way, anyway."

"It, uh, it must be nice."

"Nice?"

"To, you know, fly. To be able to just," he snapped his fingers, "and get away from things."

Susan shook her head. "You can't run from your troubles. They either catch up to you, or-"

 _Or they're inside you to begin with._

"Yeah, I hear you. I guess everybody has their own problems, huh? Even people with magic."

"Trouble is, those with magic get magical problems, just like those without it get problems without it. It's the same everywhere."

The two chuckled, but the guard sounded as if his heart wasn't in it.

"Stand here long enough, you start to notice things."

"Things?"

"Like that circle of protection? That's keeping winter back? Seems every hour that goes by it gets a little smaller."

"Keep your chin up, I'm halfway to solving it already!"

 _You hope._

"Really?"

The door opened again. "She can come in. But you better not be lying."

"Really," she answered, with more confidence than she felt. "Let's go then."

Susan found herself ringed by troops, and escorted though the castle. She wasn't taken to the throne room as she expected, but rather to a large workshop area that seemed to be mostly magical in nature. On the floor rested a tired looking woman concentrating on a sphere of light, and supported by a man in finery and wearing a crown. Susan could feel the magic radiating from the orb or the person, it was tough to say, it was strong enough to be unclear. The woman cast a quick glance at her and nodded, then went back to concentrating. She had very long, blond hair, which seemed to be turning white for some reason, and looked pretty young. The man was brown haired, muscled, and probably pretty tall when he was standing up. He turned to face her.

"Greeting, traveler. The guards say you fell from the sky and claim to have information about the sudden onset of winter. Is this true?"

"True, your highness," she answered with a bow, causing Sparkle to shift and have to jump down. She padded over to the ball and looked it over.

"Meyow."

"My name is Susan. I'm currently on a quest to end the sudden winter, which is being caused by a... well, a rather tragically possessed queen far from here who happens to possess the strongest ice manipulation powers this world has ever seen. This is Sparkle."

"Charmed," she said.

The man reacted with surprise. "A sorceress on a quest alone? Extraordinary. I am king Taran, and this is my wife, Eilonwy."

 _No, this is Eilonwy, your wife, you chauvinist pig._ But Susan kept that thought to herself.

"Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you both. I did hear you talk just now, didn't I?"

"You did. Finally we meet someone who doesn't react with surprise."

He chuckled. "Living with my wife these last few years has taught me to expect just about anything. She has a talking ball, Pelydryn, you have a talking cat. What's the difference? So, let's hear it."

"Just a second. Are you all right?"

Eilonwy shook her head. "You try holding back winter for days and see how you fare at the end of it." Her face softened. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit worn out at the moment. I'll survive, thanks for asking."

"If there's anything you can do to help," Taran pleaded.

"Perhaps..." Susan answered, getting her book out. One casting of _Energy Gift_ from writings later, and Eilonwy was looking perked up.

"Thank you," she said gratefully. "Even if your magic is very strange!"

"It won't hold you for long. But with your cooperation maybe it won't have to. I'm on a quest, like I said. Basically I'm gathering the ingredients for a... spell... that will put an end to this winter."

"You said it was caused by a person," protested Taran.

"It is. And I can't exactly explain further. Only the greatest of need allowed the person who sent me on this quest to even tell me of the existence of the spell I hope to cast. I can't say more."

"If you can put things right, by all means, our kingdom is at your disposal."

Susan looked down. "Ah. Yes. Well, please hear the story first before you start saying things like that." The two shared a look. "Basically, each person that had a piece of what I need has wanted me to do something for them. This last piece is no exception. I need something from you, and you're not going to like it."

"Look, whatever it is," said Eilonwy, "I can't keep this up. I'll give anything to keep my kingdom safe, even my own life."

"Don't say that-" started Taran.

"I mean it, Taran. This is killing me slowly, and once it fails, I won't be able to start it up again. How much longer do you think I can keep winter from even this tiny part of our kingdom?"

Susan held up a hand. "Please, your majesties, a sacrifice is required, but it is not you he wants. Tell me, has someone in your kingdom died and been resurrected at some point in the past? Because that's who we're talking about here."

"Gurgi? This is about Gurgi?" blurted Taran. His eyes grew hard. "You better explain yourself."

"Perhaps you should go first," suggested Susan. "I want to make sure the story I was told was the right one."

"Easily enough to do that. The Horned King found the Black Cauldron because I was a stupid kid, and he sacrificed himself to stop it."

"That's not how it happened," insisted Eilonwy.

"No? If I hadn't gone looking for it, would those witches have handed it over to _him?_ The Horned King was scary, yes, but I think they were more powerful. I mean they had the thing for years and never used it. Thus, the fault was mine."

She looked over at Susan. "It's an old argument. But he is right about one thing. Gurgi climbed into the Cauldron, reversing its power and destroying he who had set out to use it. Taran then traded the sword he had looted from a corpse- I mean _discovered,_ for Gurgi's life."

Susan and Sparkle shared a look. The story matched up. This Gurgi fellow had apparently entered the afterlife, stood around as even that time ten years ago the ferry wasn't running, and three witches apparently snatched him back.

"That's the one then," she said sadly. "He wants that soul back, to erase that stain on his record."

"Who does?" asked Taran. "Who do you work for?"

Susan took a deep breath. "Hades. And I don't work for him, like I said he just has something I need."

Both looked skeptical. "You can't expect me to believe a god told you to come here and kill Gurgi."

"Believe what you want. But unless he dies Hades doesn't give me what I want and this planet turns into an ice cube." _And you don't want to know what happens after that._

"Preposterous! Guards! Get her out of here!"

"Wait!" said Eilonwy, raising a hand as they sprang into action. "Taran, this isn't some kind of joke. She's serious."

"I don't care if she is! Gurgi saved the entire world once, and we are not asking him to sacrifice himself again. I mean what kind of story is this?"

"Maybe a true one. She knew Gurgi came back from the dead! How many other people would know that? Just us, Fflewddur, and the witches. We haven't seen or heard from them since, what would they care anyway? They got what they wanted, the sword. What if she's telling the truth?"

"That means I have to accept the existence of Hades! And she's working for him, despite what she says."

"Well... he did come back, after all. Is it that farfetched?"

"No. But Gurgi has been my loyal friend for a decade now. I'm not just handing him over. Guards, seize her!" He grabbed up his sword that had been sitting nearby and unsheathed it.

They grabbed her, and Susan didn't resist. "Look, I don't want to hurt you," she pleaded. "This is hard enough as it is. Please don't make it harder."

"Throw her out of the castle- no, out of the kingdom!"

"Uh, your majesty, didn't someone say she could fly?"

"I don't care! Get her out of here! What are you doing?"

"We can't seem to move her!"

"What?"

"I really didn't want this. _Somnolent Smog."_ She filled the room with _Smog,_ which of course Sparkle was smart enough not to breathe in. Or she counted as Susan for things like this, being her _companion_ and all. It's not important. Susan, able to cast the spell in only three segments instead took a total of nine, getting a significant bonus. No one in the room could make that check and they clattered to the floor. (Eilonwy didn't, we'll get to her in a moment. She was faking it, but Susan doesn't know that.)

Susan shook her head. "This sucks."

"Yeah. How exactly are we going to find this Gurgi now, actually?"

"Crap! I don't know. Let me get some energy back and I'll get out _Question._ Maybe I can ask what room he's in or something. Stupid, I never should have given her some of mine. I thought maybe showing my good intentions-"

"That's the trouble. We don't actually have good intentions here, do we?"

Susan shook her head. "No we do not. Stupid Hades. Yeah, I said it. I hope you're listening match head!"

"Uh, maybe you shouldn't insult the god of _death?"_

"What? It's true. The guy has fire for hair, and I'm sure he's been called worse."

Susan bent over and drained the two nearest guards at once, figuring she had two hands and forty energy to make up, so why not?

"Something's wrong," Sparkle remarked, looking around the room.

"What is?"

"The queen's asleep, but her magic is still going. Can't you feel it?"

"Maybe she can maintain spells in her sleep? I don't know."

"Or," said Eilonwy, opening her eyes. "She's faking it to see what you would do."

"You canceled my spell out? Or do you just have a really high CON?"

"I have no idea what that means. But yes, I was able to protect myself from your 'spell.' Not that I've felt the like, again, your magic is unlike anything... It seems you won't be denied, yet you didn't kill everyone in this room. Why?"

"Like I said, I don't _want_ to kill this Gurgi fellow any more than you want to. I don't want to kill anyone. Heck I don't want to _hurt_ or even slightly inconvenience anyone. But Hades made it clear that's the only thing he would accept."

She regarded Susan. "You really have spoken to him, haven't you?"

"Yes."

She let out a breath. "Then it falls to me. I'd never hear the end of it from my husband if I just let you go and kill Gurgi. But at the same time I should be saving my strength to keep my entire kingdom from freezing." She held her hands out. "The needs of the many. The needs of the one. I guess this is why I'm queen." The orb went mostly dark, and floated up in front of her, making a chirping noise.

"I know," she said to it. "But what else can I do? She's technically an invader into my kingdom and wants to kill one of my subjects. I must defend him." She looked around. "My magic is the only thing that can stand against another magic user in any case."

"While I appreciate the sentiment, I can just shut your magic down and that'll be the end of it. You don't stand a chance against me."

She hauled herself to her feet. "That's on you. I must do what I must do. Now, defend-"

"Hold it!" Sparkle shouted. "Don't fight in here. Take it outside!"

"I suppose it would be a shame to ruin this room. Outside then?"

"The result will be the same. Lead on," said Susan.

Eilonwy stepped over her sleeping husband and the guards and started down the hallway. Her ball of light trailed behind her. Susan and Sparkle trailed behind it.

"Think of something!" hissed Sparkle.

"Like what?" she hissed back. "She's doing what she thinks is best. How can I argue with that?"

"You're not really going to fight her, are you?"

"What choice do I have?"

 _Indeed, what choice do you have?_ The Darkness, if it had hands, would have been rubbing them together in glee. _One life for a world. Finally! We can only hope next time it's two, then maybe eight, until you think nothing of just slaughtering your way though people that 'have to' die._

 _You stay out of it. You sound like you're enjoying this far too much._

 _Why shouldn't I? Your discomfort is my lazy Sunday afternoon, after all._

 _It's pointless. She won't last two combat rounds. I'll turn her magic off, get out a_ Knockout _blade, and stab her with it. My_ Contract _allows that._

 _Yes, that stupid contract. Still, you'll have to get permission from your_ cat _to actually do the deed. Hope she gives it out._

 _She has the same chance to think of stuff that I do._

 _Look, what's really bothering you? Just how one sided this is going to be? Because growing up I seem to recall you rubbing everyone's nose in just how superior your magic was at every opportunity. This seems no different._

 _A little. I'm going to make her look like a joke in front of her subjects. People that look up to her. Maybe even fear her a little because of her magic. I'm going to be seen as a monster that took the queen down in seconds! I'm supposed to be a knight, and fight fair. This doesn't feel right, disregarding the whole killing Gurgi. Growing up, yeah, my magic_ was _demonstrably better. And I was usually using it to do things they couldn't. Good things, that helped people. I am doing none of those things here._

 _Hummmm... maybe I should help you out a little._

 _What? Are you feeling okay?_

 _Don't get me wrong. I'm hoping she actually takes you, forces your hand into killing her. You can do that if the situation calls for it, if I remember correctly._

 _I see._

 _So here's a little hint. Think back to what you were feeling when her magic was active. And think about how she defended herself from your sleep spell, despite the differences in your magic. She couldn't have known what was coming, but she was fine. What does that tell you? Think about what skills you haven't used in some time. Make this a fair fight, as fair as you can with all your_ Materia _and high energy and such._

Susan took out her character sheet and looked it over. _Rifle? No, shooting her with the ice gun is no good. Persuasion?_

 _Magic, Susan, magic! Do I have to spell it out? You're supposed to have a high REAson, try using it for a bit._

She thought back. _It wasn't exactly a spell, it was just basically magic, being shaped to her desire. Like Ursula turning Ariel human. She had that wrapped up with the_ Contract _and everything. Dang, wish I could have_ Magic Sensed _that, maybe gotten an idea what it was about and how it related to my use of magic. Wait a second, I have a skill to let me use what is unique about a world,_ Adaptive Skill. _A fair fight- Are you saying I could use her kind of magic instead of mine?_

 _You do have a ten in the skill. I doubt she does. But she has more experience shaping magic here, so she probably has a higher_ Magical Theory. _I think it might just cancel out and let you fight equally._

 _That would at least allow her honorable combat. And if I do start to lose, well, I can just switch back. Winning, after a good fight, that'll at least show her my resolve._

 _Good for you. I think we're here, better watch carefully. You may get some ideas._

Eilonwy turned, having reached a courtyard inside the castle walls.

"Is this sufficient?" she asked.

Susan looked around, noticing the guards lining the walls now, as she had missed them being lost in discussion with The Darkness. _Lots of witnesses._

"It should be fine. Look, I'm not sure how much combat training you've had but I've had a lot. You can't beat me, and I've decided to fight you as fairly as I can. Please, just give up now."

"Never. Fight fairly indeed. I intend to fight to win, so you had better do the same."

"Good luck," Susan offered honestly.

Eilonwy seemed bemused. "You are an odd one. We begin!"

Balls of light sprang up in a circle around her, and Susan did a _Magic Sense_ to hopefully give her some insight into what she should actually do next.

The battle was on.


	174. Chapter 174

174

A Trying Combat

Time: Next combat action

Place: Castle Courtyard

 _I felt what she was doing, somehow drawing magic from the surroundings and shaping it to do what she wanted. Can I really do that? Guess I'll try it. What she's got there seems more defensive than anything, guess I'll check it out._

Susan first made a _Magic Sense_ check, getting an eleven, meaning she could effectively cast a grade five spell as that's as much magic as she currently felt she could grab onto.

 _But how do I grab onto it? I feel like_ Adaptive Skill _is for putting the magic to task, not for collecting it._

But Susan had a skill for collecting it, that of _Imbuing,_ so she tried it. She got a sixteen on that, beating the eleven difficulty from her previous check, and she felt "eleven" worth of magic become available for her use.

 _Nice, it worked! Now to try shaping it. I want to throw something at her, see how those magical spheres react. How would I-_

Almost without thinking about it she made a _Magic Theory_ check, getting a twenty two, beating the difficulty of twice the effective grade for what she wanted to do. She knew what to do, so she finally made her _Adaptive_ skill check, forcing the magic to obey her command. Oddly she found this was based on PERsonality, but she still managed a respectable sixteen. This beat her difficulty by one, and as she raised a hand, a spear made of ice formed into existence.

 _After all, with all the ice magic that must be floating around now, I figure this is easiest to create for my first time._

When she felt it was ready she tossed it, or rather brought her arm down and allowed the magic to streak the thing at Eilonwy. Two of the spheres broke off and smashed into it, shattering the ice into pieces, and the remaining ones closed the gap.

 _Yup, defensive._

Eilonwy then gestured and Susan's vision was cut off as some sort of metal band went around her eyes.

 _A good thought but even if I wanted to, I couldn't turn off my_ Spirit Senses.

They now both acted at the same time, and Susan was surprised to feel Eilonwy charging her, so she switched to the defensive. She made a _Magic Sense_ check, getting another eleven, and didn't feel her drawing in more magic.

 _She's either going to rely on smashing those defense orbs into me, which I doubt will hurt, or... yipes!_

Susan narrowly made a _Ninjutsu_ check using INTuition and caught her hand as it came down in a stabbing motion.

"You were going to stab me?" she asked, somewhat amused. "Seems sort of an unprincessly thing to do."

"Unprincess- how did you even do that?" She struggled to get free.

"I've learned lots of skills in my travels. I don't need to see you to fight you." _Well, okay, to defend from you, anyway. And I suppose I could use area effect attacks._ "That said..." she released her hand and Eilonwy stepped back. Susan touched the metal around her face and made her checks for a _Destruction_ like spell. She got all the checks but the last one, missing it by two. The magic fizzled and she frowned.

 _Making four checks just to use a spell? I'm not sold on the idea._

 _Really?_ asked The Darkness. _No spells to memorize, you just have an idea and if you can envision the magic doing that task, it applies. To these people your way of doing things would be backwards and stupid. Only able to manipulate magic to do specific things? How limiting. They would say learning nine skills plus things like Theory and Scripture was stupid._

 _But I have a ten in that skill. And I can't put energy in like I can with my way of casting spells. I mean PER? Who came up with that?_

 _Aw, poor Susan can't overkill something because she decided to fight fair for once. Boo hoo. Of course it's PER, you're getting the magic to do something, aren't you? Be nicer for once and maybe it'll listen._

 _Oh, what do you know?_

"Ah hah," exclaimed Eilonwy, "it seems my binding is too much for you. I'll throw you out of my kingdom in chains!"

Susan felt a heavy chain wrap around her, trying to bind her arms and legs together. She simply made a STRength check, something she could hardly fail at, getting a thirty five. That technically did damage to the chain as though she was attacking it, and it shattered away from her.

"Impossible!"

"You can't chain me. Now let's try this again."

Susan again tried her checks to get rid of her reverse visor, and this time managed maximum on her last check instead of minimum. It vanished.

"That's better."

"Fine. So we'll do something even you can't break." She gestured downwards, and Susan felt herself growing heavier, and the ground near her started to cave in.

 _Did she just increase gravity around me?_

 _Not that she would understand the concept of gravity, but yes, basically. She just wanted you to be heavier, the magic took care of the rest._

Of course, even making Susan four or five times heavier wouldn't really slow her down, but Eilonwy didn't know that. What she did know was that she and Susan would act together, as Susan completely failed her _Magic Combat_ check by a fair margin. Thus she was prepared when Susan decided to simply do a _Thrust_ style spell, and shoved the force away from herself.

"I can't believe you're still standing," she remarked, readying her next spell.

 _I can't believe that didn't get you._

 _She may not be a combat monkey like you, but she's obviously practiced magic for many years. She's doing well. Might even be a little faster than you, but she could be spending energy to reduce delay. Not that she has delay, mind you. If I had hands I would be shaking pompons and cheering for her._

Eilonwy obviously thought Susan's idea a good one, and threw force at her, but Susan simply didn't go anywhere. In fact, being held down by the gravity increase actually helped in this case, was wasn't going to go flying unless the force not only came from directly beneath her, but overcame the original spell too.

Susan wanted to shift the gravity away from herself, figuring it would hit Eilonwy a lot harder than it had her, and be easier than creating her own. Sadly, the effective rating of a spell to transfer an active spell effect to another point in space was pretty high, higher than the eight effective rating she got on her _Magic Theory_ to figure out how to do it. So Susan wasted that action drawing magic without being able to release it properly, and just stood there trying to work out what to do with it.

Meanwhile Eilonwy was doing something, but Susan only got a ten on her _Perception_ check so she didn't see what. So she continued on the offensive, after a bit of thought.

 _I was hoping I could exhaust her, given my store of energy must be higher than hers. But it seems her magic doesn't work like that, so I'm going to have to take a different approach. I don't want to hurt her, just stop her stopping me from doing what I came here to do. So how about I just keep her from using magic? I know how that works, after all._

She made the checks, again missing only the _Adaptive_ skill, but held onto the magic. _I think I can just try again._

But on her next action Eilonwy made the tree she had grown last action fall over, smashing into her. As she hadn't seen it she had to rely on INS rather than COO and couldn't put energy into her dodge check, so it hit her.

"Go down!" screamed Eilonwy, trying to drive the Susan to the ground. "Why won't you go down?"

"Because you're fighting me all wrong."

"What?"

Susan didn't elaborate, instead making another _Adaptive_ skill check and that's when it came to her that she couldn't actually succeed.

 _I have a maximum roll of twenty for this. But the difficulty, if I've got this worked out correctly, is a twenty one. Twice my effective planet rating as governed by my_ Imbuing _check plus twice the grade of the spell. To succeed I either have to spend XP or use a card. Cards! What cards do I have, and why haven't I thought of them in so long? Is that your doing?_

 _What, me? No. You just don't seem to need them, that's all. I mean really, what can take you down Miss Giant's Soul? Even this battle is largely for their benefit, as what could they possibly use to hurt you?_

 _What indeed. Let's take a look here. Mutiny. Extra Action. And 'glad I brought this shotgun.' Seriously? These are all useless! Worse than useless! Aarg!_

 _Aren't cards cheating anyway?_

 _Maybe, but it's also just something I can do. I don't begrudge her anything she can do in this combat, after all. And I'm being super nice, as you know. I just want to painlessly incapacitate her, I can't believe there is magic actually beyond my reach doing it their way._

 _Reduce the radius. That would make it easier to do._

 _I guess. But I have to get the whole courtyard, or she'll just move._

It sighed. _You're thinking about your own magic, the kind that makes those circles. She's not going to be able to tell where the anti-magic field starts and stops._

 _Oh._

It didn't matter, as at that moment Taran burst into the courtyard yelling "I'll save you, Eilonwy! Get back you- oh." His sword came down.

He took in the scene of Susan still struggling to get out from under the tree trunk that was currently rooting her to the spot, as she hadn't actually been knocked over.

"I guess you have things in hand?"

"Yes dear," she said smiling. "If you would just stay out of the way for a moment?"

"Of course!" He backed off.

"Now then, where was I?" She turned back to Susan, but the light around the castle dimmed as dark clouds started rolling in. She glanced upwards, back at Susan, then around the courtyard. "You aren't doing that."

"No, I'm not. Maybe as you're not maintaining the magic to keep winter out it's coming in full force?"

"No, that's not it. Something else- oh!" Inside the clouds, three odd looking women appeared, making Eilonwy mutter "oh no." One of the woman was quite tall and thin, while another was quite plump. The third was much shorter than the other two, and was wearing a tall hat, perhaps to try and make up for it. "What do you want?" she shouted up at them.

"Look at this, sisters!" said the short one. "We were right!"

"You've been busy," remarked the tall one, looking the area over.

"Have you seen Fflewddur lately?" asked the bigger one.

"Not now, Orwen," chided the tall one. "I think we're interrupting something."

"She wants to kill Gurgi!" Taran shouted up to them.

"We know, duckling," said the short one. "That's why we came. That and feeling a magical battle around here. Don't see many of those, so we came to watch!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we made a bargain, didn't we? His life for the sword."

"Technically it was for the cauldron," Orwen reminded her.

"They didn't want the cauldron in the first place," the short one spat back. "He really wanted the sword."

"Exactly," said the tall one. "If she kills him, you might complain that we weren't keeping up our end. He'll die of natural causes or not at all."

"So you'll help us?" Eilonwy called up.

The three laughed uproariously. "No chance, girly. But we will loan you something." She gestured, and that something flew to the ground, impacting with a thud and sticking there. When the special effects cleared Susan saw it was a sword, and Taran took a hesitant step towards it. "You'll really loan it to me?"

"We said we would."

"Hey!" Susan shouted up at them. "Whose side are you on? Don't help them."

"Why shouldn't we?" asked the short one.

"I'm the one trying to save your world, if you hadn't noticed!"

"Is that what you've been doing? Running about like a scared... whatever happened to that pig of yours, anyway, Taran? Taran?"

Everyone looked over at him, but he only had eyes for the sword, which he pulled out of the ground with a jerk. It started to glow, and Susan could feel the magic surrounding it.

 _I guess they can do_ Imbuing _around here too?_

"You won't kill Gurgi," he said, looking over his shoulder at her without turning around.

"Yes, I will," Susan replied, throwing the tree off herself.

"Then it seems I have no choice." He turned and brought it up, tossing his other blade to the ground. "Eilonwy, step back."

"No. He's my friend too. We'll stop her together." She waved a hand and the gravity went back to normal around Susan. "But are you sure about using that sword? You might kill her by accident."

"You couldn't."

"You think you can do a better job of killing her than I can?"

"I don't think your heart's in it, no."

"You think I was playing out here or something?"

"Wow, it's an even better show than I thought it was going to be," remarked the thin one. "Who needs magic?"

"Stay out of this!" they shouted up to her.

"Sorry," she replied sarcastically. "What about you, girl? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to offer them one last chance. How about it? If you think a simple sword is going to help, you're sadly mistaken. I will leave this place and return to Hades with your friend's soul. And I will take no pleasure in the act. But it must be done. Stand aside."

"Never," both said with conviction.

"Then I'm done trying to fight fair. _Elemental Weapon: Knockout,"_ she cast, getting a blade in each hand. A huge blade, taller than she was. _After all, why be constrained by reality when you're making the weapon by magic? It's not like it weighs the same as a sword this big, though I could probably swing something real around just as easily._ She looked around, but she didn't see Sparkle. _Odd. No_ Acceleration _for me at the moment. Dang._

"Oh crap," gasped Taran, probably mentally comparing the length of his sword to her two.

"Too late now."

Susan got highest in _initiative,_ and with the gravity field gone, darted forward with all sixteen of her speed and slashed at Taran, hoping to just end this in two actions. That wasn't going to be the case as the sword in his hand flashed and blocked it, making her wonder exactly what the sword was giving him, as it obviously helped in some way. Without missing a beat she swung her other sword at him, which he again blocked.

Eilonwy put the defensive spheres around Taran, but Susan didn't care. _Unless she's changed the range on them, I'm fighting out of their reach._

Both were still recovering from the sword strikes so Eilonwy cast again, not bothering to try and make it non-lethal now. Flames shot towards Susan, which she blocked with a quick casting of " _Deflection."_

Taran now tried to close with Susan, nullifying the advantage of her enormous swords, but as she was nearly 4 meters away it was going to take him a few _segments._ He actually made it before Susan could act with one _segment_ to spare, and took a swipe at her. She took her free movement as part of a _parry_ and batted it aside, then did a _riposte,_ but the sword twisted in Taran's hand and defended him.

 _Oh, I see._

Fire rushed towards her again, but she just used her swords as a barrier, making it bounce off.

 _How fast is this girl?_ Susan thought as more fire sought her flesh. _I really miss_ Acceleration. Susan just kept her swords in place, crossed in front of her like an X and hoped it would still be enough to protect her. It seemed Eilonwy got lucky though, deftly weaving the fire around them to strike her.

Still, it hardly singed her.

Now Taran was up again, the sword nearly dragging him along as it shot forward towards her. _I've got to get rid of one of these guys... or something._

 _"Dazzle!"_ she cast reactively, hoping to stun him. It worked, and he staggered back. So she swiped at him with her sword as an off hand action, putting energy into COOrdination. Sadly, the sword itself wasn't _dazzled,_ so it defended him using its own stats, and knocked the blade away.

"You know what? Fine." Susan turned her attention to Eilonwy who didn't have a magical sword protecting her. She shot forward and swiped, causing Eilonwy to scream and dodge out of the way. _You've got to be kidding me,_ Susan growled to herself as the blade met only the open air. _It's the penalty for the spell. The size should have compensated, she must have dodged by one!_ She tried again with her left sword, but again was denied. Still, she was on the offensive now and Eilonwy didn't have any skill in _close combat,_ so she wasn't as fast at dodging close attacks as Susan was at giving them out. She swiped again, this time putting in double the energy she had been.

Still didn't work, Eilonwy kept screaming and backing away.

 _You really shouldn't play with your food._

 _Shut it. I put ten, count them, ten energy into that attack. Can she put ten energy into defense? I highly doubt it. What is going on here?_

 _Just bad rolls I guess._

 _You're telling me._

"Stay away from my wife!" screamed Taran, rushing her again.

 _Oh great, he's recovered. "Dazzle."_

This time she cast it on both, but Taran shook it off, bringing his blade to chop her in half.

It scratched her with one damage.

"You know something, go nuts. I don't even care," Susan growled at him. "I'm taking her out, and then I'm taking you out. So get it out of your system. Hack away. But you'll be sorry." She turned to deliver a blow while Taran hit her and the back this time, but even with the magic on the blade, without putting maximum energy into it he could only do a maximum of ten damage, which when Susan divided it by fourteen was zero.

 _I should have just done this from the start._

 _You didn't want to scare them._

 _Exactly. Ugh, this whole thing is stupid._

She finally connected with Eilonwy, doing sixty eight non-lethal damage to her body as _Knockout_ damage was doubled. She crumpled to the ground and raised her sword to take care of the the king as well.

"Stop!" Sparkle's voice rang throughout the courtyard.


	175. Chapter 175

175

A Monster Job

When: Seconds later

Where: Castle courtyard

Sparkle stood next to an odd looking creature, what looked to Susan like a dog that was standing on its hind legs. She was leaned away from it, so while it wasn't a dog, Sparkle still didn't really want to get too close. Her ears were back and she looked mad.

"Honestly, all of you!" she chided, looking them over. "Did you for a second even _think_ to ask him what he thought of all this?"

"Of course I thought about it!" Taran shouted back. "He would have agreed without hesitation. I can't lose him that way again."

"So you took away his choice, is that it? Because, what, you know best? This is a living, thinking creature here, and should be offered the _curtesy_ of determining his own fate. What about all this fighting? You think he wants that?"

"Gurgi does not want his friends to fight to traveling lady," Gurgi said sadly. "Gurgi understands, even if master does not think he does. If Gurgi must return to the lake where he was when he died, Gurgi will go. Gurgi has always known someday this may be true."

"You remember?" Taran's sword stopped glowing and slipped from his hands. "You remember... being dead? Going to... to... the underworld?"

He shook his head sadly in reply.

"And you have lived with that for all these years. Gurgi, I'm so sorry." He walked over, leaving the sword laying there and knelt to hug his friend.

"It's okay, master. Gurgi is happy. Gurgi knows he will see his friends again, when they stand at the edge of the river when they die. Isn't that good?"

"Die? Eilonwy! If you've killed her-"

"She's fine," assured Susan, opening her hands to make the swords vanish. "My attacks are stun only. I'll heal her now." She went over, hiding the knife as she got it out, correctly figuring that would be misinterpreted for sure.

"I explained things to him," Sparkle was saying. "He's prepared to give his life so Hades is satisfied."

"I've lived a long time with the master in this castle," Gurgi said proudly. "I had many years because master gave up the sword for him. But now Gurgi has to go."

"I know, Gurgi, I know. I'll miss you."

"Don't cry master. I'll be waiting for you, on the banks of the river."

 _Yeah, you probably will, given the backup they had there. It'll take years to clear that number of souls from that area with only three 'judges.'_

"I... guess you're right. We will see each other again, won't we?"

"What hit me?" asked Eilonwy, as Susan helped her sit up.

"You're pretty good," admitted Susan. "You lasted way more combat actions than I thought you would. Well done."

"Thanks, I guess? So you won, then? You're going to kill him?"

"Actually, no. Come to think of it, I can deliver him personally. My first thought, of course, was that I had to kill him. I see now that's sure to be messy, painful, and somewhat distressing for everybody. My new idea is to just do what did before, go to the underworld myself and hand him over. I survived there, he should too. Hadies wants the poor... fellow... dead, he can- what is Gurgi anyway?"

Elionwy smiled a sad smile. "We never really found out."

"Oh. Weird. I'll let you two say goodbye."

She got up. "It really exists, doesn't it?"

Susan nodded. "It really does. It's not the happiest place on earth-"

"But change is coming," said Hades, stepping out of nowhere.

Everyone gave a start of surprise. "Aren't you breaking a lot of rules or something, coming here yourself?"

He shrugged. "Eh. I was never much for rules. I'm sure you can relate, perhaps?"

"Perhaps. Still, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble."

He snorted. "In trouble? With who, Zeus? That fatso just lays around all day, bemoaning how good things were back in 'the old days' instead of actually doing something about it. I gave it up too, you know. Doing something about it, I mean. After you got the souls moving again I got to thinking- the underworld _is_ my realm. Does it have to be so gloomy and boring? I'm not so sure. So I was thinking of shaking things up a bit. Can't hurt, and I have eternity to experiment."

"Good," agreed Susan. "That's excellent news!"

" _So_ glad you approve. Now, about this Gurgi..." He looked around at the frozen scene of Susan casually talking to the god of death.

"Gurgi is ready?" Gurgi slowly came forward.

Hades gave a "tisk." "I had hoped you would do the deed yourself. Pity." He patted Susan's head. "You did your best, better luck next time."

Susan knocked his hand away. "Don't patronize me. You know I didn't want to kill him."

"So you were going to make his friend kill him for you? You are evil."

"No I'm not! Stop saying that!"

"I only say it because it's true. That aside," he waved her away, "you wanted to say goodbye, I believe?"

"You'll allow that, oh lord of the underworld?" asked Elionwy.

"Of course! I'm not evil, unlike some. I'll let you have a few minutes. He's consented to come with me, that's all I require. Oh, and here you are, as promised." He handed Susan a small box, almost a jewelry box, which she opened the lid of and looked inside.

"Ashes?"

"The ashes of the underworld. Don't go... I don't know, snorting them or anything."

"What?"

"Well I don't know what the spell requires now do I? Anyway, you'll want to be on your way, so let's give these two some privacy. I'll be back for you," he pointed at Gurgi, "in a moment."

"Where am I going?"

"You'll see, my dear. You do have a son, don't you?" he asked Taran.

"You stay away from-"

"Ah, ah, ah! Temper. That's a yes, then. We'll need to visit his room for just a moment. Come along."

Susan looked helplessly at the king and queen, unsure if she should thank them, apologize, somehow do both at the same time... She bent down to Gurgi instead. "I will make your sacrifice count for something. I'll save this world in your name. Thank you."

"Gurgi is strangely used to it," he answered. "Who else here can say they've given their life to save the world... twice?" He grinned.

"Nobody but you. Thanks."

He nodded and went over to Elionwy, so Susan hastened after Hades as she put the box away. She followed him through the castle and he seemed to know right where he was going, and went into a certain room which did seem to be a kid's room.

"It's rather strange there," he cautioned her, standing in front of the closet door and tapping it. "Still, I'm sure you'll fit right in, you monster."

"I'm not- forget it. What are you talking about? That's a closet."

"Is it?" he asked, a twinkle in his eye. He pulled the door open and there was some kind of empty room beyond it, lit by a dim light coming through some windows at the other side of the room. "Off you go, then."

Susan felt a weird sensation as she stepped through, and Hades let Sparkle go through as well. "Toodles," Hades said, waving goodbye. "Don't kill too many in there, now." He laughed and slammed the door.

"That jerk! Even if he is a god, I'll give him a piece of my-" Susan yanked the door open again but just saw another door behind it. "That's weird." She closed it, pulled it open slowly, but it was unchanged.

"Where are we?" asked Sparkle, looking around.

Susan slowly closed the door again and looked herself. There seemed to be stacks and stacks of doors in this room, which seemed to be some kind of warehouse for the things. Windows let in pale sunlight from above, and the whole place seemed to be made of natural material, like wood and stone.

"Not sure. Outside is that way, think you can _Phase_ us through the wall and maybe we can get our bearings?"

"You forgot to ask who to talk to," Sparkle reminded her. "We have no idea where to go now."

"So we'll ask my magic. Something about this place feels wrong. Did you feel it, when we came though the door?"

"I felt something. Come on, can I _phase_ us indeed. _Phase!"_

The two stepped through the wall and Sparkle dropped the spell so they could hear, and again looked around. What Susan saw was rather unexpected.

She seemed to be standing in the back lot of some kind of factory or something, but from the 1920s rather than the 1720s she was expecting. She heard the distant sound of traffic, and the bustle of a city off to her right. Looking in that direction she saw skyscrapers, of all things, short ones, but there they were. No one was in sight, and Susan gave it about two hours before sunset, the sun was quite low here.

"No snow," remarked Sparkle. "It's not even cold."

"Forget the weather, the people where we came from lived in castles and stuff. Did he send us through time or something?"

"Electric lights," Sparkle said, pointing. "How about that?"

"Yeah." Susan looked up to see what must be some kind of security lighting, off at the moment, spaced throughout the complex. There was a fence around the place too, but Susan was pretty sure she could jump it. "This is so bizarre."

"Want to keep moving or do the spell?"

"Let's check around here first, I want to make sure we're not interrupted."

"Good idea."

The two headed for the fence, which Susan jumped, and found herself in a parking lot, of all things. "Look at these cars!" she breathlessly gasped. "This is insane." There were only a few, but this was obviously where they parked, but the cars that were there- "Are those Model Ts? This is crazy!"

"They do look similar to really early cars," Sparkle admitted. "Though of course I never had much interest in such things."

"I didn't think they even had steam power, much less gasoline powered motor vehicles. Just look at this thing." They cautiously made their way over to the nearest one, and Susan put a hand on it. "It's real," she breathed, looking it over. "I don't get it."

"Hands off the machine," said the monster, coming up behind her and smacking her hand off it.

Susan turned to look at the creature, and found herself staring into the many eyes of what was literally a monster. Vaguely green, eye stalks (six of them), pseudopod legs and arms. She was too shocked to even move, but the monster had problems of its own.

It was staring at his (or her?) hand/protuberance as it started to actually melt away. It screamed in agony.

Susan looked to Sparkle. "What happened?"

"I don't know. Quick, heal it!"

"Right. Don't move!" She whipped the knife out and brought it up. The eyes tracked it, and with a clunk it dropped what was in its other hand. Susan briefly registered it as a lunchbox, before the creature went screaming bloody murder as it booked it back the way it had come. Seriously, it was screaming "Murder! Security! Help! Fire! HUMAN!"

Susan lowered the knife. "Hey, that thing's pretty fast for something that doesn't actually have legs."

"Didn't even have legs- worry about that later!" Sparkle pointed, and several more _things_ burst from the building, all holding what looked like various weapons that were adapted to their physiology. Short things, tall things, different colors and shapes, and what they were carrying would certainly be called guns, Susan recognized them though her old _pistol_ skill as being old time pistols. They surrounded her, guns leveled, but all seemed hesitant to approach.

"It is a human!" said one.

"Shoot it!" said another.

"No, capture it! Someone must have let it out, we need to find out who!"

"I'm not going near it!"

"You're the biggest, you catch it."

"You know," Susan remarked, rolling her eyes. "I'm getting pretty tired of being met everywhere we go on this world with this sort of thing. I mean first the mermaids, then the dead didn't want me around, now this. I'm not feeling very welcome here."

"Just go back through whatever door you came from, human," said one. "We don't want any trouble here."

"I tried," she said honestly. "But there's something I have to do here. Someone I need to talk to. I can't leave until I do."

The monsters looked at each other. "Put her through another door," one shouted. "It doesn't matter which one."

"Good idea. You're coming with me, human!" The largest one there holstered his gun and went to grab her. Susan allowed it, figuring she would just use her STRength to not be dragged anywhere, but again as the creature touched her he reacted as if burned. He jumped back and screamed in pain, his fur burning off on that hand. "Shoot her, shoot her!" he cried, staggering back away from her.

Multiple shots rang out, but these were not modern firearms, these were at best "wild west" six shooters. She covered her eyes with an arm and the shooting stopped, leaving her with little more than scrapes and torn clothes, as none could even reach fourteen damage so she didn't take a single point from all that. "You are starting to annoy me. Let me explain myself!"

"Reload, keep shooting!" cried one, spilling some bullets out of the pouch at his belt. The monster that had touched her was still crying in agony as his hand was now starting to dissolve, and the others were backing away, reloading.

"I don't know what's going on, but I can save him," Susan assured them, taking a step towards him. Two of the closest stepped in front of him, dropping their spent guns and pulling out clubs.

"I don't have time for this. _Telekinesis_. _" Crap, I'm still low on energy from that fight. I hope this doesn't drag out very long. I need to mode change and recover._

The two monsters went flying out of her way and Susan slapped the knife against the monster's arm, being careful not to touch him and cause more harm. A shot rang out behind her, but it missed, striking the monster and jerking him away from her. He scrambled away, clutching his side. _I guess if he can run, he'll be fine. The... whatever... from touching me should at least be stopped. I hope?_

The monster continued shooting, and Susan spun. "You'll hit him again, you moron! Stop shooting! _Thrust!"_ It failed to resist by one and went flying.

"It'll kill us all!" yelled one. "Somebody get the police here!" It took off running.

"Police? Get the militia!"

"Perhaps a strategic withdrawal?" Sparkle suggested, sticking her head out from under the car.

"Run? But I guess you're right. This situation isn't going to get better any time soon. _Flight."_ The familiar magic encircled the pair and they both took off into the sky.

"You aren't getting away that easily!" one of the monsters said as their body changed. Wings unfurled from the creature's back, and it took to the sky after them.

But Susan was faster, and she pulled away from him, darting between buildings and causing a stir on the ground as creatures of every shape, size, and color gaped and pointed up at her.

"There, that building there, the whole floor is dark," Sparkle shouted to her, pointing ahead. "I can _Phase_ us in there and we can get our bearings."

 _And our energy back._ "Suits me!" They headed that way and vanished inside.

"All right, what was that about?" Susan yelled, exasperated. They had cautiously checked out the room and found it empty, seeming to be office space, as there were desks in an orderly arrangement inside. Susan was now in powers mode, letting her natural _Energy Regeneration_ bring her back up to full, as using the active method of doing so would call attention to them.

"I wish I knew," Sparkle admitted. "Do you think he betrayed us somehow?"

"Well I've never melted anyone before just from touching them," Susan complained. "I shouldn't even be able to, that's harm, and my _contract_ should prevent it. Maybe because I'm not actually causing it, but I am the cause? More to the point, what were those things? How does this place have electric lighting while the place we came from has oil lamps? When and where are we?"

"I suppose you could call the Hub and ask."

That brought her up short. "Oh yeah, I could. Susan to Hub," she called, bringing the watch up to her face.

"Hub here. What can I do for you?" answered the agent.

"Where am I? Can you tell? And have I time traveled?"

The agent checked something on the screen. "Doesn't seem like it. You're in a funny sub-dimension, that much I can tell you. Getting some odd readings..."

"Odd is right. Look, two of the beings here touched me and started just, I don't know, dissolving. That can't be right."

"Can you hold the watch up to something?" Susan did, and a scanning beam shot out of it, playing over the desk. "Seems like normal matter. You shouldn't have trouble interacting with the beings there. Without getting you back here to have a complete scan done, there's not much else I can tell you but that. We wouldn't send you to a place you're incompatible with, believe me."

"That's a start, thanks. But I am still in the time and place you sent me, just somewhere offset a bit?"

"That's a good way to describe it. Do you want to come back, be put through again?"

Susan shook her head. "No, this is where I need to be, I guess. I'll work things out here."

"Okay. Anything else I can do then?"

"Nope. Thanks. Susan out."

"Good luck." The image went away.

"So now what?"

"We wait a few minutes and try to get some answers." She pulled her book of magic out. "I think I know just the spell."

"The spell" being _Reveal Condition,_ a grade 4 Jupiter spell that Susan had no difficulty reading over and understanding. With her full energy back she had no worries about casting it, and she knew she was under a curse that went something like this.

 _As long as you remain in the Monster World, your very touch will burn like acid to all who reside there._

"That stupid Hades, he must have slapped it on me when he touched my head just before we got here! Some kind of curse, is my guess."

"Why though?"

"Who knows. Some kind of joke? Maybe he's evil after all? Don't ask me. How are we supposed to find who we need to get the item from, convince them to help us, and leave here if we can't touch anyone?"

"That shouldn't be too bad, though, I mean you don't have some kind of compulsion to touch people, do you?"

"No. Still, he wasn't very helpful, was he? Damn him. Though I suppose as he lives in the underworld already-"

"Shhh. I hear something."

"Human! We know you're in there! Come out with your hands up!" was shouted through the door leading to the hallway outside.

"Bloody marvelous."


End file.
